There is want for more than what she has been given – and that is not saying very much. Sanguine is the only thing that now ties both her mother and father together and although she wants to be so angry at her mother for being so irresponsible it is very, very difficult. How can a daughter not love her mother? How can a child who bears their mother’s bloodline simply just walk away without another word? Sanguine cannot. She just can’t and this is what rattles her so. She yearns for something to take her mind from these family issues, perhaps a friend, or even a stranger would do.

Anything would be better than brooding over these thoughts all day.

A sigh is breathed in her wake as she moves ever forward, agile paws taking her to no place in particular while a river comes into view. To the west the tallest of mountains rises above it and to the far south appears to be a swampland of some kind. She pauses in her tracks for a moment as she determines which way she will want to go, head turning to and fro as she battles it out in her mind. Eventually the drive to wander further up toward the mountains overrules any desire to run into a swamp monster and so she is off.

The days are now much warmer and all along her walk are blooming flowers and trees who have now awoken from their winter slumber. It at least offers her slightest bit of joy to glean from this day as she goes along. Sanguine is a nimble little creature, but even in all of her deftness there is chance for a mistake, and perhaps if she had been paying more attention to where she was placing her paws instead of the spring décor she wouldn’t have slipped up. Without warning she is suddenly tumbling down, down, down. Her body barrel rolls as she goes down the muddy bank of the river and into the current of the deeper end. Paws thrash and slap loudly against the surface as she tries to keep her head elevated but she cannot seem to get anywhere despite this.

She gulps in air whenever she can before her nose is submerged again. The silt at the bottom of the river touches her hind paws momentarily and she instinctively pushes hard against it, propelling herself up once again as she paddles as hard as she can. The sky and the trees come into her vision once more as she struggles further down the river, going in the exact opposite direction she had intended on travelling in the first place. But fate had its way of playing and soon she remarkably felt the solid surface of some rocks beneath her feet. She grasped wildly onto them, claws raking against the tops as she heaved herself further away from the current. With one final pull she was crawling exhaustedly toward the bank, breaths heavy as she coughed up bits of water, and her coat now heavy and soaked.

For a moment she lays motionlessly at the bottom of the steep incline, sides heaving from her scuffle for life, and mercurial eyes roll and flitter as she looks around her. She has survived the river but perhaps she is not out of trouble yet.