THE LOST GIRL OF THE WILDS
[ female - four years - 33 inches, 150 pounds - no imprint - no mate ]
She had left the badlands through the underground that wound through the earth in the form of lava tubes and caves. Utter darkness having removed her sight, she had been guided by scent and sound. Now and then she would come up for metaphorical air, for hunting and relief from the sensory deprivation, but much of her journey had been not only lonely but also quite thoroughly encompassed by the earth’s crust. She is lucky to have had a few nights in glow-worm caves and pockets of phosphorus, but when she emerges underneath the last skylight in the cul de sac of caves -- she is not so lucky anymore, despite the fresh air and light.
Light normally was quite the relief, a time spent where her eyes were able to be put to proper use and used to re-accustom them to the light. Now, though, she sees something that might mean months more of finding her way through tunnels. She had been lucky so far, had found her way up and out-- but unlike the wise sort of adventurer, she was not sure she could track herself back the way she came to find the last porthole to the world above.
She is in a pit with a single hole leading downward, at least twelve feet spanning the distance between floor and skylight’s mouth. No ledges, no roots, no climbing out with the bowl of this cul de sac promising to turn her upside down before she could get hold of the ledge. She jumps, the light through a copse of enduring trees atop the soil and rock making the white of her head and shoulder flash, but is made to land again as she finds herself unable to gain the momentum needed to properly rescue herself.
Instead, she paces along the collected fresh water and through the greenery that had managed to take root where the sunlight could reach through the skylight. She whines, paces, changes direction, inspects, but she is thoroughly stuck. "Hello!?" She shouts finally, eyeing the dark exit of the cave nervously. "Hello! Is someone there!?" She tries, tries, and tries a third time, before letting up a howl and hoping the acoustics of the cave amplified her voice as much as it had sounded like it had from her point of view at the center of the bowled walls..
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