She had been travelling with the large female for at least a full season now, although she tried to split her time evenly with her family at the crags as well. Sekhmet was a welcome companion in all of her obscurity. She understood Myrria’s cursed temptations and accepted every flaw of her being with an open mind. Albeit, she also wanted to influence Myrria in the ways of her own but that was a small factor that could be dismissed. Most of the time, Myrria did not even try to understand what exactly Sekhmet believed in but she had always been open to listening. There was very little, if not any, judgement between the two of them.

The temperatures had dropped regionally as autumn swept through Moladion. The cooler temperatures dried out the leaves and caused their green hues to fade to burnt oranges and reds like that of Sekhmet’s coat. The woodland was alight with this fire foliage and her friend was surely in her zone when it came to camouflaging with the trees. Myrria’s cool gray mixed figure still kept to the shaded areas of the forest but she stood out more so against the bright colors of the season. Still, she had become an adept hunter in her years alone and the trail she and Sekhmet were following crossed straight into an opportunity for a midday meal.

Her smaller figure was easier to keep quiet over the layer of fallen leaves, but not enough to silence them entirely. She shifted her path to accommodate this circumstance and stepped only where there were little or no piles of dead leaves on the forest floor. She trailed her companion at a distance, off to the far right rear, and kept an eye on her as they neared the scent of the young pup. Her lithe body sped up into a sprint as the boy broke into a small opening in the trees, her paws still careful to make contact with soundless ease upon the leafless earth. Her trajectory had her crossing Sekhmet’s path as quickly as a fox, her figure nothing but a blur of dark gray fur and legs. Her front paws touch down just before the child and her neck outstretches instantaneously to snatch at his neck just as he had done to the squirrel that hangs limply in his mouth.

Her instinct had taken over completely, her mind numb to the consequences or morals of her decisions, she had reverted back to that primal stage in her life when she had to do whatever it took to survive in the tundra. It were as if a switch had been flipped in her mind and she didn’t know how to turn it off. Her eyes were voraciously set upon the boy but somewhere in the back of her mind, a part of her was horrified.