They said it was all her fault; she believed them. Why wouldn’t she? She was only a child, barely half a year old, and she still is quite young. The adults were always there to guide the young ones and tell them the truth. She didn’t even second guess the accusation when they all turned their words against her and blamed her for the tragedy of her closest friend. Snapjaw felt isolated and forgotten by all of those that she once considered so close to her. It became such a heavy burden that she couldn’t handle it anymore. Their judgemental stares and quiet words retelling the disaster that was her life. It was all too much for a pup as young as she.

So she ran. She ran as fast and as far as she could until her legs grew numb and her lungs ached for rest. Even then, she was reluctant to stop. Her silvery-gray coat was dull and dirty from her long travels as she wearily approached the western quarter of the Aplos River. Her tongue lolled out of her mouth in a wide pant as she traversed the foreign terrain in hopes of rehydrating herself to continue onward.

Her muddied paws reached the edge of the water as it lapped gently against the cold banks. Greedily she drank from the river as if she had never tasted anything so sweet as the chilling, fresh water. Moments later she lifted her head to gasp for air, so eager to drink from the river that she almost forgot to regulate her breathing.

Maybe if she just sat down for a moment she would feel rested enough to keep going. If she could only close her eyes… for a second. Her icy blues fluttered closed, resisting her exhaustion to the last second, until she slumped into a deep slumber against the dried grasses of the riverside.