Something Less Eventful

The injuries she had sustained from her fight put Cloy in a position where she was little help to the camp. Sure, the will of the obelisk faded, its bloodlust sated for the time being. She was having a hard time enjoying it, though. What was peace of mind if it came with crippling injuries? If she forced herself to look on the upside, she was at least thankful that the heat of the swamp was absent, making infection less likely. The deep bite on her hind leg would have been particularly nasty. In a bad scenario, she could have lost it

Absently, she licked her wounds again, trying to remove the faint patches of blood from where it clung in her white fur. She'd rested for a few days, but was by no means fully healed. Yet, she was tired of not being able to provide for herself. It bothered her, especially when supplies were low as they were

To ensure she didn't grow weak from resting too long, she was sure to try and hobble across the encampment at least once every while or so. This time, as she gingerly balanced herself atop her hooves, she was testing to see it she would walk a decent pace. She had a pretty bad limp with three of her legs being bitten, but she also had a cool determination about her. She wasn't going to lay down and die. She'd be fine. She clearly had a long way to go before the wounds would fully heal, but she didn't see any scabs crack open in her short venture. Maybe it was safe for her to leave for just a little while. After all, she could always lie down in the snow for a while. She just had to be able to make it back in the end

[Roll to find bush: success]

Her movement was slow as she limped away from the other kin and off into the mountains. She wouldn't be having any luck finding far-off supplies that nobody had happened across today. Thus, she decided she was going to pick around nearby, looking for berries or sticks that had been missed by the others. It went about as well as she expected initially. She came across many of the bushes with the huge, black thorns, but these had been stripped mostly bare. Due to their closeness, they probably had only lasted a day or two. She needed something tucked away, a shrub hidden where it was easily missed...

After several quiet minutes of walking and trying to shift her weight to the least painful leg, she encountered something of promise. It was a different type of bush with broad, waxy leaves growing in a smallish patch off by themselves. Most of these had been cleared out, too, but there were a couple who had suffered through what looked like a stampede. Their branches were crushed and their large, yellowish fruits beaten into the ground. It would be enough to deter most gatherers, but she wobbled closer, lowering her head to sniff at the leaves. Sure enough, some fruit remained intact, hidden from view by the collapsed sticks

[Roll to collect: 13 of possible 20]

There were...admittedly a bit many fruits available for collecting. Cloy laid them out in the snow one by one, but was left to stare down at them ponderingly once she finished. They were bigger than the berries she'd collected before, so she didn't think she could cram them all in her mouth. She could always leave some here, but she had gotten fairly weary and wasn't hoping for a second trip. And, now that she'd stirred them up, there was the chance an animal would be able to smell them, coming to eat the remainder the moment she left

Sighing, she started to rearrange them. She sat each fruit upright, their stems facing upwards in a tight pattern. She then lowered herself into the snow, trying to fit tiny twig into her mouth at once. It took some finagling, but she managed to stand up with thirteen fruits hanging from her jaws and bumping into her chin. She looked very silly, she thought to herself, but at least she was providing...

[Roll to return: fail]

After she'd taken a few steps away from the patch, several fruits plopped triumphantly into the snow in front of her hooves. She stared down at them as if they were misbehaving foals. With her harvest bumping against itself and her, a few of the stems must have broken off... Hoping very quietly to herself that this wouldn't be a reoccurring trend, she kneeled again to resort the fruits. Which, of course, she had to spit out her entire burden to do. Sigh...

[Roll to return: success]

Taking notes from her first arrangement, the second was much better. They were more tightly packed and clunked around significantly less. This thankfully allowed her to continue on without having to stop to preform the tedious task any more times. With her limp, she considered herself lucky and wasn't going to ask questions. As she neared the obelisk, she made a beeline for the stockpile of foods and quickly deposited the fruits as if they were all waiting to spite her. Her legs announced that she'd had quite enough movement for one day, her injuries burning indignantly. She hobbled away from the pile only a few paces before sinking to the ground and letting out a sigh of exhaustion. She hoped she would heal quickly... She didn't much enjoy being restricted to a leisurely pace