Mare

Pairbond: Juniper


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Hidden in a hollow tree, Mare waited four solid days for the blizzard to pass. Nothing to eat but a pawful of frozen needles and a single acorn. She froze her tongue on the snow accumulating outside her hollow to get a few mouthfuls of numbing water.
Mare was young, not quite a pup anymore, but it would be more appropriate to call her that than even an adolescent yet.
Nights passed. Surely so did days, but the difference was imperceptible to Mare, in her frozen, fevered state.
Descended from the stars, she was nothing special herself, and so she was here. And here she would die.
Drifting off in her snowed in hollow for the last time, Mare found some semblance of peace in her isolation. Death was a truly private thing, she'd thought. Something she didn't want it to happen in the presence of another.
Which was why the crunching steps outside her tree made her growl in irritation. Unfortunately, the noise's origin must have heard her, and the crunching and scuffling became louder and closer.
With what little strength she still possessed, Mare curled protectively around herself, ears drawn back and teeth bared.
Eventually the icy snow caved, and a mottled blue and white face appeared through the hollow, haloed by sunlight brighter than Mare had thought possible.
"You're not a squirrel," he said, blue eyes blinking quizzically.
She bit him.