TRD Winter Solus Assignment Caedis

TRD Winter Solus Assignment
Part 1
The Freezing Times
Caedis crouched on the branch of a tree, looking down on the snowy covered ground below her. She had been living as a Solus in the wilds outside Rome for almost a year now, having turned 3 a month ago. She had adapted well, but this was her first winter alone, and she found everything harder than it was inside the walls of the city. The prey grew amazingly scarce, the ground was hard, the winds were strong and blasted freezing cold in your face and made your eyes sting, and the trees offered less and less shelter as they lost leaves.
Movement on the ground below her caught her eye, and she saw a snow rabbit snuffling around under her. She tensed her muscles and leaped, but her hind leg slipped on the icy bark and she tumbled down through the air with a high pitched squeak of alarm. The rabbit darted for cover, but it ran under her and she landed on top of it. She gave it a quick bite to finish it and sat down, panting. “Thank you, for the life you give to keep me strong, little hare,” she murmured quietly, before picking up the limp body and heading into the forest to find a more suitable tree to take shelter in. She was silently grateful for her long legs that kept her belly from getting wet, but snow clung all over her from her fall, and she ached too much to clean it off right away.
So she found a tree with a few pitiful leaves clinging to it and climbed up. She carefully placed her kill over two branches and sighed. Her armor was cold and heavy, and after she could bear it no longer, Caedis removed it and placed it on a branch just above her. Then she laid her head down and drifted into sleep.
/////
Part 2
The Illness
Caedis woke with a loud sneeze that nearly knocked her out of her branch. She got stiffly to her paws, dismayed to see that more snow had fallen while she slept, and it had covered her in a thick blanket. She groaned and leaned down to uncover her hare, pausing to sneeze again. “Lovely,” she muttered. “Frozen rabbit.” She ate quickly, wincing at the cold shooting through her teeth. Afterwards she put on her armor again and dropped out of the tree.
She stalked through the woods, but no prey seemed out at all today, and her paws were beginning to feel like bricks of ice. She also kept on sneezing, which couldn’t help her food situation. Eventually she found an earthen cave dug out of the ground, and she crawled down into it. It was empty, though it smelled faintly of something canine. She didn’t care though; it may be cramped and a little uncomfortable, but it was very warm, and there was only one way in.
/////
The next morning Caedis found that her condition had improved a little, but she still had the persistent sneeze, and she had developed a cough, although her weakness seemed to be mostly gone. But she knew she could return to that state, or worse, in an eye blink. So she decided that she had to come up with a plan, some way to improve her health, survive the winter.
/////
Part 3
The Desperation
Caedis crouched in some sparse bushes along the trail the humans used to get though the forest. Caravans came through often, if she could sneak quietly on and off of them, one of them was bound to have some medicine she could use, maybe some food too. It was almost half a day before a group came trudging by, with a big covered cart drawn by some sort of horse. It was surrounded on either side by men with weapons. She studied it for a moment before turning and running on ahead, quietly as possible, suppressing her sneezes and coughs best as she could. She found a tree with a wide branch that stretched over the trail, and she climbed up it, digging her claws in hard. By the time she made it to the middle of the appropriate branch the caravan was pulling up under her. She waited, holding her breath, and just as the edge of the back of the cart went under she dropped down, catching the edge of the wood with her claws and swinging inside, more by accident then on purpose.
Caedis lay panting and wheezing on the wood, part of her wanting to sleep there. But she forced herself to stand on wobbly legs and search through the sacks and crates. She found various foods, fruits, meats, and grains. She tucked her cape into her armor to make an improvised pouch, and stuffed it full. Then, in the last crate, she found a few medicines, it was one small box, so she didn’t feel right taking more than a few, but afterwards, she waited until the cart hit a bump and leapt out the back, falling headfirst into a bristly bush. She scrambled frantically, wheezing, and by the time she got out and spun around, the caravan was fading into the distance. Caedis heaved a sigh of relief, gathered up a few things that fell out when she jumped, and returned to the little hole in the ground, taking off her cape outside to get in, pulling it in after her.
She rested here for a few days, taking the first medicine her second night when she grew worse, and then the last one the day after. She ate the food gratefully, renewing her strength. When Caedis finally emerged, her black and golden pelt was smooth and silky again, and her eyes were bright. She stalked off into the trees, leaving behind her little hole, and the illness, heading back into the branches, where she belonged.