Tala, Chapter 1

She padded across the morning snow, she was really quite tired now. Not wanting to remember the night before, but it kept creeping up on her.
She stopped, looked back at her paw prints, small, but still followable. She couldn't afford to be followed.
She had barely any energy left, and collapsed under an ice-covered tree. And passed out.

She woke next morning feeling slightly better, but the sinking feeling was still there, she could still see the blood and hear the screams in her mind's eye.
She did feel strange though, as if the old tree was familiar. She looked up at it, puzzled. Then it hit her, she had come here as a pup, she used to play with her siblings around this tree, she hadn't recognised it with all the ice. For once, she felt almost at home, but she knew she couldn't stay, they were going to follow her, she had seen.

Still quite limp, and chilled through, she found it hard to move, but she managed, she had to. She had clumps of hardened snow in her white fur, weighing her down a bit. Almost invisible, she trudged through the snow, wondering where to go next, and how to get there.