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A Raptor and Her Life
Chapter 14 - A rainy night

Chapter 14 - A rainy night

'The forest was quieter than usual', Christine noticed on the way back to her home. After getting one last good look at the village, she had left for her home in a hurry. She would have stayed for a while longer if not for fear of those two beasts, or rather other similar beasts that may be hunting for prey. Christine should have gotten back to her home quicker than on the way to the town now that she knew the way but it took her about the same time, because she was hungry. So she went hunting and caught a couple rabbits which slowed her down. But once she arrived home she went hunting again and this time killed one of those small antelope she had killed previously. After eating her fill she covered the remains in a loose layer of dirt, she did it to try to make the rest of the body viable to eat on a later date.

That night Christine was peacefully sleeping in her den when she was woken up by a booming thunderclap to pounding rain and a muddy den. As she woke up, she blinked groggily a few times before how muddy her home was fully set into her mind and then she jumped up in a panic, hitting her head on the roof. Christine scrambled from the den on all fours as quickly as she could. As she left the den the rain hit her muddy feathers like a wave, washing her clean of the soppy mud. She ran to the driest looking tree as fast as she could to try to get out of the rain but as she tried to stop under it she slid right out from under the tree back into the rain. Then she ungainly scrambled back under the tree cover with an undignified squawk. Once Christine was under the tree she sat next to the trunk because that was the driest place under the tree. She wondered what to do now that her den was flooded but soon decided to think about it in the morning and for now simply try to rest.

It took a while, but Christine was eventually about to fall asleep when she heard a booming sort of screeching noise, jolting her back to wakefulness. A second later, roaring bellowed through the trees and at that frightening sound she tried to be as still and quiet as possible while pressing herself against the rough bark. There were several more screeches and roars accompanied by booming thunder but within a few minutes the terrifying sounds faded into the distance. She sat there tense, for a good ten minutes before accepting whatever had made those noises had really moved on. Her den was so muddy at this point she was having second thoughts about sleeping outside of it tonight. But realistically it would be a pretty horrible place to sleep at the moment so despite the terrifying beastly calls Christine would sleep underneath this tree tonight. After that scare it took hours to fall asleep. But before the sun had even fully risen the raptor sleeping under a tree with mud all around, woke up.

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Christine stood at the mouth of her den peering in and she didn't like what she saw. Several inches of water were at the bottom of her den due to last night's thunderstorm. To be honest with herself, she wasn't sure what to do. She had a couple problems she needed to solve from this situation soon, one was finding a place to sleep because she doubted her den would dry by tonight and the other was making sure this situation wouldn't happen again. Christine decided to try to look for a temporary shelter before solving the second problem. Within a couple minutes she found some nearby bushes that were relatively dry but now she still had the second problem to figure out. After thinking Christine realized she had three options, either abandon this den and find a new one, keep using this den but when it rains sleep somewhere else, or do something to her den to make sure this problem wouldn't happen again. She soon decided to try to do something to her den and if that didn't work she would go with the first option. But for now, she was going to see if the thunderstorm had seriously damaged anything nearby.