Leaning down to the spring to drink, Christine thought ‘To me my body seems a little faster, stronger than it was. It’s probably my imagination though, I’m just still a little excited by that fight yesterday I guess. Now, to focus on more important things, what am I going to do today? I don’t think I need as much food today since I ate so much yesterday, so I guess I’ll only hunt a rabbit or two today. Then I’ll explore again, even though yesterday the most interesting thing I found was that cave. I also hope I’ll find a better place to live soon.’
The previous day, after killing and eating the tapir-boar, Christine had found a rocky hill with a large cave opening as well as a stream leading into it but had found nothing else that day that was as interesting or useful before she had headed back.
Christine left the spring to hunt after finishing her drink. After she reached a small clearing where rabbits commonly ate, she waited. After a few minutes of waiting a horn-less rabbit showed up and started nibbling on greenery. As usual for her rabbit hunts, she started sneaking up on the rabbit, then when it noticed her she ran for it and when she caught up to it she killed it. However, as the rabbit hung limply from her jaws she realized this hunt appeared to have gone slightly better than most. It seemed to take the rabbit slightly longer to notice her sneaking closer to it than normal and she caught up to the rabbit a little easier when it started running. ‘It’s just my imagination,’ she thought yet again. Christine quickly ate the rabbit, then she was ready to go and discover new things.
Christine left in the direction of the pond and when she reached it she checked the area where she had killed the tapir-boar the previous day to see if there were any more tapir-boars but they hadn’t returned. She traveled along the shore of the pond to the other side of the pond and watched the water as she did this, she saw fish swimming in the shallows but no other creatures. Christine kept on moving through the forest, carefully observing the area around her. As she traveled she admired her surroundings, she had been seeing trees for days but still they were beautiful. She saw tracks in mud, massive trees, and other interesting things, but nothing too relevant to her current situation. After a while she noticed something odd, Christine saw a ropey material in the shape of a circle on the ground. She probably wouldn’t have noticed it before living in the forest and becoming more aware of her surroundings over the past few days.
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Looking closely she realized it didn’t just look like rope, it was rope used in what looked like a snare. Chills crept up Christine’s spine as she realized what this meant, she thought worriedly ‘rope means there is someone intelligent and able enough to make rope, this looks like a snare as well. This means this is an intelligent being making traps in these woods. Normally it would be nice to find someone intelligent as a human, but I’m a raptor now, whoever is out there might want to kill me. Should I leave the area? I might as well check out the trap though since I’m here before I go.’ Christine started to inspect the snare by following the rope leading to a branch overhead, she felt slightly embarrassed that she hadn’t noticed the bent branch but had noticed the rope. She realized she needed to be even more aware. Christine then sniffed at the trap and immediately smelled raw meat. Grabbing a long stick with her mouth, she used it to set off the trap and when it yanked the stick upward with a twang she searched for the source of that smell. Christine uncovered a small piece of red meat after brushing aside some leaves that had covered it up in the center of the trap. ‘Should I eat this, no, it’s probably not worth the risk of it being poisoned,’ she thought. As Christine had finished checking out the snare she wondered what to do. She figured she had two options, to look for intelligent beings such as the one that made this trap or to be safe and head back to her log.
She thought about it for a minute before deciding to take a risk and go farther to look for a sapient life. She left the trap and kept on going farther from her log. After another forty minutes of traveling she faintly heard a ringing sound in the distance to her right. She decided to follow the sound and soon enough the trees stopped and once she saw what was beyond them she took in a shocked breath. Christine had discovered what she was looking for, sapient beings.