Avalon stretched as she woke up. She blinked the sleep from her eyes, taking in the beautiful morning. It was early autumn, a light breeze blew a parade of brightly colored leaves from the almost-bare trees. The sunrise coloring the east a stunning shade of red. Avalon crawled out from under her blanket, yawning as she did so. She was a rather odd looking otter, almost completely black, except for a small white diamond on her forehead, she had stunning blue eyes, and milky white teeth. She was tall and muscular, a pair of twin swords strapped to her back. She wore a dark green dress with a black sash tied around her waist, a brown satchel hung on her hip. Various bottles and pouches poking out the sides. Avalon, or Ava as she preferred to be called, shuffled her paw through the bag. She picked up a large drawstring pouch, she peered in with one eye. "Empty. Great. Now what am I supposed to eat?" Her stomach grumbled in protest. "Gonna be slim pickings for a while. Might as well just get used to it." She stuffed the pouch back into her bag. "I'd better get an early start. " She had a habit of talking to herself, it helped her feel less lonely.
Packing up her few belongings, she started off in the direction of the River Moss, singing as she went.
"99 pieces of pie on the wall, 99 pieces of pie! Take one down, pass it around, 98 peices of pie on the wall-"
She got all the way down to 67 before she arrived at the river. The sight never failed to take her breath away. The crystal clear water wound its way around Mossflower like a giant blue snake. Silver fish flitted their way around rocks, their sparkling scales shining as the sun glinted off of them. Cattails poking up from the soft moss lining the banks. Ava plopped her self down on a patch of soft moss under a weeping willow tree. The wind ruffling her fur. "Hello breakfast!" She cut a limb off of a nearby ash tree, and started sharpening the tip to a needle sharp point.
She waded knee deep into the crystal clear water. Spying a small trout, she poised her self to strike. Readying the spear in her hand, she drove the point deep into the soft river bottom. When the silt cleared, she saw that she had missed. "Perfect. Just when I start to think I caught a break." She looked around for a new target, to her dismay, she realized that the disturbance she had already caused had scared away all of the other fish. Scowling, he threw her spear onto the bank, it embedded itself deep into the soft moss. "Looks like another day without breakfast." She slowly waded back to shore, shaking like a dog to get rid of the excess water. Just as she started to move downstream, she smelled smoke.
"Wonder wot that could be?"
Overcome with curiosity, she decided to go check it out. Drawing her twin swords, she cautiously crept towards the sound.
As she was walking, she got a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.
"Well, that can't be good..."
As she pushed her way into a clearing, her heart dropped. The scene that lay before her was horrific.
It seemed to have been a campsite at one point. A tent lay in tatters off to the side, a pile of satchels, clothing, and various other trinkets lay smoldering in what was left of the fire pit, broken glass lay scattered about everywhere. The body of a fox lay partially covered by a thin blanket of leaves.
Ava slowly looked over the corpse, a female, around 25 seasons old, She wore a worn out black barkcloth tunic, and had a large gold earrings in one ear. She appeared to have been shot by an arrow, not much blood, so she most likely died instantly.
Ava's heart immediately went out to her.
"Poor thing. Cut down in the prime of her life. Who would have done this?" Ava muttered. "Not a robber, they would have taken the earring. Not a 'wrong place, wrong time' type of thing, they wouldn't have bothered to trash the place..."
As she was mulling over the possibilities, unbeknownst to her, she was being watched. ~_~_~_~_~_~_~
A/N: Hey guys! This is my first attempt at writing, so any critiques or tips would be AWESOME. Please review and tell me how much you loved\hated this chapter, I'd really appreciate it. :)