𝕎𝕒𝕟𝕕𝕖𝕣𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕥𝕠 𝔻𝕖𝕧𝕠𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟

Chapter 11

Why is that? Because she can smell the rain coming.

Still unfazed, she stayed there for a few more seconds longer to bask in the cloudy glory. Warm, fuzzy, and chilling due to the breeze that can almost take her breath away. 'If only everyday-- if possible, I could wake up to such a feeling.' Toshiko's mind drifted to that exact wish, a tender smile even came to her lips. Thaaat is until one image came to her mind that came on its own.

A pair of hands snaking from her waist up to her to either side of her face...and is being kissed by Madara so welcomingly.

She gasps, opening her eyes like she just saw a ghost. Her cheeks were red as the cardinal that flew past her line of sight.

Toshiko pushed off the door and power-walks away from the door.

'There's no way me and that huncho-porcupine would kiss at MY doorstep!' She kept telling herself over and over from sheer embarrassment. The snippy woman was blushing so much that she was trying to deliberately walk away from it. Dammit...

'I don't want to kiss his masculine lips! I don't want his hands to touch my waist- not the waist, God, no! I think I would faint! I'm going to faint now for thinking of it!'

She shakes her head wildly and yells boisterously to vent her vexed emotions within herself.

Two small rabbits and a squirrel had fallen dead as Toshiko's scapegoats for her irrational anger. After collecting the senbons, she mumbles an apology to each of them and kept going. "Madara, the Alpha wolf is to blame for your untimely death, my woodland friends," she said earlier as she trekked deeper for another kill. The goal today was four kills to make the hunts last for the week instead of the usual two.

Another squirrel crosses her path overhead, hoping from the tree branch on her right to the left branch that protrudes its reach. Toshiko's blue eyes followed it closely, whipping out one senbon needle and flicks it out towards the squirrel. The simultaneous result happened when the squirrel went to hide in the foliage. It comes down from the other side of the foliage with the needle in its head.

"Sorry, squirrel," she whispers and retrieves her needle and the kill.

Suddenly, a croaking cry was heard in the distance. Toshiko raises her head in the exact direction. It came again as she stood to her feet. It didn't sound human nor was it a bird. Puzzled, the woman stalks closer to the sound. She rounds at about ten meters, with her hand on the nearest tree bark on her right as she looks for the animal that is crying. Nothing in sight yet... It cries again definitely louder and closer to her now that it made her heartbeat quicken with adrenaline. It was definitely straight ahead somewhere.

"Hang on, fella," she said to whatever it is. As she she jogged to the sound she detects it coming from behind the tree. She rounds it slowly to see the animal in distress. Her hand comes to her mouth with sympathy and awe. A male red and white furred- canidae injured with a broken and bloody foreleg.

"A baby red fox..." her voice was shaky and nervous as she squats on the ball of her toes to the young fox. The cries decreased to soft like wails as it notices another being. It head moved in agony and remained laying there. Toshiko's heart bled for it, eyes prickling.

"Aww, you're hurt... I'm so sorry," she apologizes with a comforting pet to its head, it nuzzles it's head against her palm desperately. It began to whine when it tried to stand up only to plop back down. That's when it gazed up at her, confused and silent wanting her help to stop the pain. She couldn't leave it out here like this. He was so small like the size of a 10-month-old child and vulnerable, and other imaginable, bigger predators could harm it. Had she ignored the call, it may have bled out...or died alone.