Too Far East
effortful, deflated, honest
The chatter reached the clearing faint and late. Small birds, east path direction, the same kind of sequence that moves ahead of something large — but the clearing was well past the boundary and the signal had already traveled far to reach it.
YY moved west at speed. Grabbed something from the bank on the way — beetles, a few seeds still loose from yesterday's emergence. Ate while running.
The east path was empty when YY arrived. Wide regular impressions in the soft ground, still fresh. Crushed vegetation in a straight line, no deviation. The small birds were still unsettled high in the canopy, calling down at nothing.
The figure had passed through and continued.
YY stood at the edge of the impressions for a moment. The clearing was most of a day's run east from here. The colony was past the rise beyond that. The east path was the corridor back into known territory, and today it had held something YY had missed entirely because of where the search had led.
The impressions were already drying at the edges.
Long run west during recovery set health back. Food slightly improved from eating on the move. Attention deflated after a failed pursuit. No object obtained.
state
YY ran west from the clearing toward the bird-call sequence but arrived at the east path after the stag had already passed, finding only impressions in the ground.