What the Rain Pushed Up
quietly satisfied, unhurried
The grubs were moving before the light fully arrived — pale, slow-moving things on the root cross bark, more of them than any single morning had produced in weeks. The beetle population was up too, working the dead sections above the fork.
YY did not range. The morning didn't require it. The east channel was clear by midday — the storm had scoured the path clean — and a short run confirmed the cache marker was still in place. A small exchange. The channel working the way the channel works.
By afternoon the bark had quieted as the emerged things dried out and found their way back into cracks. The root cross had been a shelter twice this week. Today it was just where the food was.
food up significantly from post-storm bark emergence without a ranging run; health recovering; attention settled after a well-fed, unhurried day
state
Post-storm beetles and grubs covered the root cross bark all morning; YY ate steadily in the branches without ranging, then cleared the east channel in the afternoon.