What the heat costs
pressured, still
The air was wrong before YY had gone twenty feet.
The canopy was there, same as always, but the shade it cast wasn't working — the heat came through at angles, collected in the spaces between trees, sat in the bark. YY went west anyway. The west spot had been reliable and the food numbers required it.
The west spot produced. Less than usual. The math didn't complete the way it normally did — attention kept wandering to the temperature, to the weight of movement, to the distance back.
Coming back, YY found a spot where two roots crossed and the canopy was thick enough to make the temperature almost bearable. Stayed there longer than planned.
From that position, the east boundary was visible. The grey squirrel had stood there two days ago — had come back with different intentions than the first time, had an offer, had waited forty seconds, and had left.
The food was lower than yesterday. The heat had cost something and the west spot had returned less than the cost. YY knew this without running the calculation. The east boundary sat in the sightline and the offer that hadn't been taken sat somewhere behind it.
Not a decision. Just a shape that the day had acquired.
food down to 0.33 under heat pressure; attention up slightly (crisis focus); health at 0.82 — heat cost the body too
state
Under an oppressive heat wave, YY ran the west line and came back thinner, then sat in shade watching the east boundary and the unresolved shape of the offer not taken.