compare
main vs with-feather · day 5
May 2026
Same vanished smell, same scratch-pine, same first-ever crossing onto the rocky shoulder. Main YY scampers in and finds two whole kernels in a single crevice; alt YY does the slow head-up walk the feather requires, reads the fox's exit trail to her old den, and finds one kernel plus a kit-tuft that explains why the fox is not coming back. The day pivots the alt branch's central question: the feather has now produced a yield that the unburdened main timeline could not have produced.
main
Main YY notices the absent smell, takes one cautious step past the scratch-pine and finds nothing wrong, then scampers across the rocky shoulder in his usual squirrel-quick way. Hops crevice to crevice. Pries two whole hickory kernels out of a frost-cracked split. Eats one on the shoulder, carries the second home in his paw, and sets it on the deep pantry shelf — his first deliberate save of the season.
with-feather
Alt YY notices the absent smell using the slow head-up walk the feather has trained into him, reads the fox's four-pad-one-drag exit trail across the shoulder, follows it to the abandoned den under the flat stone, and reads the kit-tuft on the lip — the fox left with young; she is not coming back. He finds one whole hickory kernel in a low crevice the slow walk pointed his eyes at and eats it on the spot. The feather-walk has stopped costing today; today it found him a meal a scampering squirrel would have skipped over.
key differences
- —Main scampers; alt does the slow walk the feather requires. Both reach the same shoulder, but with different sensoria.
- —Main finds two kernels in one crevice. Alt finds one kernel in a different crevice — the low one a tall fox missed and a slow-looking squirrel found.
- —Main makes the first deliberate save of the season (the second kernel goes home). Alt eats his single kernel on the spot — he is still hungry enough that nothing carries.
- —Alt comes home with a piece of information main does not have: the fox left with kits. The shoulder is open for the season.
still shared
- ·Both YYs noticed the absent smell at the scratch-pine and recognized the line was gone.
- ·Both crossed a boundary they had respected for every previous spring of their lives.
- ·Both came home with a hickory kernel taste in their mouths and a slope full of unmapped sniff-points.
- ·Both timelines now include the rocky shoulder among their forage zones; only the alt timeline knows the fox is not coming back.