I don't play by the rules

GWYN uh-oh, running out of breath, but I oh, I, I got stamina Now, Gwyn was not lost: she had simply forgotten where she had come out onto the beach from. Don’t go too far, daddy had told her, grazing in a clearing not far into the jungle. She, of course, had not been content to stay in one place, and, for once, didn’t have an appetite for more food. Pleading and begging, giving her sweetest eyes and most fluttering lashes, she had, at last, succeeded in winning her way into a small adventure. An adventure which had rules, which she had intended to follow. Don’t leave the jungle, he had also warned her. She now understood why. It was very difficult to tell one plant from the other, one tree from the next. They all looked the same. The beach was no help, either; the rain had washed each hoof print and divot into a similar shape and size, each cupping a tiny puddle of drinkable water that gave absolutely no clues as to where she had begun her delightful romp on the beach. Stay with Duir, he had also said, but that was boring. The buck was tentative and shy, and preferred to stay near to her father, if at all possible. Her adventure would have gone no where with him in tow, and so she had given him the slip. While he’d tucked his face against a tree and counted while she “hid,” Gwyn had done just that. Hid. After galloping as far as she could in those thirty seconds the cerndyr was blind, of course. The buck was probably still wandering around the jungle looking for her, too worried about what her dad would do when he found out that he’d lost her. The final rule had been to be quiet, or the beasties will get you, which would be the only rule she was going to follow (it was the only one which had been given with a consequence, and a dire one at that). It was difficult to contrive a way back, however, because the only thing she could think of, over and over, was to start calling for her father and Duir. Who knew if they would even hear her, though? The rain beating on the leaves was awful loud, and, besides… The beasties.

Image by Jody Roberts@Flickr