Amari sands[HR+animated][+ short story] (Patreon)

The smell of death was growing stronger now and Ezrael followed it like a hound to the kill. 

The sand was scorching hot, even through her foot wraps she could feel the intense heat with each step.  Soon enough, she'd come upon the corpse she smelled. It was an adult female Kyononix with its pup cradled against its mothers breastbone.  It was all too obvious why the two had perished out here, on these unforgiving sands, the dunes were low, flat, and there wasn't even so much as a single twig for miles.

As she stood there she remarked, "That's sad. Such a magnificent beast," but as she spoke she saw movement.

"Hmm?"

The pup was alive! Just barely. The slight shade from its mothers body had kept it from immediately dying in the blistering heat.

Ezrael leaned down and picked it up by the scruff of its neck, examining the pup. It was emaciated, severely dehydrated and yet it made the tiniest effort to snap at her and even let out a few barks and hisses.

"Oh, I like you. You're small and sickly and still so fierce," she pulled a bottle from her satchel and trickled water into the pups mouth, dodging a bite. Once it realized there was water it quieted down and gulped as much as fast as it could.

She stuffed a piece of dried meat into its jaws and forced it down the pups throat with two fingers. It protested slightly but swallowed obediently. "There's hope for you yet," Ezrael muttered, and stuffed the pup into her satchel.  She'd been hoping for different results that day, perhaps a hive of jumpers, or a nice fat bristleback, but this was…equitable.

As she began to walk away, planting her stick in the ground with each step to check for worms, the pup let out a sad, pathetic "wuuuu," a last goodbye to its mother, perhaps.