[fancypost borderwidth=0;font-size:8pt; text-align:justify; line-height:125%; width:350px; margin-top: -5px;]Shhhhh.
The steam from the hot water warmed her face; her eyelashes fluttered, half-closed and unseeing. A hollow breath trembled at lips. Coarse shreds of black and brown fur, outlining her pale pale skin, shivered, alive simply because they were rooted to something alive.
Her back legs sprawled in front of her, curves of limbs meant for keeping her upright looking as precise and elegant as a ballerina's. Beside her, her tail lay, limp against the cold ground. Her chest rose slowly, a mass of ribcage and heart and lungs, all kept hidden by a sheen of dark-colored fur.
A small bowl lay on her chest, where hot water's steam rose from, dangling into her features held just above it. Swirls of hot air pushed against her face, some venturing outwards and blowing out from the sides of her face, leaving behind slight condensation.
Twas a misty evening, with dark just creeping along the horizon, whispering of the black night coming.
Eden had been saved by her surroundings, her thoughts martyred to the serene silence, the feeling of the rough bark pressing against her neck and shoulders. The way the steam was inhaled into her fragile lungs, absorbing into her bloodstream and spreading an odd sensation of suttle contentment throughout.
The swish of the leaves above her, survivors of the cold winter frost, radiated through the area, echoing through her and stroking at her pelt, soothing any distress left. She had not been in this way in a long time. She had not felt this way in even longer. Had she ever?
Her head finally tilted back to rest against the trunk of the tree, her eyes closing and her consciousness finally slipping away from her as she started to doze.