Welcome to Gaia! ::

Springtide had woken that morning to the sound of crows. The first sign.

Later, while walking down to a nearby stream for a drink, a frog with two red stripes on its back crossed her path. She narrowed her eyes at it speculatively. The second sign?

And then, climbing back up the hill to lay in the early morning sun, came the final sign. As she lay down, a twig broke beneath her, and out of habit, she nudged it out from under her side and examined it. The sharp scent of sap wafted up from the bent green twig.
"Cypress. Just as I thought," she muttered to herself. This was an interesting omen, indeed. She sniffed the broken end of the twig again. Yes, a visitor would come calling soon. The signs were clear as day.

Something disturbed her contemplation of the twig, Right on cue, she thought smugly, allowing herself a moment of self-pride. she sat up on her sunny hilltop to better see her not unexpected visitor.

First, a boar crashed through, following the stream, its sides heaving and streaked with blood. It sprinted off into the denser tangle upstream, where the undergrowth grew most thickly. A big, fat one too. It was a shame, but even had Tide felt hungry in the least she was not inclined to chase it through that mess.
After the boar disappeared almost ghostlike into the thicket, she waited, alert. No, the boar was not a visitor, only a herald.

It was then she saw the buck emerge, his coat smeared with algae and blood. To Tide, he looked wild and fierce and the had the unaccountable urge to hide, exposed as she was on the hilltop. But she couldn't get herself to move.
So she just stared.