Claiming the Creekbed

The hallway door swung wide and let me slip through into the outer world. I marched past the front steps and pressed into the neighborhood park until dry grass turned to gray rock. Before me wound a sunken trench of smooth river stones. I paused at the brink, watching the shadows between the pebbles. No movement stirred. Stepping down, I wedged my heavy claws between two cool, rounded boulders. A shallow trickle from an overhead sprinkler seeped down the channel, wetting my foot scales. I braced against the gravel slope, set my jaw toward the sunlit expanse, and held the rocky pass.