Of the countless memories she had, there were only a few of them that had not yet faded away into obscurity over the endless passage of time.
One of these rare, special memories for her was the first time that she tasted the metallic flavor of iron in her mouth. The throbbing, sharp pain from having a tooth broken and the warm flow of fresh blood in her mouth — it was a memory not so easily forgotten...
It was the taste of her first failure and by extension, the first time she had been punished.
She had failed the trial that she had been assigned to complete — to hunt a jasper-tailed hummingbird, reknown for its extraordinary speed and shyness.
More than anything, it was a tender, reserved creature that hid away from the world, only showing itself to feed and find a life-long partner during mating season when it entered adulthood.