Redhawk Caldera My independence seems to vanish in the haze

She understood what he meant in a flash, and her stomach rolled. She didn't want Vaati dead, couldn't imagine the concept. All she managed to say, however, was,  "he's not my brother."  The words sounded a little hitched to her own ears, her gaze fastened on his as he continued. She didn't have a chance to reply to the last thing he said, however, before a wolf appeared before them and her stomach dropped, and the ground seemed to pull her down, down, down. 

She stood, wavering slightly as the man ignored her, addressing the boy instead. She was silent a moment, tail tucked close to her, until she gathered the courage to speak out of turn, and admit to what she had done. "I attacked him. it was a mistake." The words she had carefully rehearsed fled from her, and what followed was clipped and disorganized.  "Vaa-he panicked, and brought him to the cave. Wolfskull. I-his leg, I broke it."  she paused, attempting to grasp desperately at the confidence that had fled deep inside herself.  "I was freed. he told me to leave, so I got him, and brought him back here."   She grimaces, hardly in the best shape to be attempting to offer an explanation, battered and thin and exhausted. Her gaze moves to Titmouse, feeling already that speaking was a mistake.