Redhawk Caldera sokea sisar

Anyone welcome except Peregrine, only because she's intentionally avoiding her dad. :)

The family was wholly focused on Wildfire, and rightfully so.  Raven felt no resentment toward her recovering sister over it; in fact, she was grateful for the lack of attention on herself, as it allowed her to have the space she needed to work through the trauma of what she'd seen and experienced.  She didn't have much appetite or interest in anything right now, and there was a dark, haunted cast in her golden eyes.  She felt sick and cold inside -- more than anything, empty -- except when her father came around.  When he was near, she would either cling to her mother or slink away altogether and avoid him completely.  She couldn't look at him.  Over and over again, the scene repeated itself in her head...

Her father standing over the mangled, bloodied corpse of his own daughter -- her sister, if only for a few fleeting seconds -- with her severed head held aloft in his gore-stained jaws.  She saw the grisly strings of meat and pulp hanging, the white of the bone protruding from the broken body.  She had been black, just like Raven.  She looked like me.

Raven had been dozing in the sun outside the entrance to the badger den where the family was staying temporarily when her father's scent, strong on the summer breeze, sent a lance of some cold and unpleasant emotion running through her.  Quickly she sat up, aware that he was returning from some errand.  Before he could see her, she stole away into a nearby copse of trees, found a little stream, and followed it down a sparsely-wooded hill.  Paying no attention to how far she wandered or where she went, she walked by herself for a while and enjoyed the warmth of the sunshine that filtered down through the leafy treetops and the fragrance of flowers that hung in the air.