Swiftcurrent Creek pack activity · fight or flight

Posting again to respond to ^ :D

Jinx didn't notice as they left, many of them not even realizing what had happened. It wasn't unusual. Jinx didn't keep many friends, so she never would have expected them to rush to her aid. They left the cougar in a bloody heap on the ground, no wolf willing to consume its flesh. She wouldn't have opposed it if they had, for she herself might have stepped forward to feed off the predator's rich muscle. She didn't, though, but remained prone on the ground, waiting all the pack wolves to file away.

But they didn't all depart. Fox left without another glance, presumably wrapped up in herself. It was a lack of acknowledgement of what she had caused that Jinx would never forget, but she didn't protest it. In the end, the Kesuk wouldn't be able to hold a grudge, but neither would she ever let the image of that callous departure leave her mind. Tuwawi and Njal slunk away, and Haunter too, leaving just Jinx in the clearing... And the adolescent.

Jinx hadn't met Bones yet. If it had been a better situation, one less fraught with devastation, she would have enjoyed her breezy attitude. If she had been a better wolf herself, she might have found it in her to appreciate the juvenile's concern. But all Jinx saw in the young female's approach was pity. There was no room in her vulnerable mind to consider that Bones was only trying to help. Jinx deluded herself in that moment.

"No," she said in a voice that cut like a knife, recoiling from the younger wolf's approach as if to hide the dead pups. She felt guilt the minute her reaction registered in her mind, for Bones had done nothing wrong... Despite her usual bitchiness, Jinx knew this, and knew she would need to apologize at some point. But right now, she was weak, vulnerable, raw, and on some level felt the loss of her children on a more acute scale than she realized. She would never have admitted to wanting them, but there was nevertheless a deep part of her that mourned being a mother whose children were taken by callous circumstance.

"Leave me," she mumbled, turning back her ears and lowering her eyes as the desire to be alone swept over her. When Bones left, Jinx would clean up her mess... But she would not do it in plain sight. There was only one thing to do with the bodies, now that the cougar had snuffed out their lives, and it was not for public viewing pleasure.