Larksong Grotto monster

Laurel sniffled from the pain — ironically, much the same as her half-brother was doing from what she'd inflicted on him — as she looked over Reek and Jhala. She hadn't expected any sympathy from them, and she hadn't expected any love. If nothing she'd done so far had been enough to make her father love her, then why would showing her ugly side make him love her now? She hadn't expected Jhala to relent, for she had always been mean. Would she be killed, now, her body food for the half-brothers she hated so?

She found no love in her heart for her brothers, even as Jhala reached out and tried to mend things. But the gesture was enough to give her a moment of hope, a feeling that maybe things were not destroyed yet. She looked away, and for a moment she looked like she might run and leave them behind to avoid being hurt again, and to avoid hurting again when at her weakest. The only thing that kept her from it was winter and her uncertainty of what lay beyond the pack's borders, her unknowingness if the outside world would take her life the moment she set foot in it, wounded and alone.

"Okay," she murmured, ears folding back, her body still low and submissive. "A new start..." She was not sure what the future would bring... But it couldn't be much worse than everything she had endured so far, so she would stay, and she hoped that they would do better, and she would try to do better to hide her ugly side.

okay :) this is my last post, feel free to post again or just archive as is.