Bearclaw Valley you are a brick tied to me that's dragging me down

they cornered her at the mouth of her whelping den and she crouched delicately over the suckling forms of her babes, a snarl raising on her lip.  their forms twisted into her mind, and her nightmares formed clear visions in her head: these women were here to take her babies and crush their yielding forms between their wanting jaws.  

although her nightmare faded, her body remained bristling and aware; her muscles were taut.  annasiak let the redleaf reprimand her — for what, this time? — only for the sake of her babies.  she was growing sick of being accosted at every corner when she had made one mistake in her time.

anna had been here since the formation of bearclaw.  anna had been the first woman to sleep with alexander.  anna had spent countless hours showing him what life was like when he had fun.  anna bore sentry to the borders daily, guarding them from intruders — she had killed on behalf of the valley.  anna filled the caches while she was pregnant despite her need for food, anna had thus far met every intruder and hopeful that showed up on their doorstep — what had laurel ever done that anna had not?

she wanted alexander to run at her beck and call when she had indra to care for her — if xan tended to laurel, too, where did that leave anna?  but that didn't matter, right?  so long as the redleafs were happy, all was well with the world... even if they had to burn it down to get what they wanted.

but it was not anger that held annasiak's gaze when her mismatched eyes bore into the pale seafoam of the gravid woman.  it was pity.  leave, she commanded level and soft, arching her maw in the direction from whence the women had came.  annasiak had taken nothing that hadn't been offered to her freely — that much would hopefully come to laurel with time.