Frogspawn Swamp I was the lightning before the thunder

I got really inspired so have a long post.

Evening looked away when the woman commented on her condition, asking if she’d always had it. Talking about her affliction with someone outside of her family made her feel awkward and upset. She had run away from home so that she could stop feeling like she had to prove herself to her family, but now she was out here in the middle of nowhere, talking to a woman she didn’t know, feeling as if she had to prove herself to a stranger. It disappointed her, and she couldn’t help the sigh that escaped her maw. Was she destined to forever avoid company, lest she feel weak in front of other wolves?

Finally, she responded to the woman, but still kept her head turned away to avoid having to look at her. “Yes, I’ve always had it. I was born with it. My mother thought I was special or something and named me Flower.” Her voice took on a note of disgust at the name. “I was coddled by her. My father, on the other hand, saw my condition for what it was — something that made me weak and a liability to the pack. He pushed me harder than any of my siblings, made me train twice as hard, but I was never good enough for him. And my siblings!” Evening raised her head and glared out at the rain as if she could see her family staring back at her. “My siblings treated me like I was some diseased little whelp. Some treated me as Mother did, coddling me like a child even as I grew older, and others took Father’s point of view, except to an extreme, and avoided me like the plague.”

The wraith snorted, now too angry to have any room leftover for feelings of shame. “Forget them,” she muttered bitterly. “They’re the reason I’m here now, out in this swamp in the rain. I ran away from home. I don’t need them. I don’t need anyone. I can survive on my own, no matter what they think.” At this point, she had forgotten that there was another wolf sitting beside her. She was in her head, talking to herself, resentful and indignant and stubborn. She sat hunched over, staring into nothingness, and her will to survive turned her bones to steel.