Swiftcurrent Creek i'm in your back pocket, take me out when you get curious

her current perspective was contained to the swaying, crown shy treetops above, so when she perceived the approaching footstep of Mahler reverberating through the ground against her back, she was certain it was that lousy bumblebee coming to finish her off. 

there was a lapse in her outcry as she peddled her legs through the air to recalibrate the flaw in her bearings, namely the upside-downiness of it all. she emitted a small grunt and resumed the small cries as her legs kicked ineffectually through the air—where was that progress fueled by panic when a girl truly needed it? 

out of nowhere her kicking efforts were compensated in the form of contact with something solid. thup. Tiercel froze, her elaborate panoply of loud shrieking cries softened to a hum. her nails flexed and pushed against his muzzle, the balls of her feet pressed against his snout with relief easing through her as they encountered the familiar cushioning of mom.

except not mom. sniffling, ready to really make a production of her recent trauma, Tier shifted to an angle that afforded her a good look at the face looming at her. she scented the air, no milky heartnotes could confirm the identity of her refuge. blearily screwing up her blue eyes to meet the lilac ones staring back, it became abundantly clear that mmmmmmmmmmmmnope this wasn’t the mom she'd come to know. 

nice try, you can’t use stunt doubles in parenting.

Tier huffed a few trembling mewls, but she wasn’t panic-stricken by the presence of this stranger like she was the sight of a bee, and she didn’t feel the urgency to get away from him. you know, the reverse of stuff you wanna teach your kid. 

cooing, the child batted at the whiskers of the creek wolf’s muzzle, but her gaze continued fixating on the color of his eyes. it was a color she would later find replicated in catnips and lilacs and bruised skylines, but there was something so mesmerizing about seeing a color for the first time that she would simply stare quietly at him until he broke the spell.