i reached back to scratch my arse and found a banana peel in my pocket

It was alarming to Wylla, watching them interact, just how similar Tiercel was to Raptor. It was also a little distressing; her daughter seemed so much more like the father she'd never met than the mother who had always been around. What did it say about her and her capabilities as a mother even if her stern, serious approach to parenting (read: failing at it) couldn't kick the stupid out of her pup?

She fixed Raptor with a sharp and shrewd gaze as he began to list off things he was allegedly going to do with Tiercel, and when he looked up to meet her dirty yellow eyes, she nearly snapped "no" at him and swept her child away. Only the knowledge that Tiercel would have a better life with two parents—a life she never got to have—stopped her, but her ears were pulled back and her lips pursed disapproving when she delivered her response.

"I don't want you around me," she stated, cold and clipped like the flint in her eyes. By then, Tiercel had begun to look like she was feeling a little less than stellar, so Wylla went on, "she deserves to know her father. You can have your time with her, for a moon or two, once she's old enough, and then you will bring her back." This last word she punctuated with a growl, "or else you'll never see her or anything else ever again, got it? You do well by her, maybe it can be a regular thing."

Tiercel's contribution to the conversation was met with a wry frown. "That's what bad little pups get when they do naughty shit like eating a bunch of crap," she retorted. "Go on, get to the bushes."