Lost Creek Hollow I'm not gonna try and change your mind.

Ibis didn't like that she was a puny representation of a wolf. Being small had very few upsides in a world where physical dominance was key, not that she'd ever had any notion of becoming a dominant force in the hierarchy or anything. Being small meant she had to work harder to get places — on the flip side, she ate very little. It didn't bother her so much that she was small until recently when Okeanos came to visit. He had gotten so very, very big — like a mountain! And the more she thought about it, the more Ibis realized she was jealous of her own brother for growing in to someone so big and so strong. Meanwhile she was stuck with a tiny body, and she wasn't exactly athletic with it. Ibis was clumsy at the best of times, not confident or powerful like Ira of Easthollow, which was yet another flaw she could add to her mental list of failings.

When her father tried to assure her Ibis felt herself tense, because the sight of his massive paw next to her dainty little one made the difference seem even greater. The girl remembered when she visited Rannoch and his newborn kids; he'd said that babes grew in to all sorts of shapes and sizes — but Ibis had been unfortunate enough to be stunted (or so she thought), to be made too small and insignificant. How could she ever be as mighty as Ira, as intimidating as Treason, or as beautiful as her own gorgeous mother, when she was stuck in a child's body?

Ibis couldn't help but frown and pull her paw away from her father's as it was extended, and looked away from what he was trying to show her, her ears slicking back when he spoke of how she was destined to be small. She knew that. She wasn't stupid.

—I'll always love you, little bird, with my whole heart. And I will always make time for you, no matter what. Anything you need I'll always be here for you. her father promised everything he could, and maybe that would've been enough had her good mood not turned so sharply, but Ibis couldn't help but see the hypocrisy in what he was saying. Before he was even finished stating all that he did she shot back: I needed you before and you weren't there. referring to the separation of her parents and how badly she had pined for her father's love in the early days of their dissolving relationship. She looked at him with hurt, although it wasn't Terance that caused this wound she felt but her own self-doubt and budding angst. I came to find you and you'd moved on from me — from all of us. That's not fair.

Neither was this moodiness, and Ibis knew that deep down she wasn't angry with Terance or the events that led her to this point. She was just sad, because -- what else do teenagers experience?