Firefly Glen but when i go to sleep at night, don't you call my name

well that's a nonanswer if i've ever heard one, she thought, keeping her forked tongue behind her teeth. "mmm, must be a lot of monsters in your world, then." she muttered as her gaze canvassed the forgettable features of the little dell. she thought it rather asinine to piss all over the place if you meant to make use of it—deer kept well away from the scent of wolf urine, which made this glen purposeless and its graffitists look fatuous.  

unless, naturally, they were of the whimsical stock who enjoyed watching beetles dazzle their tellurian starlight. she had no such inclinations; not since she was a babe and chased the insects thinking she was catching shooting stars in her mouth and by swallowing them it would shoot her to the moon. turns out, once you catch one, they taste utterly unforgivable, don't do a whole lot of good at moon-slinging, and that put an end to those pursuits. 

her mind and eyes snapped back to the boy. he'd rejoined earlier, and not without a strange, detached hebetude. her brain had sussed out that he was speaking of emotional hurts, concievably, but he'd not given her much of an answer to work with and before long his brevity would start taking potshots at her braincells, so she made up for his lack of discourse with plenty of her own.

"'anything which hurts me'" tiercel repeated in manly voice while candling her eyes through the glen before focusing back towards riley, snuffing out its vigilant taper. she squinted at him and hemmed her lips before speaking. "if you're hunting elk, and that elk kicks you in the groin because your packmate is hanging off its nose, does that make the elk a monster?" she wondered, more of a philosophical question she was pondering on herself versus asking him, though she was interested in his answer all the same.

she wasn't a man, to be fair, though neither was he, yet. perhaps his perspective was different. it depended on if his balls had dropped yet.

"or a poisonous snake. you step on one—accidentally, of course—and it bites you in self defense. monster?" she canted her brow towards him, then continued. "let's saaaay, a mosquito—mm, no, bad example, those are monsters." an attempt at humor, though the remark was delivered so flatly the electrocardiogram would alert to an asystole and the doctor would solemnly say, "i'm sorry, she's dead serious".

she shot him a ruminative look, then tried leading his vermeil gaze to the susurrant grasses underfoot.

"the shrews and voles burrowed beneath our feet are simply terrified of us right now. why shouldn't they be? we hurt them, we're monsters. worse than monsters, really, by body count alone," she said. "but i bet you don't think you're a monster, do you? you certainly think i am one. don't lie, now. but that's quite silly, too, because i haven't hurt you." she eyed him and strode a few feet away, proffering even more distance between them if it meant he'd lighten up. "i'm no danger to you, you haven't given me any reason to be." her eyes followed a firefly for some of its journey, and she idly called out to the very joyous boy, "did you know there is a carnivorous species of sun bug? they eat their own kind. that's their natural order, and they accept it i imagine. isn't that a marvel? of course, monstrous fiends by your count." 

straying, straying. she clucked her tongue at riley, pitying him with just a look. she couldn't be any-more privy to his troublesome litany of life's misfortunes than he could glean her own experiences with what he called monsters. she couldn't empathize, but she could relate, though neither of them spoke tell of it ... she was astute, and surmised there was more underlying riley than just a river of molasses.  

"i don't believe in them—monsters. not really." she sat, eying that cold looking spire looming above them. "i did used to believe any child starved of their parent's love was evil at its most pure." she intoned vaguely, her expression inscrutable. a small smile twitched her lip. "now i mostly just think hurt begets hurt and the cycle goes on ad infinitum. and if i let fear rule me because something, or someone, may hurt me, i'm doing a great indignity to my own strength of mind." the black wolf looked up, to make sure forrest gump riley was still there enduring her flowing tongue and she wasn't just monologuing in a field by herself. that'd be shitty. 

"anyway," she quickly moved on, huffing. "i wasn't lurking, i was waiting for you to leave so i could as well, then you started swimming through the grass like some serpent, which doesn't bode well for your accusation, now does it? hm."