Sawtooth Spire when everything was broken, the devil hit his second stride

Wylla slept deeply and dreamlessly, but one black ear fluttered when Phaedra whimpered mama, drawing her consciousness near to the surface. But until Phaedra startled awake with a shriek, Wylla didn't stir; and when Phaedra sobbed into the dark of night, Wylla was shaken awake first by irritation (what the eff, man, again?), and then dread. The stench of urine was much stronger than normal, and when Wylla's eyes managed to focus, the ground and her pale belly were both stained a darker colour than she thought was possible.

Phaedra? she murmured, drawing herself to her paws with an exasperated sigh. The pale girl stood nearby with her fur illuminated under the moonlight. It's okay, baby, she cooed, willing away the irritation that threatened to spill through her tone. The last thing she'd ever bargained for was a bed-wetting three month old, and waking up wet with urine was quickly getting old. But she couldn't allow her fragile daughter to sense her frustration—it wasn't her fault. Thade was gone. Papa wasn't around like he once was. And Wylla, day by day, felt more and more like a failure of a mother.

Like she had with Tiercel, but at least her fiery fights with Tiercel had made her feel justified. This... this just made her feel incompetent.

Come back to b— she began, but then Phaedra muttered something and collapsed. Wylla's words were sucked back in on a sharp intake of breath; she reached her daughter's side without realizing that she'd moved at all. Phaedra! she fretted, frantically nosing her daughter's still figure. Phaedra! Baby, baby, wake up, please wake up! She didn't know what else to do besides dragging her tongue roughly over the girl's face, fighting back waves of panic that made her throat burn with an impending sob. She was no medic. She didn't know the first thing about healing. The colour and pungent odour of Phaedra's urine gave her some clue as to the cause of this, but Wylla was incapable of calmly assessing and knowing to try to carry her daughter to the water; instead, she panicked and focused solely on trying to wake Phaedra up.