The Heartwood Story; two continued.

Just like her father? Ha! Mira had met her father; if anything he looked disappointingly unlike her, and more like the noisy brother who had bothered her since birth. She had no qualms against him- but she knew her black pelt was Mother's black pelt, and she and her were connected in that way. Mira would not let Priapus tear that connection from her. 

"Mother" squeezed her tighter, and tears of pain nipped at the corners of the serpent's eyes, threatening to spill over again. Priapus said she was to come for the others- and though Mira found a couple of them pointless company, they were family- that she knew- and thus she would not let them come to the fate she had come to. 

It was best to eliminate that possibility entirely. 

At the compliment, Mira began to wriggle wildly- like a demon had entered her body. A dark living tornado, she sought to free herself by whatever means- fine, let her skin tear away at the nape! She would escape this bitch's hold and make her pay.