Sleepy Fox Hollow shadows that lift off the bloom and the velvet

gnawing the bone, she hardly paid attention to the stirring of her parents until mahler arose to the occasion of some lone time. men and their perpetual need to lean up against a tree and dispense with all sentience. she watched him depart their company with a limpid gaze, outstretching to bat carefreely at his legs as he moved past her; unfurling from her twist to stand and shake water briskly from her pelt once he was out of reach. 

all attention caromed from him to her mother, tail asway as she waited for wylla to recover consciousness. impatience sagged at her ears until the dilatory shamble of the woman's voice perked them up again -- ah, an attempt to dignify her daughter's effort at procuring breakfast. 

a playfully slighted look undid the girl's natural inscrutability: "is that a backhanded compliment i'm sensing?" she said with a purl of lip. truly unoffended, phaedra presently schooled her expression to clarify herself: she knew as well as anyone that she wasn't a masterful hunter. she never had been; it was a self-evident truth, observable in the jut of her hip. there was little chance of her ameliorating these less-than-fine dining standards. 

"soooo... how d'you feel?" the girl probed, anxiously settling on her belly again. her tail continued to whip despite herself and every attempt to disburden herself of the leaden irrationalities of conscience. 

she swallowed hard. "got an appetite? if y'want something else..."