Big Salmon Lake Endless phone calls and dreaming about you

It didn't take Fennec long to backtrack. She wasn't trying to be obstinate, wasn't trying to undermine Bronco's fear, but she couldn't stop herself.

Nothing upset Fennec more than when someone assumed she couldn't do something. In fact... just about every stupid decision she'd ever made, up to this point, came from an assumption somewhere that she couldn't handle the thing in question. Her travels when she was younger, her fight with Niamh... her running off. Even some of the less stupid ones, like her trip with Penn, or going to live at Moonspear. Or training to be a warrior.

Her life was essentially an entire "fuck you" to anyone who looked at her and thought she might not be capable. And, in her mind... Bronco had done just that.

He hadn't said it in as many words, but she read it easily enough between the lines, and it burned. Maybe he was right, maybe he was wrong, but she didn't have anything to hide. So when she went back to the lake, she didn't bother to try and hide the scent she carried. If they were going to find anyone, she was going to make damn sure it was her. If Bronco had ever been up to giving them a fight, he damn sure wasn't now. And that... was a whole other thing.

She hated how much that mattered to her.

She kept her ears alert for anyone who might be approaching and stayed out of the water (despite the heat of the day). She'd come here for a reason; there were willow trees nearby and she could use more bark. For now, however, she simply wound a path around the lake's edge. She could visit the trees on her way home.