Swiftcurrent Creek And curiosity

Sweetling?

Cygnet had been too preoccupied with munching on the prickly plants to do more than bat an ear at the term of endearment that she felt certain wasn't for her. Maybe the grey lady was talking to someone else, she didn't care- these bushes were finally doing something to her sore, stretched gums that nothing else had managed to-

well, they were working until she was abruptly grabbed, lifted, and pulled away from them. She clenched her jaws shut, stripping a long limb of all of its prickles and berries, but they all fell from her mouth which opened with surprise. They fell to the ground, trailing behind her as she was carried off.

She tried to fight once or twice, but the most she could do was simply swing her bottom to one side or the other, as the rest of her was more or less immobilized in Eshe's grip. Without any real way of fighting back, she set to screaming, jaws locked wide open as the whale-eyed child objected fiercly to being carried; something she associated with her earliest memory and trauma. 

She'd be torn apart next, she just knew it. But she wouldn't go out without taking Eshe's eardrums with her.