Blacktail Deer Plateau So consumed by all this hurt

@Kavik

She didn't recall running. 

One moment she was turning away from Kavik, the next flying through their territory.

She was reckless, paws slipping and sliding on the needles with desperation. Once, she tripped over the creeping root of a pine - her odd number of legs leaving her unable to catch herself. She crashed to the ground with an angry sob - shaking it free of her bad leg with little care if she hurt herself before lurching to her feet again. 

Nothing could hurt more than this. 

Her mind didn't seem to know how to make sense of the pain - there was no physical location but it was crushing her. Instinct called for her to go in the opposite direction, Kavik had soothed so many bad memories that she wanted him. Half of her demanded that she return, bury herself in his embrace and forget.

The other half forced her deeper into the forest, to a stretch of the stream that was less frequented. It was choked with broken branches from a recent storm, Liri's sore eyes watching them drift by as she approached the stream. 

The fae sat by the water - shoulders hunched as her face crumpled. A howl of sadness bubbled up in her throat as her head dropped forward, for it was instinct to call her sorrows to the sky, but she held it in with a shuddering breath - curling on the edge of the bank despondently.

Her mahogany gaze fell to the still water without meaning to, finding her own reflection there. She flinched, for she had avoided still water for so long she'd forgotten what she looked like. After the initial shock, Liri leaned closer to take a good look. 

She was not pleased by what she saw.

Useless. Crippled. Weak.

With a savage snarl, she lurched to her paws and slashed a paw across the surface of the murky water before collapsing to the ground under the weight of her self loathing. She buried her face in her forelegs, wanting to see no more, and fell apart.