Heron Lake Plateau now i’m free from what you are

Raleska came upon the scene following Svalinn's abrupt departure. He had heard something she had not, which befuddled Raleska. Dumbly the girl trailed after him, wondering just what had captured his attention so intensely that he would just up and leave like --

Oh.

That.

That being a collective group of grown-up wolves, very aggressively assembled around her mother. She had just enough time to see that tension, thick as a rope of clotting vine, around the adults.. but it was the way her mother stood that terrified her. She had stood that way when they were denied by the cruel couple in Easthollow; a new berserk feeling rose in Raleska's stomach.

Raleska didn't know what had been said or done to deserve that kind of attention (even if she had, she still would have defended her mother) but she knew she did not like the way those grownups were looking at her. They were looking at her like they were about to sink their teeth in, hard.. rip her from limb to limb like she was a cornered doe. They looked at her mother like she was in danger and like Svalinn, Raleska did not like that.

Something instinctive wheeled up in her, the desire to fiercely defend blood over all else. She flanked Svalinn and offered a low growl, her feral gaze on the most menacing of the wolves, which was the black leader of Redhawks. She felt her hackles ripple across her back like the bladed edge of a sunfish's spine, and lurking around her mother, she looked more furious hound than sweet puppy with her lips pulled back in a vicious grimace and her teeth exposed.