Arrow Lake the truth is i never shook my shadow

ava sat down with a long sigh, holding her skull between two paws.

her head hurt.  

where had dinah gone, would she ever come home, why hadn’t ava gone with her, would dinah forgive her, would she ever see her again, why had mama had more kids, why weren’t they enough, why does ava’s head hurt—

will it ever stop?

hunger raked her thinning belly. she’d caught nothing since she left; her disorientation handicapped any chance of stealth, and as it turned out seeing two of everything made for a shit hunter. 

ava’s gaze turned to the sky where blurred clouds threaded through beads of oscillating blue. did caracal ever look down at them and wonder where the pieces of his family went?

a scoff. dinah’s scent faded here. ava worried the dirt with her muddied paw, wondering if mama noticed she’d traded her last surviving daughters for newborn sons.