Jade Fern Grove 976-EVIL

this was not the right direction.

so why

did he keep going?

madly, he thinks he’ll find her here; the madwoman who’d taken his nephew.

his dark tail lashes behind him as he ambles through the grove.

he swipes his tongue over his nose. his saliva, sticky.

beneath his fur his skin burns hot.

She planned to limit her time in Swiftcurrent Creek, if she stayed at all. She didn't want to risk bringing the sickness to her father's pack. Hell, even if she managed not to pass it on, she really didn't want them to witness her inevitable descent into madness.

Lilitu stayed close, but at length. Which was why she was here, nearly running into one of the young men involved in the skirmish on the mountain, looking a bit agitated as he traveled through the ferns.

Did you find them? she asked without preamble, heart hammering fast at the surprise of finding him here. Are the kids safe?

clueless to what tragedy burgeoned on the isle, dinah ranged ahead.
she would go back for judah, yes, she had made a promise; but simultaneously she yearned to leave, and something inside her bones told her something horrible would happen if she did not.
this was the closest she had come to rivenwood in months. she debates a visit, telling mama who she'd found, but she — hesitates.
and then there is the thud of footsteps that dashes away any possibility of such a thing.
she would know that sound and that scent anywhere.
mulherin?

a woman materializes. she is from the peak that day.

not the woman, but his blood boils nonetheless.

the kids? as if she had any place to ask? she and her cohorts were the reason his nephews were snatched—she’d take the other two if she could, he’s sure of it.

his lip, curling. who the fuck even are you? 

and his incredulousness turns into a demand.

take me to her.

dinah’s voice is nothing but a dull echo in the back of his head.

She ought to have expected the hostility, but it took her aback, nonetheless.

Who the fuck are you?! Lilitu lashed back, pinning her ears. I don't even know where she went. The last I saw of her—and them—that dying guy was trying to tear out my throat.

There was another wolf standing nearby, young and beautiful. Lilitu felt a pang at that visage so perfect (like her own had once been), but set it aside to wallow over later.

I was just trying to help some kids get away from that—that sickness, she insisted, tripping slightly over her words as the emotions of that skirmish hit her in the gut once more. Honestly.

her throat clamps shut on itself. mulherin did not even seem to notice her and this woman, who apparently he also did not know, was talking about — children, and a dying guy and some sickness.
and mulherin was not himself. he is frenzied, manic in a way dinah had never seen before or really even thought him capable of.
she freezes, gaze frantically bouncing between the two. wh-what are you talking about? she mutters breathlessly, taking a step or two back, away, away; did something happen at the rise? the;
she remembers a comment he'd made once about his sister and her brood. those were — the only kids she knew to live nearby. oh, no, oh;
mulherin, she whimpers, pleading silently that he will look at her, that she could snap him out of whatever plagued his psyche. tell me what happened. i can help.

liar.

he snaps, almost automatically.

she had to have known where her cohort had gone.

she 

knew

but lucky for her, his head is roaring. he doesn’t have the time for this. or the energy.

and who was he? I’m a goddamn redtail.

her sentiments do nothing to phase him. she’s lying, he’s sure of it.

stay the fuck away from my family. he adds in finality, regarding her with a lift of his lip before turning away.

he is too miserable to muster the energy for a look of surprise at seeing dinah here.

he’d been so focused on dealing with the lesser madwoman that he hadn’t listened to a word she’d said.

addressing her now with a meager glance, he mumbles,

come on.

and trudges off, whether or not either chooses to follow.

He said the name as if it should mean anything to her. It didn't. Lilitu scoffed and shook her head.

Stay away from my family.

With pleasure, she shot back, and left the younger wolves to whatever business they had with each other.

She continued on, in a far more sour mood than she had been upon entering the grove.