Blackfoot Forest and the things that i've loved are the things i have lost

sorry the wait, i lost my first reply and cbf to rewrite it lol

the milktea lady wasn't dithering off to inspect the "scary noises" as phaedra expected, to her frustration. she was in fact more interested in phaedra herself than the possible flying purple puppy eater rustling in the shrubbery, which was a giant miscarriage of intention on the child's part. she shouldn't have used the secret words; phaedra seldom interacted with grown-ups, much less strangers, and forgot they were supposed to be held close to her vest in a moment of alarm and finite options. 

when the woman glanced around, phaedra used the opportunity to quickly scan the treetops for any sign of cain, but he had grown quiet. 

when she turned back, she was being stared at by a man who appeared to have misplaced one of his eyeballs. she startled backwards; aerasha didn't seem to be troubled by his presence, but something about the spectral way he stared at her, how he had managed to approach without disrupting the foliage, prickled her intuition.

when the sleeveen talked, his voice trespassed on her sense of safety in a manner she'd never experienced in her life. his words were like hands reaching into her body through her gaping mouth, into places not allowed, like a black market trafficker palpating her soul for its ineluctable harvest. her eyes fixed on the pitted abysm from which she was sure ophidian creatures and nightmares crawled.

before she could eke any sort of response, aerasha was already in the midst of fielding his question. her former charade was shed like a python squirming from its dead, itchy skin, "no! not scared, never that," she corrected hastily, gulping her heart back into its proper chamber. phaedra emboldened herself and hoisted her breast up, macilent shoulders listing towards merrick. "my father does murder," she fabricated on the spur of the moment, mustering a casual air as best she could while also trying to speak unerringly, "he sends me ..." phaedra glanced at aerasha, then slid her eyes back to ursus' autarch as her heart fluttered like a canary trapped in a crate with a cat,

"he said i need to find eine flucht for somethin ..." she said the secret words like they were common ones, pushing her accent down and daring not allow herself the merest stutter, "either you know where i ... can find eine flucht? think a bush somewhere?" she looked between them, the tip of her plume beginning to switch, "he's expec'ing me back soon, so ..." she fought the urge to bite her lip.

her tongue cramped from the effort of speaking without her congenital impediment, but hidden under the sediment of uneasiness, there was a poppy seed of elation sprouting within her.