Stone Circle I know I cannot heal the hurt

@Greyback

Arlette kept to herself, a mere shadow of she was before. The happy and go-lucky side of the girl had been really scared away from her personality. She had luckily found a friend in Oryx and that new guy Kincaid seemed friendly enough as well. The ones she said away from the most was her mother, which also made stay away from the newborn pups. Sia was usually with her mother as well, same for Greyback, so that left her a little isolated from her family members. She just kept to herself, continuing the study of plants as much as she could do that by herself.

The girl sat by the stream, watching what grew around the banks. She crisscrossed through the stream until she nosed over a puddle. Her reflection stared back at her. She jumped back, before returning to look. Wounds were closing up and scarring over. She never was really confident before but having all this scarring made her even more insecure about how she looked. She turned away from the puddle. Confronted with the fact that she would always carry physical marks from that one mistake. Disobeying only once and it had marked her. Tears welled up in her eyes.

He had found Arlette unknowingly, her small frame slumped across the banks of the river, only appearing to be staring deeply within it's depth. He hadn't seen her since the aftermath of the attack, only heard of her status from the whispers of the others.

Wounds. Scars.

Clearing his throat rather loudly, enough to alert her of his presence, the patriarch stepped down towards the bank with his head low. A smile gracing his lips that caused the edges of his muzzle and scar to crinkle. He had perhaps greyed more since she last saw him, whiter in the face and neck lower due to the aching of his bones. "Arlette, what are you doing, dear?"

Arlette looked up when she heard someone approach, by the heaviness of them she could assume who it was. It was confirmed when she heard that familiar scrape of his throat. The girl blinked away her tears and turned her face away. Showing her good side compared to her scarred side. "Nothing," she returned in a whisper, eyes casted away from the man.

As she was not looking at him she missed how he had aged and changed. She could only see him hovering over her and Kaito that day when she told them what happened. How he said how disappointed he was with her. How one mistake had her parents, especially her mother, act so horribly to her until that cougar attack. Now she was pitied on and she wasn't sure how to act or behave around Greyback. Was he still disappointed with her?

He could tell by the muffled sounds of sobs and sniffles that Arlette had, in fact, been crying recently. Instantly, the man's heart fell at such a scene. He did not wish for his daughter to cry, to be sad and burdened with the heavyness of the world. "Arlette..." he called, voice soft and filled with worry,

Stepping close, he decended upon her with a slow gate before attempting to touch his nose to her cheek. "Why are you crying, my dove?" He wanted to ask her to stop, that it didn't suit her looks—but it was evident by the recent addition of scars on her fur that perhaps looks were a touchy topic.

Sitting beside her, he let out a yawn before plopping down, continuing to look at her with a questionable gaze.

Arlette shied away from his touch when he came closer. She dipped her head submissively though, as she didn't' want to offend him. She just didn't want him close, to see those scars up close. Her red eyes were battered at him, almost questioningly. She didn't understand why he would ask her why she was crying, it was pretty obvious to her that she had little to be smiling about. In fact, the female hadn't smiled since the attack.

"My life hasn't been so great lately," she commented to him, softly and turned her eyes away. They returned to him when the male lied down. She noticed how old the male looked compared to months ago. But the yawn, perhaps unintentional from the elder, made her feel like he wasn't even that interested in her. Arlette's mind just assumed her father was still disappointed with her. Tears welled up again, but she tried to force them down.

Her watery eyes filled with a bit of anger. She didn't need him or his approval. She figured that Greyback and his old way of thinking would probably think that she deserved this as punishment for her disobedience. She turned her eyes away from him. "I don't know what you want from me," she spoke then. Because if he expected her to smile and be happy, that was at the bottom of her list at the moment.

Arlette turned from him with baited breath and the flutter of her lashes, a movement so well tuned to sorrow that his heart clenched from distraught. "My dove," he began, voice soft as possible in an attempt to get the girl to look at him.

"My dove," he repeated, moving a paw over to lightly touch her front leg. "I don't think it has either, but please look at me." The man was sympathetic towards his daughter, her scarred face and distressed fur was hard to miss and while he may have known the reason he preferred for Arlette to tell him herself.

"I want you to happy, to be strong and get trough this— you are an apaata, a daughter of your mother." Valette was always fierce and strong willed, a true fighter, and some part of Greyback hoped it had traveled to her daughter.

Arlette disliked that word. She didn't feel like a dove. She was rather like a plucked pigeon. He touched her front leg but she refused to look at him wanting to shield that side of her face away from him. But when he commanded her to look, she did, after all he was the patriarch and his voice had a way of commanding. Her teared up red eyes looked up at him. The scarring bold and angry, especially now they were still so fresh.

Her eyes angered when he started about wanting her to be happy and more like her mother. She bared her teeth. "I don't want to be anything like my mother," she growled and looked away again. Plus she wasn't sure if she was ever going to be happy again. All that gave her joy was taken from her. There was only one thing she liked, medicine, since that reminded her of Kaito. He wouldn't want her to stop healing others. Plus, she was making friends with Oryx which was nice. But happy was a big word. She wasn't even content with her life yet. So happy was just too much of a big step.