Blacktail Deer Plateau Take these broken wings and learn to fly

For my fellow patient, @Finley! Others are welcome to pop in too. :)

Junior slept like the dead, thanks to some herbal remedies given to her by the Healer. The only reason she woke now was because her bladder was about to burst. Feeling groggy, achy and generally like she'd been stampeded by a herd of moose, Junior managed to drag her butt just outside the den's door to relieve herself. She then slumped back indoors, her hind feet and tail dangling from the entrance.

With every movement, she winced, favoring her raw and infected forelegs. As she oozed to the ground, Junior stretched them out before her. She was tempted to lick them but then she noticed they were covered in some sort of... paste. Besides, she didn't have the energy. Sighing, the juvenile rolled partially onto her left hip, too out of it to notice that the soft thing she bumped against was another wolf.

Fin had been awake when they'd brought the girl in, though she'd been too tired to do much more than scooch her sore body out of the way to give them room to lie her down. When she'd finally awoken, she'd peered over at her to glean what she could about her condition from simply looking upon her unconscious form. She was surprised to see that it was Junior, even more so to see the deep lacerations on her arms. It was the most unusual injury she'd ever seen... Like she had been attacked by a tiny bear whose only target had been Junior's legs. The idea that the child had done it to herself never even occurred to her, and so she entertained herself with visions of rabid raccoon attacks and squirrels using her leg as a chew toy.

Finley was just about to drift off again when Junior stirred and left the den to relieve herself. She thought nothing of it when the girl laid back down and rested against her. They were wolves, after all. They had been packmates once too, and they sort of were again now that they were both patients at Blue's new hospital, which Fin promptly named Plateau Heights in her head.

"Junior..." Fin said gently, hoping not to scare her (which was so not a Fin thing to do), "You feeling alright?"

When a feminine voice spoke, the drowsy Junior's eyes fluttered and she murmured, "I'm okay," perhaps nonsensically. She simply assumed it was Blue Willow, inquiring as to how she felt. "But feel... uck," she added, only for it to click in her head that it wasn't her aunt's voice. Her mismatched gaze sharpened and she looked over her bony shoulder, eyes darting to Finley's looming face.

"Oh." The youth rolled carefully from one hip to the other, curving her body toward Finley now. She managed to keep her forelegs relatively still, though the movement definitely pulled on the shredded skin, making her grimace. "I forgot you were here..." And how exactly did she feel toward Finley, who'd left the plateau to follow her father? Junior didn't even know.

Dryly, the youth observed, "My dad came to see you the other day. He didn't even stop to say 'hi' to me, though." Junior gazed down at the results of her father's avoidance, then felt a flush of humiliation. Did Finley know? Did they all know how she'd gotten these injuries? Worse yet, would they go after Peregrine and tell him?

Junior didn't know the answers to these questions, so all she could do was grit her teeth and softly hiss, "Fuck my life."

Junior's reaction to her was... perplexing, to say the least. But then again, Fin was feeling a little slow in the brain that day, so she brushed her confusion away and simply accepted it without question. She gave the girl an understanding nod, as it wasn't like she hadn't woken up on multiple occasions and wondered where she was or what had happened. Blue's medicines were effective, but they did have a dulling effect on her memory.

Junior's next comment was also perplexing, but this one, Fin did not brush off. Had Junior been the first of Peregrine's children to come and voice her concerns of their father to her, she may have been more accomodating towards her feelings. Saena had been the first however, and thus had been the one to be rewarded with Fin's (albeit quite faulty) brand of tact. Junior was less fortunate.

"Boy, that sounds rough," she replied tiredly, rolling onto her non-injured side and laying her head down onto the ground.

Junior wasn't directing the words at Finley, per se, and so did not expect any particular reaction. When Finley responded nonetheless, sounding a bit like she didn't give a shit about the juvenile's problems, Junior looked at her sharply. She felt a flare of hurt, then another of indignant anger as the she-wolf sprawled on the floor as if bored by the teenager's troubles.

"You don't have to be a bitch," Junior said archly. Don't you think I've been through enough? she wanted to say. She could shake her ruined legs in front of the woman's face... but that would be calling attention to the fact that her wounds were self-inflicted in response to her father's abandonment. So the youth said nothing else and instead tried to burn holes in Finley's face with her mismatched eyes.

Junior responded to her like the disgruntled teenager she was, and Fin heaved a sigh. She would have loved to simply ignore the girl and go back to napping, but it was quite clear in her mind that this was Peregrine's daughter, and her alpha probably would not have been too thrilled if his beta was rude to her. Even though he had been a heartless dick to all of his kids, apparently.

So, she raised her head to cast a glance to the girl. "I'm just saying... Look at you; at us," she replied, "We have other 'fuck your life' things to dwell on, don't you think?" Fin hadn't spoken to her father in well over a year, so in her mind at least, being mauled by a bear was far more concerning. It stood to reason that whatever mutant badger had tried to eat Junior's leg should have been the bigger issue to her than Peregrine returning to his pack instead of hunting his kid down to see if she'd been being a good girl and to say daddy loves you, muffin.

She expected some sort of admonishment or retort from Finley and her face puckered in preparation for it. Finley surprised her somewhat by pointing out that they had bigger issues to deal with right now. The youth winced inwardly, then held her breath. Finley didn't ask what had happened to her, so she let it out in a low whoosh. Naturally, she didn't question the other female's injuries, either, certain that Finley would make inquiries of her own.

"I'd gladly suffer a thousand cuts rather than go through the pain of being dropped by both my parents," the sleepy sourpuss grumped. "You obviously don't know that sort of pain if you think your wounds are somehow worse. Emotional pain is a much bigger bitch than some temporary physical discomfort."

Fin listened quietly as Junior said her piece. She sounded like a cliche emo song, but she knew what it was like to feel that way. She had been young once, and she too had been deeply hurt by someone. Never her parents, of course. But the abandonment of their children was rather commonplace in the family she'd grown up in. Of course, they'd love every one of their children, but Fin was not of the first or last of the Blackthorn generations to be pushed aside to make room for new life. So, she supposed she was familiar with that as well, although to her it was nothing so traumatic as what Junior described.

"You," Fin started slowly, with a small, knowing smile, "Have never been in love, huh?" She shifted her weight so that she was fully upon her stomach again, her tail wrapping around her haunches as she settled in for the conversation. The silver mockingbird knew heartache, she knew it very well. And she also knew that there was nothing that compared with the indescribable agony of love. Yes, she knew well that physical hurts were far lass awful. Maybe that was why she experienced them so often, if only because in the doing she avoided that more severe pain.

Finley's question was met with a look of disbelief. While Dante immediately came to mind, Junior would never claim she was in love with him. She considered herself too young for such things and she knew most adults would heartily agree. Was Finley's question meant to be rhetorical then? There was no way she could be serious.

Suddenly, Junior remembered something. "Are you talking about Finn?" she guessed. He'd never given the youth Finley's name but they looked alike and she'd gone to the caldera, so it wasn't too difficult to connect the dots. "Wait, do you love him? Why'd you go with my dad then?" Of course, she was jumping to conclusions but wasn't that her prerogative as a teenager?

Fin froze when Junior suddenly said the most unexpected thing she possibly could have--Finn. She stared wide-eyed at the youth, her face empty of emotion, or of anything that might suggest there even was a brain stored up inside of her skull. She was shocked to her core, and suddenly quite terrified. First of all because Junior was apparently a fucking genie or something, and secondly... Why. Why were they talking about Finn? Didn't she know that was strictly forbidden? By her desire for emotional stability?

"I.. wha..." she stammered before suddenly taking an accusing tone, "You're the... love Finn..." Aaaand with that, she decided to stop talking altogether.

The question seemed to utterly disarm Finley, who began to stammer in response. If she hadn't been in so much pain, Junior might have smirked. Unless she had deduced wrongly—and she really didn't think she had, based on the clues from her conversation with Finn—this was the she-wolf whose disappearance had sent him into despair. It seemed the feeling might be mutual, based on Finley's initial reaction.

She almost blurted that Finn was, without a doubt, pining for her, but Junior was at least somewhat loyal to her pack mates, even those she didn't know well. And why should she go blabbing about Finn's personal business? Oh, it was a burning temptation, certainly. But the juvenile pressed her chapped lips together, refusing to say anymore on the subject. Her eyes danced mischievously, however, where her mouth failed to betray any emotion.

"Cat got your tongue?" she asked lightly after enjoying her fellow patient's discomfort for a moment.

Fin completely missed the mischief in Junior's eyes, too focused was she on trying to calm the onsetting heart attack. She took a deep breath and held it for a few seconds before releasing, only then turning back to Junior as the girl teased her. "Something like that," she muttered with a frown, lowering her head to the ground. Staying awake was super hard, and it was yet another very strange thing for the fiesty Blackthorn to be dealing with.

"He's just a good friend," Fin said after a moment, "I wanted to go, he wanted to stay. Simple as that." Even as she said it, she didn't believe her own words. She bit her lip as she gazed blankly out the mouth of the den, knowing somewhere out there he was wandering around. So near, and so far.

<3

Although Junior could see that Finley probably wanted to end the conversation and get some sleep, she pressed, "So does that mean you don't like him? Because if you do, you should really talk to him." There, she had dropped a hint—a rather large one—without actually telling Finn's secrets behind his back. She looked a little smug.

Finley wasn't the only tired one, so the teenager left it at that and let her chin sink to the floor, lying next to her wrecked forelegs. This up close and personal, they really looked wretched. They smelled too. Junior wrinkled her nose and forced her eyes shut, pretending to sleep until the real thing took over, which didn't take long.

<3<3

Fin continued to stare out the door until a long while after Junior had lowered her head to the floor. She glanced over at the girl, pondering her words, and also pondering that fact that it seemed that she was now the sullen teen, stupidly heartsick over some boy.

The Blackthorn released a frustrated sigh and turned away from both Junior and the den's opening. She shut her eyes, but suddenly was swept up by a feeling of helplessness, for she knew that even sleeping would be no escape for her. He'd invaded her waking mind and her dreams. But, with little choice in other activities, she allowed herself to drift anyway.