Please recognize I'm trying, babe

Lior tucked her chin and stared down at the raven. It was staring at her. Creepily. With a squawk the bird opened it's beak and called up to the she wolf in words she did not understand. She continued on away from the fallen log. In her previous years she would've taken the time to collect herbs for Donostrea, would've taught her nieces and nephews all about healing and describe at how noble of a craft it was despite the fact that she was terrible at it. If anything she knew that what moss, dirt, trillium and aloe did and that was all well and good but her education in the arts hadn't exactly been the most informed. A lot of guesswork had been undertaken as a rogue. Even more on the shores of a now dead pack as a reliable teacher was nowhere to be found. Lior could at least remember a few good times before she had departed from the pack to head up north, the diagnosis that her sister Anais was pregnant was by far the high point and it all had gone downhill from there.

Paws mucked through the slushy marsh. Torn ears listened to the hundreds of birds calling throughout the estuary. Her scruff began to tingle as the female stepped around a partially submerged log as thoughts turned to reminding herself the being by herself wasn't such a good idea. Not after last time. Lior closed her eyes and willed the sensation of hot breath on the back of her neck to go away along with the feeling of a dark pelt mingling through the fur of her back day after day after.

Lior opened her eyes and let out a slow breath through her nose. Once. Twice. Clearing her mind of that trip up north more than a year ago. That good willed venture had been a very bad idea to say the least. A dark dog. A very dark dog had gotten himself a nice plaything, a far stupider woman in his clutches and for months did as he willed with her until one day she was given a chance to leave. What had emerged from the cave to return to her home in the south was a broken she-wolf. Lior lashed her tail as she stepped onto the banks of the center island and reminded herself as she did each day that it was over. Her family had taken care of her. Physical abuse and rape had changed her. But her family's love had also been a blessing after the ordeal. The physical damage would never be undone but Lior didn't care. Her mind had gathered itself up again to try the world and it's trials with a far more cautious and optimistic step. Thoughts were interrupted as she rounded the lone tree on the island and drew to a halt to stare at the other wolf that had been tucked away.

She was not alone.