my friend's mom

She pushed herself as close against the border between the rapids and the thicket that her body could get. Already Poem was debating the best time to sneak over the border without her mother noticing and bring Motif along. Currently the girls had been playing there for most of the morning with.. what Poem really didn’t know. The cub kind of reminded her almost of a squirrel, but it didn’t want much to do with trees and it was much more stout. And kind of stinky, but that made things fun.

The girls didn’t know they were having a good ol’ time with a honey badger cub. Its own mother was out gathering food, and it was supposed to be holed away safely in the den. Much like Poem though, the little ball of spitfire had to push the boundaries and go out on its own. That was when it ran into Motif and Poem. Of course the girls had no intentions of harming the creature, it was a fun playmate. Despite how much smaller it was than she, it made a good little sparring partner. The lessons Poem learned in play with this little creature would go on to help the child when she as an adult and had to face quick little opponents.

Now even though the three of them were having the times of their lives that didn’t mean that the mother would believe that. The she badger noticed immediately her cub was no longer in safety and rushed to see it with two large wolf pups. Despite the innocent play and laughter all around the honey badger wasn’t having any of it. With one of the oddest battle roars Poem had ever heard the badger charged the girls.

Poem panicked, finding her feet and scuttling out of the way, running from the cub like it had just ignited. Her gaze grew wide, blue and lavender flashing as her claws dug into the earth. Her hackles bristled as she tried to keep her eyes on the most dangerous part, the angry honey badger mother. Who, blessedly, went first to check her cub. Who of course was fine, but that didn’t mean she was going to let Poem or Motif off easily. She turned around just as quickly as she had rushed to the cub’s side.

Poem felt the adrenaline start pumping through her veins as she searched for Motif. She couldn’t decide if it was better to stick together or to go alone to help confused the angry mom.


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