my bleating heart

Aryn had been wandering the forest, trying to get up the courage to collect some herbs or track a scent or something that she could use to prove to herself that she was not a useless coward. Lirim needed healers and hunters, her father had said. Two roles that Aryn did not feel she fit into in the slightest. Finding some pretty flowers to bring home didn't sound difficult, but what if they were used on someone who was injured and because of it, Aryn became an unwilling murderess? She could not stand the possibility of hurting anybody, and that unfortunately that fact fed into her inability to bring home a small helpless animal to be eaten. A string of carrots hung around her shoulders, the vegetables being meant to bait an unfortunate fluffy bunny though more than likely, Aryn would eat them herself simply to have a reason to give up and go home.

Loud, terrifying, 'i'm-being-cut-up-and-eaten' cries reached the yearling's ears and it felt as if her paws were suddenly cemented to the forest floor. Something was dying, Aryn was sure of it. The part of her that desperately wanted to help others battled with the part that absolutely did not want to interrupt a kill-in-progress, and Aryn had to force her lip to stop it's trembling. If Torin could see her now he'd be so disappointed, she was sure. Perhaps it was only to please her father that the yearling found a way to force herself forward towards the terrible, terrible sound.

The screaming only got louder and louder, and Aryn's ears plastered against her skull as she ran to try and block out the sound of a poor creature taking it's last breaths. It wasn't until the unlikely pair came into view that the yearling slowed, and she realized what was happening.

"The poor thing is terrified!" Aryn announced herself with a pointed glare towards the boy, her fearful posturing instantly flooding away as she brought herself towards the two. "There there, it's okay I won't let him hurt you." She frowned at the goat, her lips breaking apart in a soft 'tsk'. Aryn reached over her shoulder to tear off one of her rabbit-bait carrots, offering it to the creature with her paw so it did not have to get close to her teeth.