this city’s gonna break my heart

Her head throbbed and it was nobody’s fault really. It was just the nature of children to laugh and squeal when they were excited, truely, it was far better than screaming, or endless crying... but it split her melon head all the same. Not only that, but merely being around so many children made her anxious. There were too many to count and her memory was hardly good enough to recognise them all. The back of her throat was tight and nausea rolled in her stomach whenever she stopped for long enough to spot one. Theo had told her she seemed to be getting worse lately, when she had been doing so much better. So instead of running away to the delta to fish, or the cliffs to hunt, or to the mangroves to look for some obscure plant, she found herself on Resin’s trail, a heavy heart and a muddled head.

This time she wouldn’t just disappear.

Light spots danced in her eyes, behind her lids when she tried to close them against the brightness of the sun. Pain extended down into the bridge of her nose and across the front of her head, forcing her to stop for a moment with her eyes closed tight. The earth seemed to roil beneath her paws. Theos small fingers trying to ease the tension in her skull did little for her.

But maybe stopping worked in her favour, because the very wolf she was chasing seemed to grow closer, based on scent alone. She cracked an eye and saw movement, head dipping and ears turning back submissively, her tail thumped against the ground in greeting. "Sorry to bother you," there really was no time for idleness with so many depending on her, and it was a burden Percy was only grateful wasn’t her own. "but do you have a minute?" Her heart was in the back of her throat. It was now or never.

"Percy". "Theo".