trees make the worst frenemies, they’re too good at throwing shade

She had been convinced her mother didn’t have a clue where she was taking them from the moment they stepped into these shifty woods and her eyes narrowed as the other woman wiped away her worry with a disingenuous smile, as if this had been her plan all along! Deluge couldn’t contain her snort of derision, her eyes rolling as her cat claws flexed in the musty earth beneath her toes. Now she had the gall to make the kids drag her out of her mess? How typical.

But, this did present a tantilising opportunity to rub her god given gifts in her mother’s face. The very gifts that seemed to make her mother hate her more than any of the others. She even made a point of reaching up and raking her nails down one of the trunks, throwing a sidelong glance over her shoulder in the process. Just checking for rot, after all, when one weighed as much as Deluge did, you could never be too careful. "I’ll see if I can see anything up here," she threw to the other youngsters before pulling herself up to the first branch with a flick of her stubby tail. Even so, the canopy seemed so thick up here.

"Speech"