big heckin' yikes!

Tomie liked the early morning, not because it wasn't dangerous but because she usually got to be alone during it. The sun was visible from so high up even this early and though it's rays hadn't yet warmed the stone she enjoyed getting to watch it without having to be around... Everyone else. She was maybe being a bit unfair, the other wolves hadn't been the ones to put her in this position but she resented that even children had been given more grace than she or her family had, after everything. Voodoo could have taken her family anywhere, could have decided to say fuck you to the black man but she hadn't, she'd chosen to be the bigger wolf. And, as far as Tomie was aware, still was considering the way the black man had chosen to respond. By making them less than. They'd done nothing at all to deserve this, and him tossing another child, a literal child in with them had only made her opinion of the man worse. He'd fought Tomie's mother, ripped at her, bit her and made the woman walk away to nurse her wounds and still been given more grace than he deserved by Voodoo. He sucked, and Tomie didn't want to be around anyone who chose to be around a man this fucking petty. Kettle meet pot. Tomie would admit, if pressed on it, that she too was being petty. But in her opinion her petty was justified because his wasn't.

So maybe it was better for everyone if she tried her best to stay away from the others and just kept to herself, did what was asked of her when she was asked and otherwise give the other wolves the exact same treatment she'd been given. It wasn't fair, but it did feel like a sort of justice. She was only here to protect her mother and sister, nothing more, and owed the pack nothing as far as she was concerned. The young Klein woman watched the first grey dregs of light drag themselves up the mountain. Soon enough the pack would probably be rousing. Tomie rose to her paws, stretching and trying to get feeling in her freezing toes. That was the biggest drawback to being out so early, the chill was stronger. Especially this morning, the last hints of a snow storm still blowing through the air. Once she was satisfied she'd gotten the blood flowing through her limbs properly again the young woman turned towards the downward slope of the stone path, ready to go hide herself away off the mountain.

And she would have too, if a voice hadn't pierced the silence, a scream. Unease rolling over her. There was a child like quality to the noise, and despite herself, despite all her bluster and her bitterness and her resentment... Tomie wasn't sure she could ignore the scream of a child. With a sigh she turned towards the sound and began a careful lope up the mountain path. She'd been close it seemed. Under an overhang, the shattered remains of an icle on the ground and a small, very small pup sitting on the stone with a nasty slice down her shoulder. Nasty, but luckily, unlikely to be too severe. Tomie sighed. She couldn't help it. The last thing she wanted was to find herself tangled up in a pack wolf mess but she also couldn't find it in her heart to turn her back on the child. Especially one clearly on the verge of tears. Damn.

"Hold still." No points for bedside manner. Tomie approached the girl, taking a quick moment to swipe up some of the snow that capped the edge of the path. It would have to do. Tomie hadn't exactly made a point of having supplies on hand. She sat in front of the girl and gently, well as gently as she could considering her massive size versus the girl's minuscule one, pushed some of the snow into the cut. "It'll be cold, and might sting." It was more a warning to keep the girl from screaming even more, even if her voice had a tiny hint of sympathy to it. "But it's the best I can do to clean the wound." She glanced at the big black ugly weasel thing, she assumed that was who the girl had been talking to. "I don't suppose you know what Yarrow and Lady's Slipper look like?" She was pretty sure she'd seen those growing around here. The Yarrow tending to bunch together lower down in the sunnier areas and the Lady's slipper was scarcely found in some of the shadier areas. It'd be just her luck to have to go and find them herself now that she was here but well, she'd gotten herself into this mess she wasn't going to have the kid reporting back to the black asshole that Tomie had abandoned her.

WC: 802 (1361/1500)

"Speech"