drowning behind a glass wall

Somehow, Modesty managed to drag herself back up to the treehouse. Jael's scent was fresh in the home and her heart broke all over again. She moved quickly to the smaller woman, carefully checking over her injuries with a click of her tongue and a growl low in her throat. When would karma catch up with these bastards that demanded payment in blood for what? A dark storminess was roiling at the back of her mind, wheels already set in motion with her earlier delivery to the pack. Resolve was already hardening any soft edges that been allowed to remain, turning them to razors instead. If monsters were what they saw, then monsters they would become.

She curled gathered their store of healing supplies and wordlessly curled around Jael, protective and gentle as she set about the task at hand. She had to tell her too, she had to know, but there was a rock in the back of her throat, choking, drowning, leaving the leader shaking, breaths short, shallow, sharp. Sharp like her eyes. "Gil tried to give Ethne an out." He'd been vague about the how or why, "Ken... followed him. Saw him die. It was six wolves and a bear on one." Who could survive those odds? Not her, not Ken, not anyone. "Ken saw his father go limp, he did the smart thing for the first time in his life. He ran away." Why was the world blurry? It felt like the tree was quaking with the weight of her grief, or maybe that was just her own sobbing? There was still a job to do though, a pack to lead, a follower to heal. She couldn't come apart. Not now, not ever. She had to get it together.

"speech"