oh the misery

'I can.'

Well, that was all she needed to hear. She'd already dropped her gaze and leaned her weight forward to get moving before he'd said anything else, the girl clearly done with talking and eager to get going on this new trajectory in life. The sooner they got there, the sooner she could heal, then the sooner she could begin training. Dimly she heard him mention it wouldn't be easy, prompting just an internal scoff with a dismissive ear flick - neither had her life up to this point. She could take it.

His question about her ability to walk was something that garnered a little bit more of her attention, for she... wasn't quite sure herself. She looked down to the paw and tenderly lowered it to the ground, where another jolt of pain shot up her leg, seemingly made worse by having not experienced it in a hot second.

Yet, she stifled the wince and committed to keeping it on the ground as she hobbled forward a step. Then another, one a bit more graceful than the first, as she adjusted and got used to the feeling. By the third, her gate was smoother and the injury far less noticeable, be it because it really had improved or she had improved in concealing it. Either way, though it didn't feel great, she could certainly manage a walk if the pack was close, and wanted to prove as much as she silently raised her head high and nodded sternly.


"Speech."