homecoming

Muffled, like her head was underwater, the pounding only increasing as she held her breath until stars danced across her vision. The words went unheard in her shock, in the panic that crested over her leaving limbs cold, numb and shaking, lungs starved of air. The step forward was met with a stumble backwards, claws scrambling on the floorboards beneath her paws. His mouth was moving but her ears weren't working, eyes blinking rapidly to try and grasp at reality once more. A dream, it was all a dream, wasn't it? Unreachable and intangible.

Lips peeled back from teeth in a threat if he continued his approach, but it was then she spotted movement over on the bed. She swung her body around to position herself between the phantom and the child, instinct overriding reason as her head lowered and ears pinned back alongside her antlers. Feline claws extended and her fur flashed in warning. She growled low and stepped forward, herding him towards the door, out into the light where this vision would dissipate in the wind.

"speech"