The way we walk

Daphne walked across the uneven ground leading to the falls. She was in that awkward stage of growth that would probably last a little bit longer for her than the others. Her ears and paws were too large for her body, her legs too long. It made her movements awkward, often leading to the suddenly gangly girl tripping over her own oversized feet if she wasn’t paying enough attention to her own rhythm. It wasn’t as much of a problem on the softer ground down by the hot springs, but up here where the ground was rockier... well...

It shouldn’t have been unexpected when her paw slipped off a slick rock, getting jammed between two stones and pulling awkwardly on her front left leg. A startled yelp left her jaws, quickly cut off with her own embarrassment. Her tongue was clenched between her teeth as she leaned back, carefully dislodging her leg from it’s temporary prison. The whole limb suddenly throbbed. The girl wouldn’t let herself whimper or whine though. Her mum’s would never cry over something so minor, she was sure. Tentatively, she tried to test her limb against a flatter patch of earth. Instinctively though, the leg curled up against her chest when the sharp pain shot from her paw right up into her shoulder. If she’d had some more exposure to bad words she might be tempted to use one now. As it was, the best she could matter was a lowly muttered “Sticks!” under her breath... at least, that was what she had thought she’d heard one of the bigger wolves use when things weren’t quite going to plan.

Daphne knew if she just sat down and howled, one of the grown ups would come and help her out. She wouldn’t even have to ask, they’d bundle her up and make it all better, but she wasn’t a tiny baby anymore, and one day, she thought she wanted to be able to help other people that were hurt too. What better place to start than on herself? She could already tell there was nothing outwardly indicating an injury, which meant (she hoped), that this wasn’t a fatal injury. She just had to figure out how to make it stop hurting.

The area around her ankle was beginning to feel hot underneath the throbbing, so the hot springs probably wouldn’t help, at least not yet... but the water at the falls was a lot colder, and she was almost there. Keeping her leg lifted off the ground, she awkwardly made her way on three legs, easily finding a new rhythm to get her where she needed to go. Her mother’s had warned her from the first time she left the den to stay away from the water, but she was bigger now, right? And besides, it wasn’t like she was just doing it to be naughty, it was medicine this time.

Still, guilt wracked her and she gave a furtive look over each shoulder to make sure the grown ups were out of sight as she made her way closer to on of the shallow pools at the bottom of the falls. Wrinkling her nose a little, it wasn’t as if she liked getting wet, and the days weren’t exactly warm at this time of year, she took a seat and tentatively lowered her injured limb into the water.

Initially the girl gave a gasp. It was so cold! She bit her tongue again, lowering herself down onto her chest to submerge her leg past the elbow. It was taking away some of the heat and throbbing already, but it was getting hard to keep the limb under the water without a new pain setting in, her toes aching with the iciness of it. Pushing back up to a sit, she removed her sodden limb from the icy water, daring to test it out against the sun warmed stone. It still hurt, but not nearly quite as much as it had when she had first pulled it. She eyed the pool with distaste, already deciding once the feeling was back in her toes that she would have to do the same again before she made her way back to the healers dens at the hot springs to see if they thought she would need anything else for the pain.

A rustling overhead made her think perhaps someone’s companion might be on their way to dob on her already, which meant her time was running out. She grit her teeth before plunging the limb into the water again, she might not beat whoever’s critter it was back to the grown ups, but she planned on being well and truely away from the water before they ran into her. Sure she was still a kid, but she wasn’t entirely hopeless.

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WC- 811