Brightwood — [AW] seeing all the vultures circling

"speech" | "thoughts" Huge teal eyes looked up and stared at the tree that was before her. Its bark was smooth and a crispy white hue that seemed to almost glow beneath the silvery moonlight. The leaves that sat upon its branches were such beautiful hues of yellows and oranges that one could almost liken it to luscious golden honey. To most, it was just another tree within this forest, but to the young little Isara, this was something magnificent. She knew not what to call it, but kept trying to rack her mind for a description and name that she could glean from the stories and information that her mother had shared with her. ”Mother…” The little pup’s eyes looked down as she remembered her mother. Her mother was the only being that she trusted in this world. Her mother was the only family that she knew. And yet, her mother was no longer here. All because of her. Tears welled in her eyes as she mourned the loss of her mother. And yet, she felt guilty for mourning her mother. Her mother only died because she couldn’t keep up and because she hesitated to leave the cave. It was her fault. Her mother would have been here now if it weren’t for her. ”My fault…” She thought to herself right before she began to walk away slowly. She was so caught up in her grief that she at first missed the soft splashes in the distance caused by another. It wasn’t until the splashing became louder and more frequent that it began to garner her attention. She was about to look in the direction it came from when she heard a distinct cough. Her ears instinctively fell to her skull and her body lowered to the ground out of fear. Had they found her? Was she in danger? Her eyes began to fill with fear and panic as she desperately tried to find a place to hide. Unfortunately for Isara, the closest place to hide was closer to where the sound came from, but as soon as she heard the word wolf, she made her best dash for it. As hurriedly as she could manage, her frame moved over to a bush capable of hiding her entire frame. However, after a few steps, she stepped upon one of her wings and the ground swiftly met her head during all of this though her legs never seemed to stop running. It was almost as if her little body was possessed to get to what many know as a bush. Breaths quickly became short and ragged and poor Isara’s heart was pounding so hard within her chest that she could have sworn it was about to leap out of her body. ”No…I won’t…I can’t!” Memories of her life within the confines of a cave flooded her mind. Ever since she had been born she had been subjected to hearing the screams of others ricochet off the walls nightly. They were why her mother had told her stories. It was all an attempt to get her to forget and ignore what was going on and forget the unfortunate reality of their predicament. It never truly worked however for it was impossible to forget. And she would never forget. She didn’t want to and yet she also did. It was a weird contradiction but deep down the young girl didn’t want to forget her roots…didn’t want to turn into one of the ones who tortured and killed her mother and the other adults. And yet, she also wanted to forget so she could one day live without fear. But would she ever get that chance? ‘Are you hurt?’ The voice of the other rang out. Teal eyes peered from within the bush as she stared at the form that was near the water. They didn’t look like one of those that kept her mother and her captive within the cave…but she couldn’t be too certain. It was best to think that everybody was one of them until proven otherwise. She remained within the bush…hoping…praying that this wasn’t one of them and if they were then they hadn’t seen her hide in this bush - even though the chances for that were quite slim.