[mature] if you are a queen then, honey, I am a wolf; sinner

[sochi]

Sochi

darling, you're wild-eyed, empty, and tongue-tied
maybe you need me or maybe you don't

Sochi did not expect to be the one stolen away, and she finds no joy in the sentence.

She is still unsure about her youngest boy and where he has been; she still does not know the full extent of the war’s damage in Loess or their next move. She has barely recovered from her fight with the mysterious panther who smelled of Tephra but did not seem overly attached to it. The scars still sit pink and fresh on her coat, puckered flesh and the way it looks like it could easily tear at the seams.

But she does not fear the autumn forest.

And she does not fear its hellhound leader.

The man who would call himself king.

So she slips from Loess, ignoring the knots in her stomach when she thinks of her lost son, and makes her way to the neighboring territory. She slips into her feline form, feeling the earth as it moves between her paws and shakes the dust from her coat. She is not subtle when she is liking this, but she feels the most like herself, her silver eyes bleeding into orange, her vibrant coat nearly matching the leaves of the trees.

When she gets to the border, she curls her lip in disgust and then sits on the edge of it.

She did not directly disobey, but she certainly had no intention of waltzing her way into the center of the kingdom for him to find her. Instead, she lifts a paw and begins to clean herself idly, her thick tail twitching behind her and her ear gently twitching as she listens to the sounds fo those around her.

If she is anything but languid in this moment, anything but alert, it does not show.

If she feels anything but mild annoyance at her circumstances, she says nothing.

playing the slow rooms, howling at half moons
if you are a Queen then, honey, I am a wolf

@[Sinner]