Rascal

 The quiet evening splits open, torn by a single scream. 

 Rafferty doesn't wake so much as lurches - head and gaze darting to take in a wholly unfamiliar scene. “What the FUCK.”

Where is everyone? And why can't he see right - one side clear but the other shadowed, a jarring abyss. 

 He gets up and starts to run.

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Edith wasn’t sure why she’d return to Foxfire Woods—but that didn’t matter now that she was in the thick of it. She followed one of the many streams, hugging close to the shoreline as it weaved through the evergreens.

”What the FUCK,” a voice screamed, breaking the silence. Edith nearly jumped out of her fur, her coat sticking out every which way, as she turned towards the ruckus.

”YEAH!” she agreed, hollering at whoever had scared the shit out of her, ”WHAT THE FUCK IS RIGHT!”

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 He hears a shout on his left side but it isn't enough of a warning before he collides with something hard - no, someone. 

 The frantic yearling is sent sprawling. When he blinks, he still only sees half a world. Turning his head, he finally sees the other wolf. 

 “Who the hell are you?” He asks, not bothering to apologize for running her over.

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Rafferty barreled into Edith and sent them both tumbling in opposite directions. She recovered quickly and picked herself back up, her fur spiked and a growl bubbling in her throat. 

"Who the hell are you?” the stranger asked immediately and her blood began to boil. "Who the hell am I?" she echoed, her voice hitching as she glared at him, "Who the fuck are you?"

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 A torrent of frenetic energy rushes hot through his veins, roiling towards annoyance, towards rage. 

 This stranger, this girl, is nothing more than another obstacle. Rafferty's gaze narrows as he picks himself up and shakes out his leaf-littered coat. 

 “Get out of my way. I need to find my family.”

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"I'm not in your way," Edith shot back, "You've got the whole fuckin' forest to go through—go that way." She motioned in the direction he'd come from with her snout. "Just make sure you and your stupid broken eye steer clear of me."

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 “What?” The question's spat. 

 In the back of his mind something slots into place, a fact that has so far faced vehement denial. Something is wrong with his eye.

 He blinks again, desperate, then he starts pawing, clawing at his left side. “Work! Why won't you work! What happened to my eye??”

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Edith watched as Rafferty had a meltdown, feeling suddenly amused as watching his world fall apart.

"Maybe you were a dumbass," she suggested when he asked his eye what'd happened, "and somebody taught you a lesson that you needed to learn."

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 Someone needs to teach her a lesson. With his world quaking, he launches himself at the chocolate bitch. Fangs snap in a feral frenzy aiming for her scruff, her shoulder - anything. 

 He needs someone to share the pain.

---

you can decide if he hits or misses!

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Rafferty lunged and grabbed Edith's shoulder—that bastard! 

She felt the burning of his bite and the humiliation because of her lack of preparedness. More importantly: she saw red—this triumphed over everything else and consumed her. She retaliated with a growl, whipping towards him with snapping jaws with every intention to grab anything to get him off her. Although her pain increased tenfold as she moved, she tried to work through it; she couldn't let him win.

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sorry for the changing tense! i wanted to try out present but i decided to go back to my comfort zone <3 

---

 She curled in retaliation, snapping wicked and intent towards his blind side. Raf never saw her coming. His own grip on her shoulder loosened when he felt the searing sting of teeth on the side of his neck. 

 The pain brought with it a memory. Agony. Blood. He'd been fighting then too. 

 He let go of her, scrambling back, his neck bleeding from where her bite had punctured flesh. “Where are we? What is this place?”

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It seemed—to Edith at least—that Rafferty had given up. 

"You're in Foxfire Woods," she replied smugly once she had taken a step back and shaken out her coat. "Where do you think you are?" she asked next, eyeing him suspiciously.

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 Rafferty had never been lauded as an overly gifted or intelligent child. He was a multitude of mediocrities. But even he knew he wasn't usually this ignorant. “I don't know what that is.” He barked back, voice stoney and defensive. 

 “Nothing here is familiar.”

 Was that a good thing or a bad one?

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Edith snorted. 

"That sucks," she said unkindly, "Maybe you lost some of your brain when you lost that eye." She was aware that she was poking the bear, and she was enjoying this little game.

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 And there it was, too glaring to ignore, her words as callous as the ravaged scar tissue stretched across his face. 

 He'd make sure she hurt, too. 

 Rafferty's laugh was sharp and sudden. “Yeah, and while we're talking about lost things...” He looked at her, his one good eye burning. “Sucks about your heart, right?” He shrugged, boyishly. “But you can't find what you never had.”

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Edith physically recoiled—both delighted and surprised by his retort. 

"Having a heart can get you killed," she mused, smiling to herself, "But a brain is necessary for survival." She thought briefly about the Nightwalkers next door and how they'd rip him apart in the blink of an eye. Poor guy wouldn't have a chance. "My father leads a pack in the forest next-door—they call themselves the Nightwalkers. I'd advise that you and that hearts of yours avoid it at all costs." Edith liked Rafferty's bite—how it stung and resonated. She motioned in the general direction of Blackwood Reach with a paw. "It's the forest with mist and it smells like death."

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 “You know what else can get you killed, Princess?” He snapped back, addressing Ms. High and Mighty with her proper title seeing how her dad was apparently Asshole #1 around here. “Being a brat with a big fucking mouth.” 

 

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Edith grinned. "Well, you're right about one thing—" she mused, taking and step towards Rafferty while meeting his gaze, "I am a princess, and one day I will be a queen." She looked him up and down before starting into his eyes again. "There will be wolves who come after you if you fuck with me, and I will not hesitate to tell them to rip you to shreds."

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 As much as Raf yearned to call her bluff, there was a genuine trepidation that prickled along his spine. He was alone, half-blind, and lost. He didn't have the luxury of pissing the local warlord's daughter off any more than he already had. 

 He wanted to go home.

 “How much skill does it take to give an order?” He asked, half to himself because he'd already turned to go. Taking stock of all she'd said, Rafferty pivoted and began walking in the opposite direction, taking him deeper into the woods.

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