The deer did not respond right away. She did not speak and only watched, serving only to feed the wolves delusion that she was plotting. Any hesitation, unsureness, it all pointed to something and that something was that this, all of this was part of a bigger plot that would end with Aleera on the ground. Was her fear based in the unknown? Did she really fear dying so much that it drove her to such lengths? It was a possibility. Yet there was so much wrong in Aleera’s life, so much she had been forced to endure that pinpointing a specific thing or instance would be hard. All of her encounters colored these thoughts and fueled her drive to survive no matter the cost. When the doe spoke up she revealed what she wanted, and though it was truth to her, it was another lie to Aleera.

”No you don’t!” The pup snarled savagely. ”You’re a liar. You’re all, liars!” Undaunted the nameless one continued, speaking so softy, so gently, that Aleera wanted nothing more than rip her throat out. To keep her from talking, to keep her from saying anything else ever again. ”She is against you. They are all against you.” Then the the doe said something that threw Aleera into a rage. "That can be arranged!" The pup screamed, to far gone to be able to properly cast a spell at this point all that was left to end this madness was to destroy the target who made her this way. Cast away the object of her fears and hatred. Paws thrusted her forward, jaws with baby teeth wide open, looking for anything to snap down upon. It didn't matter where or how, all that mattered was getting this nameless deer out of her way. Out of her life. Out of her head.

She kept still, fear rising in her throat, as Aleera raged and lost it, hating her, snarling at her. Her eye widened, her heartbeat was frantic in her chest, and her body stiffened of its own accord, urging her to run, run, but out of sheer will she stayed in exactly the same spot, keeping her head on the ground. She said she would put herself in harm's way to prove herself, and that's what she would do!

She closed her eye, preparing for the worst when the wolf came charging at her, their teeth snapping. She was blinded before, she had fallen down before, she knew vaguely what pain was -

But when the wolf clamped its teeth down on the back of her neck, it hurt, it hurt, it HURT, IT HURT oh for the caves she'd never felt such pain before, and it was all she could do to keep herself from screaming, the silent cries of pain dying in her open mouth, tears springing to her eyes, why was this so painful, she could feel her flesh ripping in ragged tear marks as the wolf pulled away. Her blood ran free over the back of her neck and down it, and from somewhere, something whimpered, a strangled sound. Her mouth was open wide, and she shook all over, tears and blood running free down her fur.

With her eye open wide, staring at nothing, she stayed still. She would prove herself to the king, she would. She wanted to say that she wasn't a liar, but she shook so much she couldn't speak.

"This is how I speak."

Flesh tore beneath her fangs. It tore but only so little. Aleera’s teeth were still largely milk fangs, only recently began to fall out in exchange for her adult incisors. Regardless, the taste of blood of another gembound fell upon her tongue for the first time…and she hated it. Rage had her latch on but an extreme since of remorse ran over her the second she felt the deer cease under her grasp. It lasted but a moment but to the nameless one it must have felt like an eternity, between Aleera ripping her open and the wolf backing off suddenly. Teeth marks ringed around the alabaster creatures neck. They did not go very deep, just deep enough to break the skin and release droplets of blood down the sides of her neck, staining her fur. ”You are the monster.” Aleera drew back in another flinch, eyes unable to come off what she had just done. It was easy to be the monster when she hadn’t caused harm, it was easy to be the monster when she was the target…but this made her more than a monster. She was a devil. Aleera hadn’t wanted to hurt the deer…She just wanted to make her be quiet. Just be quiet!

”You…You shouldn’t have-” ”But you liked it my Queen. You liked it.” ”No I didn’t!” Aleera screamed suddenly, backing away from the deer and shaking her head uncontrollably. When Aleera was finally able to regain control of herself, if only momentary she peered upon the deer who had said she’d prove she wasn’t a liar. Blood laced maw opened, slowly, but the words were to strangled to come out. Several tries yielded nothing. ”Beg.” The wolf flinched and took another step away. ”You should have run. Run. It’s your fault.” What had she done? The very thing she was forced to do by paranoia and voices. Aleera was not an evil creature, just a child unable to cope with the world and her own failings. She wanted to be stronger and knew this wasn’t the way, but she’d done it anyhow. She was weak and she knew it. ”Run.”

She looked up at the wolf, shaking, her thoughts scattered. She wanted to lash out, blind the wolf with her light so this wouldn't happen again, she wanted to run and never look back, but she took these feeling with a desperate grip and shoved them back into the instinctual hole where they belonged; they were wrong, and she could conquer them.

She listened to Aleera fight with themselves, and her gut twisted inside. They were hurt more than she thought - did they have wisps too? Wisps that told her dark stories, that wanted her to make everything take a painful turn? She was lucky that she only heard them when she settled down for a story, and she knew how hard it was to turn a deaf ear to them.

Slowly, she got up, her legs faltering beneath her and threatening to give out - was this shock? Her neck hurt so much - and she took a few careful steps towards Aleera, seeing the fear and the urge to attack again in the wolf's body language, lifted her head, and kissed the wolf's forehead, with a whispered, "It's okay, I forgive you," into their fur. With that, she turned away, and started to leave the room.

With still scattered thoughts, with trembling legs and broken nerves, she said, maybe to herself, maybe to Aleera, "Don't listen to them, the voices. They are mean."

[Exit Clover]

"This is how I speak."

What was food to one was to others bitter poison. What the nameless deer thought might help the wolf did nothing but worsen the situation. Forcing her to inflict pain upon her when the best course of action would have been to simply leave the child be. Anything as aggressive as Aleera was was better off on their own. Why couldn’t that stupid deer see that!? And now look what shad done. She drew blood. She hurt them when they didn’t deserve it. The part of her that knew this was wrong, that her behavior was wrong was drawn out and eclipsed her paranoid delusion that this innocent creature wanted to harm her. In the few moments that followed panic and disbelief silenced the sounds and froze her to that spot like ice on a winters day.

With a bit of trouble the deer rose but Aleera could not force her limbs to move. She wanted to say she was sorry. She wanted to run from this shame, but she couldn’t. At war with herself was a mild way of putting it. Her illness dead locked with her morals, her sense of right and wrong and if neither could give in then she could go no where. Instead of turning and running as the wolf had told her to do the white deer ambled her way over, closing the distance between the two of them and Aleera closed her eyes in expectance of retaliation for her action. She would deserve it too. But what came was a gentle kiss upon her head and the whisper of forgiveness that served only to make the pup flinch in disbelief. With that, the nameless one departed with the mutter of something she could not quite make out. By the time the deer was gone Aleera found the words much to late. ”I’m sorry.”

For a long time the onyx wolf remained. Locked into that frightened position until strength gave way and she fell upon the ground in a crumpled heap. ”You will live. Live. Live my Queen.” ”Shut up.” Aleera muttered, closing her eyes for a moment before she attempted to rise, finding she could finally control her body. The pup scampered away, finding the shadows of a far off corner and attempting to rest.

Aleera Exists