Vesper was meant for fighting, for scuffling in the woods with another mangy loner over prey or barbed words, for fending off an intruder along her borders, for besting a rookie in a sparring match without a tuft of fur disturbed.
She was not meant for war, she realized belatedly. The clash of fangs and steel and bodies all around her was overwhelming. From the moment the wrathful kings led them into the camp, her heart pounded, her head swiveled constantly to make up for her missing ear, and her paw pads became slick with sweat. She had the understanding that she was afraid, if only for the comrades she could hear yipping and yelping at the edges of her hearing. Not all the blood spilled today would be lupine.
For once, she stayed on the edges of the battle. Her bow was drawn, an arrow sent into the rump of a horse, which threw its rider. She only had two arrows left; many had found a place among the branches of trees or embedded in sacks of supplies. She conserved those arrows for a while, waiting for the right time, and at last managed to get one of the wolves in the shoulder. He whirled and snarled, breaking off the arrow, but some luperci on their side she didn’t know interfered before he could find the archer.
Breathing heavily, Vesper flattened her ear and groped for her last arrow, only to realize it was not there. Blue eyes narrowed, and she wondered if she could linger on the very edges of the camp long enough to shift. It took her a horribly long time to even transform into her halfling shape, though; her training in optime would have to suffice for now. Cursing her lack of preparation, she thrust the bow into the crook of a tree and looked for a target.
She found her sister.
“Shit, Sparrow,” she cursed in a hiss, wondering when the hell her weak sibling had snuck into the fight. But there was no time for anger. Her feet pounded the soil as she rushed toward the wolf standing over the tiny coyote, her ear flat and her eyes slits. Lips wrinkled back in a silent snarl as she saw him raise a foot to kick her in the ribs.
He never got the chance. She leaped, taking advantage of his offset balance, and the pair went crashing to the earth. Her claws raked down his shoulders, leaving blood, but he was stronger than her and quickly threw an elbow back to knock her down. She stood between the wolf and her sister, snarling dangerously, but he only growled back and lunged.
She threw her arm up to defend herself, reaching with her other hand to dig her claws into him once more, but his jaws tightened on the limb, and she shrieked.
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