Silvershore

Chapter Seventeen

"...Most of her scars seem to have already healed." Kiara confirmed. "She's pretty tough..."

"Fawn, are you hurting anywhere?" Wood asked.

She shook her head.

"...How did you endure all that?" Stormjay asked.

"A...A lot of th-them...are from awhile ago..." Fawn responded shakily.

"I see..." Bright Moon flicked her tail. "Oh my god, you poor thing...look at all these scars."

"...D-Don't...p-please don't p-pity me..." Fawn requested. "I-I'm okay."

"Do you need anything?" Stormjay asked. "I bet you're hungry."

"M-Maybe...a little..." Fawn giggled nervously.

"I'll go get her something." Wood offered.

"Thank you, Wood." Kiara flicked her tail.

As Wood left the den, Bright Moon sighed. "Has he been good to you, Fawn?"

Fawn nodded.

"Good...I mean, he's kinda scary..." Bright Moon chuckled.

"I...don't think he's...that sc-scary." Fawn flattened her ears.

"W-Wait, Stormjay, did you ever, um, talk to Wood about...the thing?" Bright Moon whispered.

"...I should. I feel really bad about it..." He whispered back.

"Pfft, he deserved it..." Bright Moon snickered.

Stormjay knew in his heart she was wrong about that...he understood how Wood felt, in a way. After Fawn had been taken care of, he wanted to apologize to him.

Wood eventually arrived back to the shaman resources den with a plump squirrel in his jaws that he dropped in front of Fawn. "We, uh, have a lot of food right now... so don't hesitate to take anything else if you get hungry later."

Fawn nodded gratefully and began to eat the squirrel.

"Is she good to go, Kiara?" Wood asked.

"Seems like it...I'm surprised we didn't have to treat her that much. Take good care of her, though. She needs it."

"Will do." Wood nodded.

She doesn't talk much, Stormjay thought. It's gonna take a lot of work to get her into shape...

"Oh, um...dad, can I talk to you outside for just a sec?" Stormjay flattened his ears.

"Oh, sure. Let's go." Wood pointed his muzzle towards the entrance of the shaman resources den and they walked out together, leaving the girls to look over Fawn one last time.

"What do you want to talk about?" Wood asked.

"I...just wanted to tell you that I'm sorry for the way I acted yesterday...I was really angry...b-but that doesn't excuse me for lashing out at you that way..."

"No need to apologize..." Wood flicked his tail. "It's alright...I'm not going to tell anyone about your mother...I trust her. She's going to stop seeing him."

"Yeah, she told me that, too..."

"Does Sky know?"

"Yeah...although I think the whole thing kinda went over her head. Things don't really seem to bother her."

"Ah, okay. Does anyone else know other than you two and Bright Moon?"

"We found out because we overheard mom telling Evelyn about it... but she's not here anymore." Stormjay sighed sadly. "And Bright Moon found out because we slipped up...I don't think anyone else knows. It's not the kind of thing she'd go telling everyone about...I think only Evelyn was supposed to know."