Dead Empress Backwater Rotten

Marguerite, you disturb a snake who is bathing in the water.

She'd originally come to get a drink herself but found the water to be already occupied. Marguerite loved finding new and interesting creatures out in the wild. This was her first time seeing a scale worm! But what was it doing, wriggling about in the water like that? "Cool" she told the thing, because she'd want someone to tell her if what she was doing looked cool. "Thirsty though, okay?" she grinned, sure that the little guy wouldn't mind if she helped herself to a little bit of the liquid. After all, there was plenty enough water here for the both of them. Or so she thought.

Dipping her tongue into the water, the poor child only got a sip or two before Mr. Snake decided well, no. We're not doing this. Before she could react, the once adorable little scale worm was now ferociously digging its little teeth into her tongue. Sometimes you don't see someone's true colors until its too late. Margo began frantically trying to fling the thing off of her. Ouch!

Clover had been out gathering herbs when she came upon Margo's scent, and decided that she would take the opportunity to spend at least a little while with her daughter before taking the bundle she had already gathered back to the medicinal den. Her desire to be a healer would always come second to her children, even if some days it did not seem like it when she busied herself with menial tasks.

She could hear some splashing up ahead and assumed Margo or one of the other children were playing in the water, but when she broke through the tree line and saw only Margo who seemed to be frantically shaking her head Clover was immediately on edge. "Margo?" She called out, dropping the bundle of herbs from her maw as she hurried towards her daughter. It was only when she had nearly reached Margo that Clover could spot the small snake that had attached itself to her tongue. Without too much thought she reached forward with a snap of her jaws to grab hold of the snake by its body, hoping that it would release its bite before any more harm was done to Margo.

Marguerite learned rather quickly that she did not appreciate the feeling of tiny teeth latched into her tongue, but the scale worm seemed not to notice. Or maybe he just didn't care. No matter which way she flung her head, the stubborn little thing insisted to stay put. Realistically it was likely that only a brief period of time had passed before mother came to the rescue, however to her, the moment felt like hours.

With mom's help, the scale worm had released it's evil jaws from her flesh in no time. Margo looked up at her mother with tears in her eyes. "Momma he hurt me cuz he didn't wanna share no water!" She couldn't believe the manners on that guy. His momma must not have raised him the way her momma raised her. She could taste strong iron in her mouth. Blood?

Viorel had been making his usual rounds, checking in with the members of the pack when he heard a commotion near the backwater they named the pack for. Hurrying his pace with the thought of the failed fishing lesson in the front of his mind. Pushing through some of the thicker foliage just in time to see Clover chomping at something attached to Margo’s tongue, he hesitated for only a second. What the hell was happening here?

Recognizing the object that had been removed from his daughter’s tongue as a now dead snake, the father could not help but feel guilty. Here he had been just a few weeks ago, showing off snake eggs and baby water snakes to his sons and now one had latched onto Margo. He should have gotten rid of the snake when he had the chance, and hunted down any others that might have been nearby.

Still, despite his guilt, Viorel was not one to coddle his children. Stepping forward he pressed his dark shoulder against Clover’s and murmured, ”What are the odds of that making her sick like the turtle did to Vayko?” He hoped that he had been quiet enough their daughter didn’t hear, but there was no way to guarantee. Shaking his head at Margo’s words he responded, ”Not because he didn’t want to share. Snakes are a lot smaller than us and get scared when we get too close, when they get scared they bite.” That was what he had told the boys and they had gotten out unscathed, maybe he should have told the others.

The small snake unlatched itself from Margo's tongue and Clover wasted no time in furiously shaking her head to kill it, dropping its now still form on the ground. Her gaze briefly inspected the snake, assuring herself that it was in fact a water snake which she knew were not venomous, glad that she had paid attention to her teachers during their lessons. She then turned to Margo, gently nuzzling her daughters face and using her tongue to clean away any tears that spilled down onto her cheeks.

Before she could say anything Viorel had appeared, seemingly from nowhere while she had been caught up with the snake. Clover shook her head at his question, responding in a similar quite tone. "She'll be okay, don't worry." The worst would be the small bite wounds on her tongue, but those would heal up within a couple days without any intervention needed. She watched as Viorel calmly explained why the snake had bitten Margo, and she allowed herself a small smile. Very quickly she had noticed he was good with the children, particularly when it came to teaching them important life lessons, and that made her glad.

"Yes, it likely got scared when you went to drink from the water, but it's okay, sometimes these things happen," she said to Margo with a gentle brush of her muzzle against her daughter's cheek, hoping to assure her that everything was alright. Sometimes things just happened, and she hoped this incident would not deter Margo from interacting with other creatures in the future that were not likely to attack at the first sign of potential danger. Perhaps if Margo was not too shaken up she would teach her about the snakes and what to do so that this did not happen again.

"Scared?" The pup sniffled as her father approached and shared a bit of his wisdom with her. Margo thought that her parents were very smart, if not the most smartest. She was thankful for that, and she felt sorry for the other puppies in the pack who only had one of the most smartest parents, or neither, because there was no way that the other adult wolves in the pack were as intelligent as she knew her parents to be. "I no mean to scare. I wan' fwend isth all" the child frowned. It hurt to talk now, and her words were coming out all funny.

Marguerite was trying her best not to cry again. She wanted to make friends with the scale worm but instead she scared it, got a wound on her tongue, she sounded stupid when she talked, and now the worm was dead. All because of her. But she didn't want her parents to think she was a cry baby, and they weren't crying so she couldn't cry either.

Clover’s words were enough to soothe the worry that had been brewing as soon as he had seen Margo’s wounds. Before the Vayko turtle incident he may not have thought anything of it, but considering that bite had left half the pack battling a brutal illness the concern was justified. Smiling in relief for a moment, he stopped himself from making any kind of fuss over the bite. No infection, no serious concerns, no acknowledgement, that would only make the situation worse.

Nodding in recognition he repeated, ”Yes, it got scared. It’s a lot smaller than us.” If a giant snake appeared that was a hundred times their size, Viorel would probably attempt to bite it too, what else could you do in that scenario? Kissing the top of her head he murmured, ”I know you didn’t mean to scare it, these things happen sometimes when we don’t even notice. Like you might walk by a spider in the grass and not even see it, and it could get scared. Just like you might see a mountain lion and get scared, that’s the way that the world works.” It was basically what her mother had said, but with some extra explanation.

Grinning cheekily he whispered in her ear, ”But, I bet we could go tell your brothers that you fought the snake and won!” Then he winked at her, he wasn’t really sure how to raise children and found girls particularly tricky.

She could feel her heart swelling with emotions as Margo spoke, wanting nothing more than to comfort her daughter and make everything better, but knowing that there were just some things that had to be experienced. It was unfortunate this experience had happened in such a negative way, but it was a good learning point that not everything would want to be her friend, no matter how hard she tried. Clover nodded along with Viorel's words, glad that he was able to explain to their daughter in a way that she would hopefully understand, if even just a little bit. For first-time parents she thought they were doing a pretty okay job at raising their children, even if some things did not go as planned.

She had to hold back a laugh at his next comment, deftly covering it up as if she was simply clearing her throat. "Perhaps now is not the best time for that, maybe Margo would prefer to do something a little more fun? I've seen some squirrels around that don't seem too afraid of wolves." She slightly raised an eyebrow at Viorel, hoping he got the message that Margo was unlikely to want to boast to her brothers at being the reason why the small snake had met its unfortunate end. Usually Clover was unwilling to harm a creature if it was just out and about, but her children's safety was of the utmost importance to her. Her gaze then turned to her daughter, who she could see was trying to keep her tears in check. "I'd be happy to go show you these squirrels, they won't be nearly as afraid and I could teach you about them, but we don't have to if you would like to do something else." She knew Margo could be a smidge sensitive, so she wanted to let her know that it was entirely okay no matter what option she chose.

I am so so so sorry!! Work has been ridiculous this month and the holidays aren't doing anything good to my already busy schedule TT_TT

For a moment her father's words were making her feel more and more sad. She really didn't like that other creature's might not feel comfortable around her. She wished nobody had to be afraid of anything and that everyone could just be friends. Margo never, ever intended to hurt the little snake. Maybe if she learned to speak snake she'd be able to convey that next time... But then what to do about all the little scared spiders? And how would she tell the mountain lion that she didn't quite like being afraid of it? The little Valle sure had a lot of languages to learn.

The child's eyes widened as the words to next come out of her father's mouth snapped her out of whatever weird thinking hole she'd began to sink into. "Weally?" Margo contemplated the words for a moment longer. If her brothers thought that she had battled the snake and won then they wouldn't think she was such a cry baby anymore, but instead some sort of warrior pup. She definitely fancied the idea of not being treated like a wuss anymore, but she also didn't want them to be scared of her too now that she was some sort of supposed reptile murderer. Maybe they could tell her brothers that she gave the snake a stern talking to and it looked really cool when she did it.

"I wan see skwerl!" Margo grinned ear to ear. If the squirrels already liked wolves then she could start by learning squirrel language first!

The father smirked as Clover tried to cover her chuckles with a clearing of her throat, and threw her a cheeky glance. While he could roughhouse with the tougher pups without a problem, he still needed a lot of practice in the more sensitive times. He was grateful that she was here, and he would have to remember to tell her that next time that he got the chance.

Margo seemed worried, but lit up at the mention of squirrels. Viorel was a little disappointed that he hadn’t been able to come up with the magic fix himself, but was pleased that at least the situation was rectified. Nudging his daughter gently on the rump to get her back on her paws he whispered in her ear, ”I bet you could win a race against your mom if you get a head start. Ready? Go!” And then the family was off to watch squirrels, the snake deftly kicked back into the stream by Viorel on the way out. It had done enough damage.

FADE