[Ashtaroth]

Mummy and daddy are traitors, and mama's off to war. Even the Seour is gone, leaving the litter with a small assortment of babysitters and Ashtaroth to occupy herself with play-fights and amputating the limbs from lizards to see if it turns them into snakes. It doesn't, but now she knows.

The tar pits are boring when there's nothing to smother in them, and the only interesting thing Nevada has to say are praises of Chinensis. Ashtar is beginning to believe the Red Order as brainwashed as any of them. Captain Iti is certainly a slave.

Perhaps she could find herself in the Temple, like the eldest sister, but Feizin is nothing to aspire to. She knows every law, and Thetis still beat her. She knows better than to enter the Rose Garden again. The water features may be of interest, but she's not yet big enough for her paws to touch the bottom, and wouldn't that be just too easy?

Ashtaroth finds herself in the forest, dense enough for prey to think themselves safe, but with enough space between a pup can crawl beneath the lowest branches without need to memorize the maze. She doesn't sweat in the shade, leaving the girl free to try and crush a squirrel's ribs under he meager weight, two legs broken and squealing in fear. She's learned to ignore it.