Of Thorns and Briars

“One of these days, you’re gonna fuck up and realize you’ve been riding high on luck and good guesses, just like the rest of us!”
Whatever started the argument this time, he didn’t hear. Three days of them going back and forth was grating, and ordinarily he’d have brushed the whole thing off.
“Yeah?! Ya really think that? Maybe you all have, but that ain’t got nothin’ to do with me!”
“You arrogant sack of crap-”
Broken glass, something being knocked over, undoubtedly someone knocking into one of the tents, and all the others yelling and woahing got him to put on some pants and get out of the tent quicker than he’d ever had before.
“Burke, leave it! Yosha, get back to work and leave him alone!” Already, Jun was trying to diffuse the fight, stepped between the two centaur. Her spindly frame would have done nothing though, especially not with Wolfthorn having knife in hand, and Burke, responding just as much with his hunting spear.
“You better smarten up and realize you just got lucky, before you get somebody killed!”
“I said to leave it, Burke!”
Luckily, Burke had no intention of actually fighting the kid if he didn’t have to, throwing down his weapon once Jun fully stepped between them and took the knife, holstering it in her own. He still had words though, as he started to clean up the mess on the other side of the camp- baskets of fish overturned, the day’s foraging spilled across the ground, whatever fight they had this time really had turned near into a brawl.
“We all fall at some point, brat!”
Wolfthorn rolled his eyes, crossed his arms, and put on that same arrogant look he’d worn of late, going as far as stamping his feet and flicking his tail.
Surely, if Burke had seen it, he’d of knocked that smug look off his face himsel-
“What’s eating him?”
The question made Jun whirl around, jabbing him in the chest with near every word.
“You know what- Stop picking fights with the wolfriders, stop picking fights with him. He’s trying to teach you a lesson, Yosha. It’d do you well to get the cotton out of your ears and listen.”
The kid actually backed off, and were it not for the weapons having just been out, Ryoten would have laughed at how barely 90 pounds of furious old woman got him to back down and step back more akin to him being face to face with a grizzly.
Wordlessly, he also stormed out of the camp, in the other direction.
Jun, clearly having dealt with whatever spats they were having long before it woke him up, gave Ryoten an exasperated look, rubbing her long already tired face with frustration with muttered swears upon them both.
“Auntie, you go handle cranky ass. Lemme go talk to the kid.”
“All morning- All morning they’ve been going at it like a pair of coons trapped in a bin.”
“Oh I betcha.”
Dealing with either of them when they got this bad was never easy- Burke was more slamming fish back into the baskets, and out in the woods even he could hear that Wolfthorn was tearing through something like a bat out of hell, likely running it off.
Coffee, that was first. Give the kid some time to cool his head, so he wouldn’t rip off his own at the first words outta his mouth.
Even with his own anger though, Burke never raised his voice at Jun. He was smarter than that, the first things he said on her approaching apologies, accepting the side hug she gave and smiling as she swept his bangs out of his face. Only just, he could hear them talk.
“You’re right about him, but you should ease up.”
“I know I am, cause when I acted like that, I ended up with fourteen staples and six pins in my knee. Hound damn near got killed, and Macguire left. I just don’t wanna see ‘em make the same mistake.”
“I know, hun, I know, but Yosha ain’t gonna listen if you just right t’ yellin’ when they ain’t cooperating.”
The centaur caught him staring, nodding out in the direction Wolfthorn went, and Ryoten shrugged. It was fair enough if he wanted some privacy after an outburst like that, but in the back of his mind, he still itched to know what started the whole damn thing.
Just as he thought, Wolfthorn was in fact, tearing through the woods, but a little more literally than initially thought. Hacking away at a dead tree like it insulted his mother, working out whatever anger he had, and jumped when Ryoten spoke.
“Hey kid, you got any kinda respect for your elders in ya?”
“Back off, Hound. B’sides, you’re barely older than me.”
At his words, Ryoten raised his hands, but sat upon the ground nearby, much to Yosha’s disgruntlement.
“I’m pushin’ thirty- you’re a damn infant as far as I’m concerned. Either way, just here t’ talk.”
“About what? How much a failure Burke thinks I am? How much he hates me? Abo-”
“He doesn’t hate you.”
“And how the hell would you know?!”
The kid was beyond pissed. Fuming, stamping the ground with his hooves, looking as ready as ever to go in and charge the larger man and start a fist fight. At least for now, he was distracted.
“I’ve seen him hate somebody, Yosha. He used to hate me.”
That at least, gave him some pause, and Ryoten continued, giving a peace offering of a granola bar from his pocket. Slowly, like a wild animal, he hesitated but came forward, eventually sitting at his side to listen.
Good.
“Look, I ain’t gonna tell you no sob story, but he an I weren’t all best buds always, y’know? He used t’ hate me, really hate me.” He kept talking, watching as Yosha started to calm, or at least, not be working himself up into a further frenzy. “-If he hated you any at all the way he hated me, I’d prolly of kicked his sorry hide out by now.”
“You don’t have the rank to do that.”
“I’d of done it anyway- He don’t hate you, he’s scared for ya.”
Wolfthorn snorted, just as indignant, complete with eyeroll. Typical bratty kid, but at least he had his ears open. Perhaps enough to take things to heart.
“Look, I ain’t gonna pretend Burke is nice- he just ain’t. You know it, I know it, he’s a fuckin’ right bastard sometimes, but he’s tryin’ to keep ya from makin’ the same mistakes he has.” “Oh, like that ‘hunting accident’ he had? I’m not stupid-”
“I never said you was.”
Again, he raised his hands defensively, clicking his tongue.
“You even know what happened?”
Too long, the kid was quiet, merely flicking his tail back and forth, ears pinned, and eventually admitted with a quiet no, that he did not.
“He pushed too far to try an’ prove himself. That he was better than me, better than anybody else, and he fucked up, kid. Broke his own damn leg and misfired his gun, let the prey get away.” Better than him, Wolfthorn knew how bad that was on its own, but even with the woozy feeling rising in his gut, Ryoten continued recounting it. Even as the kid paled. “If Markus wasn’t out at the truck, if it really was his first solo hunt, if my phone had been dead, he prolly woulda died out there. Ain’t no way we woulda been able to carry his ass back.”
Wolfthorn took in a breath, chewing on his lip. Whatever he thought the accident had been, he had been so deeply wrong, and even he could see it clicking into place like puzzle pieces why the man was the way he was.
“Dude’s scared shitless of somethin’ like that happenin’ again. You’re his apprentice, kid. If something bad happens to ya, it ain’t just on you neither, it’s on him too. You’re a scrawny lil shit but I don’t think he could carry you back neither.”
“...I never even come close to pulling a stunt like that though.”
He clicked his tongue, raising his eyebrows, and Yosha insisted, but against his words, it seemed to be setting in at least that everything that all had been telling him was true- Burke, Jun, Cori, Markus, Gina, himself, all that he really had crossed that line.
“You want the nice answer or the honest one, kid?”
With knit brows, Wolfthorn keep his eyes away, muttering under his breath.
“Buck up. You ain’t been shy ‘bout fightin’ with Burke the past three days.”
“I said the honest one.”
Again, with his hands. Surely it must have been annoying by now.
“Much he and I had some bad blood in the past, we got over our shit. Any time I’m hunting, he’s the one I want watching my back more than anybody so I get to come back to my kids and babe, and I know he much the same.
You need to get yer head outta your ass cause he knows more than anybody how close Shia’s hooves are out here. If he’s tellin’ you you fucked up, ya need to get your shit together and pay attention cause there ain’t no second chances.”
Too long the kid was defiant and kept going back and forth on how much of a dick Burke was, eventually laughing when Ryoten said that he was a horse’s ass, but at least the kid was calm enough he wasn’t too likely to pull a knife next they crossed paths. It’d have to be good enough for now.
“Unless ya transfer over to one a the other packs, we all gotta deal with him, aight?”
“I’m not gonna transfer, Ryo. Not gonna give him the satisfaction of throwing me out.”
For the love of-
“It ain’t a competition between the two of ya, get it through your damn head already. Forget it, aight? You good enough now I can go the hell back t’ bed? I’m gonna burn to a crisp out here anyways.”