Koto had gone often to explore the places outside their forest, places with more excitement and more people. There were villages and towns and other less-civilized places, places she had seen some of on adventures with her father, but nothing like she experienced now. She was meeting people, seeing new places — there was a whole world out there she wanted to explore, so much of it so far from where she was at now. She learned so much by simply listening, learning about things she had never seen and fights she had never witnessed. She haphazardly dove into conversations, practically begging for more. She would have stayed and listened forever if she could.

But after a couple days out on her own, she knew she needed to come home. It was bad enough to be gone so long without helping around the house, as her mother made apparent, and she knew her siblings would be missing her. Like the people she met were for her, Koto was a source of knowledge for the younger foxes about the outside world.

But the arrival was never pleasant.

"Where have you been going?"

"Nowhere, really."

It was a typical conversation between her and her mother — Mom's interrogation and Koto's rejection.

"It's not making my job any easier with you running around all the time. You're just like your dad, taking off wherever the wind blows you and letting the rest of us clean up after your messes."

It was typical for her mother to launch into one of her guilt trips, too. It was what she did best — find ways to make everyone around her feel miserable for not living up to her standards.

"What messes?" Koto snapped at her mother's accusation. "I take care of myself when I'm out."

"What about us, Koto? Do you ever think about that? What about your little sisters and your brothers?"

"When did you ever care about me?" she shot back, turning away from her mother to pick up some of the trash littering the ground in the wake of her siblings. "Or Dad for that matter?"

"Don't bring him into this! It's not about him! Quit being a selfish brat and think about your family for once!"

Koto shot up, meeting her mother's gaze. "I do think about them! All the food I get, I bring for them! I learn stories and I tell them to them so they're not bored with your bitching as their only entertainment! The only person I don't care about is you!"

Her mother stared in shock.

Koto was so tired of her acting oblivious, acting as if she were perfect. She was tired of her mother always dancing around the point, always changing the subject whenever he was brought into it. Koto never heard an explanation for her mother's actions, never a kind word — Koto's father was only a tool used to try to manipulate her whenever she wasn't "behaving" correctly.

"You abandoned us. Both of us. And you'd abandon them too, wouldn't you?" She gestured to her siblings who had stopped playing to gape at their sister and mother. "Because the only person that matters to you is you," she scoffed. "You and your fucking ideals! You don't even care about Taro — you just want him to live out your dreams since you're too damn weak to do anything yourself!"

There was a moment in which she saw her mother trembling — then, without warning, Koto was on the ground, her mother on top of her, hitting and clawing. Koto attempted to shield herself, the startled outcries of her siblings and the enraged snarls of her mother the only things she was fully aware of until Taro was dragging her mother off.

"Mom, what are you—"

"Get out of here! Get her out of here!"

Koto ignored the pain and the blood and scrambled to her feet, shooting her mother one final glare.

"You don't live here anymore! Do you hear me? Don't come back!"

It was the last thing she heard her mother say before she left; it was a phrase that stuck in her mind since.

There was no home for her here. Not even Taro could help her, could defend her, could save her from that truth — there was no one left to trust.

She had herself, and she knew what she wanted her life to be. That was enough.