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Wolf jolted awake, clamping two hands over her mouth to keep herself from screaming and awaking the entire house.
Tears poured down her cheeks, leaving stains on her white nightgown. She did her best to hold in her sobs, but no matter how hard she tried, they kept escaping.
She wrapped her arms around herself, looking around in the dark. Her tears blurred her vision, making the already dark room even harder to see.
She didn’t understand why she kept having these nightmares. She knew that she was safe, but her mind had yet to catch up with her. After living with the Oak's for a couple of weeks, the nightmares had went from nearly daily to every once in a while.
It didn't matter how much she anticipated them, they never got any less terrifying.
Wolf sobbed again, wishing that she had Stalky beside her. Years ago, she would hug the staff until she fell back asleep, like a stuffed animal. Ever since Dr. Emilia had broken her self-proclaimed best friend, the nightmares had only gotten worse.
Wolf was startled into a hiccup when her bedroom door creaked open. When she didn't see anyone behind it, she curled together on the bed, her body beginning to tremble in fear.
She almost screamed when Mandu's blue head popped up from the foot of her bed. She jumped back from the pig, who looked at her in confusion. Through her night vision, she could see Wolf's tear-covered face, as well as her shaking figure.
Without any further prompting, Mandu jumped onto the bed, making her way over to Wolf.
When Mandu was sitting comfortably in Wolf's arms, she squealed and Wolf chuckled sadly.
"You scared me, pig," she said with a shaky voice, sniffling as she patted Mandu's head.
Mandu snuggled up to the young girl, offering her some warmth that she definitely is needed. Wolf's body stopped trembling and she let herself relax, petting Mandu gently.
Mandu almost believed that she’d succeeded with calming Wolf down, when she felt little driplets of something wet against her back. Looking up, she found Wolf biting her lip as she resisted bursting into tears.
Mandu frowned. She didn’t like seeing Wolf sad. She was the girl who scratched her behind her ears and gave her leftovers of her food, after all!
Mandu let out a concerned squeal, frowning harder when Wolf looked at her with eyes filled with sadness.
"I'm okay, Mandu. It's just..." Wolf began, not getting far before more sobs racked through her. "I don't know why it still bothers me that they never loved me."
Mandu knew that Wolf was talking about the wolves. Kipo had certainly helped her move past it for the most part, but occasionally, memories of them would haunt Wolf's mind, reminding her of the most painful and traumatizing part of her life.
Mandu stood up on her back legs, sticking her tongue out to lick away Wolf's tears. At the gesture, the girl smiled. She knew that Mandu was only trying to help.
"Thank you, Mandu," she sniffled, hugging her blue friend tighter.
Mandu pushed her to lie back down, pulling the blanket over her as she snuggled up to her in her arms. Wolf took a shaky breath, looking into Mandu's eyes one last time before closing her own, letting out a slow breath as she let the exhaustion take her and let her fall asleep.
Mandu smiled proudly, curling up beside her human. She stayed in Wolf's bed for the rest of the night, offering her comfort in case she were to have any more nightmares.
Luckily, she didn't.