Where would you like this to go? :D We could either fade soon, or Duck should show him some fishing?
Innocent and sheltered, it should have been obvious that the boy's secret would be so small and straightforward. Cinaed's honesty had barely allowed him to go from the borders to the middle of the territory without being able to confess that he'd been sneaking out. To have such trivial problems, to have so little perspective that they placed disproportionate importance on them... Duck envied the young Athesilas more than they would ever know.
Don't be mad. The runt smiled. It was so easy not to be mad.
"It's ok-k-kay," he said, moving to touch his nose to the boy's own, still marvelling at so much - how guilty Cinaed felt, how much he clearly craved the adult's approval, just how much power Duck had over him - and felt not one flutter of anger or frustration. All this acting the adult was so foreign but felt so right, as if finally he was beginning to see himself as something other than a terrified and tiny yearling. (Just a terrifying and tiny adult, instead.)
"I fff-forgive you. We only w-want you to be sss-safe..." But Cinaed knew that, that's why he felt so bad, so Duck just shook his head and laughed, quietly, jerking his thin snout back the way they had come, turning his body as if ready to go back.
"W-what would you like to s-see?"
It wouldn't be long before Cinaed - just like the other two - realised that they weren't little any more, that they didn't need permission to go out on their own for long, and most of all that there was no meaningful protection to be found in Duck's presence.