Cold Water Creek a battle hymn for children

For some reason what he’d said seemed to make Sahalie want to cry. His eyes widened in alarm and he sucked in a breath. Great, what had he done this time? Kino didn’t understand feelings at all. “H-hey, don’t cry okay? Your tears will freeze your eyes shut or something,” he said, fumbling around unsure of what to do with the current situation. Then, she wasn’t tearing up anymore and she looked almost…excited. The ghostly boy’s brows furrowed.

Next, she asked about a girl up on the mountain by the name of Kyna. Even with a description of the girl, he wouldn’t have known who she was. Regretfully he hadn’t come in contact with anyone when he and Kova had gone over the mountain together. In fact, Sahalie was the first he’d made contact with at all since leaving the Crest. While he couldn’t answer that, he was intrigued by her mention of berries. He’d heard about them because the Crest had been situated in a giant field of black berries before they’d moved before he was born, or at least that’s what he’d been told. Despite that, he’d never actually had them himself.

“No, I’m sorry I haven’t met her. You’re actually the first wolf I’ve talked to other than my brother in a few months.” he replied, giving a small apologetic shrug of his shoulders. “I’ve never had berries before, but I’ve heard they’re good. What do they taste like?” he asked, giving her a turn to talk.

Shit. She was crying? It didn't matter what she was doing: he had seen it. Immediately a paw flung up to her face and she wiped whatever moisture was there. Having her eyes frozen shut was not a feeling she was interested in experiencing. She wasn't even really sure what had made her eyes water, anyways. Sadness had not been her primary emotion, that had been... had been something else she didn't have a word for. She giggled nervously. "It's okay, I'm fine." No one needed to worry about Sahalie. If they did, she certainly didn't want them to. Worrying was her job.

@Sven hadn't known Kyna either, so she wasn't particularly surprised that Alastor hadn't either. The world had to be pretty big if she could meet so many wolves without any connection to one another. Compared to a pack where everyone knew everybody else, really this seemed sort of strange in comparison. But she was getting used to it. And if — her jaw dropped open — Alastor had not encountered any wolf at all in multiple months, then the world must have been very big indeed. Her heart thumped sympathetically. Even if he did have his brother with him, it still must have been hard.

Sahalie was about to ask what he was doing with only a brother when the subject changed to berries. Which happened to be a topic that Sahalie was an expert on, of course. "Oh there are LOTSA berries. Not all of them are good. Some can kill you, you know," that much she had learned from Anna, poor soul, "But these ones were bigger than even me!" Or as big as she had been several months ago. "They tasted very... light. These ones weren't so fruity. Kinda slimy. Only a little sweet."


"We should go sometime!" 

(This post was last modified: Feb 01, 2016, 02:43 AM by Sahalie.)

Whatever he was expecting when he’d replied, it hadn’t been her mouth dropping open with such a shocked expression. Alarm rang like bells in his mind and he suddenly carefully steeled his expression. Stupid, stupid, he chanted in his mind. What if she started asking questions, what if he slipped again. What would he say? He wasn’t prepared for that, and his mind raced in time with his rapidly beating heart.

Luckily, however, it seemed that his question about the berries had side tracked her and he allowed himself to release a tiny breath. This reaction, this was what he’d expected. The dark girl’s molten gaze lit up in excitement as she remembered her experience, and he allowed a grin to slide onto his maw. She explained that there were a lot of berries, some that could even kill someone. His brows rose at this fact in surprise. How could someone tell what berries were good to eat and which ones were bad? What if Sahalie had accidentally eaten the wrong berries when they’d tried them? Kino hardly knew the girl, but just the thought of something bad like that happening to her made his heart squeeze. He’d seen so much death already, he’d rather nothing happen to her as well.

She explained that the berries were a strange concoction of not fruity, but kind of sweet, yet slimy, the last bit making him feel very…perturbed at the thought. Slimy things didn’t sound very appetizing. “We should go sometime!” she expressed, and Kino froze for a moment. He hadn’t expected her to want to see him more after this moment, hadn’t expected her to actually…like him. To him it seemed like things were more of an in and out deal, you were there and then you weren’t. The concept of permanence was rattling but he found it was also a warming thought.

He nodded after a moment, his grin turning into a beam. “Yeah! I would like that, though…maybe we can find some berries that aren’t slimy,” he said, sticking out his tongue in digust. Then, he paused again. “Hey, don’t go trying strange berries okay? It would be really bad if something happened to you.”

(This post was last modified: Feb 01, 2016, 03:34 AM by Sahalie.)

A lot of the things she said seemed to either make him frown or freeze. Perhaps the comment about the killing-berries was a little too morbid. It was kinda. Anna hadn't even been talking about berries specifically, but Sahalie was afraid that amending her comment would only frighten the boy more. Truly even she had been wary of plants after Anna's talk, though there was nothing really about leaves that constantly tempted her to ingest them. Just the berries. But that had not stopped her from attempting to shove a pumpkin into her mouth, despite of all of Kyna's too-late protests. In general, though, she did make sure to talk to an adult before using weird plants just like Anna told her. But the situations didn't really come up that often. Definitely not anymore that Anna was dead and the rest of the pack was not overly knowledgeable about flora.

And then there was his reaction to her attempt at making plans with him. Her ears flopped around on her head. She considered the possibility that she had said something wrong. Maybe he didn't like her and was trying to think of ways to get out of seeing her again? She hoped that wasn't the case. Alastor was a nice boy, like Sven. Sahalie was thinking that they could be friends. She tried to make up more reasons for Alastor's reaction: maybe he was in a weird cult and there were specific rules, or he and his brother were going away soon, or..or...

"Oh!" So he did want to come! Apparently it was the berries he hadn't been so sold on. "We don't have to eat them if you don't want to. Truth is the fun is more in playin' with them and lookin' at them. They are freaking big, I'm tellin' you." And Sahalie didn't use terms like "freaking" lightly.

The second comment, however, took her a little off guard. "H-Heh?" The giggle came out automatically. "If you say so."

It was clear that both children were very lost on what, exactly, was going on with each other. But, maybe that was why they were working so well together in the first place. It had been a bit awkward at first, but once they’d started talking Kino found he quite enjoyed the girl’s company. A little voice in the back of his head told him that it was a mistake, but he stubbornly shoved it down. He wasn’t that Kino anymore, he had a chance now and he was going to take it and worry about the now rather than the later.

"We don't have to eat them if you don't want to. Truth is the fun is more in playin' with them and lookin' at them. They are freaking big, I'm tellin' you." she said, practically jumping up and down with excitement. Then, for the first time in a long time, Kino laughed. Actually laughed, with a big goofy grin and a heaving chest that finally showed exactly how old he was. Even if Kino had been through many things, he was still only nearly 9 months old. A child.

“I believe you, I believe you. But, I think you should go back. Your family’ll be worried about you, and I don’t want them coming and finding you with me and biting my head off. I like my head,” he said. “You can come back some other time, whenever you’re free. We’ll look for your brother, and we’ll go find those berries! Gotta make sure they really are as big as you say they are, im gonna be disappointed if they aren’t.”

In all actuality Kino was very sad to see her go, but it was true that it was starting to get late and if anyone knew the dangers of being alone at night it was the boy. “I’ll walk you halfway,” he stated, rising to his paws and giving his thick silver pelt a shake.

The smile blooming on his face now seemed a thousand times more genuine than the tightly lifted curves from before. And then he laughed. Infected by his response, Sahalie's beaming face stretched even wider as her body began to shake with giggles. Did he think she was funny? She hoped he thought she was funny. This is nice, she thought out of nowhere. It was hard to remember the last time she had laughed with someone else like this. The last few weeks were clouded by blood and a lot of sad faces. But the faces had always been sad no matter how much she had smiled. But at least she had been able to make Kino laugh, the boy who had seemed so shaken and reserved. She tried to herself that his standards had not been lowered by lack of contact with other wolves.

She wanted to shrug him off and tell him that it didn't matter, that her family cared but they were not close. The only reason Drift had disappeared was because it was so often to go days without seeing one wolf or another. They wouldn't think anything of not seeing Sahalie. Probably. 

But at the same time it was nice to hear someone talk this way, to hover and worry like a parent. And if he wanted to walk her halfway then he wouldn't be gone right away. So instead of protesting she simply smiled and nodded. "Alright then," her voice was soft as her body turned southward. "It's this way."

AND THEY WALKED OFF INTO THE SUNSET TOGETHER