Oak Tree Bend Spiral Into the Unknown

Sahalie didn't feel that she was any more kind than most of the wolves she knew: she was just doing what she felt was right, without any particular care for how it made her look. But all the same she smiled ruefully up at Drestig, happy at least that he liked the way she was and could agree with her about the whole "trusting" situation. That didn't make it any easier to understand, though. In fact, it just made it more confusing. So she was supposed to give everyone a chance, and to her that meant trusting them. To Drestig, though, "giving them a chance" seemed to mean something more like... laying a foundation of distrust and then working to build a relationship from there. That didn't seem fair at all, though. It seemed cold and ultimately not very fun at all. Yet this was the way of life for most of the adults, she realized with widening eyes: they all were weary to open themselves to others. Why? Had they all been told to think that way as children? Or had something happened to them? Staring up into the warm, fatherly face of Drestig she silently resolved to never end up as pessimistic and jaded as the rest of the adults. There was no point in arguing it.

Casually, her head bobbed as he continued to impress his message on her. She could take care of herself. A lot of the adults were not so sure, but Sahalie had grown up without getting herself lost or seriously injured so far, and that was a win in her book. But as Drestig expounded on the point there were only more questions. How much sharing was too much? Sahalie had told Alastor about her mother. Was that too much? On top of it all, the girl had no secrets. Should she? She wondered if the dark man thought she did. She wondered what his were. Certainly she did not know what "our secrets" were, but supposed it referred to the rest of the pack. Did Oak Tree Bend have secrets? Truly, Sahalie could think of nothing, though that did not mean there were none. The truth about her mother had been hidden from her, and perhaps there was more. But what secrets could belong to the Bend that others could not know? To Sahalie, it seemed more likely that other wolves would not even care about some of the boring, relational history since most of it was specific to their pack. She wanted to argue, but instead her head gave another hesitant bob.

Inwardly, she made a second promise to herself.

"I can do that," she chirped brightly, standing a little straighter. With a tiny bit of waggling tongue poking from her lips she added, "If only you promise not to worry as much about me." Laughter punctuated this statement. She began to wiggle backwards towards the ice again. "Now do you wanna watch me do a trick?" Maybe if he saw how smoothly she moved on the ice he would see how good at handling herself she was. Maybe.

But to herself she repeated her promises:

• I will trust others
• I will show kindness to others no matter what
• I will not grow old and I will not grow sour
• I will not keep my own secrets
• But I will keep others
  

It was a paradoxical situation, on one paw wanting to protect the young girl, while on the other not wanting to completely destroy her trust in others. Perhaps the issue was really that he didn’t realize the vast difference of their situation. Here he was, trying to teach Sahalie about trust, unintentionally, based in a childhood of every-wolf-for-his-own. When, despite the difficulties of her childhood, the blooming Tainn had grown up in a place where love and trust actually paid off. These bad wolves he was trying to shield her from could be nothing but ghost, just some of the many he couldn't shake. But he was trying his best! For all in the world he didn't want any harm to come to her. She seemed to be understanding too, somewhat at least. She was nodding her head anyway, piping up assurances. Drestig might have been skeptical, had he not started to notice just how thin the metaphorical eyes below him was getting and was eager to end the conversation. So he smiled, even laughed a little at her tease; "I'll try lass, I promise. It's only because I care so much about you!" He bowed to give a light kiss on her crest, and then suddenly she was off, back to her game on the, thankfully much thicker, real ice. He laughed again, watching with sparkling eyes as she slit across the frozen river, hooting with triumph whenever she nailed a tricky move; I guess I can't protect her from everything… So he'd settle for the worst, and make damn sure no one who broke her trust ever got away unscathed. Word count: 272 Thoughts ”Speech”

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