I Won't Be Left
for casso
Fleet-footed
06-05-2020, 09:18 AM
Kiela wouldn't really consider herself interesting - in most ways she was the same as the wolves she had grown up alongside. Her values were the values of her kin and of her ancestors; without them it was hard to imagine who she was, but in a way she supposed her journey to these lands would help her discover who she really was. Surely her innermost self was partly made up of her beliefs, tradition woven through her very bloodstream, but she knew there was more to it than than. Now that she was old enough to stake her own path, she intended to find out just that. Of course, seeking out her precious caribou was more important than any introspective journeys she might want to take, which was the only reason she'd bothered asking Casso in the first place.
He didn't seem to understand why. A questioning look wouldn't have been enough for her to elaborate, but he asked her more explicitly why she was looking for them. "My family," she started, for lack of a better term. They were not all related by blood, the group that she originated from, but family described it just as well. "We worship caribou. As well as many other things." Kiela had never been in a scenario where she'd had to put her beliefs into words. The caribou were sacred in a specific way, for they directly gave them life - her ancestors had subsisted almost entirely on them - and ensuring their well-being was deeply important to her. But the very ground they stood on was sacred in its own right, but she wasn't quite sure how to explain that to this near-stranger.
"Our ancestors, always walked beside them. Helped to protect them. The caribou allowed us to feed on their old and injured. Never waste." To needlessly slaughter caribou would be the most abhorrent thing she could imagine. No, they were always particular and careful about who was ready to be hunted, protecting the herd to ensure they grew strong and prospered. She had no doubt that her family's vigilance in caring for the herd had blessed them in their own ways. It was a belief she owed her life to. "Things are done differently here, I know," she acknowledged, said matter-of-factly. Kiela was naive in many ways, but she knew she couldn't change the world, nor did she care to. She was solely concerned with her own affairs and her caribou, and so long as nothing disrupted that, she preferred to let others tend to their own matters.
He didn't seem to understand why. A questioning look wouldn't have been enough for her to elaborate, but he asked her more explicitly why she was looking for them. "My family," she started, for lack of a better term. They were not all related by blood, the group that she originated from, but family described it just as well. "We worship caribou. As well as many other things." Kiela had never been in a scenario where she'd had to put her beliefs into words. The caribou were sacred in a specific way, for they directly gave them life - her ancestors had subsisted almost entirely on them - and ensuring their well-being was deeply important to her. But the very ground they stood on was sacred in its own right, but she wasn't quite sure how to explain that to this near-stranger.
"Our ancestors, always walked beside them. Helped to protect them. The caribou allowed us to feed on their old and injured. Never waste." To needlessly slaughter caribou would be the most abhorrent thing she could imagine. No, they were always particular and careful about who was ready to be hunted, protecting the herd to ensure they grew strong and prospered. She had no doubt that her family's vigilance in caring for the herd had blessed them in their own ways. It was a belief she owed her life to. "Things are done differently here, I know," she acknowledged, said matter-of-factly. Kiela was naive in many ways, but she knew she couldn't change the world, nor did she care to. She was solely concerned with her own affairs and her caribou, and so long as nothing disrupted that, she preferred to let others tend to their own matters.
