Ara quickly regretting speaking her mind so easily. She did not know how to deal with sadness, and certainly not with loss. Up until now, she had trained and worked so hard to help prevent these things. A healthy body usually meant a healthy, happy mind -- but not always were things so simple. Herbs could not cure sadness. She'd discovered this when her father had been taken captive, and her mother had grown depressed. Nothing had taken that pain away, as hard as she had tried. The child had grown distraught at the possibility of pain that could not be soothed by herbs or plants; ailments invisible to the eye, that one could never see.
Part of Ara had expected their meeting to be full of small-talk; of the talk of herbs and healing. Nothing like this. A sigh left her lips. Novel did not want to hear her worries about her parents, she was certain. At least she had parents who had been there for her for so long -- it seemed ungrateful to whine about them being gone. And so quickly into their meeting, too! She was unused to talking about her emotions, especially about her parents, and she wished she hadn't brought it up at all. It would be better -- and far easier -- to just talk about herbs and plants...
And yet Novel did not discourage the conversation. She seemed to relate to her in some way, admitting her dad had not been around. Ara felt suddenly selfish again. At least her father was alive and present, albeit growing old... Novel's was not even around right now. Slowly she turned to look at the girl, noting the look of sadness that had crossed her face. "I'm sorry," she started gently. Even worse, Novel's sadness did not seem to lift. She swore she saw tears well up in the other girl's eyes. She felt helpless, wanting to promise that her father would return, but knowing he might very well not. No words came to her that would offer up any comfort. Her instinct was to find an herb to cure everything, even emotional pain, but she was beginning to realize that there were wounds that could never be healed like that. "I didn't mean to..." To what? Bring up the topic of their parents? To make Novel cry? Another sigh left her lips and she slowly shifted closer to the girl. Perhaps her presence would be comforting? But she could not imagine how. The two were not terribly close, but had known each other since childhood, but she wondered if just maybe Novel would feel better if she offered her support. It took her another moment to shift even closer, literally offering the girl her shoulder -- and though her gaze strayed to the spring, she was watching Novel's reflection in the still waters.
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