Walk | Talk | Think
It made her happy to see how excited Lebrah was to learn her name, to watch him first sound it out in a test and then try it for himself in earnest, obviously pleased by the results. Just her name had been able to do that, to bring that smile to his face and that energetic sort of wiggling quality to the rest of him. How might he eventually react if she at last told him she would agree to be his mother? How different might it turn out if she decided against it and finally admitted that she could not do it, regardless of whatever reasoning she tried to offer him? He would not listen to it. It would not matter in the end either. But he was just that sort of being, the one who wore everything on their sleeve and did not quite comprehend the depth behind everything in the world. She hated to think she might be the one to send him back to the skittering, lonely thing he had been when he had tumbled up to her.
Her comment about his muddied condition appeared to go over his head for a moment but his own quick inspection revealed how right she was. He hardly seemed put off by it, grinning and wriggling and admitting without shame that he was, indeed, a muddy wolf. She almost thought he sounded even proud about it, and bit the inside of her lip to stop herself from giggling over his opposing view. There were not many that she knew of who actually took being a muddy mess as a compliment - he may well have been the first. Nor had she seen someone react quite the same way to the suggestion of a bath.
He was up and away from her so quickly that the grey-gold wolf managed to startle again, her smile blinked away and a fore paw suddenly lifted nervously as he stared back at her and shook his head in strong objection. Well, that certainly was not how she had expected things to go. But even with this unwanted suggestion made to him, the grown wolf did not show any aggression, or anything for that matter that might have given Anais more worry. In fact, the longer he stayed away, the more she could see him become fidgety and anxious, as if he regretted drawing himself so far away from her. He stepped a little closer, as if to confirm, and she felt her smile creeping back into place...until he returned to the one subject she had been trying to avoid.
All at once her guilt and conflicting feelings resurfaced, settling over her once again like a heavy, physical weight. Gosh, how was she going to avoid it a second time? She had to answer him now or risk her evasion being too obvious. Her brow furrowed and her golden stare became for a second worried. Could she really do this? Could she not only take on the responsibility of caring for someone - a grown male wolf of all creatures - and deal with the frightening reaction she anticipated receiving from her parents? Though she deliberated, deep down she felt as if the question had never truly needed to be decided upon. The answer had been there from the very beginning. She had only been too scared to admit it.
"Only," she stated, fixing him with an stern yet smiling stare, "if you take a bath." A silly condition, really. She could hardly believed she had agreed, though she had every certainty he would do just as she said in order to make his way into her home. And in the end she would let him. She had no other choice. Sending him away would have been cruel and completely against who she was. No, he had wandered into her path and asked her for help. And she was not the kind of wolf to turn away someone in need. "Want me to show you where the river is?" she asked, for the first time feeling rather excited. She had never had a friend here that she could show off her new home to, had never really had a reason to feel excited about living here. But Lebrah's excitement and joy was catching, and she could feel it infecting her with something similar.
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