Among the Marsh's Song

She was all eyes and ears as the smiling brown male went about his story, still and quiet and attentive to everything he said. He explained about his first meeting with Ashtoreth, a story her mother had never told her before though it was no surprise really. Her mother did not often tell stories about what her life was like before them, or at least nothing that did not immediately involve Da. She had liked talking about him most, telling them as well as him about how her side of the relationship had developed. But beyond that Vaishya realized what the male was saying could very well have been true, and maybe it was if he knew her name.

He seemed to be making an effort to get her to relax, and naturally cautious Vaishya merely let him talk. She had no intention of getting closer, no matter whether this wolf knew her mother or not, and neither did she really have any more questions. He had explained his meeting with her mother well enough, and she had already determined her own likely reason why she had never known about it before. For her, for the time being, that was all she really needed to know.

But it was not all the wolf wished to know of her. I don't trade, she wanted to say, but she continued to remain silent, wondering how diligent he was apt to be about receiving answers for his own. She was still far from impressive in size, incapable of defending herself yet even against untrained adversaries. All the wolf did, however, was assume a relationship between the girl and her mother, narrowing down just what it was he wished to know from her, and Vaishya considered how she might answer. What was the likelihood that she could pass for anyone but Ash's daughter? Wary, perhaps acquiring a little of her mother's distrust around strangers, she chose to keep quiet, simply staring at him and allowing him to make his own assumptions about her identity.