It Can Go A Long Long Way

"Oh I doubt that," she responded immediately to her daughter's negative assumptions. Her heart broke at the disappointment she heard in Chione's words. Natalya understood feeling useless. As a child she had been put through the same rigorous training schedule as her brother and at first she had felt useless. It took her many seasons of practice to even be able to guess where he was in their battles, and many more to learn to defend herself. At that time, she was certain she would never be good at anything.



"You never know if you're good at something until you've tried it, and even then it takes practice. But already from what I have heard from your father and noticed around you I can think of one thing you are very very good at." She turned a smile on her daughter, hoping to bring some joy to her in this rare moment they were sharing. "You have a wonderful imagination. That means you are creative and artistic, and those are very rare qualities among wolves in our family. I think you take after Apollo in that way." She tried not to let sadness leak into her voice as she said his name. How had her clever son turned out to be so unfortunate? Why couldn't he see the love his family had for him? Natalya hoped and prayed every day that her young children, Chione especially, would not take after him that way.