Walk | Talk | Think
He took advantage of her stillness to finish closing the minuscule distance between them and touch her paw with his nose. It was gentle, soft, and followed with the release of a heavy sigh. Anais stayed tense, stayed nervous, still uneasy about everything. Was he safe? Could she trust that he would do her no harm? Could she trust her own belief that he was as harmless as a child? Her brow furrowed over her golden eyes as she tilted her head downward to peer at him, now with his head draped across her paws and a new stillness creeping about him. Maybe he was calming down now. He did whine far less than before, and more quietly at that.
Just a little she began to relax, her anxieties beginning to fade even if she could not yet make up her mind whether or not she could trust him. The answer he offered to the question she asked only tugged at her heart more. Make the scary things go away. Be my momma. They were pleas of a child, desperate and lonely, and though they were entirely out of place coming from a wolf who had obviously seen enough years to have grown out of this sort of behavior Anais was touched by them. Maybe it was because her anxiety was starting to recede, but she was starting to feel more inclined to trust and believe what he said. And help however she could.
The very excitement of what he suggested appeared to get to him, sending him wriggling and squirming now happily as opposed to before. He touched her leg now but this time she did not flinch or tense. Instead, tentatively, still clearly indecisive, the grey-gold girl smiled. He did act awfully silly for a grown wolf, adamantly promising that he would be a good child if she agreed. And how silly it would be if she did! A young wolf, barely within her season of adulthood, taking on the role of mother to someone who was easily twice her age. What would her parents thing? Just the thought of them sent her ears folding back, but she felt torn. It would have been lovely to agree, to gain a new friend - and a son? - but... They won't approve.
The fact he stared at her so enthusiastically, as if to agree would make him the happiest wolf in the world, did not help matters any. How could she possibly say no to that face? Because she could not bare to let him down - They would never approve - she offered a distraction instead, something she hoped might at least take his mind off of the question he had asked if only for a moment. "What do I call you?" she asked, the words spoken gently through her uncertain smile, his infectious attitude finally creeping into her and bringing that sense of her old self strongly enough to counter the odd stutter that she had developed.
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