it had been some time since he and
@Heda had time one-on-one.
he had noticed how she had become such a teacher among the island, how sometimes her voice raised in praise. it filled him with strength each time he caught it. there could be no better advisor for the isle.
God smiled upon them.
today, he brought a gift to her. one that, for now, remained wrap up in an old tattered fur.
heda felt less and less a girl as time went on. young, but with a confidence she had never felt before.
salt laced her pale coat. her head was these days always anointed by the sea, crystals hovering over her temples.
"bartholomew!" heda cried happily, bounding down toward him from a midpoint along the greenhills. "everyone is so happy. have you noticed?"
there should have been no surprise as she came down the hillside where she often perched.
yet his features broke into shared happiness and excitement to see her form suddenly come to him, proclaiming such things about the island.
it is because we have kept the peace.
it was them. he may have been at the top, but each decision was made with the consideration of heda often times.
you have become quite the advisor, heda.
heda lowered her eyes beneath his praise, though a small smile was apparent. and when she looked back at bartholomew it was with the humility and maturity that she had learned in her time in sweetharbor. as heda approached her second year, she felt that the anger and chaos and unknowingness of those times before had been left on the mainland.
"i'd like them all to come and listen to you. all of us, together. you could teach us one afternoon."
sermon on the mount.
she asked of him something that should have been to no surprise.
yet!
it showed in the brief softening of his features. flattered and touched, that she might wish for him to hold sermon upon the isle. i should find a lesson that will be good for all...
he trailed off softly, eyes bright. he had not forced the religion upon anybody who joined them, and he did not wish to start now.
will you help me find one?
heda nodded thoughtfully, glancing off toward the sea. "something about peace. kindness." she looked back toward him. "loving one another."
a great wind came now; it lashed through her fur and lifted the red of her hackles. "what is winter going to be like here, do you think?"
had he been here for that?
he recalled
a time.
the loneliness and coldness of the island had been what had greeted him the first time. but it had spoken to him then as it did now. in different ways, of course, but the vein was there all the same.
cold. the sea breeze becomes sharp.
he said with a sudden pensiveness about him. to recall such times did nothing for his kindness. it inspired a need to work, to prove himself and provide for others.
the mainland has been silent from our neighbors. perhaps we hunt upon the river, before a sermon.
he rolled the ball to her, to see if she may lead such an endeavor.
a hunt! heda's golden eyes suddenly glowed with excitement. but she saw how bartholomew looked now. "we are protected here. and if the snows are too hard, we will go under the ground." into the lion's den, to wait out the trial of winter.
the river. heda had not been away from sweetharbor in a long while. "yes." a smile wreathed her face. "what do you want to eat?"
under ground.
he thought at once of the dark, shrouded woman. if they all piled into the place she most certainly called home by now, what would winter be like? a thought set gently aside for now.
the river water turns fresh further inland.
it was a vague answer, but he meant for her to do with it what she may wish.
i wish to see if our neighbors are merely...staying away due to the cold, or if their silence means more. it may determine what we hunt.
he sought her advising now.
"so — a trip for you and i? then the others?" even if that wasn't what he meant, it was what heda wanted. she hoped her desires were good. but she hadn't been in communion with just him for so long, she leapt at the concept.
her tail flicked. "i'm ready whenever." but the advisor's brow furrowed. "mo misses his family. he doesn't really talk about them, but what if they're our neighbors?"
she grew solemn at the idea of losing the happy boy.
if this was what she wanted.
he nodded, confirmation to her questions. there was no need to drag the whole isle to the mainland for a hunt if they would be met with teeth. he'd rather heda and himself see it first.
he is nothing like those i have met from the pack nearby.
his voice was soft, lips thin. do you think he means to return home? wherever that is?
he did not fault the boy one bit, yet the hurt could not be hidden in his golden gaze.
was it unholy to keep the boy from wherever he had come from?
so bartholomew felt it also. heda let out a sigh and moved closer to him, as much to offer comfort as to seek it. "i'm not sure." she bit her lip, focused on the not-so-distant waves which lapped their shoreline. "i think we should give him the opportunity."
sweetharbor was a haven. if mo wanted to quit that haven then he should be allowed, no matter how it made them feel. and yet she was resistant, thinking of the boy as a brother.
i agree.
and he ached, his haunches trembled for but a moment. the emotional rarely gripped his physical form. yet he loved sweetharbor so deeply.
all of it.
all of them.
i only hope he may...wait until spring. if he plans to leave by himself in search.
pain. it settled deeply upon his heart.
"i think he loves the island, bartholomew," heda murmured. by now she had become aware of all ways her mentor showed his deep emotion and love for those around them, including how it traversed his body.
"if mo wants to leave then, i'll — i'll take him." it was the least she could do. it was the most. and how it hurt to think about.
heda would take him.
bartholomew could not fathom it, truthfully. he recalled the trip home he had done with heda. for her to say her goodbyes before she returned to the island. how emotional it had become and the things he had carried for them in the wake of it after.
and yet he would do it all again for mo, if the boy wished to stay.
if he wished to go for good?
thank you.
he shrank into himself suddenly. silent and sullen. he did not wish to cut his time with heda like this. so he lingered, knowing he needed only but a moment to grieve the possibility.
nothing had even happened yet!
advisor she was. "you should — think on it," she chose to advise next, noting how her mentor had closed in on himself at the very idea.
heda's golden eyes were filled with affection and worry. "do you — maybe we should pray about this." her voice was soft. she leant forward to brush his shoulder, comforted by his scent and the firmness of his presence.
contact.
he cherished it as it felt like the first crack in sweetharbor was made. he had not intended to keep anybody here if they did not wish to be here. yet he could not fathom not having mo here. how the island would become so hushed without his boyish charm. bounding too and fro. singing and hunting.
bartholomew realized now he looked upon the boy like his own son.
he saw abraham and jacob.
we should pray for him.
he whispered. pray that God may guide him as the wisest shepherd...pray for peace upon him during these coming weeks and months.
the advisor nodded; she let out her breath with the nerves always experienced at the start of such prayers. heda was still becoming accustomed to leading them.
"dear god." a tiny, girlish voice that gathered volume. "we are coming to you about mo. we — we want him to be happy. and we want him to stay."
heda swallowed. "we — please guide him, lord. show him peace. even if he leaves sweetharbor, we want him to have that."
her heart felt heavy and yet without pain.
she led it well.
he heard himself in these words she spoke. how she had learned and grown, now God guided her through her prayers. his eyes stung and he blamed the salt.
He will guide mo.
his voice was small, a whisper shared between only the two of them.
we should visit the mainland together soon.
<3
heda felt the intimacy of his voice, how this moment was only for the pair of them. "yes," she murmured. "and he will guide us, when we go to the mainland." in hunting and in search.
on a whim she pressed her cheek against his, then turned, flushed with something like reverence.
want me to start a scouting thread? <3
he would not have sweetharbor without heda.
he thought, in truth, that he'd have nothing without heda. how he had only just begun to recover when her anger burned bright against him and he had managed to fix himself as he fixed her.
the touch brought these memories to him. especially with the talk of mo departing.
he hoped the boy never had to go through the things they had.
he missed the way she turned away.
may He grant us serenity and safety.
yes please! <3
"may He guide our steps."
heda glanced a last time into the eyes so close to the hue of her own, sun and gold, and smiled deeply. and then she was moving away, truly, perhaps to find mojag, perhaps to leave their leader to rest.
and her spirit was elated.