Swiftcurrent Creek when emma falls in love

@Mae!

Today was a day for Eshe re-stock her supply of typha. She was running low on it and, thanks to @Arlette teaching her about it, knew they needed a surplus ready for anything that might happen.

There was an area of the southern part of the creek where she liked to harvest; the reeds were ample, and the water was calm and shallow. She had a leaf on a large, flat stone along the shore where she collected the material and would use it to carry everything back to her den when she was done.

Eshe entered the water slowly but paused as the cold water nipped at her ankles. Her fur fluffed every which way as she took a moment to adjust to the change in temperature, and she stayed in place for a moment as she assessed how much she could collect. Although the reeds hadn't fully recovered from the last time she'd picked, there was enough to get by until more grew in.

It was Akavir's scent that stopped her.

Otherwise, Mae might have walked right by the woman standing in the water. She wasn't sure what was going on, and she didn't care. The pale wolf was clearly no relative of Mae's — and so for the same reason she would have gone ignored under any other circumstance, the Mayfair girl now paused to regard her with eyes ablaze.

She watched the woman for a moment, then noticed the leaf laid out on a flat stone. Mae stepped toward it, looking at the pale wolf and then back at what was clearly her leaf. Then she slowly tore it in half, eyes lifting to watch for a reaction.

This wasn’t the first time that Eshe had engaged with a child testing their boundaries. She had assisted with raising her siblings, and Mae’s behavior wasn’t out of the ordinary. But, even with her experience, this didn’t make the ordeal any less frustrating.

She took a deep breath before reacting; this wasn’t the time to have a knee-jerk reaction. It’d only feed into the behavior.

“Mae,” she assumed, knowing Akavir only had one daughter. “Can you help me out with something?”

Mae felt her heart beating fast in her ears. She wasn't sure if she was still angry, but she continued to rip the leaf into smaller and smaller shreds. Only when the woman spoke did she pause, just for a moment, to look back down at what she was doing.

What was she doing?

Her throat tightened and then the feeling turned back to anger and then to something worse, something that felt like the shivering of a swollen droplet of water in the moment before it falls. I am helping, Mae told her, giggling as her eyes found the woman again, and continued to rip the leaf. But there was no joy in her. Only that shivering feeling, threatening to burst.

”Oh?” she asked, noticing the change in the child’s demeanor, ”How’re you helping?” Maybe that’d been too big of a question to address such big feelings—she cringed at her mistake.

”I‘m collecting reed fluff,” she explained, reigning it in a bit. ”And I was going to use that leaf to bring it back to my den.” Then, an idea: ”Do you want to help me carry it?” Children benefitted from doing jobs—especially when they were the ones to decide to help.

Makin' more leaves, Mae explained, but she dropped the torn pieces, embarrassed and unwilling to admit it. She eyed the woman. Reed fluff? What's reed fluff? Whaddya use it for?

She wasn't sure she wanted to carry anything for the woman who was clearly stealing Akavir's time. But Mae was curious. Calmer, too, now that she'd released some of the destructive energy building within her. At least for the moment.

“I see,” she said, nodding her head in acknowledgment. “We could use those leaves for something,” she had to think on her feet. “Maybe … I could use them for mulch in my garden …” she ventured. “That is, if you don’t mind letting me do that—you did all the work, after all.”

Mae was curious about the fluff, which made Eshe feel a bit more hopeful. Maybe, just maybe, she could salvage this and get to know the girl better. She pointed to the nearest bunch of typha and said, "Reed fluff is the white, fluffy stuff growing on the reeds. They kinda look like feathers, don’t they?”

“I use them to help other wolves when they’re hurt—they help stop bleeding,” she explained. “You just put them on a wound and hold them in place until it stops!”

A garden? Mae's ears pulled up at that. I wanna help, She announced, bulldozing over Eshe's attempt at a kind redirection. I wanna see your garden!

She started to gather as much of the reed fluff as she could carry, determined now to make herself so invaluable to Eshe's cause that she couldn't be refused. Her face was hardly visible behind it all, but her tail waved proudly in the air.

Mentioning the garden caught Mae’s attention and led to excitement. Eshe’s heart warmed; it was wonderful to see her so interested. ”I’d love your help,” she said, watching as the fluff was collected. She smiled and collected the rest of the material, appreciating the effort already being shown.

”Lets go!” Eshe wouldn’t offer to help Mae until she asked for it. She was capable, and she wanted to encourage her independence.

She started of slowly to give her a moment to collect herself and make sure she could carry everything she’d grabbed.

”I’ll also need help watering the plants—they’re pretty thirsty because of the heat. You up for the challenge?” Maybe they could make a competition out of it—something to make it fun and engaging.

Mae followed eagerly, trailing little bits of fluff that fell off with the sway of her step. When Eshe posed her question, she nodded vigorously and made a sound that might have passed for agreement. It was the closest she could get to speaking.

For now, a truce existed between the two. It would be all but forgotten by Mae as soon as their task was done — but it was a start.

The truce was nice while it lasted.

Eshe and Mae spent the afternoon together, working in the garden and adding learning games into the mix.

When she dropped her off at home, her optimistic side hopes they could do this again. But, the realist in her, begged to differ, knowing this’d been a stroke of luck.