Moonspear the fire within

It was frightening to see how little reaction he elicited from Vela. Charon was afraid, more than anything else, to lose his daughter like he'd lost Julia. Though it was different -- he loved Vela a great deal more than he had ever loved Julia; but he'd still loved her, as she was his daughter too -- he could not help but wonder if this would drive her away. All he wanted was for them to be a family and Vela fit into that picture, as the perfect copy of himself. He wouldn't be able to bear losing her.

Jarilo's questions distracted him from his thoughts as he did not know what he could do or say about the Vela-problem at hand. He felt saying anything about her current attitude would only drive her further away. So instead he focussed on Jarilo's questions about gender while continuing the climb. He chuckled as Jarilo asked if mama decided what gender the babies'd be, or if they decided this themselves. "Neither. Nature decides these things for us. We have little say in it ourselves. So better be real nice to nature so she'll give you brothers, then." Charon winked at Jarilo -- of course it wasn't really how that worked -- as he continued the climb. Once they'd reached a plateau-like ledge Charon said: "Let's take a small break and look at the surroundings from up here." He'd missed climbing through winter and though it wasn't safe to go all the way up the mountain yet he was looking forward to taking those trips with Jarilo and Vela when the ice and snow melted away.