Moonspear BWP5—siren

Hydra had a good point. It made him feel a little better to have it reinforced that Arcturus was simply much more experienced than he, though his insidious doubts remained. That part of him that believed he was worthless was much too difficult to shake off. So many things contributed to it, many of them obvious, some of them not so much. Given the course of his life thus far, it was no wonder the boy's confidence was paper thin and small failures felt like massive disappointments to him.

They also served to drive him, for Dragomir's low self esteem made him believe that he had a lot to prove; this alone was why he worked as hard as he did at the tasks laid before him. Had he more confidence and more self worth, perhaps he would not have to push himself so hard or get down on himself so much for small things, like Arcturus taking a stick from him.

Dragomir lowered his head to study the pebbles that Hydra indicated, and then instinctively flinched back when her paw lashed out, sending them flying in an upward arc. It didn't take a lot of brain power to realize the benefit of such a tactic; what wolf wouldn't draw back to avoid the debris? Even with little experience in tactics, Dragomir could envision how that would create an opening. Like this? he asked, swinging his own paw across the dirt.

His pebbles only skipped lamely along the ground—his angle had been all wrong to scoop them up like Hydra had—but at least he sent them somewhere, right? It was a start.