Chimera Fields to be hid

Kindle beamed at the prospect. He liked Haedwig, even if she was a bit grumpy. It was good to have someone older than him around, too — being good and helpful was its own reward, but he was accustomed to the joy of an older woman approving of him, and he had missed it since leaving home. He didn't think that Haedwig yet approved... But there was a certain joy in striving for it, too.

"You should come along!" he agreed, golden eyes friendly and bright. "Neither of us know medicine. I heard his girlfriend does, but she's hardly more than a yearling, too."

He vowed (silently, to himself) that he would make this the easiest winter ever for Haedwig, if she did come with them. That would surely prove that he was Good and Honorable, and then she would admire him. Perhaps she would say to his mother, oh, yes, we could not have made it without young Kindle, and the blackbear would respond, smiling indulgently, [i]he has always been a dutiful boy. I am glad to see what a dutiful man he has become.[/i]

She had never said anything less, of course. Kindle had never been deprived of praise. Somehow, he still craved it as if he were starving.

"That sounds stifling," he said of her natal pack, trying not to sound too terribly judgmental. He was only vaguely familiar with such practices, having come from a largely matriarchal background. In theory, men and women were equal — but it had always been his mother and his older female cousins who held power in his life. Yet another reason they ought to have Haedwig around. Truly, Kindle had very little respect for his nephew, aside from the basic respect he afforded to every wolf he met.

"Did you ever want to do something else?" he asked, though he assumed also that healing did not preclude a wolf from doing anything else.