"Unfortunately, I've tried all the therapeutic techniques for your daughter: Talk therapy, sock puppets, spanking, and yodeling."
"I'm sorry, what was that last one?" Adamantyn asked the therapist, a Mister Quackly.
"Yodeling," Quackly told him.
Bise leaned forward and slammed a paw firmly. "Okay, but there MUST be a way to help our daughter through her atheism. She has to believe in the gods, and be able to read the sundial for the sacrifice."
Quackly pushed up his glasses, and gave a hmph. "Well, I suppose, this is something you're going to have to talk with her about."
"Oh, we'll definitely do that," Adamantyn said, and nodded to his wife, who barely acknowledged him.
"We're paying some good money for some ungood results," Bise said.
Quickly, Quackly said, "Well, we can try and have more sessions in a couple of weeks because results are slow."
Swillow listened to the door, pressing her ear close. The office was relatively small, with only a couple of couches and a small toy set where she could push a ball through a loop. Yeah, that was fun.
She went over to sit with the boy in the room, a coyote with blackish fur. "My mommy and daddy took me here because I said I didn't believe in gods at all."
The coyote didn't even say anything to her.
Swillow balanced herself on the seat handles and swung herself off onto the floor. And then she leaned over and tried fiddling with the loops. "Why did your parents take you over here?"
Coyote glanced.
Swillow focused on the balls again and said, "You don't like to talk very much, do you?"
Well, he didn't talk back, that said enough.
Swillow muttered, "I don't like when my parents are upset at me for something I didn't know was wrong. I don't really think the gods are real. Maybe I should just tell them they are. Grown-ups really like being agreed with, and I should know, I watch the news when my parents are early in the morning."
And with that, the coyote came over with a small smile. And he plopped himself down to be near her.
Swillow asked, "But are you insane?"
So, the coyote's eyes widened and he scrunched his face no.
Swillow said, "My parents think I'm insane, that's why I'm here."
Aldar nodded and they then either one took a bead and went through the loops. Until, at some point, Aldar hit Swillow's bead.
"You hit my bead!" she said.
But he did so again with a smile.
Swillow laughed and said, "Stop," and she hit into his beads, and they kept doing this to see who could knock the beads back further.
But the door opened and Swillow's parents came out, and then there was a different door that opened, and two coyotes came out. Bise said, "Okay, let's go, Swillow."
Swillow told the coyote, "I've got to go."
"Oh, you've talked with that boy?" Adamantyn said as he headed for the door.
"No, he doesn't talk," Swillow said to her father.
One of the new coyotes, the mother with pearl necklace, said, "Oh, Aldar talks, he just doesn't want to."
Offering a suggestion or thought, Swillow perked up and said, "That's okay, though. He doesn't need to talk if he doesn't wanna."
The mother gave Swillow a look no adult gave her before, and that when Swillow was an adult, she knew she'd never give. And that was when Swillow left with her parents.
School, next day, milk cartons already opened, and Swillow bought the chocolate chip pancakes. Cafeteria was quieter at breakfast than at lunch.
Citrus Snow, who had the pan dulce, said, "I wonder why he doesn't talk that much. Maybe he was stupid. Was his face stupid?"
Swillow said, "How can a face even be stupid though, Citrus?"
Exhibit A, also known as Wasting, sat down next to Citrus Snow. With a goofy grin, he said, "Hey Citrus, wanna go to the Dance?"
"That's for the older kids," Citrus Snow said, "and I wouldn't go out with you if you were the last boy in the world either." Citrus Snow shook her head to add some sass. "Even if you were the last boy creature."
"Well, yeah, you wouldn't date a horse," Wasting told her.
Citrus Snow was caught off-guard and didn't know what to say, so she went back to her pan dulce.
"Who were you two saying had a stupid face?" Wasting asked either girl.
Swillow said, "That's none of your business, Wasting!" She wasn't angry at the question, just at him.
"That was just a question!" Wasting shouted at her. He figured she was mad about the question obviously.
Citrus Snow said, "You know, if you want to find Aldar, I can ask my dad about him."
"Your dad knows Aldar?"
Citrus Snow told Swillow, "I don't know, but I know he knows everyone, so he knows him or his parents though. And the school has a list of all the parents so he could find his parents from the school, I'm sure." While that would be highly illegal actually, Citrus Snow's father probably did worse anyway.
Wasting tried to insert himself into the talk again and said, "I wanna meet Aldar."
"Well, he probably doesn't want to meet you," Swillow told Wasting and she took up her carton of milk once more.
Wasting bumped the carton.
As cold milk spilt over her chest fluff, Swillow stared down then at him again and said, "I'm telling Mom about that and you'll get grounded for the rest of your life."
But Wasting had already gone away without anything to say.
"I hate carrying these buckets," Wasting said, as the water steamed over the snow. All filling in like this was mud in a way, and drilling or melting through the snow. They were already a couple of blocks away, and Wasting was glaring at Swillow. And then he went and gave the bucket a firm slap with his paw.
Swillow said, "Stop acting up, you're the one who dropped the water."
"This is your fault! We wouldn't be told to go to the well if you didn't get us in trouble at school!"
"You're the one who started all of the trouble."
Going to the well was rarely necessarily, because even most of the poorer houses in their area had free flowing water. However, the well was seen as a great punishment for minor misbehaviors. And the teacher at the cafeteria reported them. Swillow really thought that was lame honestly.
"Look," Swillow said, "Go and get more water." She had the pole balanced on her shoulders, strapped together. Wasting never did his straps right because he thought he didn't have to, the results of the philosophy still staring at them.
"I don't want to go all the way back there." They were about 3/9ths of the way there. And didn't know they could simply say 1/3rds of the way.
At least a mile of snow was in front of them. Honestly, the way to the well was also somewhat creepy, as they'd have to go past the firs and through the bridge again, to this mythical feeling and very isolating spot. Since few used the well anymore seriously, the place was falling apart and overgrown.
Wasting said, "I'm sure we'll be fine, and we should head home anyway." So, Wasting would trudge forth.
"Wasting, you're going to get us both in trouble," Swillow said.
Normally, Wasting would roll his eyes but go back, but instead he kept going forth.
"Wasting, please," Swillow said, and she was stuck, and thought she could go back and get the water, or tell him she'll do such a thing. However, she was too creeped out, and soon saw her brother's rump vanishing over the horizon, and so begrudgingly she caught up.
However, as she was closing in on her brother, that's when she saw a couple of the Lupegarthe Dogficcers around someone small. But either of them glanced at her and waved their tails. "Hello, Swillow!"
"Hello," Swillow said to her daddy's workmates, only to see that beneath them was a small coalish lump of fur. One that belonged to a coyote.
"Aldar," Swillow said and ironically dropped her own buckets as she went over to him. "What are you doing?"
"This little tramp was caught stealing from a market," said Brymstone, as she stood over the coyote who was trembling.
"Yeah," Gran told Swillow, "so we're giving him a few bites since he wanted to steal a few bites. Seems fair enough, though."
Swillow hopped over onto Aldar and told them both, "You shouldn't hit him. I'll pay for anything that he took away."
Gran tsked. "No need, we're both about to leave anyway," and he left with his partner, down an alley and into the wider stores.
Aldar stared up at Swillow before he sat up on the snow.
"Are you okay, Aldar?" Swillow asked the coyote.
He signed in the snow, "Yes," in cursive.
Swillow couldn't read cursive, so he nodded yes also. Then, he wrote a bit more in the snow, but in a clearer way. "This isn't only time."
"Oh, what's that supposed to mean, though," Swillow asked. "And why are you naked, in this snow?"
Aldar was about to write again, but Swillow took off her scarf and wrapped the cloth around him, and Swillow huffed a few times. She could see her warm breath in the mist getting on him, but she was much more upset about his situation so far.
She grabbed the bags of food he must have stolen. Maybe he couldn't explain that he wanted to order. And she took off her straps and put the bags on either pole, before she put the yoke back on her. "Come on, we're going to my house."
Aldar seemed slightly unnerved and quirked his face, but led by her for the moment.
At the front gates, just slightly after, Swillow pointed down the hall. "The bathroom is down that way so you can wash off."
Aldar stared down the many pillars and he seemed to just sulk over. Then he turned back to her as if questioning if she was sure.
So Swillow went over to the door with him, knowing he might've been scared to wash in someone else's place. In a dark room, with a couple of lanterns, was the guest tub. She filled the wooden basin with the remnants of the water she had just got from the well, letting them steam.
"Okay, you can get in."
She went next door over to the linen closet and carried in some bathrobes that she flung over the rack haphazardlike. "You can wear these as soon as you're out."
Aldar never had a chance to bathe in anyone else's house before, so he stared at the tub and stepped near. At the rim, he took his rear paw, extended a claw, and poked the surface of the water, then his toes.
He needed to get back home eventually, probably. But would his parents even care if he was there or know he wasn't?
He put in his toes. Then the sole of his foot, until he was gradually pushing away water with his hindquarters. Feet submerged.
And he was left alone with all of his thoughts about who Swillow even was. She had been nice to him whereas few were.
He could, however, hear some arguing in the courtyard, and that might've been because of how loud her family was.
Swillow's voice was easy enough to tell apart. "He was in the cold and didn't have anything to wear."
A male voice next, one that sound adult, "You still need to say before you bring someone in here."
"Lavandyr," came the next male, but with more bass. Maybe this was her father. "We still follow Owlis' law in this house. Remember, visitors are blessings."
In the snow was Swillow, Wasting, Lavandyr, Bise, Adamantyn, and even a couple of extended family members from Adamantyn's part of the family. However, finally, Grandma said, "Your father is right, you need to show respect to your guests."
Wasting said, raising a paw, "Shouldn't Swillow be in trouble for losing the water."
"You lost yours too, Wasting," Adamantyn told his son, "and no, you're not in trouble and neither is she. Now go help your mom prepare with dinner."
"I thought you said I wasn't in trouble," Wasting told him.
"You aren't. That's just your job today," Adamantyn said and saw his wife was offended by that.
"I thought you liked to prepare with dinner," Bise said.
"No, no one likes doing that," Wasting said.
"You're getting to peel all the snotatoes tomorrow," Bise said, "and if you whine again tonight, you'll have to pull them out."
Wasting, grumpy, went to the kitchen. Bise nudged him along with her muzzle and he yelped, but went quicker. And he went to chop at carrots and peppers.
With a small family of eight, the dining hall wasn't normally full, but Aldar got to take one of the edges of the table.
Everyone had a small bowl of soup and some bread as well. Aldar was about to bite into his bread when Bise spoke.
"So, Aldar, where are you from?"
His eye was wide and his fangs were about to close in on the bread, when he realized he would have to talk this moment.
Swillow said, "Oh, Aldar doesn't talk much, if at all."
Aldar nodded.
Bise smiled, awkward feeling. "How about this, you just nod yes or no? Okay, do you live around here."
No.
"Oh, is your family doing well right now."
He shrugged.
Bise said, "Do you have a favorite food, oh, wait, you can't say that." She laughed and rephrased, "Do you like pudding."
"I also like pudding," Wasting said, smiling as if any adult actually approved.
Aldar nodded.
Bise said, "I'll take you home later tonight, okay Aldar."
And Aldar nodded also.
Swillow told Aldar, "Make sure not to waste anything that you eat, because that is very bad. We are still going through a war technically."
Aldar nodded at her, but more expressively at least.
Swillow broke through any awkward silences like water melting ice. "You know, Aldar, this week in school we're studying about the swamps. Turns out, all the frogs live in the swamps and so do all the farmers. That's why we're fighting at the swamps."
Aldar leaned in to listen to her, while the adults went to talk amongst themselves. Usually, Swillow and Wasting hadn't anyone to talk to, and Wasting, in a corner, still didn't.
When Bise went to take Aldar away, Swillow told him, "Goodbye, Aldar, and I'll see you after school tomorrow. You remember the way."
Aldar shook his tail and quirked his face in understanding before going away with Bise.
And they met at school tomorrow, next day, and next tomorrow from that.
