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"So. You will teach me?"
"I'm not sure what Tamara and her family taught you before you got here, but if there's any gaps you're aware of, I can fill them in, and I can kind of go over everything else and you can tell me which parts I can skip."
"Teach me as a pup."
"I can do that. Sure. I mean, I will try. But you always seem to know things. I feel kind of silly to tell you basic things."
"A thing known, is better explored many times. I know only what I know. Your teaching will expand this by one. You are talespinner. Tell me a story. Teach me. Of the tribes, of our kind."
"Okay, uh... I guess I'd usually start off with a story about the Triat. Something that would explain how they are... You're a Black Fury? Or were you going to be a Child of Gaia? I guess you have your choice, right? Do you know yet or want to wait on that till after..."
"I am of my mother."
Eyes closed, senses replaying memory, Diane mulled over the conversation she'd had with Agememnon. Tamara had left again, so soon after returning to them, this time taking Jenny, but leaving behind Niko and Agememnon. She could see in Niko how much he missed her. But what about Agememnon? He'd shown no sign to Diane of missing his mother, yet she had seen how close they were when Tamara had first arrived with Agememnon, and how much time they spent in one another's company.
There were bits of darkness in Diane's head now. Maybe she had seen the signs, and overlooked them. Maybe that last thing she'd just been remembering him saying was one of them, he'd seemed so assured of his choice. "I am of my mother." Maybe they were so close they didn't even need to be physically together to keep their closeness. Tiny triangles of darkness, like scraps of cloth, like claw-rips in a cloth, showing the night through their emptiness. The scraps of darkness swirled, in a tightening spiral, bearing closer, Diane's whole body jerked back from them, and she opened her eyes.
Why did she keep wanting to ask Agememnon about Tamara, whether he missed her? And why did she feel so strongly that she should not ask? She couldn't remember ever before feeling so conflicted about what to do over something so irrelevant. There was no reason to ask him, and there was no reason NOT to ask him, yet she kept being pulled in both directions so hard that the contradiction was infuriating. The question kept coming to her lips and then she'd stifle it. Or she'd decide to just ask, dammit, and then be unable to. Her temper was fraying worse each time this happened. She tried not to think about it and then at the worst moment it'd happen again.
The worst thing was that it was making her avoid Agememnon altogether and she didn't like that, she enjoyed his company, she wanted to spend time with him and yet she felt like she couldn't till she worked this out. So she sat and stewed and tried to figure it out and nothing was coming to mind and it was all so FRUSTRATING! that she had to howl... her voice filled the sky and her whole head and echoed with all the frustration and all the confusion and it was swirling and it caught all the scraps of darkness and swirled them all away.
Silence rang in Diane's ears again. She felt much better.
She hadn't figured anything out but she still felt better and that was
going to be good enough for now. She went back to where Agememnon
was sleeping in the cave and curled up next to him and didn't feel a bit
like avoiding him and so it was all ok.. for the time being... until the
next time.