The Academy: between knives and moon;

Many dark and sleepless nights have I been a companion for owls.
She has been patient in her anticipation of his arrival; senses then, that arrival and turns her head to regard the colt that is seized by apprehension and denial of his right to be there. She can feel it; slips on cool, dark wings into the labyrinthine forest of his mind and is confronted by the face of another student - also hers. Raven recognized the beginnings of a Two-Spirit in him and held no bias towards the thoughts and feelings between two colts - love was love, if love it was.

But she can taste the tangled threads of his thoughts and pull them apart with her teeth. She has tasted his interest in Cheveyo but does not breath a word of it to him. What she does is smile and step quietly towards him, thinking how similar in age he is to her daughter and wonders how it came to be that she taught children searching for their path and place in the world. She nuzzles his shoulder gently and breathes a favorable breath upon his fur. “You can do this, I believe you can.” as if that truly is all that mattered - her faith in him, and maybe it isn’t enough but her lips touch his cheek and impart there, breath and words.

“Do not apologize - you have wasted no one’s time. But tell me; is this truly what you want - to learn and to one day teach?” she pulls away to regard him tenderly with a gaze more motherly than she perhaps intended for it to be. “If you are not ready for this, I can wait until you are.”

Earth II; Apprentice