#ravencbbc

“Aye,” Wolf watched the children now. One of them was pretending to scythe grass, while another might have been dancing to music only they could hear, thudding the stick into the ground rhythmically.

“Most of the children our age were afraid of me, I think,” Wolf remembered, half a smile curling on her lips. “I cannot imagine why they were afraid of the half wild girl who lived in the woods,” she chuckled.

“I was afraid of you too,” Flow admitted. “I used to hide behind my mother’s skirts when you and Lowf came into the village.”

Wolf placed her hand to chest in mock horror. “You wound me, Flow!” she mock gasped, before grinning. “I know, I saw. I thought you were going to be terrible at hunting if you kept doing that.”

“I never had your patience for hunting,” Flow tilted her head to the side. “Fighting on the other hand.”

“You could probably still beat me in a sparring match.”

“Do not doubt it!” Flow laughed, lifting a crutch into the air. “I come with weaponry included!”

“As do I!” Wolf allowed her fangs to grow as she grinned, before shrinking them back.

“On the forest edge at dawn?”

“Naturally.”

The two fell into another bout of laughter, not serious about the fight.

“That said, I grew to love you like a sister,” Flow said once the laughter had faded. “Although, I think you wished for the love to be different?”

All the humour drained from Wolf, and she glanced at Flow before finding the horizon.

“…Aye. For a time. You did not feel the same, so the matter rested.”

“… I did. Feel the same,” Flow clarified. Wolf slowly turned to look at her.

“Then why did you not say?”

“I did not realise until… until Cyrus came, and I realised that I was going to lose you. I was too much of a coward to speak.”

Wolf stared. “And… when I returned?”

“I was still a coward,” Flow chuckled, but there was little humour. “I had the courage to throw myself into battle, no matter who asked, but to admit to one of my oldest friends that I had romantic feelings for them? That was too much of an ask.”

“Flow, you have never been a coward.”

“You do not have to lie to me.”

“I am not. You are at least telling me now.”

“There is that,” Flow winced and shifted her position slightly. “One day my leg will realise it has gone,” she grumbled. “Besides, you were destined for things greater than me.”

“Do not say that!”

“I am not wrong,” Flow looked at Wolf. “I would have been an anchor, holding you in the harbour. When you should have been sailing free.”

“Forgive me if I am wrong, but is an anchor not always part of the ship? An anchor does not hold a ship back, but merely prevents it from drifting to unsafe waters.”

“The Royal Fortress was not dangerous,” Flow countered. “You would have been a grand ship, languishing in the harbour.”

“Or my anchor could have come with me.”

“Truly?” Flow raised an eyebrow. “Cyrus would not have allowed me, surely you understand that.”

“An agreement could have been made.”

“You do not believe that any more than I do. A commoner with two born shifters and the princess? Be realistic, Wolf. Apart or together, if you had known it would only have hurt us both.”

“You think it did not hurt to leave you behind?”

“Then the pain would have been sharper.”

“If you had been able to join me, then perhaps…”

“Perhaps what? Perhaps I would not have lost my leg? And perhaps you would not have been exiled? We all have our pain to harp on, Wolf. You know this.”

“The what-if’s, could-have-been’s, I am aware.”

Flow blew out of her cheeks. “Perhaps I should not have told you this.”

“No. I am glad you told me. Whether events would have gone differently if you had told me sooner, is impossible to know for certain.”

“Aye,” Flow sighed. “And, I have certainly moved on from that. We were young, we are not the same people now as we were then.”

“Aye. I still hold great fondness for you, but my romantic feelings for you have subsided.”

“I am glad we can agree,” Flow glanced at Wolf. “You know, I was not entirely joking about fighting at dawn.”

“Were you not?” a smile grew on Wolf’s face. “Then your request shall be honoured,” she held her hand out, mostly upright.

Flow looked at it, and with her own grin she clasped Wolf’s hand in her own.

--

While I had always planned that Wolf would have had a childhood crush, I always intended for it to be some unnamned character, not Flow. This is what happens when you listen 'Never Love an Anchor' by the Crane Wives on repeat!

And would you look at that, I'm back! Kinda. I got a burst of inspiration listening to that song, and I got a few pieces out of it, but after a few weeks I will most likely disappear into the ether again