"C'mon." I huff, somewhat discontentedly, before I can think to keep it in my head rather than voicing it.

"You think I have some ulterior motive?"

Hannah tilts her head ever so slightly as if her raised eyebrow suddenly weighted one side of her head. Her vivid blue topaz-colored eyes fix to mine, and her look is far more scrutinizing than I'm used to. I lower my eyes to the table, that little ball of shame knotting in my stomach again for reasons unknown.

"I don't–I don't think so; I don't know why I thought that."

"Yes, you do."

Hannah reaches forward across the small table and rests one of her hands on top of mine. She squeezes my hand very lightly, which causes me to look back at her.

"You've seen how the world can truly be Orion, now more so than your two companions Lani and Khalil. It's natural for some suspicion to creep into your thoughts."

I exhale ever so slightly as if her telling me that freed my shame.

"I don't want to feel like people aren't telling me the whole story. Being suspicious or whatever–it's mentally exhausting."

"Yes, it is. Why do you think I originally moved so far out into the Wilds with Jorge?"

I look at her hand, which is still on top of mine, then follow her arm up to her face after she says that.

"Nobody knows the answer to that question that I know."

"Some do, most don't, you're right."

She squeezes my hand once more before releasing it and withdrawing her arm and hand back to her side. Her peaceful appearance feels warm and soothing, helping to melt away some of the doubt in my chest.

"I'm worried that the Blackham will take out what I did on the village." I finally blurt out, unprompted.

"You mean when you upstaged their tracking group's very sensitive, ego-centric leader. Then, forced that same leader to agree to give you a very expensive and rare creature against his will, while holding him at arrow's point? While also requiring that he blood oath swear it?"

"Er, yeah…" My eyes lower back to the table, the knot of shame returning with a vengeance.

"I can see how you might be concerned that they might seek out some retaliation."

She exhales slightly, with just a little noise drifting into the air.

"Orion, Orion, you have truly found yourself in some troubles lately, haven't you?"

"Not a big fan of it, really."

"Come now, I don't believe that in the slightest." She laughs melodiously and softly, like a tickle from a warm breeze.

The laughter draws my eyes back up from the table's top to look at her. She's gazing at me with one of the corners of her lips tilted upwards in amusement. The surprise must register on my face–I've got to get better at my poker face.

"Orion, I know very much that some part of you is quite enjoying your exposure to a bigger slice of the world; you don't need to pretend otherwise with me. Do you think I didn't notice that you pointedly didn't mention much about that vampire, Cassandra, in your storytelling earlier?"

I purse my lips, thinking of what to say in response.

"Wasn't relevant to the story."

"Isn't it, though? Motivations are important–it's how we can accurately determine how a person might act or react. If you know a person's heart, you can guess how they are most likely to react."

"Sounds a lot like politics to me."

"Because it is a large part of politics when dealing face-to-face with others."

"Yeah, I'm not a politician, Hannah."

"I didn't say you were, but you could learn some helpful things like one. I'm not chastising you in any way here, Orion. I'm just mentioning that it would be in your best interest to try and learn how to suss out people's true motivations. It can only help you."

"Yeah, maybe. But what are we going to do about the Blackham?" I sigh.

Hannah watched me for a few moments, her facial features now being a calm mask. Her topaz eyes shift slightly as she takes a few seconds to analyze my face. A few moments later, she gazes away, looking in the direction of flora blooming along the outskirts of her open backyard. It occurs to me that I never really noticed Hannah's contemplating looks before now–maybe because I'd only been a hunter and occasional trader, so there wasn't drama I was privy to.

"Usually, if they were dealing with a normal village, I would say they'd likely send an emissary to try to scare us. Against a normal Wilder village, they'll egotistically believe that a show of wealth or force will cow us–and the majority here would be cowed, of course; they're good folks and don't want to deal with hostilities. Normally, they'd likely demand that we either turn over the wiretail–pardon me, Ranger–or they'll require us to put him down where they can witness it."

"Not going to happen."

"Perhaps. Are you so willing to bring the strife you're suggesting here over one wiretail, Orion?"

"It's not about Ranger, exactly. I just don't think we should kill him because Kline was too stupid to handle the tracking group the right way. Somehow, I'm sure he's spun up some story about how the two that died from the night terrors were my fault or somesuch."

"So it's your ego versus his?"

"What?" I blurt out defensively. "This doesn't have anything to do with my ego. I did the right thing out there, Hannah."

"Yes, you did. And now the 'right thing' you chose to do could endanger our village. You haven't been to Blackham City, so you don't know the extent of their power."

"Neither have you, at least since I've been alive," I grumble a little petulantly.

"Haven't I? Do you know what I can or cannot do, Orion?"

"No," I mumble, suddenly embarrassed at my childish outburst.

"Look at me, Orion."

I exhale a little air through my nose and then raise my eyes again to hers. Her eyes and skin are more luminous than usual. I may have irritated her, which disturbs me more than I care to admit.

"Sorry, Hannah. I'm all in my head and feelings about this."

"Shhh. I want you to listen very carefully, and I want you to learn this now so that you don't have to learn it in a terrible way in the future."

I swallow hard, though my mouth and throat feel dry. I nod my head, keeping silent for the moment.

"You have a tendency to assume you know everything that can occur based on what you see with your own eyes. You need to understand that our world–the real one–does not work that way. Some can cast their thoughts and consciousness great distances, and others can read your thoughts or even give you thoughts that aren't things you would normally think of. You know that abilities can greatly vary from fey to fey. And yet, you still assume that what you see in front of you is the truth, like an oblivious wean. You need to realize right here and now that anything is possible–stop being the wean you were; it's time to be the faerie you are. Now that you've dipped your toes into the lapping waves of the world at large, you will endanger yourself and those around you by being childish or willfully ignorant."

Hannah rose from her seat and gestured for me to follow her. I do so without complaint or hesitation because I realize she's giving me a life lesson that I need to take to heart. Hannah moves ahead of me gracefully across the grass of her open yard. As I follow her, I watch the grass on the ground quiver and stretch ever so slightly towards Hannah as if it were wishing to touch her as she passes by. When she comes to a stop, it's next to a small birdbath with bubbling water flowing out of a carved stone spout. Hannah crouches momentarily and turns the running water off, leaving the bowl with still water after the ripples finish across its surface.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

"What do you see?"

I look from Hannah towards the birdbath and approach the stone lawn adornment. My pale eyes search the water and the bowl for some trick, but I can't see one.

"Uhhh…"

Hannah watches me placidly, her eyes and skin still giving off the faintly luminous glow I haven't seen before. She doesn't speak, instead silently telling me to try again. I breathe quietly through my nose, step right next to the birdbath, and look down, trying to study the carving more carefully and see anything I might have missed. After a few minutes, I shake my head in defeat.

"Sorry, I don't see it. Whatever 'it' is supposed to be."

"Look at yourself, Orion."

I momentarily raise my eyes to her, then look back to the birdbath's water, gazing at the reflection–much like I did at the bottom of the soup bowl while out in the Wilds on the traveler's path.

"Who do you see there, now?"

"I don't know the guy looking back at me, Hannah. I saw my face earlier in the week in the same way, and I–I don't know me right now."

"Yes, you've changed, and you're worried that the change must mean something negative. It doesn't have to. People must change to grow. What we encounter molds us, changes our view, and gives us new ways to see some situations we might have encountered before from a different perspective. Your only other encounter with a life-changing event was the business with your mother–a negative change. I know you don't wish to speak of your mother, and we aren't going to. But you need to know that change is not always a terrible or negative thing. You have a spark in you that others don't have, and you need to learn to nurture it. However, you also need to learn that you cannot let your ego or decisions simply come into existence without thinking them through first. The choices you make not only affect you, but they affect those around you and can affect you even further than that."

She walks a few feet away and plucks three leaves from a small tree before returning to the birdbath and standing beside me. She drops one leaf before me in the birdbath and spreads the other two on the opposite side.

"Watch."

Without waiting to see if I'm watching–which I am–she taps the water with a fingertip next to the leaf in front of me a few times. It's not hard enough to sink the leaf, but it does send ripples out through the birdbath.

"A ripple you create in the water might not reach the other leaves right away–" She touches the water once again, making a slightly larger ripple. "–but your ripple can and will reach them in time."

The leaves on the other side of the birdbath waver and try to float over the ripples caused by Hannah touching the water next to my leaf.

"You must learn how to think about the consequences of your actions–your ripple–not only for yourself but for those who might suffer the side effects of the action further down the road. It sounds easy to do, but it isn't. You are capable of being more cerebral, Orion; you need to leave Orion-the-wean behind to do it. Time to be Orion-the-elven-man that you are now."

Hannah reaches down and turns back on the water flow to the stone birdbath, and once again, the water bubbles forth, sinking the three leaves into the bottom of the bowl with the water's disturbance. She uses her long fingers to fish the three leaves out before dropping them to the carpet of grass we're standing in.

"I don't know how to."

"There's no guidebook to life, Orion. You just have to weave your way around troubles, joyful moments, and changes. You shouldn't choose to isolate yourself, so find those you trust the most and keep them close. You already come to people for advice that you believe have more life experience. I'm not telling you to continue doing that, even though it applies to me here. But seeking out others you implicitly trust to give you good advice to decide if you will take heed of is an outstanding trait you have. You should trust your instincts about it."

I nod my head to her, understanding and accepting the advice. When she lapses into total silence, I realize the life lesson segment of our chat is over. I grin a little, feeling much better even if I have much to consider. I look at her before quipping.

"So, how is Blackham City then?"

She smirked at me, her luminous glow around her skin and eyes fading to normal as the seconds passed. Hannah steps around me and returns to the small table, sitting there as if we'd never even moved. I quickly move to join her at the table.

"It's larger than you'd expect. It's not quite as large as the cities you've been to in the human divide, but it's large enough. They have quite a number of wiretails. They are dangerous, don't get me wrong, Orion. Some people even believe they're strong enough to challenge the Aurora tribe for the rule over sun ascendancy if you believe tavern chatter."

"Do you think they are?"

"I don't truly know, but I do know we don't need to have their eyes on us."

"What options do we have as a village?"

"You let me worry about that, Orion love."

"You're not worried?"

"At risk of making you not understand the repercussions of your actions–no, I'm not worried."

"Can I ask you something personal, Hannah?"

She leans back slightly in her seat, with her arms folded loosely over her abdomen, and uses the slight distance to study my facial features before finally choosing to respond to me.

"Yes."

"You said you moved out into the Wilds because you got mentally exhausted from being suspicious or always trying to peep people's motivations. And I remember how–the night before we left to track Ranger–two of the Blackham elves paid their respects to you before they left your house. So I guess my question is… Who were you before you moved here?"

She's silent for a few moments, her arresting topaz blue eyes not wavering from their gaze on me. Finally, after I'd started to think she wouldn't answer at all, she does.

"The Hannah that moved here to the Wilds to become Hannah the Wilder is not who she was before."

Her speaking in the third person weirded me out, but she didn't answer my question, so I pressed the issue slightly.

"I get that, but who were you before Hannah the Wilder?"

"Are we speaking in confidence, nephew?"

"I'd never betray your trust willingly."

"I believe you."

She exhales a long stream of air, warm and expressive. She doesn't want to answer, but I can tell she will. She stands instead of speaking and gestures for me to follow her inside her home. I pull myself off the seat again next to the tiny table we'd been at and shuffle across the grass to follow her inside. We walk through the short hallways to a closed–and locked–door. She murmurs a word to the air next to the door's locking mechanism, and the multitude of locks undo themselves one after the other before the door creaks open.

"You're not about to show me your secret dungeon, right?" I joke, trying to break the tension from waiting to see what Hannah is about to show me.

She doesn't respond to my joke. Instead, she steps inside the room, which appears to glow from within. At first, I thought it was just poor lighting, but as I followed her inside, I saw that faint illumination was coming from some of the items inside the small room. Along the small room's walls are books and scrolls, clothes and even armor, weapons–blades, bows, and a few others. In the center of the room, sitting on a simple wooden pedestal is the most illuminating object, casting the brightest–yet still faint–light to the room. The object is a heavy-looking necklace made of gold, with an ornate golden sun pendant that has white and carmine-red polished stones expanding outwards from its golden center in the shape of sun rays.

I step closer to the necklace as Hannah allows me into the room, and my eyebrows raise as I study it.

"Wait. What? This is–"

"Yes, it's one of the distinguished markings of the ruling caste of the Aurora tribe."

"Holy shit, you're Hannah of the Aurora."

"No. I was Hannah of the Aurora a lifetime ago. Now I am Hannah the Wilder."

I walk over to where the armor and weapons are–I see the large hammer Jorge brought out the day the Blackham rode into our village on their wiretails. I stop to crouch and look at the beast of a weapon before my eyes shift to the beautiful pair of bows neatly resting in a wooden holder next to the hammer. I reach out to touch one of them and am surprised by the physical warmth radiating from the wood.

"They're not going to attack us." I suddenly blurt out.

"They're not going to attack us," Hannah responds with a muted agreement.

"Wait. Was my mother a–"

"No, but your father was. He was a good man, and I miss him. I wish you would have known him before… before he passed."

"Before she killed him, you mean."

"Before he passed." She corrects me sharply.

Knocking at the front door ends our conversation and "show and tell." She gestures for me to leave the room, and she follows me out, pausing only momentarily to listen for all the locks to be moved back into place supernaturally. Rather than retaking our position outside, Hannah leads us both to the front door before opening it to Khalil standing there.

"Uh, hey, guys. Sorry it took longer than expected; the weans were all crazy and wanted to sit on Ranger's back. Couldn't be helped, had to let them."

Hannah smiles at Khalil with a gentle movement.

"It's alright, Khalil. The weans are worth a little detour. What did the wiretail have to say when you were able to ask him?"

"Well, as we expected, he didn't remember much about the item, only that it was like a tall, round jug-like thing. He thought it was a big water jug, but it had markings on it. That's all I could get from him, sorry."

"You did just fine. Good job. Orion here was just leaving."

I shuffle around from behind Hannah and step out onto the front porch with Khalil. I look back at Hannah–my head still spinning from the revelation I'd been shown just minutes prior–before she closes the door.

"Thanks."

"You're welcome, Orion."

I hesitate but then turn and jog down the steps a few feet ahead of Khalil, who doesn't seem to suspect anything. Why would he?

"Hell yeah man, are we heading to the Forgetful Fox?"

"I'm going to go take a bath first, then yeah, I want to get drunk as hell."

"Heeeeeeeeell yeah!" Khalil exclaims, drawing out his words of excitement over a few seconds. "Dude, I've been waiting. I get to tell the wiretail story, and then I'm gonna drink and flirt, and happy times will happen."

"With Lani?"

He splutters, much like I did when Hannah asked me about Aria. That makes me laugh outright, ebbing away some tension from my conversations with Hannah.

"What? Lani? Are you out of your mind? She'd set me on fire if I made a pass at her!"

"Man, I saw you all blushed when she hugged you earlier; don't think I missed it."

"Dude, whatever, I was hot from riding in the damn sun with no water."

"Uh-huh."

"Well… You think she'd set me on fire?"

I laugh and keep walking, not bothering to respond to him.

"C'mon, Ori! Did she say something to you about me?!"

I look over my shoulder at Khalil with a massive grin before pointedly turning back and heading toward my tiny home, leaving Khalil to mutter and cuss behind me.