[P] dance with the waves

[Charlotte]

it's time to
make a move

Charlie’s expression doesn’t change when the girl starts to correct me. She’s kind of a know-it-all, isn’t she? Not a very redeeming trait, to say the least. If she can’t respect someone who is older than her just letting her know what is the difference between a hawk and an osprey, or a “friend” and a “bonded”. The pegasus chooses not to respond, though the thin line of her lips suggests she’d very much like to.

“Oh I explored, but my parents never said that I couldn’t,” Charlie doesn’t elaborate. Her parents never told her anything. Her father had disappeared when she had still been young, probably even this kid's age, and her mom… her mom is still around even know but has never been part of her life beyond making sure she didn’t starve before she could feed herself. “You have your whole life to explore, and do it right, without putting yourself in danger and worrying someone who actually cares about you.”

Maybe that’s why she feels the way that she does about this. Because this kid has someone who actually worries where she is, and cares about her safety, and is still going off on her own at an age where she is completely vulnerable to the world around her. She could get hurt, or killed, and doesn’t seem to care all that much how it would matter to her mother.

“I come here a lot,” the pegasus says, “Have been for a long time. I have someone to meet in the port.” And Charlie knows as soon as she says it that the kid is probably going to want to tag along, which is the last thing that she wants. She’s already thinking of ways to get rid of her before it’s too late. Too bad she just doesn’t have it in her to be outright mean to a child.

@Maeve

☸