"Gin had been prancing around in the red scarf all day, happily letting the end trail on the ground so that she could see the tassels slither over the wood floors in the shops we visited. I had, several times, tucked the ends of the scarf in, reminded her that Shaman-Ai were not effected by temperature, asked her if she really wanted to wear the scarf, and when told that she did, reminded her that she had to make sure it wasn't trailing on the ground.

Each time we'd had this exchange she's assured me that she would take good care of the scarf. Then, the moment my back was turned, going over a list with a seller, examining wares, anything distracting, she had wiggled around until the ends came loose, and then dragged the scarf over the ground again.

I hadn't really dealt with children at all in my adult life. I had been an only child and most of the kids in my extended family were of a similar age to me, and I didn't have many friends, so I had almost no understanding of how an immature mind worked, other than memories of my own in the past, and sparse meetings of children in public spaces. The remarks of a few colluges I had met with on my way North had recently revealed to me that Gin acted like a young Furred, so I had bought a book on children a few weeks ago.

It was from this book that I had learned that you have to let children make mistakes, or else they won't learn. There are some things you should work to protect them from within reason, hot surfaces, Magical instruments, strange animals, things like that. But when it came to, say, understanding how delicate a place could be, they simply wouldn't understand what that meant until they dropped one and observed the results for themselves. You kept them from things until they were old enough to learn these lessons, basically.

So it was with this new knowlage that, after the fourth time I had helped Gin with her scarf, I had to let her teach herself the lesson that I had been trying to protect her from.

I have to admit, though, it didn't make it any less frustrating when, later that morning, as we walked out of town and into the deeper snow of the wilderness, Gin called out to me that she was stuck. She'd been watching her scarf drag over the snow, clearly, and the fabric had gotten wet, and then frozen to an icy patch.

With a deep sigh, I lifted the heavy snow shoes, taking time to shake each one, and made my slow, trudging way back to her so I could unstuck her. As I went to her, I sent a prayer to the Gods that she had, at last, learned her lesson, if not about listening to me, then at least about how the temperature might not effect her personally, the world around her could still make her going difficult if she insisted on being so careless."

World: Knights of Nodd.
Characters: Gin.
Media: Easy Paint Tool SAI and Microsoft Paint.
Art, characters, designs, and ideas © me.

-Topknot