10th of Glade, 121
xx“Again.” Brianne said, staring at the nightgown-clad girl in front of her.
Senara was drenched in a mixture of sweat, mud, and water as she balanced precariously atop a small stone at the edge of a pond. The sheer nightgown had been torn at the hem to leave it at thigh height- something Brianne had scolded her for the very night Senara had done it. But in retrospect, the decision had been the right one. It was far too large for the girl's petite form but now with the shorter length and having been tied close to her body with rope as a makeshift wardrobe, clung to her skin as if it were afraid of being pulled away. Which made hopping around the lake a much easier task. Additionally, Senara had allowed Brianne to tie her hair in a long braided ponytail. It wasn't very neat, and most of it had become disheveled from the training, but it kept it maintained for the most part while they waited on Telion to arrive.
Glaring back at Brianne, she huffed and pinched her brow. “I want food.” She said, her legs shaking underneath her. The woman didn’t budge though, and simply shrugged with crossed arms as she remained seated on a log outside the lake.
“Don’t care. Predators won’t either.”
The girl rolled her eyes and turned to face the lake once more. In front of her was a line of various logs and stones that made a maze of a pathway through the lake and to the other side. She’d been at it for nearly two hours, hopping from one to the next and working to ‘build dexterity and balance’ as Brianne had claimed. It was working, for sure, the more she did it the easier it was. But it hadn’t come without many failures at first.
“Fine. We don’t have all day, Senara, go on, finish this one and we can head back for breakfast.” Brianne’s annoyingly stern voice rang out from behind her. She always did have a way of ruining her peace. But this time there was a promise of food. The girl’s ear twitched along with her lip as she launched herself from the first stone to the log in front.
The first time she’d taken the jump she’d fallen. Scraping her shin open hadn’t been the worst part, though. The worst part had been the fact that she’d made the same mistake five times in succession. Which meant five new scrapes, all in the same place, all marking her failure. She’d huffed in annoyance at herself as mud and small abrasions coated her skin. Thankfully Brianne hadn’t made a fuss, instead firmly repeating ‘Again’ as if it were a chant.
But this was the forty-seventh time, and by now she’d gotten used to the distance necessary to extend her awkward, gangly human legs, and even realized that her arms could be used to help counter balance herself as she came down upon the next surface.
The next few rocks were slippery and oddly shaped. Though, something about the promise of a hot meal created precision in her feet as she landed none-too-gracefully upon the second, third, and fourth rocks. Two more logs and three stones later and she’d made it all the way across to the other side of the pond with only a few wobbles and slips, but no falls.
Which meant, now she had to go back. The girl sighed as she stared out at the shallow pond and silently thanked Brianne for choosing such a location. She had no idea how to swim as a human. If it were anything like being a wolf it just meant keeping your head up and doing that thing with your back paws- feet, while your hands pushed downwards and your tail- right, no tail. But the woman had advised against it, saying she wasn’t ready. A truth she had hated to hear no matter how right she was.
Senara wiped the sweat from her brow and groaned as she flicked the liquid from her dirtied hands.
Gods, being human meant being grossly moist. Probably her least favorite part. Rolling her eyes at her own circumstances, she began to hop back carefully from one stone to the next.
Don’t rush.
One at a time.
Timing is key.
Watch for moss.
You don’t have claws anymore.
She hated taking it slow. If she were a wolf, she’d simply run through the pond like a puddle. But she wasn’t, and like Brianne had said the lesson wasn’t even about the stones in particular but about learning how to move her new body and build accuracy with her movements.
Especially after falling down the stairs multiple times.
But, as was the forty-seventh time, she made it back to the other side with a gentle touch down of her toes and let the balls of her feet follow.
Brianne was already on her feet, and motioned with her head towards the horse.
“Good, let’s go.”
Three hours later after the two had rode their way back to the cottage and shared a few breakfast sausages and apples, Senara trotted down from the upstairs bathroom wearing an oversized navy blue short-sleeved dress. Brianne had bathed her once again, but the girl had started to get the hang of using soap on herself at least. And convincing her that mud should be removed with a bath was a much easier task when the dried dirt had left her scratching at itchy, inflamed skin the first time they'd done it.
In a way seeing Senara in anything other than blood and dirt was a strange sight, like the wolf inside might have all been an illusion. In fact she was a very pretty young woman, Brianne had decided. Even with the collar of her dress so large on her that it fell down to her elbow and nearly exposed her chest, even with the now wild, damp hair falling around her petite frame and making her look like a damsel on the run, she was pretty.
Brianne's heart broke for the mother of the child. How they would have loved to see how she'd grown, she thought.
“Well, you and I will both be glad when you’ve got clothes of your own.” The woman cleared her throat, patting the chair next to her.
Senara huffed and stood still in the kitchen with the simple dress threatening to fall off her form. “They’re here.” She stated simply. She’d heard them, smelled them in the air from the open windows, but mostly it was just that she’d seen the pair walking through the clearing when she’d been upstairs staring out through the open blinds.
Normally she would have liked opening the door. The way the gears inside felt when they vibrated through to her hand, the sound of the wood creaking, and the way her wrist twisted to turn the nob- she liked it all in every perfect, harmonious simplicity it had as it was something truly unique to being human. But not when someone stood at the other side. So she waited in her chair as Brianne stood from hers.
“I swear, you’re like a guard dog.” She said, thinking back to the previous day. To the postman she’d chased off in the nude before he’d even gotten to the mailbox. A behavior she rectified very quickly with a firm scolding and a demand for her to wear clothing. Even if it didn’t fit.
But now, it was time to fix that issue too. With a relieved sigh Brianne opened the door.
