[Flashback] Even Pups Bite(Miharu)

[Jaeden Kincade]

Jaeden slowly shook his head, laying a gentle hand along her shoulder. "Miha, please. Don't think, even for a second that any of this is your fault," Jaeden said with a comforting tone in his voice. "It's not, none of it is. But the simple fact is, if I allowed this to continue, it would become inevitable that we would one day run into a situation where our lives became more at risk from threats just beyond the beasts of the wilderness. If that time came, and you guarded me because of some burning desire that comes from such a bond, and were seriously injured, or worse yet, killed..." Jaeden paused for a moment as that sad look on his face simply grew. "Well, that would just simply break me," Jaeden confessed. "I'm a selfish man, Miharu. I don't do this to hurt you, I do this so that in the end, I won't get hurt. So, I leave alone, before you can form any lasting bond. I want to make sure your safe from a fool like me, even if it means you'll end up hating me in the end."

[Miharu Mindi]

She glanced down at the hand on her shoulder, then back up to him - and those huge golden eyes brimmed over with tears of shame and self-loathing.

It was just like last time. She couldn't give him what he needed - he was afraid she wouldn't be able to protect him, that she'd fumble it up and get herself killed, and him next.

Jaeden now faced a crumpled, heart-broken, weeping little girl, looking for all the world as if he'd just broken the news of her parents' death or something.

But he was wrong about one thing: she wouldn't hate him. She couldn't - he was her Master, if only for that short time, and she loved him, and trusted that his judgment was right even if it pulled her heart out of her chest. He must have sensed that she was unfit, useless and broken and irredeemable. She wouldn't hate him. But she would certainly hate herself.

Miharu tore herself out from under the grip of his hands, a piercing sob escaping her throat as she turned and scrambled away from him, yanking at the catch of the dress around her neck. A flash of spinning light, and the wolf ran full-speed into the forest, blundering through the trees as an ear-splitting howl echoed through the woods.

[Gossamer]

Jaeden Experience: 4 XP Wilderness survival, 3XP cooking, 2 XP persuasion, 1 XP storytelling, 1 XPSeduction, 3 XP Tracking, 2 XP Trapping, 1 XP Hunting, 1 XP Fishing lore: building pittraps, hunting with wolves, kelvic bonds rejection Miharu Mindi Experience : 2 XP Observation, 3 XP Interrogation, 4 XPWilderness Survival, 1 XP storytelling, 2 XP Brewing (tea), 3 XP Tracking, 2 XP Hunting, 1 XP Medicine, 1 XP Rejection Lore: hunting with humans, kelvic bond rejection Additional Notes: I gave wilderness survival instead of say skinning, butchering, which can actually be wrapped up in Cooking as well. If you'd like that changed, feel free to let me know. Also the hunting XP is sorta low, but thats because I split it into trapping, tracking, and fishing. Feel free to protest.. it was a long thread to read.