Chương 88: Book 3; Chapter 87; What friends do

They were making their way down the hill while chatting with each other. The further they went, the more Blake understood that Rainee had a completely different point of view on everything around her, and it fascinated him more and more. At the same time, Rainee was thinking about how different Blake was from the boy she remembered from all those years ago, and she didn't like this change too much.

"Why do you ask for permission all the time?" she asked eventually. Blake didn't know what to say to it.

"How else would I know what I can do?" he asked finally.

"Strange," Rainee said.

"I don't remember you asking for permission last time we met. On the contrary, you knew very well what you wanted, you just didn't know how to get it. Why do you need to know what you can do before doing it?"

"I don't know…" Blake said again.

"What happened to you in those years? Did someone bully you?"

"No," Blake said, "no, no one bullied me. My mum and I moved to this place not long after you left. You were right, the King's Army did help us to move. And we have been living here since. I think my mum is very happy here."

"What about you?"

"I don't know," Blake said again.

"I must be. No one ever teases me."

"Have you made any friends?"

"Not good friends that I would like to be around all the time," after a while he added, "I often think about you three. It might sound very strange, but still, I think you, Angus, and Ruffus were the best friends I ever had. I know that we spent only a day together, but when I think about what friends are, I always think about you. My mum says that it must be just my imagination, as it was an eventful day, and it got stuck in my head. She might be right."

"No, she is not," Rainee disagreed.

"I remember you too, and I think we would have become very good friends if we had spent more time together. I liked you too and was always thinking about you as my little friend, whom I would want to meet again one day. To see the person you had grown up into. It was very strange to find out that you didn't grow up at all, and you are even starting to forget what you truly want. But it could be expected after what happened to you."

"Nothing has happened to me," Blake disagreed.

"I don't know why I am not growing. At first, my mum was very happy about it, but later she got worried. Now she tries to find a doctor, but nothing works. Do you know why it might be?" Rainee wanted to say that she did, but then changed her mind. To herself, she was thinking that a mother's love is a very strange and tricky thing. They love so much, but also without any consideration. In her head, she could remember very clearly Blake's mum telling him that she likes him little and wants him to stay this way.

Seemingly innocent words. It might be, but it all depends on under what circumstances they are told, and circumstances were not in Blake's favour." How strange," she thought. Her mother loves Ruffus so much too, but she made Ruffus grow way too fast. She loves Angus even more, but would take every spare minute of his already complicated life for herself without even a second thought about what would be best for him if she were to put her own wishes aside. Now, Blake's mum had such a negative impact on him.

Before, when he was not scared and overthinking, he was so brave, open, and full of a wish for adventure.

Now he wasn't scared anymore, but some strange rules were binding him, and he didn't dare to do or say anything that might not be approved. Stolen story; please report.

"Did your mum tell you that you have to behave in a way that others like?" she asked aloud.

"Yes," Blake said. At first, he could not understand the origin of this question, but then the answer became obvious, "You don't like it?" and he asked in return.

"What?" Rainee double-checked, not sure if Blake so easily understood the meaning behind her question.

"To do what others say," Blake said, and clarified after, "I mean, when others do what they are told." Well, he nailed it, Rainee thought, smiling at him.

"No, not really," she confirmed.

"I think it doesn't make any sense. Why would someone be telling another person what they should do? Why would they not do it themselves and be happy about it? And allow anyone else to do what they want to do.

"Why do mothers train their children to be different instead of understanding who they truly are?" But she didn't say it aloud.

"Even mothers?" Blake asked, as if he had read her mind.

"Especially mothers," Rainee confirmed.

"My mother says that she has to teach me how to become a good person," Blake said after a while.

"Think for yourself. Is there anything that she can do that you cannot?" After Blake shook his head, she continued, "Then what else can she teach you? No one can teach others what they don't know and what they are not. After that, all she could teach you is what she wants you to be. But then why do you have to become someone she wants you to be and not someone that you want to be yourself?"

"Did the King tell you that?" Blake asked after a pause.

"No," Rainee smiled to herself.

"Surprisingly, not. I understood it myself. He must have told me many things that led me to this understanding, but now it is something that I know myself. Do you like going out on your own with Deamon?"

"Yes!" Blake said with his eyes shining brightly.

"Yes, I do. I cannot see my life without him."

"And who is telling you what you can do when you are on your own with Deamon?"

"No one tells me," Blake laughed, imagining Deamon telling him what he was supposed to do.

"Then how do you know?"

"I don't know. Maybe I just think about what my mum would tell me?"

"But do you really?" Blake thought hard and had to agree that no, not really.

"I think I just do what I allow myself to do," he said finally.

"I think the same too," Rainee agreed.

"That's probably why you like walking on your own just with Deamon. But that is not good either."

"Not good?" Blake was surprised again.

"Then what is good?"

"Let's have a rule on this little trip," Rainee suggested.

"Every time you are not sure if you can do something, you ask me."

"But isn't it what I am doing?" Blake was confused.

"But I didn't finish yet. Every time you think that you shouldn't do something, you ask me too. And every time you know that you shouldn't do something, you also ask me. Got it?" Blake nodded his head in agreement.

"And then," Rainee continued, "before asking aloud, you hear the answer that "Yes, you can do it." And even more. That I think that you should do it. That I would like you to do it." Hearing that, Blake laughed wholeheartedly at such a suggestion for some time.

"But wouldn't it mean that I should be doing whatever I want? Even things that I know are not good?"

"Isn't that how we're all supposed to live?" Rainee asked him with a grin.

"Anything?"

"Anything."

"Even if I want to pull your ponytail?" Blake asked with a cheeky smile while sneaking towards her.

"Even if you want to pull my ponytail," Rainee agreed.

"Why?"

"Because we are friends," Rainee said, "and that is what friends do. They do not forbid each other to do what they like." With that, Blake stretched his hand out to give Rainee's ponytail a slight pull, as if trying to show her that he meant what he said. But to his surprise, his hand didn't grab a single hair as Rainee twisted her head swiftly, and he missed it. While laughing, he tried again and again, but with the same success.

"Hey!" he shouted eventually.

"Keep still! I want to pull your ponytail! You said that I can do it!"

"I said that I will not forbid you to do anything you want," Rainee laughed in return, relentlessly avoiding every attempt.

"I didn't say I will help you to misbehave, or will match my actions in accordance with what you want."

"Isn't that what friends do?" Blake asked, trying to pretend that he had given up so he could sneak up unnoticed.

"Allow themselves to be abused only because a friend wants it? I don't think so." Rainee laughed, jumping to the side from Blake's sneak attack.

"Or do what friends expect them to do? I don't think so either. You can do what you want, and I can do what I want."

"But that is so unfair!" Blake disagreed.

"You are much stronger and faster than I am. If you wanted to hurt me, I would not have any means to defend myself!"

"But if I wanted to hurt you, then maybe I am not that good a friend after all, and you should be reconsidering why you call someone a friend who wants to hurt you. Especially if that friend is stronger than you and knows more." While talking, Blake never ceased to try to catch Rainee by her ponytail, but no matter how hard he tried, he never succeeded, and in no time, both children were dashing over stones and fallen logs, chasing each other without a single care in the world.

When night came, they made camp next to a small stream of water making its way to the river at the canyon's bottom. They shared the little food that Rainee had and shared the same blanket to cover themselves from the night chill, as Rainee had only one and Blake had none. When Rainee fell asleep, Blake silently turned towards her and carefully stretched his hand towards that so easily promised, but still unreachable, ponytail.

He touched it with his fingertips, but very, very gently, that it would not disturb Rainee's sleep. Then, satisfied with his victory, he lay down and fell asleep with the widest smile on his face that a human could possibly have.