The autumn morning passed in a relaxed fashion. Fian and Vela spent most of it getting the garden back in order and stacking all the shattered wood.
Standing in front of the woodpile by his hut, Fian whistled softly through his teeth. “What is it?” Vela asked, stepping up beside him. “Well…” Fian began, “I’ve never had this much firewood for the winter before. And then there’s this…” He gestured toward the precisely executed cuts on the split wood. “I find that truly impressive.”
He looked at her, clearly struck. “You really know how to handle your claws!” Vela glanced at the little bard, unsure how to respond to this observation. She gave a quick shrug, deciding to consider the matter closed. “I just know how,” she replied curtly, then turned and headed back toward the apple tree. Fian watched her go, studying her from behind. “I can hear you thinking again!” she called out over her shoulder.
“We really need to work on that.” Fian’s ears drooped backward, betraying his guilt. “Well, there’s just something I don’t understand right now.” With the grace of falling snow, she settled into the scattered leaves beneath the apple tree and looked at him. “And what’s your problem with that? Sometimes you don’t need to understand something to do it. We’ve been over this.”
Fian snorted, slightly annoyed. “Easy for you to say, you’re the one in charge…” She sat up straighter and gave him a dry look. “Let me ask you something…”
Fian crossed his arms. “Go ahead—you’ll get an answer.”
Vela’s eyes flashed. “Back at the forest lake, who was it that decided to keep wearing this stupid colla, and for how long, exactly?” Fian took a deep breath, … and remained in silence.
Vela stood up and walked toward him. She tapped her paw firmly against the ring and said dryly, “And if we keep asking: Who among us was it that actually assigned any meaning to this ridiculous thing?”
Fian stood perfectly still, saying nothing. “And furthermore, who was it that wanted to take the thing off back on the road, but didn’t? … Even though I told you: go ahead, I dare you.”
She fixed him with an icy, silent stare. “Yes, my little bard, that was just you. All on your own.”
She simply looked at him. Quiet, silent, and waited for an answer. Then, she tapped his forehead. “And you know what? You’ve got so many words piling up in there that you don’t even know what to believe anymore. The truth is, the answers to the questions that actually matter… are right in front of you. But your stubborn bard’s head is looking in every other direction.” She grabbed the ring on the collar, pulling Fian off balance. “See? This thing isn’t going to help you much when you’re already stumbling, is it?” With that, she sat back down under the apple tree and enjoyed the morning autumn sun.
Fian remained where he stood, reaching up to touch the collar himself. “But if it’s truly useless… why am I still wearing it?” Vela’s ears perked up, alert. “Now, that’s a good question, why, indeed…? Do you have an answer for me?”
After a while, Fian replied softly, “Because I simply like you. And I trust you, even though I’m not sure if that’s a good thing. But the collar came from you. And you thought it was a good idea. If I don’t need to fully understand something in order to accept it, then it’s not necessarily wrong for it to end up meaning something to me later on. Otherwise, it would have been pointless from the very start. And the result was that we ended up sitting by the forest lake. And were able to talk. So, it does mean something, and not just to me, but to you as well. I just haven’t figured out exactly what that is yet.”
Vela’s ears twitched thoughtfully a few times before she began to respond: “Little bard—alright, so you’re wearing the thing. And you like wearing it because it came from me. Fair enough. But… do you like me because you trust me, or do you trust me because you like me?” Fian looked at her, puzzled. “Why does that matter? I like you and I trust you; it doesn’t really matter which one led to the other, the result is the same,
I’m standing here, and you’re sitting there. And even if you were to stand up right now and take the collar away, it wouldn’t change a thing about the bond between us.”