I think, for a moment, that I should turn around. It is rude to come up on someone who looks like he wants to be left alone. Sometimes I wandered off because I needed time away from everything and everyone. My mother called me an 'old soul'. Fondly, of course, but she said I worried too much and that I would worry my pup years away. I still wasn't exactly sure what she meant but I figured it had to do with me not spending enough time playing and wandering. My brother was the adventurer, the hero of the story, and I was just the little girl trying to be brave. The groaning of the ice seems to echo around us and it makes me both curious and afraid. I remember pulling Thor from the river, the way my body had shook for so long afterwards as I cried into his wet fur because I had feared him dead. Mother did not know about it - she never would. I was resolved not to tell her because I felt guilty enough and I didn't want to see the look of worry and disappointment on her pretty face.

If the boy had said a word about beasts or monsters I probably would have given in to my base instincts and fled back to my den. I knew it was the ice but still, I was paranoid and the moments were tense as he turns to look my way. Except he doesn't look at me but over me and around me and I tilt my head to the side curiously to try and figure out what he was doing. I even stood a little taller just in case he missed me - I was small, you know. Still his pretty eyes don't settle on me and I feel myself growing indignant. Was he intentionally trying to ignore me? I half expect him to turn back away and my hackles rise, a feeling of hurt and disappointment burgeoning within me, but he speaks.

Who is there? What was he talking about? I snap my head around to glance back but no one is there and then I stare at him, peering closer. My eyes widen slowly as realization dawns, noting the way he tried and failed to seem unafraid. He couldn't see. I had heard we had a healer here somewhere who was blind. I even had an older brother who was deaf and mother explained that these things could not be helped but that did not make them less of a wolf. "I am," I squeak, not sure what to do. I didn't want to frighten him into the water. Did he know where he was? "I'm Samia. You looked lonely but if you want me to go I will," I say hesitantly, placing my haunches on the ground and staring at him, feeling uncertain. "You.. can't see, right?" Hopefully he wouldn't get offended by my asking. Sometimes questions were all that saved us from ignorance and indifference.