She let him finish his apology, shaking her head at his misunderstanding, not in a judgmental way, but in a way she wished he thought better of her. His ideas were counter to the whole point she was trying to make to him. Calmly she tried to explain, doing away with her temporary annoyance toward the situation and his ease at getting hurt by her words.

"See, that's what I'm talking about. You got confused on what I was saying and instead of asking me for clarification, you got hurt. Does it make sense that I said one thing and then seemed to counter it with something else? Of course not. So then you ask me what I mean, right? You don't become stressed and hurt and think I'm hurting you with my words. What you assumed I meant is not what I meant at all. Over and over I said you don't have to follow him, don't have to believe in him, so why when I said that because I'm going to follow Yahal and talk about him openly to you, and that I would rather you love the part of me talking about Yahal rather than dislike it, did you take it as you -have- to love him or not? That's not what I was saying at all, love. To say again, I am going to openly talk about Yahal, and you can dislike that fact about me because you don't feel he has a place in nature and your life, or you can love that fact about me because when I speak of him, you remember he protects and comforts me, and is something I enjoy. Yes, I would rather you love that part of me that speaks about him, the part that worships Yahal, whether you believe in his qualities and stances or not, but even if you don't...what I'm saying is that if you decide to dislike when I speak of Yahal because you think...well...whatever you think, then that is your choice. What I'm expressing to you is that it's not going to make me love you -any- less. I don't think you're marred or any such thing because of it. Does that clarify things a bit?"

She didn't dare touch him until he was ready to look at her, but did appreciate his coming back to the boulder.