Darin glance at Ridahne from the corner of her eyes. IT seemed the human had struck a nerve by asking about the ojih. She wasn’t sure what nerve she had struck, and it didn’t seem to be good idea to ask which one. In fact, Darin decided to let it be for now. There were other questions she could ask when it was her turn again. Then again, she wasn’t sure she would take another turn. She wasn’t sure which questions would cause problems after all.

Darin turn her attention to Ridahne’s question for her. The Elf was wrong. It wasn’t an awkward question. That didn’t mean it was an easy question. The human had to think about it. The warrior’s question was not quiet the same as “Where would you be if he hadn’t left?” It was more like, “Where did you want to go?” Darin had been asked the first question by the elders more times than she cared to count. IT was an attempt to convince her that just because her father had left there was no reason her future had to change. The only problem was that Darin was pretty positive that the future that the elders want for her was not the future she wanted for herself; even when her father had been in the picture.

Darin was silent for an almost uncomfortable amount of time before she shrugged, “I don’t know. I know what I didn’t want. I didn’t want to be some farmer’s partner who was only good for giving birth to his children and keeping his house. I know it makes a lot of girls happy to do that, and that’s fine. I just wouldn’t be happy doing that. I didn’t really have any aspirations to leave home or go any further than Lively. I would probably wind up partnered to some one though. 14, the age I was when he left, is when people start considering who to match their children to. That’s also when children start matching themselves. None of the other kids my age were interesting. There was one boy from Lively who was pretty cute, but everyone knew that one day he would just be gone. I couldn’t imagine leaving my mother before this happened. I don’t know what I wanted. I just know that this wasn’t it.” She laugh, “But here we are, trying to save Astra, not because it’s right, but because we have no choice or the other choice is terrible.”

Wasn’t that the truth? Darin would not have picked this for herself. She couldn’t imagine Ridahne picking it for herself either. This was a journey with not clear destionation. They just have to wander all of Astra until they found the spot where The Seed wanted to go. That could take weeks, months, or even years. There was even a chance that they could start walking tomorrow and find it not more than twenty feet from where they were now. There journey was so nebulous that Darin was surprised that they had even come up with a plan to go see The Tree.

Suddenly Darin asked, “The Tree, have you seen it. I’ve never even seen pictures of it. I’ve just heard stories about it.”