Tiger's Tale

Но любой, кто обещал дать вам всё, чего вы когда-либо хотели, совершенно бесплатно, лгал. Сделка с дьяволом всегда заканчивается сожалением.

Давным-давно она усвоила от отца, что те, кто имеет незаконченные битвы в своей голове, иногда теряются на поле боя.
Они совершают ошибки, зачастую опасные, которые могут привести не только к колоссальным потерям, но и к катастрофическим последствиям на войне.

То, что они были женщинами и молодыми, не означало, что они были безграмотными или нуждались в мужчине, который бы объяснял им порядок вещей.

Just because they were female, and young, did not mean they were ignorant or needed a man to explain the way of things.

Making a deal with the devil always ended with regret.

But anyone who promised to give you everything you ever wanted at no cost to you was lying.

“Have your tigers made the attempt to break their curse?”
“Curse . . . we do not consider the tiger form a curse.”

“So you’ll help us break this curse and free the tsarevnas?”
“You do not understand,” she said. “The tigers do not come as a curse. They come as a gift. They are a blessing to our people. If they show themselves in your tsarevnas, then they have deemed them worthy hosts, even if I do not see it myself.”

The two of us eat different foods, don’t look alike, speak different languages⁠ —
And yet we are the same at the core, are we not?

They must endure obstacles, opponents, work together, and are granted certain gifts or powerful items along the way. Unlike in your world, instead of obtaining items for a goddess, they must conquer their own fears and learn to work with the tiger in order to best be a guardian or servant of their people.

I do not take away your choices. You still have them. But life is meant to be a series of experiences. Trials and errors and opportunities to stretch and strengthen yourselves.

Incidentally, just because someone is communing with the unseen does not indicate a lack of mental function. There are many religions, not just my own, that believe in beings that exist beyond the span of our own mortal view.

Just to allow the idea that some things we might think of as evil may simply be that we don’t understand what has happened to that person to cause them to behave in such a manner.

– Learning is the point of life, is it not?
– Indeed, my wise friend, indeed.

Remember: when you work together and listen to the experiences of all, in most cases, you will find the right way.

Instead of watching from a distance and allowing the universe or the cosmos, if you prefer, to deal out cards at random, isn’t it nobler to give just a tiny push from time to time, a gentle nudge, so that instead of unwanted consequences they each become their best selves?

– You cannot teach a baby to walk by moving his legs for him, can you?
– No. But ... you can still encourage. Offer open arms and hope and catch them when they fall.
– Sometimes the pain of falling is necessary for growth.
– Not always.
The two mentors floated out of body in the fog, watching the progress of the young people.

You cannot teach a baby to walk by moving his legs for him, can you?

What home meant to each of them was different in that moment, but they found comfort in being together, knowing that they all had suffered loss and hardship.
It united them in a way and kept driving them toward the same goal.

I don’t believe I ever considered myself to be an annoying sort of person. Now I can see why Miss Kelsey might find me tiresome on occasion.