Ilragorn

"Your father is right, it isn't good, not at all. But that doesn't mean you have to push away the anger all the time. Sometimes, anger is necessary if you want to heal."

Aru let her gather him up, settling against her chest, head on her shoulder. "But doesn't anger hurt people?..."

"It can, if you don't know how to control it. But no, not all of the time."

Aru listened, slowly starting to relax, though he still fought with keeping his face dry. After a few long moments, he spoke again, feathers rustling just a little. "...Being angry is scary," he admitted, sinking further against her, burying his face. "I-I don't want to hurt anyone....not like I wanted to hurt her..." he flinched a little, eyes squeezing shut. "Does that make me like them...?"

"No, baby. That makes you human, a boy who's anger was justified. Not a monster."

After a long moment's hesitation he nodded, having finally dried his face, though now he looked exhausted and felt heavy. "Are you going to be okay...?" he asked quietly, not wanting to think of the but was still worried.

"What, you think a little wound like this is going to stop your mama?"

He leaned back a little, rubbing what was left of earlier from his face and shook his head a little. "N-no. It was just what the lady said...." he paused a moment, thinking as his intellect slowly came back, and he was putting pieces together. "When she talked about kings afraid of being overthrown... How do they know that the ones to do it haven't already been born yet?" he asked quietly.

"They don't. But they're so sure it's a babe, so that's what they're targeting for the moment."

His thoughts ran ramped a moment as he tried to devise an understanding, and even a solution, distracting himself from his inner feelings. "What if the person they're afraid of is someone we know but they don't know it?"

"What do you mean?"

He mulled in his own thoughts a moment. "What if that person was you, or dad, or me, or someone else we know, like the wildling rogue, or the inn keeper. What if it was really one of us?" He looked at her. "What if what they wanted to stop from existing already exists, and it's growing inside of all of us instead of one person."