[ WP ] - Every Generation Retains the Knowledge of Their Parents at the Time They are Born

Their fingers intertwined as they skirted around the tree, her dog yapping at their heels. All thoughts of forbidden people fell away at the edge of the forest, leaving them in the solitude of each other ’ s thoughts. Rays of light flashed over the ground, tiny speckles dwarfed by the shadows they cast. 
 
 Be still, you clamoring memories, the girl told herself as she kept herself buoyed not only through the breakneck dash, but through the unending voices crying out at every sensation. There he went under a tree, and she nearly sobbed when ten spears ran through his body suspended from a branch by his luscious locks. Then they crossed a river, where the splashes set her into a saddle, guiding her giant steed through the treacherous floodplains. Below them down in the hollow, she saw her family and the hired hunter gawking at the prints of the hound. 
 
 It was when she stumbled over the fallen body of the boy that she realized she was no longer caught up in past echoes. “ It ’ s OK, ” he said, sitting up. “ Broke harder roots than that with my nose. Oh my, I really did. Don ’ t get upset. ” 
 
 He made to wipe her tears before the dog came up in between them, forelegs flailing as it leapt about on its hind legs. Satisfied that the boy was kept safely away, the dog wiped away a few tears with its paws, until it decided licking was more effective. Tiger, tiger, jaws burning bright. Suppressing another cry, she ran her hands through the dog ’ s coaly fur to reassure the frantic creature. 
 
 “ A damn dog, ” he muttered. “ He ’ s hardly got anything I can ’ t give. I mean, I can be a fine dog when I got to be. ” 
 
 She smiled, then wondered if the taboos came about just by talking naturally to the outsiders instead of by force from the elders. “ He does belong to the Many-Souled,'' she said. `` He ’ s half-mad from thinking the people in his head are ordering him, but then dogs are too stupid to understand anything from just one person.'' 
 
 “ Anyway, if I got ta be a watchdog, I ’ ll say nobody ’ ll find us here. Getting here was a piece of cake. ” 
 
 “ Nobody except you, and ourselves, ” she corrected.
