Aspen was laying in a snowy field not carrying at all that the snow under him was melting into a muddy puddle, after all he was on a blanket that would keep the water off of him so what did he care for it? In his hands was a book that was used for speech study between riders and wolves but so far him and Foxglove were having a tough time of it. He had forgotten all about needing to be able to talk with his bonded, instead he tried to open every ounce of emotions to his friend and got the same bin return; it was like they both had gone mute to each other and Aspen had a strong fear of any of the higher finding out and taking away his bonded. So he was studying and trying hard to speak in his mind but he never got anything but a searing pain that when pushed to far both he had Foxglove fell onto the ground crying out in pain.
He did not want to hurt his bonded, he did not care for himself but for Foxglove to be hurt meant he was not doing what he should be doing and so he did not deserve his friend.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Foxglove had been sleeping a good deal of the day, Aspen had picked up one of those paper things and soon zoned out as he always did around the old and some foul smelling objects. He knew Aspen was worried that they could not talk with each other, they were always trying to learn how to speak to each other and it was as if his bond was stolen away by those dead tree objects many humans seemed to enjoy looking at. He still recalled the last time they had tried, lots and lots of pain and Aspen started crying and hugging his neck tightly afterwards saying something out loud which he did not understand in the slightest but he knew Aspen was saying sorry. A sudden emotion of fear had him jumping up and looking around but he saw nothing in the wide open field but Aspen on the blanket with that smelly thing.
Shaking he padded forward and gently pushed Aspen’s head with his nose, humans were so fragile compared to him and he knew he had to be extra careful around them as he had hurt Aspen a lot of times and a purple but fading bruise on his bonds back was proof of it, it was only just visible above the collar of his uniform. He watched him place the thing down before he was being hugged again, now Aspen was even smaller than him and Foxglove made a low rumbling sound of affection for his human.
