<div style="text-align: justify;">Ayshia smiled in her father’s arms. She loved the man so much. She hoped that she would come to share feelings such as the one her parents had felt for one another, but at the same time it scared her. Seeing how Lorna was miserable from time to time, and how her father was carrying grief on his shoulders like a cloak, Ayshia wasn’t too sure she wanted to go there. Then she considered how happy her parents had been before her mother had returned to the earth, and how Vanyel and Mamut seemed to be so in love and happy, and it made her long for it.<br/><br/>For now, though, all of her love was for her father. She loved the others as if they were family, but it was different. The man with whom she shared hearth right now was the center of her universe and she wanted to see him happy again. If that meant for another woman to live with them… it would be hard but for his sake, she wouldn’t make things difficult. She didn’t foresee this happening any time soon, anyway, so there was no reason worrying over something like this.<br/><br/>“I won’t be going out today.” She said, to reassure her father. She liked playing in the snow with the younger ones, even if only briefly. She wondered if the Great Mother would agree to mix her spirit soon. She loved taking care of the kids, taking them off her friend Mira’s hands and headswoman Lorna’s way for a short time so that the two others could see to their own needs without worry for a bit. Having a young one of her own would be so nice. Of course, in her young mind, she knew the care that such young ones required, but she had not had the experience first hand and it was quite possible that she may be underestimating it.<br/><br/>“I think I might start working on a new tunic today. I’ve finished all the sewing of the whitened leather yesterday… I’m thinking of what I could do to make it prettier...” Ayshia was starting to get off her father’s lap when she heard his suggestion about the headsman and she gave the old man and odd look. The headsman? Really? She had never considered him to be an option… then again, she had never really considered anyone an option… save for a crush that she had kept to herself for the man of the Mamut’s hearth. <br/><br/>It was before her first rites and she knew the Vanyel’s heart belonged to the woman of his hearth and he was almost twenty years her senior too. Maybe it was that love for Oena that attracted Ayshia to him, she didn’t know but that was done and over with now, anyway. The headsman… perhaps. She stood up and smoothed her clothes. “Let’s just go and get something to eat.” She said, a frown creasing her brow, but with a smile on her lips, as if to let his father know how strange that idea felt to her.<br/></div>