• Published 3rd Apr 2016
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The Anthropologist - Weavers of Dreams



Join Lyra as she interacts in various human-related problems ranging from wannabe Nazis to eldritch horrors that just need some love. No problem is too great that it can't be fixed with a baseball bat or high-powered cieling fan, that's a promise.

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-83- The Rewards of Trust

"Tell me about your family, Henry."

The colt had been eyeing the fresh-baked meal of seafood, warm bread, and salad his mother had ordered from room service. She had even gone so far as to order his favorite dessert as well. Cinnamon rolls.

He looked up at her and drooped his ears to the sides of his head. "Huh? Why? I don't exist to them."

Lyra nodded, feeling a small twinge in her chest. This was a hard subject to converse with a quantum orphan. "Yeah... but, it's still a good idea to talk about them."

"What about your family?" Henry asked her in an attempt to divert the attention. "Your real family."

"Hey, mama and papa just as physically tangible you and I," the mint mare responded weakly in an attempt at humor. She sighed and shook her head. "Sorry, that was cheesy. No, kiddo, that wouldn't work."

"Why not?"

"Because," she rubbed the back of her neck, "other than my brother. I don't remember them."

The colt's eyes widened in horror. "What? I-is that going to happen to me too?"

"Not if you really try to remember them," Lyra reassured him. "I was much younger than you were when I came to this world. So, I had even fewer memories of them. They all just faded away with time." She gave him a kind smile. "I don't want that to happen to you. You probably have so many good memories with them. I can help you write them down so you won't forget."

She reached into her saddlebags, which lay close by, and pulled out a note book and a pen. Following the doctor's orders, she opted to write with her mouth like the rest of the pony population. "We can talk and eat."

Henry looked down thoughtfully. Silence reigned for a moment. Well, long enough that, when he did speak, Lyra almost jumped. "My brothers didn't like me."

"Elaborate," Lyra instructed him as she raised the notebook to begin writing. "How do you mean they didn't like you?"

"They... um," he halted as he thought of what to say next.

"It's okay," his mother urged him softly. "Let it come as it comes."

"Well, they once drew pictures of me dying and being unhappy," he quickly blurted out, turning his head to the side and frowning.

The pen dropped out of the unicorn's mouth as she stared wide-eyed at her son. "What? No-no-no. Y-you can't be serious."

"I knew you wouldn't believe me," Henry muttered in a low voice.

"I never said that," Lyra scolded him. "I'm just... well, disgusted. Why didn't you tell me this before?"

"Y-you weren't my mom then," he replied in an even lower voice, lowering his head.

"Well, did you at least tell your mother? Your human mother, I mean." The good doctor cleared her throat and retrieved her pen.

"They lied to her, she believed them, and I got in trouble," her explained quickly and sharply with a sniff.

"I-I can't... I'm sorry, Henry, but, how can I believe that?" Lyra asked him, unable to wrap her head around this revelation. "Didn't she see the pictures they drew?"

Despite the topic, Henry managed to smile. "They always sucked at drawing stuff. My little brother, John, drew people like potatoes with arrows sticking out of them. And my older brother, Nate, couldn't draw anything but... square... stuff. Like..."

"All angles and edges?" Lyra suggested. The colt nodded after some thought.

"Yeah, that."

"Why would they do that, Henry?" Lyra asked, hoping to get to the root of the problem.

"Because I didn't like getting in trouble," Henry answered. "I always tried to stay out of trouble, or, at least, fix things before mom and dad found out. Messed up, mostly. They made fun of me for that."

"Some rather 'interesting' sibling rivalry," the anthropologist said, writing that down. She would have asked him why he hadn't mentioned this sooner, but she understood it was taking a lot of trust for him to open up like this now. "Anything else?"

"They would tells lies about me to the other kids."

"Such as?"

"I don't know." Henry admitted.

"Then how do you know they were telling lies about you?" Lyra raised an eyebrow.

"Because they never wanted to be friends with me, just with my brothers," Henry explained darkly.

"That doesn't mean they were telling lies about you," Lyra gave him a sympathetic expression. "Maybe they... um. Well... it's been a while since I've been a kid, but, surely it wasn't that bad."

"You're a grown-up, of course you don't get it," Henry groaned slumping his shoulders. "I could count all the friends I've ever had on my hooves." He sat up and raised his hooves to demonstrate. "There was Jerry and Ben. That's it. Those are the only friends I had back on earth."

Lyra blinked as she digested this information. "Can you tell me about them? Your friends, I mean."

Henry slowly nodded and started with Jerry, telling her some of the adventures they had been on. Stories about how his friend lived on a farm, and when he went to visit they would explore the property. His friend's family had even gotten to like him so much that they invited him on some of their vacations. Usually to the beach. How they had made plans to find a lost world of dinosaurs to bring back and start a circus so they could live the rest of their lives as millionaires.

By the time he was done, it had put quite the smiles on both their faces.

"And what about Ben?" Lyra asked, genuinely excited to hear about this other friend.

"Well, as for Ben," Henry began, holding up the hoof that apparently represented Ben. "He and I used to... well, we would... Um." He stopped right there and gazed at his hoof, as though expecting it to give him words to say. "He was... nice to me. He didn't make fun of me. He... he... he wasn't really a friend, was he?"

He looked to his mother for some confirmation.

"I can't answer that," Lyra apologized pitifully. "I'm sorry, Henry."

The colt lowered the hoof and raised the other that represented Jerry. "I guess I only ever had one friend. And... I'll never see him again."

The mint mare was quick to close the distance between them and pull him into a hug. "No. That's not true. You've got lots of friends now, Henry. You can't deny that."

"I have them now," Henry sniffed, not crying, just feeling sad. "But, where were they then?"

"Waiting for you here," Lyra quickly replied, though she felt it was a rather cheesy thing to say.

"That was corny," Henry chuckled weakly. Apparently he agreed. He nestled into her chest. "Can we talk about something else?"

Lyra nodded and nuzzled the top of his head. "Of course, Henry. How about your parents?"

"Well, whenever one of us would do something wrong, dad would gather us all to talk about capital punishment."

"I really wish you had brought this up a month or so ago," Lyra sighed wearily. Just like that, Lyra knew how the remainder of the already stressful voyage was going to be. Childish exaggeration or not, these were some deep-seated issues that needed to be taken care of.

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