Sancha: A Spirit Animals Story

Partners

When Sancha headed down the next morning for breakfast, Tarik, unusually, was waiting for her. After getting her plate, she walked over to join him at the long table. 

"Good morning," he greeted.

"Good morning," Sancha repeated, still a little groggy from waking up. She sat down and took a spoon of oatmeal with dried cranberries into her mouth.

"You ran off yesterday," Tarik stated simply.

Sancha's shoulders sunk, and her head bowed as she nodded. The spoon lay limply in her grasp, mid way back down to the bowl of food. 

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that. It was rude to you and Spes. I promise it won't happen again."

"That's good to hear," Tarik said, passing her a cloth napkin. A second later, he seemed to pause.

"Spes...you said that a moment ago." An understanding dawned on Tarik just then. "You named her, then?"

Sancha grinned.

"Spesamari," she proclaimed. The seal, on cue, poked her head out from under the bench and happily received some light head scratching from her partner. "Spes for short."

"I think she approves," Tarik noted, a small hint of a smile curving his mouth. Lumeo, also active at the current moment, took the opportunity to try to lick a bit of oatmeal of Tarik's spoon. Unfortunately, Tarik wasn't oblivious, moving the spoon out of the otter's reach.

"Nice try," Tarik drawled. "You know, otters aren't supposed to eat this stuff. It can't be good for you."

Lumeo looked almost hurt, looking at his partner with eyes like a forlorn puppy, much to Sancha's humor, and Tarik's chagrin. He sighed, defeated. It seemed Tarik, a strong and experienced fighter, was unable to resist Lumeo's obvious ploy. But Sancha hardly blamed him. Lumeo could be quite adorable when he wanted something.

"You can lick the bowl when it's done," Tarik said at last, trying to appease the otter so he finish his breakfast. Lumeo, at length, seemed to accept the deal, and curled back around Tarik's neck, appearing like a sleek brown scarf.

"Someone's got you well trained," Sancha remarked with a grin, hiding her smile stealthily behind her spoon. 

"It goes both ways. You give, they give. And sometimes, they make you give more than necessary. But they'll always find ways to make it up to you. For me, seeing him happy is reward enough sometimes."

Sancha said nothing, but couldn't help but keep smiling until her face muscles ached.

...

They tried the exercise from the previous day again. Sancha still struggled to pinpoint Spesamari's location, but finally managed to do it on her seventh attempt. When she got, she couldn't resist crying out loud with cheer. Tarik seemed pleased as well, not just from the progress, but from Sancha's better spirits as well. Sancha could finally admit to herself now that Tarik cared about her and grown fond of her during her stay at Greenhaven. She hadn't made it easy for him, or tried to reciprocate very much, but Tarik seemed to understand this. He was patient, something Sancha was not. 

Maybe his patience will rub off on me at some later date, Sancha mused to herself after that training session. 

A/N: I know this is a little short, but the next one will be longer, and have a time jump. Before you ask, no, we're not jumping to Wild Born yet. There's a good deal of development for Sancha that needs to happen first before we enter the first book series events. 

I love writing Tarik. He's one of my favorite characters in the series and his relationship with Sancha was one I really was looking forward to writing when I decided to finally write this story down and share it online. I took a lot of inspiration from how my family caves to the demands of my adorable dogs when writing the little bit with Tarik and Lumeo. I think this moment also highlights how toxic bile-bonds are in the series, given that they center around total control for the human. In some sense, it's sort of a metaphor for humanity's subjugation of nature. We can live alongside it and benefit one another by doing so (which is what the nectar allows) but if we try to control it (like with the bile) we cause more harm to it and ultimately, the one who's harmed the most and looses the most in the end is us (shown through Gerathon). I'm not sure if that was what the writers of the series intended, but I like this way of looking at it. 

See you for the next chapter. Finn and Alec show up again, but things get somewhat depressing. That's as much spoilers as I'm willing to give.