If Tatton’s mind was an arena and his fears each the monsters within it, Datura and Ferna were both his champions, his defenders in their own unique way.
Datura would fight Tatton’s fears for him. Outspoken and fearless, she’d relentlessly challenge each his thoughts, raise a flag against his beliefs and wage war against them with her own grounded reason. She’d spear holes in his logic where it faltered and give him a contrasting view that often shook him out of the maze of himself. He oft needed her viewpoints and knew she’d love him regardless of what he feared. Still, a deep inner shame often trailed behind each their interactions, a fear of appearing foolish or being dismissed that made Tatton wear a braver face around her, masking his deeper struggles.
Ferna, on the other hand, never tried to change his mind. She treated Tatton’s fears seriously, as if they were just as real to her as they were to him. But she wouldn’t fight them. Instead, she’d sit with Tatton in his shadows, walk the mazes of his fears with him hand-in-hand, kneel right beside him in each his challenges and quietly but persistently remind him that he had everything he needed within himself to overcome them. She’d inspire courage within him so that he could rise and challenge his fears himself; hope that he could find his own light in shadow. She helped him light his own torch, find his own path, be his own champion.
This was why Datura was the one he leaned on when the world overwhelmed him, but Ferna was the one he turned to when he drowned in himself. If Datura was the one who shattered his labrynths, Ferna was the one who helped him believe he could find the exit. Ferna’s approach was infinitely favored by Tatton. Because he only felt a hero when he found his own path and walked it.
