Her laugh is an odd thing in the murk of the swamps, light and almost- almost girlish. She is perfectly at ease with herself, which is something that had taken Eik years of deliberate practice to master. Surely life would have been easier if it had come naturally, and yet- would he have learned as much? Would he be as strong as he is now without the memory of weakness?
His wondering thoughts fizzle away as she speaks.
"Ilati?" The word stirs a memory that he can't quite make out the details of. All that comes to mind is the name Indra and a sadness to swallow a small world. His stomach tightens in an uneasy knot as he remembers, in blurred bits and pieces, the secrets he shared with a stranger. She said she had been here before, and in his imagination he steps back in time to the start of this world, where a unicorn with red hair ran across the great plains and squelched her way though the muggy heat of the swamp. He imagines nothing has changed over all those long years, not really. The future must have loomed over them the exact same way it does now, like a storm perpetually on the edge of breaking.
Yet for all his dread of the future, a part of him envies Jaxis' youth. She has all the possibilities he never did, and to his simultaneous pleasure and concern she seems to be taking advantage of them. With this thought in mind he glances again at Enyo. He regards the dinosaur with wary respect that all wild things deserve and tries to ignore the way its sharp, reptilian eyes never leave him.
"Did you get bored in Solterra?"Although Eik is unexpectedly fond of the giantess, he does not know if he will ever really trust her. Her smile never quite reaches her eyes and he wonders what lies in the hidden space between the two.
(unconsciously he reaches out with his mind and feels calm, still dark purple. Not warm or cold but neutral. He withdraws before realizing he had ever reached out.)
"I'm just exploring."
lost might be a better word for it, but he'd argue that you can't be lost if you have no destination in mind. He knows he ought to return to Solterra, and he will in short order, but first he needed some time alone, time to let his thoughts settle after bouncing around in his head like so many ping pong balls. So that is how he arrived here- lost first in his mind, and then in space.
"And you?" He had not seen her in many weeks- he wonders how she stumbled here in the first place, and what then caused her to stay. "Will you come back with me?" He thinks he might already know, but it does not hurt to ask.
- - - - -
I am keeping quiet
E I K
But one day, the forest will talk about me
@Jaxis <3
Time makes fools of us all
