Everything is different now. It is hard to say when it all started. When the snow fell is the obvious answer, but not necessarily the right one. It could have been at the meeting of the regimes. It could have been years and years ago, before everyone alive now was even born. We know it doesn't matter, not really. The knowing doesn't change anything. We know Eik is different too. Maybe not as dramatically as Solterra. Maybe more so.
In hindsight, it is almost pathetic how hard he tried to not get attached to anything (anyone). How futile his efforts have been. He has things to lose now (people) and the potential of that loss is terrifying in a way that can only be experienced by someone who has lost greatly before.
And yet.
He can't help himself-- not caring is not an option for his bleeding heart. He struggles against this fact endlessly, for doesn't every man choose his own fate? This is something he believes with such stubborn certainty that it becomes a truth for him, a fact untouchable by chance or god. I choose my destiny, he tells himself, eyes closed, when The Feeling comes and he can't fall asleep... or doesn't want to. I choose my destiny, over and over. A fact. A promise.
And yet.
-
It has been cold for too long. He has become to feel homesick, a feeling which, once investigated, triggers a sense of vertigo. What exactly is he homesick for- the desert as it was? Or the tundra which Solterra is now a poor mockery of? He has been slowly exploring the snow, circling outward from the court each day. He compares it to the place he once called home (the place which will always be home to a part of him) and more importantly he looks for any change in the landscape. Any melting of the snow, any sign of life that persists despite the cold and the frost. They need food desperately.
He is not so lost in thought that he does not see the two-tailed man. He does not change course immediately, for there is comfort in routine and solitude, but he eventually makes his way to the man in a snaking, roundabout way.
For a long moment (too long?) he simply stands there, a length or two away from the man and his tails, and together they look at the desert. Finally, he asks-
"Going somewhere?"
If someone else had asked the question, it might have sounded snide or nosy.
Eik does not sound snide or nosy.
Eik sounds as though he wants to go too.
In hindsight, it is almost pathetic how hard he tried to not get attached to anything (anyone). How futile his efforts have been. He has things to lose now (people) and the potential of that loss is terrifying in a way that can only be experienced by someone who has lost greatly before.
And yet.
He can't help himself-- not caring is not an option for his bleeding heart. He struggles against this fact endlessly, for doesn't every man choose his own fate? This is something he believes with such stubborn certainty that it becomes a truth for him, a fact untouchable by chance or god. I choose my destiny, he tells himself, eyes closed, when The Feeling comes and he can't fall asleep... or doesn't want to. I choose my destiny, over and over. A fact. A promise.
And yet.
-
It has been cold for too long. He has become to feel homesick, a feeling which, once investigated, triggers a sense of vertigo. What exactly is he homesick for- the desert as it was? Or the tundra which Solterra is now a poor mockery of? He has been slowly exploring the snow, circling outward from the court each day. He compares it to the place he once called home (the place which will always be home to a part of him) and more importantly he looks for any change in the landscape. Any melting of the snow, any sign of life that persists despite the cold and the frost. They need food desperately.
He is not so lost in thought that he does not see the two-tailed man. He does not change course immediately, for there is comfort in routine and solitude, but he eventually makes his way to the man in a snaking, roundabout way.
For a long moment (too long?) he simply stands there, a length or two away from the man and his tails, and together they look at the desert. Finally, he asks-
"Going somewhere?"
If someone else had asked the question, it might have sounded snide or nosy.
Eik does not sound snide or nosy.
Eik sounds as though he wants to go too.
@El Toro
Time makes fools of us all
