The sound of the sob - half cry of sorrow, half of rage - made him startle anew, and it was a blessing of the highest order that Isra could not read his thoughts. That she did not know him well enough to see the guilt that tugged once at his mouth then fled behind his eyes, his black mask. Only Raum was left of those who knew him so well - and only Raum would scoff at him, and understand why the guilt was there at all.
He could be a new man, if he wanted; there was no one left who knew what he had been save for a Ghost.
But Acton could never think further than the end of the day - to a stiff drink, and a laugh rough as a crow’s call, and gold a heavy, sure weight at his side.
He was aware of the unicorn standing there during the course of his conversation with the paint, though his gaze never strayed to her; her eyes burned on his back, and when the wind picked up and made all the dried seaweed moan it sounded a little like that cry, even though it shouldn’t have.
Acton knew nothing of unicorns.
He looked her way only when she neared again, and twitched an ear at her words. Isn’t it? he wants to say, half-flippant, but something about the way she looked at him - an expression he’d never imagined on her face, and one that made it easy to see her as his queen - stilled his tongue.
“If this isn’t a miracle, then what is it?” he said at last, more softly than was usual for him, and looked out to sea.
Or what would have been the sea - but now it is still receded, gone to the horizon, leaving them all behind. If it was not a miracle, he thought, then it was the end of the world - and he wasn’t ready for that.
A flicker from the corner of his eye caught his gaze then, and he lifted his head to see a stranger - one who, at least, wore a much more suitably worried expression than the earlier paint stallion had. With a last glance at Isra he gestured with his pale muzzle toward her, and raised his voice to speak, though it still fell strangely flat against the strange and barren ground.
“Hey-” almost, almost, he told her that she ought to head back, that it wasn’t safe. But it seemed awfully hypocritical, with the two of them standing there, and so instead he continued, with a ghost of a grin, “find anything interesting?”
you're italic, I'm in bold
@Raum @Isra @Kassandra
