He wants to say "no."
"Solterra will crush you."
"Turn back."
Instead he sighs and says "sure". He's trying real hard to not make her business his business, but if she really wants to go to Solterra, he won't stop her. He keeps walking, young stranger in tow.
(have to hunt, don't have time for children. Have to hunt. But her eyes are so familiar...)
Eik is good at silence. He's always been good at it. Some people can't be alone with their thoughts, but for a while that was all Eik was ever really good at. The regular use of his magic has drained him beyond small talk, anyway. Every so often he stops and it appears he is listening for something. He is, but it is not a sound Sabine, or anyone else would ever hear.
(he heard a heart break once. It reminded him of the first sound of spring in the place Home used to be-- the first great crack of the quickly thawing river-- it tore him up for days)
He does not turn his magic to the girl. He doesn't want to read her mind, doesn't want young girls to be anything but foreign. From time to time he looks at the her quickly from the corner of his eye. (It hurts to look at her directly, he does not know why but it might be the blue of her horn.) Even in half-glimpses he can tell she's not Solterran. He can see it in the way she walks on the sand. Is she with the new regime, then? She does not seem particularly menacing... even with those sharp horns, he thinks he could take her quickly, crush her head-- if he had to. He has to prepare himself for acts of violence, or else he won't have the heart to carry them out, not anymore. So he pictures how it would feel, her small skull breaking beneath his weight.
The thought, or rather his capacity to even think it in the first place, turns his stomach. He might as well focus on small talk, then, while he's still got a soul.
(she's just a fucking child)
When he finally breaks his silence he does so with complete ease, as if they hadn't been plodding along without a word for as long as they have. "What are you looking for there, anyway." He looks at her, a little closer this time. If he can see how broken she is, it does not register on his tired face.
"Solterra will crush you."
"Turn back."
Instead he sighs and says "sure". He's trying real hard to not make her business his business, but if she really wants to go to Solterra, he won't stop her. He keeps walking, young stranger in tow.
(have to hunt, don't have time for children. Have to hunt. But her eyes are so familiar...)
Eik is good at silence. He's always been good at it. Some people can't be alone with their thoughts, but for a while that was all Eik was ever really good at. The regular use of his magic has drained him beyond small talk, anyway. Every so often he stops and it appears he is listening for something. He is, but it is not a sound Sabine, or anyone else would ever hear.
(he heard a heart break once. It reminded him of the first sound of spring in the place Home used to be-- the first great crack of the quickly thawing river-- it tore him up for days)
He does not turn his magic to the girl. He doesn't want to read her mind, doesn't want young girls to be anything but foreign. From time to time he looks at the her quickly from the corner of his eye. (It hurts to look at her directly, he does not know why but it might be the blue of her horn.) Even in half-glimpses he can tell she's not Solterran. He can see it in the way she walks on the sand. Is she with the new regime, then? She does not seem particularly menacing... even with those sharp horns, he thinks he could take her quickly, crush her head-- if he had to. He has to prepare himself for acts of violence, or else he won't have the heart to carry them out, not anymore. So he pictures how it would feel, her small skull breaking beneath his weight.
The thought, or rather his capacity to even think it in the first place, turns his stomach. He might as well focus on small talk, then, while he's still got a soul.
(she's just a fucking child)
When he finally breaks his silence he does so with complete ease, as if they hadn't been plodding along without a word for as long as they have. "What are you looking for there, anyway." He looks at her, a little closer this time. If he can see how broken she is, it does not register on his tired face.
@
Time makes fools of us all
