Eik is thinking, as he walks for the second time across the bridge to nowhere, about how despair has its comforts. Maybe not despair itself but the familiarity of it. Like pressing your tongue to the back of your teeth, like feeling in the dark a pattern you could not re-create with clay or ink or song, but upon feeling it you could tell if it had changed in even the slightest of ways.
Despair, like the back of his teeth, had not changed. It was still, in many ways, very easy. It did not require courage, or strength, or faith. It was putting your head back, kicking your feet up, and letting the river take you.
Eik is letting the river take him across the bridge once more, and he is certain it is going to spit him out at the end of the world. He is not afraid. He is not really feeling anything at all, except... something like relief. All this swimming, all this drowning, all this sand and blood and failure, it was all so tiresome.
(he only--
he only wishes he was not alone)
He is not surprised when he reaches the end of the bridge and realizes the wall of ivy is gone. He is not surprised because how could he be, with the island tugging at his heart like that, tugging in a way that felt at first like a suggestion, like innocence, until he reached into the dark and realized how deep it was, how strong at its source. It was something like destiny that called to him, and he answered wearily but faithfully.
(gratefully, even-- oh we never could resist a rhyme)
But oh, if this is the end of the world it is a most lovely end! Strange birds and stranger fruits and a gentle breeze, otherworldly in feel. The air itself is lazy and peaceful. He trusts none of it, and yet-- he begins to relax, against his better judgement. He lowers his head to a pool of clear, sharp, sweet water, and he drinks like a dying man. (from somewhere, laughter- like a dying man. hah-- and then silence)
The silence fades, or does it rise? gracefully to birdsong and hoofsteps drawing near. Eik squints against the cheery sunlight.
Asterion.
The grey's heart races despite all attempts to keep hope at bay. He leans forward, wondering-- fearing-- this is all a strange illusion. Afraid it will crumble if he takes a step forward, if he dares to feel fully the joy and relief that coil in his chest, ready to spring forward.
"You aren't a dream, are you?" Despair was so easy. Delight, done right, was so hard. It must be certain, and it must be savored. Eventually Eik smiles-- whatever the truth of the situation, a nice dream beats a dull reality anyway. "I'm so happy to see you."
“I am all in a sea of wonders. I doubt; I fear; I think strange things, which I dare not confess to my own soul.”
@Asterion <3 ;_;
Time makes fools of us all
