and i wanted to change the world
He supposes that, in the end, they’re all the same. The island has a way of turning them all into equals, kings and soldiers and scholars alike. They all come here searching for something, without knowing what they may find.
Perhaps that was the entire purpose of the island. To remind them all of who and what they were, to give them something new and wonderful to discover.
Or perhaps he was getting it all wrong.
"Is it all anyone seeks, truly?" he asks softly. Of all the people he had met, all of them had alternative motives for being here (he was no exception.) In that way, the relic was only a guise for their true purpose - be it hunting, adventuring, seeking, hiding, or something else. He knows; he is no different, after all.
But he waits patiently for her to go on anyway. Whatever it was that Katniss sought was between her and the island.
And as she speaks, he can’t help the way his eyes go back to the waves, watching them dance and tumble over one another, seaweed playing in the surf. It’s green and it’s blue and it’s as white as the moon, and through it all he can see something dark and massive hiding there.
What are you hiding from? he wants to ask it.
"You sound like a true scholar now," he says gently, turning back to Katniss. And then he smiles at her, and as he turns to walk down the beach he bumps his shoulder gently against her own, a silent invitation to join him. "They say the best way to understand the world is to let go of any expectations you have of it."
He pauses to turn over a seashell with his hoof, revealing a bright orange and blue-streaked pattern. "Not everyone can handle that kind of knowledge, though."
Because sometimes, knowledge was something terrible and dark and unexpected.
@Katniss | "speaks" | notes: text
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