[AW] Break through the surface and breathe

[Averin]

averin ILLUSION NEVER CHANGED INTO SOMETHING REAL The cut off words from Only has Averin stealing glances at the stallion, wondering what Only had been about to say but knowing better than to press the issue. There was something about Only that made Averin not want to push at much of anything that could be bothersome. He is aware of how tense things seem between them, though Averin doesn't mean for it to be that way. He's too shy, too much of a shut-in by enforcer design to grasp how to try and make it better, to be better at conversations and social interactions in general. He's not, and there wasn't much he could do about it this second, though he was telling himself that he needed to learn, to figure it out. Averin oddly wanted to make Only smile. He doesn't know why, and he shoves the feeling down when Only began to speak again. Another adrupt stop, and Averin is stumbling over himself in words to try and make it all okay; "Of course it's your business. You are my master, and anything about me is now your business." He shrugged, ducked his head again to peer sideways at Only once more. Part of him is concerned that Only wouldn't like the title, as this situation had been called an 'arrangement' by the stallion only a few moments ago. Did it bother Only that this was what it was? That Averin had been traded, sold, to him? Averin wouldn't ask that, though. He would keep his thoughts on that to himself for now, unless Only brought it up. Keepers. Only had started again, calling the caravan enforcers keepers, and even that hadn't been a finished though put to words. Averin frowns, because he wishes he knew what Only was about to say on it, but it's soon clear that he will not get to know whatever it had been. He tucks the thoughts away to ponder for another time, as Only was saying that they'd -- they'd? -- teach Averin to fly, that Only would find a way. Would show him all the trails. Averin doesn't comment on this, he simply nods and continues to listen to what he is being told. Learning the plants was a need to do first and foremost, it seemed, and Averin was good enough at that, would find some sort of pleasure in learning it. They turn from the river and the fog was a little unsettling, but Averin does not complain, because he trusts that Only knows where he's going, what he's doing. Seconds later and Only was telling Averin that he would be escorted through the trees, but then Averin would be on his own while Only dealt with prior engagements. "Okay." Was all Averin replies to this, having a goal or two in mind on what he would be doing once he was set off alone again. Part of him hates the idea of being by himself again -- he had lived with a caravan for so long full of others around all the time, and so this made Averin gulp and pretend that everything was alright anyway. Takes the time between words to steel himself to it all. To the idea of being alone out there again, knowing too few, trusting even less. Averin doesn't know who or what Only really was, though at this point is wouldn't even matter if he did. Only was his mater, and he would follow the stallion through whatever it was that Only got into. Unless he was sent away, of course. A direct order had to be taken and completed, and he'd already been given one. He was told that they would soon be there, to keep his eyes shapr for the Danw Court, to learn to recognize it through the fog. Another nod, because Averin did not yet trust himself to speak, lest he try to beg Only not to leave him alone again so soon. There was nothing to be done for it, and eventually Averin was going off on his own to seek and search. [end] I'M WIDE AWAKE AND I CAN SEE THE PERFECT SKY IS TORN

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