08-03-2022, 08:01 PM
A smile peeked. Nimeda laughed a little as he retreated, mostly in delight that he was here, and so clearly remained himself. Somehow, he made his predicament sound like her fault. Strange his fears were presented to him in the threat of a watery demise. Or maybe not so strange. She wondered if he’d noticed. “Noctua, no one may drown you here but you.”
She suspected he wanted space to process whatever she had just plucked him from (else he planned to belligerently keep his distance from her), so she didn’t follow, just watched with a foolish smile on her lips. It was difficult not to pummel into his chest with the fiercest of hugs (action was so much easier than words), but she knew he would not appreciate the gesture. Instead she sat herself down nearby, launched her legs over the rock’s lip to dangle above the foaming water below, and watched her toes swinging through the empty air.
“I missed you,” she said. There was nothing saccharine in the way she said it, just simple fact. She did not expect he would acknowledge the sentiment, but she thought it important that he hear it even so.
He was quiet a while before he spoke, and she did not offer an answer right away. Rather, she asked one of her own. “You’ve seen them following you before? If they’ve grown bolder, it’s because you’re tasty. I could try to speak with her, but she might not be inclined to listen. Her Other’s life is not kind and she needs to live somehow. Better to learn how to protect yourself, they will not bother you then.”
She looked up at him, finally considering his question. Thoughtfulness narrowed her gaze, but it was old memory she reached for. “There could be many reasons for that. It’s none of my doing, though. I wouldn’t–”
But she never finished the thought. Her chin rose, distracted. “Oh.”
She suspected he wanted space to process whatever she had just plucked him from (else he planned to belligerently keep his distance from her), so she didn’t follow, just watched with a foolish smile on her lips. It was difficult not to pummel into his chest with the fiercest of hugs (action was so much easier than words), but she knew he would not appreciate the gesture. Instead she sat herself down nearby, launched her legs over the rock’s lip to dangle above the foaming water below, and watched her toes swinging through the empty air.
“I missed you,” she said. There was nothing saccharine in the way she said it, just simple fact. She did not expect he would acknowledge the sentiment, but she thought it important that he hear it even so.
He was quiet a while before he spoke, and she did not offer an answer right away. Rather, she asked one of her own. “You’ve seen them following you before? If they’ve grown bolder, it’s because you’re tasty. I could try to speak with her, but she might not be inclined to listen. Her Other’s life is not kind and she needs to live somehow. Better to learn how to protect yourself, they will not bother you then.”
She looked up at him, finally considering his question. Thoughtfulness narrowed her gaze, but it was old memory she reached for. “There could be many reasons for that. It’s none of my doing, though. I wouldn’t–”
But she never finished the thought. Her chin rose, distracted. “Oh.”
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