05-10-2014, 08:38 AM
Connor's uneasy laugh did little to convince Eli of his new found cordiality. It also did little to disperse the so-called tension that built up between them; so-called as it was all one-sided. By Eli's flat expression, he cared less.
His diatribe continued, and Eli obliged to listen. There was an apology amid the condescension, and with the barbed offertory, Connor became the bigger man. Once more identifying for the black-clad child how real men behaved.
The train doors dinged their a warning to board, and Eli's glance during Connor's speech implied he was ready to walk away from the man mid-drivel, but Eli was waiting on Tehya to make a move. His initial curiosity about the woman still lapped the distant shores of his mind, but more prominently, he wanted to know what that specter did to her. She was stunned and her eyes dull, but she was responsive and upright. Connor's concern for her welfare extended to Eli only so much to make sure she stayed awake to answer his questions.
"My hand is fine."
He spoke clearly as his hand was obviously normal, now. Muttering was drilled out of him early in his schoolings, perhaps one of the few behaviors he was grateful to acquire from the LDS.
They finally moved, and Eli followed her on the train as the doors as the doors nipped at his billowing coat. Being aboard was a relief, if only to break the tedium of Connor's lecture.
Connor did bring up an interesting question, though. Would he have let a woman be raped? He would have called the police, of course, and he had his uncle's expensive Wallet in hand to do just so when Tehya beat him to it. But jump the tracks and plow headfirst toward a gun-wielding maniac? No, he concluded dryly. He would have done something far different.
He sat himself across from Tehya. His posture leaned toward her, forearms resting across his legs. His gaze was direct and expecting, on the verge of posing the first of several queries when she said the creature's full name.
The words triggered something strange. Similar to the sense of familiarity for the shapes the specter planted in his mind, but their significance, and that of an ijiraq, were a mirage on the horizon. It wrinkled his expression pensive, and Elias' gaze shifted downward near Tehya's feet, but he was staring much farther than the floor.
Nothing came of it, and Elias' suspicion returned. He felt as though he was working a puzzle he could not unravel, a dangerous one, and irritated him to the edge of his patience for dealing with Connor's immature showmanship.
The clarity of Ellias' directness returned to Tehya's gaze. "And what, exactly, is an ijiraq?"
His diatribe continued, and Eli obliged to listen. There was an apology amid the condescension, and with the barbed offertory, Connor became the bigger man. Once more identifying for the black-clad child how real men behaved.
The train doors dinged their a warning to board, and Eli's glance during Connor's speech implied he was ready to walk away from the man mid-drivel, but Eli was waiting on Tehya to make a move. His initial curiosity about the woman still lapped the distant shores of his mind, but more prominently, he wanted to know what that specter did to her. She was stunned and her eyes dull, but she was responsive and upright. Connor's concern for her welfare extended to Eli only so much to make sure she stayed awake to answer his questions.
"My hand is fine."
He spoke clearly as his hand was obviously normal, now. Muttering was drilled out of him early in his schoolings, perhaps one of the few behaviors he was grateful to acquire from the LDS.
They finally moved, and Eli followed her on the train as the doors as the doors nipped at his billowing coat. Being aboard was a relief, if only to break the tedium of Connor's lecture.
Connor did bring up an interesting question, though. Would he have let a woman be raped? He would have called the police, of course, and he had his uncle's expensive Wallet in hand to do just so when Tehya beat him to it. But jump the tracks and plow headfirst toward a gun-wielding maniac? No, he concluded dryly. He would have done something far different.
He sat himself across from Tehya. His posture leaned toward her, forearms resting across his legs. His gaze was direct and expecting, on the verge of posing the first of several queries when she said the creature's full name.
The words triggered something strange. Similar to the sense of familiarity for the shapes the specter planted in his mind, but their significance, and that of an ijiraq, were a mirage on the horizon. It wrinkled his expression pensive, and Elias' gaze shifted downward near Tehya's feet, but he was staring much farther than the floor.
Nothing came of it, and Elias' suspicion returned. He felt as though he was working a puzzle he could not unravel, a dangerous one, and irritated him to the edge of his patience for dealing with Connor's immature showmanship.
The clarity of Ellias' directness returned to Tehya's gaze. "And what, exactly, is an ijiraq?"