Gale
run away with me--
lost souls and reverie
running wild and running free Gale. She says it without recognition, and for a moment he thinks that perhaps he has avoided the murkiest depths of this interaction. Oceane sounds a little warmer even, and Gale thinks no less of her for the possibility it is feigned. The ways to deal with grief are myriad, after all. His own genuine happiness is evident of that. But he is empathetic too, and not totally unobservant.
So when, after a long look over the sharp red canyons, he meets her gaze again, Gale knows that she’s already heard that particular story. At least, she’s heard the beginning of it, the tale that culminates his death during the second year his life. (He doesn’t know that Lepis has more recent stories of him, of how she had watched him die on the rocks of Taiga when Wolfbane had worn his shape or how he’d appeared in front of her only to be accused of being once more his father disguised.) There have been a great many additions to his story since then, but none include rebuilding a relationship with his parents. Lepis and Wolfbane are characters in a story to him, characters that he had avoided thinking of as real until the very last possible moment. These eyes saw them for the first time mere seconds before they died.
Perhaps he, Oceane, and Eyas had even crossed paths in the air over Loess during the burning.
The smoke had been too much for him to make much out, but he knows there had been other winged creatures in the flame-filled air over these very canyons.
“Boy?!” He replies. “I was so sure reaching double digits would mean I’d finally get to graze in the grown-ups field.” The brindle continues with a lighthearted smile. He is not sure how to handle Oceane’s sadness, so he defaults to the teasing and distraction that is effective for his sister Eyas. Of course, it’s not worked especially well recently, but Gale’s social skills are not at all aided by his regenerative healing, and he’s always been rather awkward.
@[Oceane]
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Gale
