I can see for miles, miles, miles
”Adaline.” Her name sounds so wrong and rough on his dry tongue. It comes out thickly and he tries to turn his head to look at her through his good eye. Ash still smears along his chestnut coat amongst the dirty wounds. She is pressed against him and he is immediately stiff. ”I’m unsafe.” He whispers to her, alarm reflected in the gold of his eye. However the feeling of her translucent papery skin is cool instead of warm. The tattered edges of her wing trail along his backside and instead of being enraged, the bear seems to be soothed by the touch. He slowly relaxes although he doesn’t lean against her. She is so fragile and if he shattered her he would never be able to live with himself.
”There were strange wolves in the Gates.” He stammers, closing his good eye as her lips brush against the claw marks on his neck. It makes him shiver again but the bear is at ease within him. Almost as if it was hibernating. Slowly the story begins to pour out and he is unable to stop it. He tells her of the wolves that chased him to the cave, of being trapped in the cell and the others that were there. He tells her of thinking he was free, finding his father and what Magnus had said. That he had killed him only to wake up back in the cell. He tells her of Carnage, his captor, and the trial of ice that he had gone through. Of becoming the ice wraith and the polar bear he had fought. Of dying and coming back to life and how Carnage had carved the mark into his flank. He stammers slightly when he comes to the part where he had to kill the older version of himself, offering his own heart to Carnage in exchange for his release. He tells it all, breathless until he finally comes to when he returned home and what he found awaiting him.
”The Gates is burned, the tree is black and poisoned.” He halts, remembering the way his claws had raked against Ilka’s chest. ”There is something inside of me that I can’t control. He put the bear inside of me.” Shaking his head, inflicting new splintering pain in his head through the empty socket. ”I hurt someone there. I didn’t know where else to go. I couldn't stay...” He lowers his head, feeling exhausted and defeated by it all but unable to move away from her. Not when she kept the beast at bay. He knows he will go back, hidden and tucked away from the others, because it's where he wants to be. Not yet though. If he even lives this much longer that is.
Ledger