Quand on n'a que l'amour - any

[Levi]

Levi had been a sharp-eyed child who grew into an observant man. He watches for the spark of recognition in her eye, but he never sees it. Regardless, he is certain that he had seen her along the beach when he was a colt. She watches him, and her words are friendly even if she has never seen him before.

He had told his father he wanted to be useful to Tephra, so it was about time he started making acquaintances. Friends Rapture would call them. He could not indulge in solitude like he had when he was young. Now, he had more enemies than friends.. it was about time he changed that.

Amorette she calls herself.
What is the polite thing to say now?
“It’s nice to meet you, Amorette.” 

After a brief pause her gaze drifts off towards the ocean and he turns his skull to see what she is looking at. No one is approaching (that had been his main concern) but his evaluating eyes linger on the landscape as she asks her next question.

Levi looks back to the smoky mare. “I was born here, and I lived here for two years...” He thinks back to the day he left for the Forest without saying goodbye to his parents, without discussing his plan with nearly anyone. “before I left for a year.” His whole life summed up in a sentence. “But  and now I've just come back, and I've been trying to walk every inch of Tephra before summer.”  

It was an unusual goal, but one he had thought of the day after he arrived. Levi hadn’t been ready to fall into the society of the volcanic island and learning his environment seemed like a useful way to bide his time. So, with heavy and methodical steps, the large stallion had taken to the outer islands, learning the location of every natural shelter and fresh spring.

He gestures in the direction she had looked to earlier  “I haven't gone that way yet.”

Levi

so scream you, out from behind the bitter ache.