02-27-2019, 09:17 PM
It was becoming pretty clear to Dizzy that she had some shit to deal with. Not just boring ordinary life shit, but like...emotional baggage that was getting in the way of her...well, if not happiness, then at least her ability to stop fucking up everything she touched. And everyone. So she left her kids with their respective dads, or at least the ones they acknowledged anyhow, and set out to...fuck, to try and figure some of this shit out. She wasn’t quite sure where she was going, but her body needed to move and the island didn’t feel big enough. So she swam across the water to Tephra and let her restless heart take her wherever the hell it was she needed to go.
She wasn’t wrong. The island wasn’t nearly big enough to contain her when she let her body take over and her mind wander. Honestly, she didn’t pay a whole lot of attention to her surroundings, didn’t even notice when she left the safety of Tephra’s lush volcanic greenery for the cool autumn forests of Sylva’s border. Barely processed how much more her muscles had to work going up and down the rambling hills of Loess. Even when she hit the forest and things started to look familiar, she still didn’t give it much thought, too caught up in the thoughts whirling inside to notice or care that the shape of these trees was far closer to the ones she’d grown up with.
It wasn’t until she actually encountered another person that she startled back into herself, eyes wide at the sound of approaching footsteps. She froze, ears flicking back anxiously and then pricking forward to listen, heart racing as she looked around and realized just how alone she was, and so far from home. Her patchwork skin prickled with awareness, and tension tightened her shoulders and her back as memories of fire searing her inside and out made it hard to draw a breath.
He was still out there. And she was so, so stupid.
Shallow, nervous breaths caught in her throat as the stranger drew closer, and she stopped breathing entirely for a moment when he emerged from the trees. But there was a soft smile on his face, and no threat in his animated gait or his bright blue eyes. So she forced a smile onto her lips, made herself breathe again, did her best to pretend her heart wasn’t still racing in her chest as she nodded to him and said a soft, “hello.”
She wasn’t wrong. The island wasn’t nearly big enough to contain her when she let her body take over and her mind wander. Honestly, she didn’t pay a whole lot of attention to her surroundings, didn’t even notice when she left the safety of Tephra’s lush volcanic greenery for the cool autumn forests of Sylva’s border. Barely processed how much more her muscles had to work going up and down the rambling hills of Loess. Even when she hit the forest and things started to look familiar, she still didn’t give it much thought, too caught up in the thoughts whirling inside to notice or care that the shape of these trees was far closer to the ones she’d grown up with.
It wasn’t until she actually encountered another person that she startled back into herself, eyes wide at the sound of approaching footsteps. She froze, ears flicking back anxiously and then pricking forward to listen, heart racing as she looked around and realized just how alone she was, and so far from home. Her patchwork skin prickled with awareness, and tension tightened her shoulders and her back as memories of fire searing her inside and out made it hard to draw a breath.
He was still out there. And she was so, so stupid.
Shallow, nervous breaths caught in her throat as the stranger drew closer, and she stopped breathing entirely for a moment when he emerged from the trees. But there was a soft smile on his face, and no threat in his animated gait or his bright blue eyes. So she forced a smile onto her lips, made herself breathe again, did her best to pretend her heart wasn’t still racing in her chest as she nodded to him and said a soft, “hello.”