"But the dream, the echo, slips from him as quickly as he had found it and as consciousness comes to him (a slap and not the gentle waves of oceanic tides), it dissolves entirely. His muscles relax as the cold claims him again, as the numbness sets in, and when his grey eyes open, there’s nothing but the faint after burn of a dream often trod and never remembered." --Brigade, written by Laura
Mazikeen feels herself tense for absolutely no reason at all when he closes the gap between them by a single step, but it’s just for a moment. The balance of this meeting keeps shifting beneath her feet. At least it’s not boring, but it makes finding her footing a little rough. She frowns a little more at his words - wondering yet again just what the hell he could possibly be running from - but so soon after the olive branch he offered her, the doe-girl decides to not question him on it.
She can’t find the words to express to him how she hopes he’ll be able to stop running one day.
So she tries something else. “I guess. Maybe we both have to.” She admits with a shrug that mirrors his, not sure what to do with these feelings or this odd little comradery they’ve found. Mazikeen can’t know that while there might be an end to her hazy, undefined feeling of needing to move, needing more, Firion has something very real driving him to keep running.
Her next words come before she even thinks to keep them to herself, spoken casually and simply as she looks briefly away to the foliage surrounding the small meadow they stand-in. “But, at least, if we’re ever running in the same direction…” She trails off - unsure how to put into words what she’s offering. A friendship? To be a companion? Part of her wants to snatch it back, to remove the possibility of rejection, as soon as the words slip out.
Instead of backing away from her sentiment, though, she focuses her gaze back on him and takes a step closer, even though she feels like she's on rocky ground and has no clue where the path out is. “It just… sometimes might be nice to run with someone, for a change. Even if we’re both running away - or to - different things.” She balances the soft hesitation in her voice with a flash of a grin in her orange eyes - which will hopefully come off as encouraging, but she hides behind it too.
