As the night had worn on, Ciro had separated from and respectfully given Aella her distance in a gradual process.
Neither of them had uttered another word after her last 'sorry.'
He'd wanted to tell her, no, don't apologize, never apologize...but only then did he realize that she might very well have to in order to be at peace with herself. And, though he had conceded to let their verbal exchange die on that note, the real conversation hadn't ended there.
He also kept in mind how she hadn't ever issued a direct wish for him to leave and so he hadn't.
Instead, he had retreated to a nearby knoll just off the rise of the town's pathway and watched. His morality compass had gotten chaotically erratic with discomfort at how he could be considered to be watching someone sleep, so that made the whole situation contentious. But she remedied his internal conflict by remaining awake for the entirety of the her stay- at least, as far as he could tell. And when she'd finally retreated indoors at some unholy hour, he'd remained out here.
Sleep hadn't even begun to get a dominant hold on him when dawn decided to break with a joyous eruption of unnaturally raucous birdsong. The utter variety of the avifauna here shocked him anew every morning. Before his unintentional transdimensional migration, a nomadic kestrel dropping into the neighborhood to grab a pigeon was an event worthy of commemoration.
The worldwide awakening also served as an entrance; Ciro looked on in soundless concern as Take staggered out of the woods with a limp Blair and took in the extent of both of their states. Though she seemed very much so unconscious, it almost looked as if Take was worse off; with his staggering sluggishness, he didn't appear to be running on anything other than pure determination to deliver his girlfriend to safety.
For a second, Ciro caught himself wondering if they'd attacked one another.
No, that couldn't possibly be it. Those two were so infatuated with each other that even their entirely immoral alternate selves hadn't been able to inflict any considerable damage.
As they disappeared into the tavern, Ciro came to the decisive conclusion that something had besieged them out there and, with that realization, started cultivating an increasingly anxious need to further examine the matter.
It took him a few minutes to actually move. But he wasn't going inside to join the bleary-eyed, freshly-panic-fueled gathering of his friends.
He got the direwolf to its feet and escorted it over to the door.
For a second, he considered popping his head in and announcing his leave.
Oh, but he knew how'd that go. He'd be barricaded down without any attention given to his arguments:
A, He'd been inactive far too long for his ADHD's liking, B, He hadn't done all that much that weighed in with the group's scheme of heroic life preservation, and C, Indiscriminate threats were best dealt with indiscriminately.
He placed a lingering pat on the wolf's great head and, for once, got grave silence instead of irritable resistance
And then he set off to neutralize the threat, weaponless and entirely Ciro-style.
Neither of them had uttered another word after her last 'sorry.'
He'd wanted to tell her, no, don't apologize, never apologize...but only then did he realize that she might very well have to in order to be at peace with herself. And, though he had conceded to let their verbal exchange die on that note, the real conversation hadn't ended there.
He also kept in mind how she hadn't ever issued a direct wish for him to leave and so he hadn't.
Instead, he had retreated to a nearby knoll just off the rise of the town's pathway and watched. His morality compass had gotten chaotically erratic with discomfort at how he could be considered to be watching someone sleep, so that made the whole situation contentious. But she remedied his internal conflict by remaining awake for the entirety of the her stay- at least, as far as he could tell. And when she'd finally retreated indoors at some unholy hour, he'd remained out here.
Sleep hadn't even begun to get a dominant hold on him when dawn decided to break with a joyous eruption of unnaturally raucous birdsong. The utter variety of the avifauna here shocked him anew every morning. Before his unintentional transdimensional migration, a nomadic kestrel dropping into the neighborhood to grab a pigeon was an event worthy of commemoration.
The worldwide awakening also served as an entrance; Ciro looked on in soundless concern as Take staggered out of the woods with a limp Blair and took in the extent of both of their states. Though she seemed very much so unconscious, it almost looked as if Take was worse off; with his staggering sluggishness, he didn't appear to be running on anything other than pure determination to deliver his girlfriend to safety.
For a second, Ciro caught himself wondering if they'd attacked one another.
No, that couldn't possibly be it. Those two were so infatuated with each other that even their entirely immoral alternate selves hadn't been able to inflict any considerable damage.
As they disappeared into the tavern, Ciro came to the decisive conclusion that something had besieged them out there and, with that realization, started cultivating an increasingly anxious need to further examine the matter.
It took him a few minutes to actually move. But he wasn't going inside to join the bleary-eyed, freshly-panic-fueled gathering of his friends.
He got the direwolf to its feet and escorted it over to the door.
For a second, he considered popping his head in and announcing his leave.
Oh, but he knew how'd that go. He'd be barricaded down without any attention given to his arguments:
A, He'd been inactive far too long for his ADHD's liking, B, He hadn't done all that much that weighed in with the group's scheme of heroic life preservation, and C, Indiscriminate threats were best dealt with indiscriminately.
He placed a lingering pat on the wolf's great head and, for once, got grave silence instead of irritable resistance
And then he set off to neutralize the threat, weaponless and entirely Ciro-style.
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