Dolphus didn’t know what exactly the chuckle entailed, but the Gorov blood in his veins desperately wanted him to be offended at it. It’s just something else, disconnected, she didn’t mean anything by it, probably doesn’t even consider anything that she says, don’t think about it…
Dolphus slowly turned towards Ari, immediately noticing her quivering like a flag in the breeze. It wasn’t the pangs of cold which made her quiver, but pure, unadulterated excitement. Not necessarily enjoyable, by any means, but the thrill of being so far from home, perhaps, or possibly from finally being on a boat bigger than a canoe.
Stop it. Be nice.
Her comments initially helped, but his guilty mind quickly found a way to make them all relate to his own sorrows. Even out on the sea, with the whole universe above his head, it felt less like the world around him and more like the eyes he had lost what felt like an eternity ago.
Are??
Dolphus’ brow went flat. Any attempt to not be offended now was in vain. What do you mean by THAT, huh?
He couldn’t help it.
As she spoke, Ari’s words drew his mind horribly back into the memory of his mother, and his eyes traveled up towards the heavens, her face seeming to linger on the edges of his vision. She wasn’t dead, she was there in front of him, her kind words reminding him to be strong in the face of all that was before him.
And yet, in spite of his beaming features, the pangs of his heart eventually crawled in through his arteries and dumped the ugly varnish of depression across the entire beautiful canvas of the heavens. He tried desperately to keep looking, but all he saw around the edges of the stars was an ornate and empty bed, a will he was not allowed to read, the written location of a grave he was never allowed to visit.
“Stop.” Dolphus suddenly turned away, his chin digging into his shoulder as the hand which rested on the barrel balled into a fist so tight the bone-white knuckles looked like they were about to burst. He could feel his eyelids growing red again.