It had been some time since Hadama was a sulky teenager. The weight and passage of years had not completely erased those memories from his mind, however, and he, too, had once felt the need to lash out and make choices he would later regret.
If he hadn't made them, lived them, and learned from them, however, then he would not be the man he had become.
Emerald eyes remained solemn, and for all that Jude's petulance was the province of a much younger heart the mermanta accepted it with due seriousness for the pain that was currently the center of the young man's world. And in his silence it made space for Jude to come to some conclusions of his own.
The bridge cracked beneath the pressure of the questing shoe, icy splinters falling into the tiny stream below. Hadama considered the broken construct and, after a moment, the ice began to rise again. Not as it had been - he was careful to keep the cracks visible, shifting the temperature of the water with fine control to freeze the repairs as a thicker, milkier color - but in a new shape: a little taller, a little broader and more stable and less like a confectioner's dream of a bridge. But it still connected to the previous lengths, and still functioned as a means of safe passage over the water for any tiny creature that wished to cross it.
"What is 'this?'" he asked quietly, "And who do you wish to become... as yourself? Outside of their shadows."
If he hadn't made them, lived them, and learned from them, however, then he would not be the man he had become.
Emerald eyes remained solemn, and for all that Jude's petulance was the province of a much younger heart the mermanta accepted it with due seriousness for the pain that was currently the center of the young man's world. And in his silence it made space for Jude to come to some conclusions of his own.
The bridge cracked beneath the pressure of the questing shoe, icy splinters falling into the tiny stream below. Hadama considered the broken construct and, after a moment, the ice began to rise again. Not as it had been - he was careful to keep the cracks visible, shifting the temperature of the water with fine control to freeze the repairs as a thicker, milkier color - but in a new shape: a little taller, a little broader and more stable and less like a confectioner's dream of a bridge. But it still connected to the previous lengths, and still functioned as a means of safe passage over the water for any tiny creature that wished to cross it.
"What is 'this?'" he asked quietly, "And who do you wish to become... as yourself? Outside of their shadows."
