his eyes periodically watered from the reverberations of what felt like church bells between his eyes. he entered the gespensterwald to escape the sting of the sun.
the blur worked backwards in time and motion to render mahler. he approached noticeably. he sniffed the potatoes absently.
when he as younger he would've taken interest, but he hadn't cultivated that spark in a while.
astraeus looked at the bounty inquisitively, suspicious to how something from the ground could sustain them. nonetheless, he could only wonder how he would have valued mahler's expertise when he lived on a nowhere stretch.
he dipped his head as he leaned into a trot, chuffing through his nose that his attention was returned in full.
it felt good to know paleo was doing well, despite having to rebuild from the ground up. coyotes were pesky, he had to fend off the scavengers more than a few times for his scavenged meals.
astraeus was caught off guard by mahler's question. he shook his head with insistent vigor. he could barely look at himself the way he was, much less someone else.
he didn't think it something that was meant for him. he would ignore the old desire in mute, desperate heart.