Hushed Willows oh, it's definitely the end times

if only i had more free time, haha, i would dread to think how high i could drive it in a short amount of time...

And selective he was, thinking over the answer to her question. He didn't know whether or not she knew. Her question implied it, but he had learned a long time ago what implications were good for and when. Banner's query wasn't the thing that troubled him. It was the notion that he did not know who he could trust outside of his kin. Ayishik and Shikoba had left them both and outside of his family, he barely knew the occupants within the Crook. Even they had changed in their minute ways.

"I was," he sighed. "I was looking for my boy, Pippin. He went missing a few days ago." His words felt hollow, but they were genuine; the halting statement only turned up because he could not find a steady voice. There were only a few ranges with him when it came to emotion and this one, this prickling dissatisfaction that had rubbed him raw he could not outright name. It wasn't anger and he surely thought it was not fear. It wasn't the anxiety that had pressed into him to return to Harlyn and their children some weeks ago. Maybe it was all of those things, neatly packaged and tied with a crude bow.

Mordecai shook his head then, clearing his throat. Maybe he was just tired.

"This damn weather won't cooperate, it seems like every other time I set out to find some trace of him, it rains. Washes that notion right out of your head. As if things couldn't be any worse," and again he caught himself, feeling the sharp edge of bitterness caving in, the rise of his tone honing that point.