Hushed Willows And trees and hills they long have known.

can't resist -- but this can stay a one-off post if mal doesn't notice him <3

brilliance is grown enough that ariel does not keep careful watch over her -- though truthfully, he never has -- but being that she is his only remaining child, he does pay attention to her coming and going. add in the fact that she's easy to spot in snowfall, thanks to her inherited coat pattern, and it's not surprising that ariel discovers her in conversation with his estranged son. he stops short, still enough of a distance away that hopefully neither have noticed him, and draws himself against the willows for cover. how long they'd already been talking he can't tell.

mali is bigger than last ariel saw him (of course he is, he chides himself, children grow). he looks... he looks okay. he doesn't look starved or beaten. ariel yearns to reach out, but what could he possibly say? he's taken the blame for everything onto himself already, and does not expect his son to consider himself as such any more. apologizing, at this point, he thinks, would be more of a selfish way to reassure himself than to actually mend any damage with mali. or maybe that's just what he tells himself because he is afraid to reach out and be rejected, though he deserves it, wholly. 

it is, at least, good that they have each other. how much longer, he wonders, will brilliance be content to stay with him here, too? 

like a shadow ariel remains at their steps as long as he can. assuming mali does not notice (or, maybe more likely, ignores) him, he does not intrude on the siblings' afternoon; later, he will retire to his marriage bed and feel the swell of olive's belly against his and try to hold tightly to her words of trying again.