Lost Creek Hollow venustas

As Germanicus made a graceful movement to sit closer, Ico looked at him, slightly shy, but somehow less intimidated than he'd been previously by the commander's height and strength. There was something comfortable about this companionship; the warrior and the chronicler, the dark and the light, the lucid and the lost.

He felt as if he'd caught some of Germanicus's clarity, for Ico managed to reply with simplicity... at least initially. No. Well, maybe for a moment, he added vaguely. For I know he appreciated my listening to him, and my albeit meager attempts at support... but I truly think he's beyond help, he finished quietly.

But I can't up and leave, Ico continued, answering a question that had been weighing on his mind for some time. Partly because — well, it-it was difficult enough to find a home to begin with. But also because... I don't quite understand it, but Merrick insisted that retribution would some day come for his blood, and I must endeavor to save his young family from the same fate.