Emberwood Happiness in Retrospect

So he walks away from the Canyon, all flooded, the water jetting past his shoes and tumbling down into the cracks. Mud covers his pants, dries, flakes off in chunks. He leaves a trail of of it which starts off straight but soon meanders off into increasingly wayward turns. The sun is just above the horizon. The day feels like rain but for now the air is clear. He stretches his hand out towards the warm smear of sun before returning it gingerly to his side. 

In the sunset, Colin is a silhouette listing to the side, cupping some invisible pain right under his ribs with his face turned to the sun as dim light skips over all the hollows in his face. After a while of sitting and letting the quiet settle inside him like riverbed silt, he stands up again (the dust inside his head, disturbed, rise up into clouds) and continues his mindless orbit around the Emberwoods.

He walks until he can barely stand. As it turns out, it isn't that far— he leans against a tree and closes his eyes until the discomfort cedes the minimum amount of autonomy he needs to get going again.