Phoenix Maplewood That's the point

at least we were together. vex mumbles under his breath, in truth vex fashion refusing the connection of empathy. in his mind, the situations were entirely different and though his mother tried, valiantly, to make him understand that they weren't different at all vex won't see it that way. of course, having one another hadn't kept haunt from getting hurt. he'd failed to protect her then and he was failing to protect her now ...where ever she was.

arbiter is so sure that haunt was going to come home ...that she was going to drag her back kicking and screaming if it came to it and vex feels his lips mash into a terse line. the last thing he wants is to argue with his mother, especially when there was no telling how long this trip was going to be and he was the only child at her side — unfortunate that he had no one else to turn her ire to if he stoked it. this knowledge forces him to contemplate, to weigh the pros and cons of speaking.

so, he decides to change the subject, almost entirely. they have a stale trail to follow and who knew how long it'd be before they reached its end. i want to be a leader, he says, almost too quickly, afraid that if he didn't get all the words out in a blurt they would be stolen from him. someday. he adds quickly before she can reply. would you teach me?

that, he decides, is his price for obedience. one of the many things he would have to work on if she agreed to his curve ball admittance.