Whitefish River frater meus, you're beautifully made

The ear upon the blinded side of Aquillius turned, slow, towards the sound of a disturbance. The boy did not turn to face it, at least not yet, waiting for the sounds to halt. He could hear the faint dripping of water from whiskers, barely audible over the sound of rushing water. But, even with his blinded eye, his hearing was strong.

Slowly he turned his head, staring out across the water until his eye picked up the faint shift of color. Even then, it took him a moment of focusing to realize it was a woman and not an oddly colored branch close to his face. He looked at her for a moment, letting it stretch, before his eyes looked to the distant Mesa.

Are you from here? His voice would ask the dark and the maybe-woman maybe-weird stick with his faulty depth perception.