Wheeling Gull Isle immunity, long overdue

being vague here - he doesn't know names yet lol! also generalizing, because he hasn't threaded with some of the others yet.

and he didn't notice, not really, not in a way that mattered. he noticed in the way that children do. but he was not old enough to have words to put to this feeling and by the time he could, it had no hope of remaining conscious as social engineering cast his intuition away.

he could feel the love pouring in when he was at the milk mother's breast. he saw it true in his savior's eyes when he looked upon his nameless son.

and though the older ones were tolerant of him, so was the birth mother. they offered more than her, sure — the witch had never offered so much as a hint of a smile, for she had not a crumb of love to spare. it was the barrenness of it that he sensed, the lack of warmth, though he couldn't understand why that was or where it came from.

so he pretended it wasn't there at all, with no way of knowing it was the same way she was pretending but feeling like it all the same.

there is some surprise when she approaches him unbidden. curiosity drives the shadows back. the older sister drops something in front of him, and though he doesn't understand her speech he understands its implications.

the stone was black and white. like him. he attached to it immediately. crouched, he crawled towards it, looking up at her with searching blue eyes to make sure it was really his own, that she had thought of him, to find that warmth he desired.