Two Rivers Isle ricochet

A bullet to the heart and he had been the one firing the gun.

Throat tight, he opened his mouth to say something - anything - that would make this right. Please don't go. Please don't let me go this time. There was nothing he could do but stand crestfallen as she pulled even further away.

And all at once he felt the bullet's ricochet.

Perhaps she was right to believe he hated her. Did he? "I don'-" he stumbled, was that true? Never before had he been forced to look inside himself for answers rather than jumping to immediate conclusions. Certainly he had resented her for more than just letting their family fall apart. But was she truly to blame for that, or did the fault partly lie on his shoulders? "I don' hate you, Iseul. Ines is not like me." Despite their shared blood, they had taken opposite sides once. For a child, such complex feelings as this were hard to articulate and so he settled for something he knew was true. "You're family too, y'know?" Perhaps the only one he had left in the Isle.

As she speaks again, he lets his ears droop dully. To know that she had waited for him all this time, that he had been the one to leave her was hard to comprehend. Unlike his parents, she had been the only one to stay. "Boone found me. Was gonna look for Colt but Boone found me. We went fishin'." The truth was, he had felt left behind, even if Iseul hadn't meant for that to happen. "He told me 'bout growin' up and stuff but he never had anyone to teach 'im all things like you did." He wasn't quite sure what he was saying, only that if he didn't say it now he wasn't sure he'd get another chance. "I-I don' wanna end up like him."