Sea Lion Shores the preacher in a t-shirt told me i could be a leader

Silly situation was right, but Gavrel could not help but feel like he had trod into something more ominous than he was fully conscious of, as if he had upturned a stone and let sunless creatures with segmented bodies crawl out into a world that had previously thought itself only inhabited by capital-G Good things. His heart and stomach clenched with dread.

Shit, I'm so sorry, he managed to stammer out, his tongue impeding speech rather than facilitating it. I mean, there was a fire back home and—

He could still see it when he closed his eyes, that great fist of smoke dense enough to blot out the sun.

And I ran. And I just... he swallowed. I've just been running.

Under Caracal's questioning, he felt like an unruly child or a petty criminal, someone who had lost the fight against impulse in the most humiliating manner possible.

I'll stay until they come back. His ears pinned close to his head. Uneasiness animated his every gesture.