Rattleskin Redoubt I'll cry at the end of the day. Not with fresh makeup.

Despite his vow to move northward, he remained within the redoubt.

He couldn't explain it. There was a sort of fearful inertia that choked him without his friend by his side—an inertia in which everything from the past came flooding back. A failure of the levees he'd put up around his heart to keep the torrent at bay.

He was scared, full stop. Outside the redoubt was just empty desert, and beyond, he'd heard, empty plains. 

So Caligula lingered, and languished, eating only small meals here and there while he pondered his next move. 

Perhaps, as he caught sight of the shadow ahead—which had just cast something strange and stringy aside—this could prove the necessary kick in the ass.

The boy picked up his gait into a trot, and chuffed loudly to grab the stranger's attention.