Otatso Wetlands Trace the moment, fall forever

Paging @Wildflower but all welcome! Backdated probably

He felt the buzzing in his ears more than heard it, but all the same, it was so, so loud. Tybault hadn't expected that part — but really, who does?

Everyone dreams of running away sometimes. Buy a ticket to nowhere, they say, take nothing; leave it all behind but your bare soul, and that's romantic, and that's freedom, and that's beautiful, that's life. No one ever tells you that it doesn't feel very beautiful, that the taste isn't much like freedom at all but bile gathering at the back of your throat. Less like summer's respite than the stark grip of winter: you're alone and it's cold, the sky is grey, the birds are all gone and nothing grows. Nothing grows.

So you just keep walking.

Tybault wasn't sure if he hoped to find Wildflower still lurking around these wetlands. He wasn't quite looking for him, in any case. Not really. Looking for him would have implied investment, and — no. No. There was no room in him for that.

But he would stick around a little while, at least. See if anything came up.

He didn't know where he would go after that; only that he couldn't go back. Not again.