Qeya River owlclover

He did not want to go.

A son for a son, he reminded himself with a grimace as he rose from embracing @Gideon. Mind Auntie @Ilse vhile I am gone, Anselm instructed, ruffling the top of Gideon's head.

Truthfully, when Sun Eat first informed them of their pending excursion, Anselm had considered bringing Gideon along anyway -- to possibly slip off unnoticed somewhere between here and there. It was not that he was not grateful to Sun Eater; it was that he saw sometimes, just out of the corner of his eye, an ugliness in Sun Eater worse than any he'd ever brought into this world. The unknown made him nervous, and as he struggled with his newfound limitations in his body, he fretted for what would happen to Gideon without him.

Ilse will take care of him, Anselm told himself as he swung after the proud step of Saatsine's leader.