Dragoncrest Cliffs Anglerfish

Deep sea eyes lifted and found a familiar mousy-colored coat. Suzu was there, finishing work with some branches – new additions, it looked like. The boy wondered if she had been tending to it since they’d made the trap, if she had checked on it daily. Guilt gnawed at his stomach, twisting it until it set his heart to racing. The seagull and now this, a project that he had assumed would do all the work for them.

The pale-faced girl did not say anything to him. She looked as though she was focused on the task, nothing more. Swordfish wondered if he had spoiled a chance to know her. It wouldn’t have surprised him, really. He knew that he had done wrong, and he had turned tail as soon as things had gotten overwhelming for him. All he remembered was going to the dark and staying there until the sound of her crying had left his head.

Hey, Su…

The voice that drawled from the young wolf was familiar. The boy’s deadpan voice made it difficult to tell what emotions might have screamed within him. His heavy-lidded gaze was pinned to her. Swordfish wished that he could go back and try again, but he knew that it was too late for childish wishes of that kind.

I’m…

The apology was in there, jumbled around the thousand other words and thoughts that fluttered through his head. The rangy redtail looked pathetic, unsure what he could say to make it better. He feared that Suzu would hate him so much that he had hid, had run away from the possibility of having to face that.

A desperate sigh fell from his mouth, gaping with the hopes that words might find a way to her. 

Swordfish couldn't run forever.