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*Squeals so loud the windows shatter*

y’all are wrecking me inside!!!!!!!!! Quin is just soooo heart-wrenching and Sahar and ugggghhh!!!!!!!!! Y’ALL ARE KILLING ME!!!!! XD

@rose-colored-fancy

I LOVE YOUR NEW PROFILE PIC!!!!!!

@emily-waldorf

Just this once I’m going to take you up on your offer and change Niarok’s reply. He’s not the stuttering sort, especially not in situations like these. (And I couldn’t quite figure out how to make it fit his thought process. Oops…) Sorry! You’re actually doing a great job of writing him and it’s freaky when other people write your characters better than you…

 

Guys, I literally cannot do Yila right now. I just can’t. Niarok has entirely captured my heart and then there’s just Yila I’m also falling asleep and vacations are hard, guys. They’re just hard.

And Neasa, I will reply to you with details AT SOME POINT IN THE DISTANT FUTURE I PROMISEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Niarok

Niarok turned slowly, looking at Quin’s haunted face.

Niarok’s gaze halfway flicked down to Quin’s missing leg before he could stop it, and Quin’s eyes flickered. He smiled a grim smile.

Niarok’s eyes widened, wishing he could take back the tiny movement he had made on impulse. There was nothing he could do.

And Quin had been about to say something.

And Niarok had just thrown away whatever help he could have been to Quin if it hadn’t been for his stupid, stupid, stupid mistake.

Stop. Regrets don’t help. Stop it!

“There was nothing that could have changed it. It was an–an accident–amputation was…not a medical procedure. It was a fact.”

Niarok’s gaze went a little wider.

What happened?

But he didn’t say that. Quin’s haunted eyes said it all. That had been no war wound, no infection, no normal injury.

He had been a farmer.

Did he have a horse?

Niarok closed off his gaze so that Quin wouldn’t see the questions swimming through his mind or the guilt in his heart.

Quin was looking at him.

Niarok stared back. For once he had not the slightest clue what to say.

“Was it that bad?” he asked, nearly smacking himself.

Dumb question.

Why was he so bad at carrying on a conversation?

“You’re a doctor,” Quin answered, though he clearly knew that it didn’t answer the question. “Besides,” he looked off into the shadows. “Everybody asks that question.”

Niarok nodded slowly, trying not to choke on his own toxicity.

Just leave before you make it worse.

He turned reluctantly to leave, regretting forever that he couldn’t ever do the right thing.

“And Niarok.” Niarok stopped, looking at Quin, but Quin didn’t reciprocate. His gaze was clearly somewhere between the shadows and the floor. “I’m glad it’s an option you didn’t have to consider. Your sister likes her knives too much for that.”

Niarok smirked. “It was the bow and arrow that she would have killed me over.”

The tension between the two men eased, and Niarok walked away, hoping Quin didn’t hate him too much for being just like everyone else.

I hate being normal.

Niarok nearly slammed straight into Sahar.

“Thanks for the herbs, I really needed the water,” Sahar said, barking the fakest laugh Niarok had ever heard.

Great. Was it my fault?

“And water-poisoning isn’t how I’m planning to die so–” Sahar interrupted herself and stopped talking.

Niarok raised an eyebrow.

I can’t possibly make people that uncomfortable, can I?

“Don’t hate Acyn too much. I mean, he’s annoying as anything, but he really means well,” Sahar all but whispered. By the look in her eye, she had no inkling of an idea how good Niarok’s hearing was.

“You know what, scratch that, you can dislike him as much as you like. Might do him some good, he has the tendency to think he’s the greatest gift to mankind. Blame it on his parents,” Sahar said, slightly louder.

Who’s Acyn?

And why does she care what I think of him.

But then Sahar glanced at the kid who had tried to help Yila earlier, and Niarok winced inwardly.

Oh, him. Yeah, I do kinda hate him.

Not arrogant. Just curious.

Not arrogant.

Not arrogant.

Niarok raised an eyebrow when Sahar just spun on her heel and walked away.

“I’m not this socially awkward, am I?” Niarok asked the wall in front of him, then shook his head.

Now he knew he was tired.

“I’m talking to walls.”

STOP TALKING TO WALLS, IDIOT!

Niarok gave up trying to understand his tired brain and walked up to where Yila was flirting with Lorcan.

Niarok gave both of them a smile that promised plenty of teasing in the future before pulling out his bedroll and crashing harder than he ever had.

 

Okay so now I’m bored in my hotel room and am going to write Yila cuz now I think I can…