Could he be blamed for his stiffness? His curiosity? He had spent so long underground with his dead... surely it would surprise no other to find him in such a state. Always, he had been oblivious to the sensibilities of those considered normal. They did not hide away as he did and they did not pay heed to the thoughts they did not desire; he had always been a slave in some small way. In a similar way, he moved like a slave to those around him. When the stranger turned with curiosity, Wraith moved back with his own; his own ear flickered, his dark nose testing the air. He seemed to parrot the other and, perhaps, that is all he had done. He did not know what he had to have been looking for, only that he had been seen and thus, attention had now been drawn to him. That was what he had wanted, though... right? He had believed it. Now, he had grown a little uncertain.
When he spoke, Wraith seemed to stiffen. It was as if those words had been so very foreign to him - like a threat. It was as if the other had spoken of injuring him, or of hunting him down like he had been once before. He had never forgotten the hunger in their eyes as he had crumpled into the grass, so desperate to be overlooked like carrion. Yet, his ear flickered once more, the tiniest hint of life as his brows had begun to furrow in thought. Brother? It was the strongest of all the words to him. He had failed his brothers some time ago, unable to be the substance to hold them together in any particular way. Istas had been hurt time and time again and Vainglory had drifted into the unknown like their father and mother. Yet, the way this stranger had said it. It made Wraith's lip twitch. For the first time, perhaps in years, he had the faintest ghost of a smile in the corners of his dark lips.
"Brother..." he repeated the word, almost with a sigh as his body suddenly begun to loosen. His tail fell loose between his legs, legs that had seemingly melted beneath him into something more comfortable, more lupine.
It took him another moment to settle into such a position, seemingly still needing the time to mull over the words. His eyes seemed to drift into true nothingness, staring past the stranger for several seconds before he moved to speak once more. His voice echoed with both a curiosity and a longing, though he had no idea which to settle with: "Can such things... be found?"
He took a cautious step forward, his head swinging low in a natural defensiveness. The moment his body lurched forward with momentum, he paused once more and glanced upwards. He sought a response, some kind of hint, that it was indeed acceptable for him to have done such a thing. He wanted to... speak, to know, or at least to feel the life of somebody who seemed to believe it still existed, after all.
wraith
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