For a moment, when her dark eyes meet his and they stand without speaking as they regard one another, Kendry thinks she might reach for him. He’s encouraged by the smile on her lips, and his eyes begin to brighten in response when the warm moment between them grows suddenly frosty. Bozena’s abrupt rigidity and pinned ears are the complete opposite of what Kendry has been anticipating, and he draws his head up, confused as she backs away from him. “What? No, not...” He stumbles over his response, heart clanging an alarm in his chest, stepping forward almost without thinking in an attempt to maintain their closeness. “Bozena...”
But that closeness is gone, broken by... what? Kendry cannot guess beyond the idea he had been entertaining only days ago: that the Lagoon truly is despised and reviled by the inhabitants of the Islands, and to associate oneself with it —however loose that association may be— is to smear a black mark across one’s character. His eyes dart between hers as she continues to back away, but he does not follow her. How can he, when she has made it so clear that she does not want to be near him since knowing he’s come from the Lagoon?
His ears turn back in frustration. This, too, is fate. He has not cut ties with the bachelor herd fast enough and now it threatens part of the very future he desires. He should have chosen a different path the day he came back to the Islands but he was still a lax, complacent boy and look what it might cost him now. Even if Bozena is the only one who carries this opinion of the bachelor herd, it is too much.
“The Lagoon is not my home,” he says, but it doesn’t matter. She is already bidding him farewell. Kendry scores the dirt with one great hoof and shakes his head. He cannot abide the thought of her leaving like this, carrying this memory with jagged edges until they meet again. The expression on her face makes his heart twist. “Not my home,” he insists with another emphatic shake of his head.
“Please,” he says, knowing he cannot control Bozena’s opinion of him but determined not to let this misunderstanding be her lasting impression of him. “When I am not so... distasteful to you. May I see you again?” |