milliways_bar | (no subject)

Thankfully the lakeside of the bar is opposite where things happened last night. There is the last bit of setting sun on the water, and the open air-

And if its not the sea, it is still something to look at while thoughts chase themselves around inside his head.

Until Wellard notices the reflection of a griffin in flight, on the surface of the lake.

Elda swoops low overhead to make sure Wellard is who she thinks, then banks around.

She comes to a rather heavy landing nearby with a thundering of wings. Trotting over, she smiles.

"I'm out of shape again. How horrid."

He drops the hand that had been up to sheild his eyes from the wind of Elda's landing, then smiles faintly. "I wouldn't be able to tell- your flying is beautiful, Miss Elda."

She ducks her head and scratches at the ground with one claw.

"Oh, thank you. It's nothing compared to some of my brothers and sisters, though. I'm still just a clumsy fledgling compared to them."

Elda sits, so she's closer to his eye level. "How are you?"

"I don't see anyone else here flying, though." He smiles, but it fades as he bites his lip.

".. I am alright. We all are. There was- Something, last night. Something with Mrs Rowlands, and the Dark and... I'm not sure what all did happen, really- But we're alright."

"Oh no." She instantly crouches closer, trying to get a good look at him.

"Are you really all right? Did my spells not work? Oh, I'd feel terrible if they didn't and you were hurt-"

Wellard blinks, reaching up to carefully set his hands on either side of Elda's head.

"I am alright. Truely. Nothing was really aimed at me- I had felt something happening while I was in the bar, and went running outside." His lips twitch in a wry smile.

"Probably not the smartest thing to do, but-"

She nudges him in the forehead with her beak.

"No, it was very silly and I should be angry, but I'm only glad you're all right. She wasn't after you, again?"

He smiles a bit wryly, dropping his hands. "... Just that is what you do. If something is happening, you need to see what it is. Or so I'm used to."

Wellard shakes his head. "No. She was fighting with a Mr Raven, and then-"

He pauses, taking a deep breath.

"... I don't know what happening. It was... not an explosion, but worse, with... everything evil all around."

"It knows how to speak to you."

"It sounds almost like a demon. I'm so sorry, Henry." Elda carefully curves a wing around him.

"You are all right now. Will you be all right later?"

"The Dark is evil, so... a demon would be close to it, yes." He sighs quietly, closing his eyes.

"... I think so. I- It offered me things. I had done... something close to that before. It would have been so easy to have let it in, to save everyone else."

"I can't say I wouldn't have thought about it too, to save other people," she says quietly.

"But things like that lie, unless they see a great advantage to tell the truth. And it's usually not in battle."

Elda squeezes him closer. "I'm very glad you didn't."

A quiet sigh, and he leans against Elda, fingers running through feathers.

At least for a moment while he can.

"On the Renown, the ship I was on before, I went to kill the captain. He had been insane, and would have ordered others hanged. Killed for the mutiney he drove them to, and drove us all to. Even if I had been caught for killing him, the rest would have been saved. When I arrived here, I had thought I would be going to hell, for what I had tried to do.

"That is why the Dark knew it could ask me thus, Miss Elda. If I had damned myself before, why not again?"

He takes a deep breath, and steps back from Elda, to watch her quietly.