she is not making eye contact with him, which would calm him were he not certain it was the product of pity. you look pathetic, yunxu reminds himself, which, while true, makes him no less agitated. this is why you don't speak to strangers. he should have dragged himself into the trees while he had the chance.
he could demand answers. is it an afterlife, this mythris? is he dead? but the answer will be the same- she doesn't know. sides heaving with breath, yunxu keeps staring until he senses no more words will be forthcoming and, sight blurring with the movement, spins unsteadily on his heels.
he makes it a half-dozen steps up the beach, aiming for the feathery brush that will hide him from what is surely the pitying stare he's being fixed with, before his legs give out and he crumples inelegantly to his chest, sticky with salt.
muzzle planted into the soft sand, yunxu resists the urge to scream.
"起来," he growls instead through clenched teeth, and instantly breaks into another fit of coughing. he is whole and uninjured, and this is not the first time he's breathed water by mistake- there's no reason for his body to betray him now, least of all in front of a stranger. of course the day would pile on him yet more shame. his nape burns with embarrassment; he squeezes his eyes shut and turns his head just enough to breathe without inhaling a lungful of sand.
"i do not want...a new beginning," he hisses, mortified to find tears prickling at the back of his eyes. he forces them more tightly shut. "the gods, the sea... should have let me die. why this?"
he could demand answers. is it an afterlife, this mythris? is he dead? but the answer will be the same- she doesn't know. sides heaving with breath, yunxu keeps staring until he senses no more words will be forthcoming and, sight blurring with the movement, spins unsteadily on his heels.
he makes it a half-dozen steps up the beach, aiming for the feathery brush that will hide him from what is surely the pitying stare he's being fixed with, before his legs give out and he crumples inelegantly to his chest, sticky with salt.
muzzle planted into the soft sand, yunxu resists the urge to scream.
"起来," he growls instead through clenched teeth, and instantly breaks into another fit of coughing. he is whole and uninjured, and this is not the first time he's breathed water by mistake- there's no reason for his body to betray him now, least of all in front of a stranger. of course the day would pile on him yet more shame. his nape burns with embarrassment; he squeezes his eyes shut and turns his head just enough to breathe without inhaling a lungful of sand.
"i do not want...a new beginning," he hisses, mortified to find tears prickling at the back of his eyes. he forces them more tightly shut. "the gods, the sea... should have let me die. why this?"
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