09-01-2009, 01:25 AM
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Out in the thick bulk of the tall grasses that made up part of Inferni, Hezekiah stood out. The paling summer grass provided a nice contrast to his woodsy, earthy makeup, though from a far enough distance it was possible that he could have blended in. He didn’t think himself particularly visible when he had wandered out there to think and since he had gotten there, he had taken a seat in the tall-grassed prairie. As the almost only stationary point in a sea of light green, he lazily watched the grounds from there to the distant mountains wave. He had no idea where he was in relation to where home was. Home had no northern mountains. North had been the coast, just like the east and south. The west had been the vast, unexplored world. Raw and untamed, probably prime ground that wolves and coyotes disputed over.
And even as unpleasant as it was, he felt a little bit homesick.
But it wasn’t so bad that he wanted to go back. He had been in Inferni a little bit over a week and most of that had been spent healing. He wasn’t really so apt to get up and run out and meet the others that were there just yet; some combination of shyness and social awkwardness had already shone through when he had hoped it would have gone away. But he had acquainted himself with Kaena and Gabriel, then Mason, and Anselm. He liked the first three well enough even though he didn’t know them all that way and the latter he wasn’t so sure he was liked by. But all in all, he was feeling better. He had a firmer grip on reality and for once experienced what it was like to have strength come back to him.
Though not healed entirely, the gash at his side no longer felt as tender as it had days ago, his head and ribs along the left side no longer ached. Eleven days he had been in Inferni and he had seen neither hide nor hair of anyone he had ever known all of his life — something which made him wonder if any of them had cared about him at all. Were they looking for him? There was no way for him to tell, though he was inclined to believe that none of them would simply because he didn’t believe his father cared. If he didn’t care, then the others had probably only acted to care simply because someone else didn’t.
They had a word for that. Obligation. Well now he wasn’t anyone’s obligation.
That was nice.