oh baby, I have not been kind
"I'm sorry," he murmured so softly, carefully folding himself down to the cool earth. "I hope this is alright."
They'd done a lot of walking around the island today, tracing the shoreline until they made a full circuit then cutting through their new home and nodding to the other residents as they passed by. It was mostly uneventful, but it was still a long day. He enjoyed seeing others, meeting new faces or saying hi to familiar people. His head was aching though. There were more refugees here than when they'd first arrived, and each day it seemed to grow in number. The more there were, the more voices were constantly ringing in his head and he just needed to sit for a while.
Nothing could drown it out though. Nothing would shut it off.
He pinched his eyes shut anyway, settling to the side on a hip and fluffing his feathers a bit. Goddamn, so many of them. Their own family, of course. The healers and Tiphon. Luster's family; her boy, her parents, her numerous siblings and possibly more. Dovev's family, at least five of them, possibly more. And so many damn women nearly bursting in their pregnancies, all those tiny babes already in his mind too, just as Kali had been. Luster's baby sister. Dovev's twins. Dovev's other twins. The list went on and on and he heard each voice, every single one. All at the same time.
"What, baby?" She'd said something, he was pretty sure. Oh no wait, she wasn't talking yet. Of course. "Sorry.." He shook his head slowly. "Thought I heard something." His eyes opened to find her with a soft laugh, playing it off. He was fine, really. Just being a little weird, was all. Maybe tired. No big deal.
"Anyway. I hope this is okay. That we aren't walking more?" They walked a lot. It was, for the most part, the main thing they could do here on their new island. "Kinda just wanna chill for a little bit. That won't be too boring, will it? We can still... Or well." He could still talk, maybe. He sighed and pulled her in close. They could rest. And cuddle. And not do things like what he'd done before.
He guessed he still thought about it sometimes.
"If you think of any games you want to play, though.." Oh, that was bad timing. That wasn't what he meant. It was fine. She couldn't hear thoughts. He continued. "We could. Just let me know." He wasn't sure what games they could play here in the shade, in the quiet, in the middle of the island. Oddly, the middle seemed to be the less occupied. But anyway.
"Mostly, I just kinda wanna hang out a little bit. We can find something more fun to do in a few minutes though."
I wish I could scrape away the dirt that's on my mind