I'm such a lucky duck
Come on and dance now, everyone is having fun
{absolutely necessary table change}Come on and dance now, everyone is having fun
He forgets, sometimes, that the grief is not his alone: that there are others who still mourn and remember, outside the small circle of his father and himself. It is the gift and the curse of the young, to believe oneself the pinnacle of an experience, the only one who the light touches in a sea of human gray. So the sound of sadness in his captain's voice startles the young man, and at once he feels guilty and awkward, unsure of his footing in this topic of taboo. He doesn't like to look too closely at his grief, has avoided really considering what it means for him for years. He carries on her legacy in the form of an ill-fitting blade, never allowing himself to drop it except when he's alone, with only his thoughts to know his secrets:
His young arms, how they ache.
Anyway. All that to say that Koa doesn't respond to Anju's reminiscing except to clear his throat and dig a toe into the dirt, and so is almost grateful when Pipsqueak breaks the awkward silence- or would be, had her abrupt appearance not set off so many alarm bells. His mind goes briefly blank with panic, but the sound of his Captain barking orders cuts through like a silver knife. "No, ma'am," the Dragoon replies after a quick one-over, snapping up onto his feet and bringing Pipsqueak with him as he backs away from the bone pile, and whatever lurks inside.
Riya's fire lights the dark spaces between the bones, and for a moment it seems there might not be anything inside. Then the light fades, leaving only two pinpoints...
...which abruptly solidify into beady eyes over an open beak full of small, sharp teeth, as the cockatrice hurls itself from the darkness, screeching bloody murder, its terrible bat-wings flapping wildly as it bee-lines for the group.
We're all dancing to the sound of bass and drum
Come on, come on and dance now
Come on, come on and dance now
Koa
