Rance took a half step back when Kel began to run forward, an automatic reaction then and now. Only the hope fluttering frantically in his chest kept his from changing shapes and taking to the air. A voice in the back of his mind, detached from his shock, noted that Kellan was as fit from the front as he was from the back. The rest of his thoughts were a tangle of half-formed questions: was this a hallucination? A mirage? Had walking through the portal from the Grounds, had he once again slipped through to another world?
...Was he home?
His fist rose to his mouth and he bit his thumb hard, trying to ground himself with the pain as watched the illusion in the shape of his oldest friend splash through the Pool while he stood frozen, muscles tight with indecision and confusion. What would he do if a hallucination was all it was?
What would he do if this was real?
He dared not step forward, even to help when Kellan tripped, but he physically couldn't turn away. When the apparition began speaking again, it was as if something squeezed tight around his throat. He released his thumb, hand dropping to his side, and sucked in a rattling breath.
"No, I... I tripped and there was the -- the fuckin' portal! I didn't think anyone else could... would...!" His jaw clicked shut, face pulling into a brief, frustrated snarl. The snarl loosened a beat later and his expression shifted to wary hope, even as part of him prepared to mourn another cruel joke of this world. "Is this... are you really here?" He murmured the question, his voice an emotion-roughened counterpoint to the sounds of the surf behind him. One arm rose, fist loosening as it did, reaching out, but just as afraid that the man before him would turn to mist.
...Was he home?
His fist rose to his mouth and he bit his thumb hard, trying to ground himself with the pain as watched the illusion in the shape of his oldest friend splash through the Pool while he stood frozen, muscles tight with indecision and confusion. What would he do if a hallucination was all it was?
What would he do if this was real?
He dared not step forward, even to help when Kellan tripped, but he physically couldn't turn away. When the apparition began speaking again, it was as if something squeezed tight around his throat. He released his thumb, hand dropping to his side, and sucked in a rattling breath.
"No, I... I tripped and there was the -- the fuckin' portal! I didn't think anyone else could... would...!" His jaw clicked shut, face pulling into a brief, frustrated snarl. The snarl loosened a beat later and his expression shifted to wary hope, even as part of him prepared to mourn another cruel joke of this world. "Is this... are you really here?" He murmured the question, his voice an emotion-roughened counterpoint to the sounds of the surf behind him. One arm rose, fist loosening as it did, reaching out, but just as afraid that the man before him would turn to mist.
