exhilarating

Everest

While Mateo is talking, Ever is frantically writing down the names. He doesn't get the spelling quite right (croak-cuss), but it'll do for now. Especially because the boy is far too nervous to ask his friend to repeat himself, lest Mateo think he wasn't listening, or perhaps that it was a commentary on how quickly he was speaking. "I would like that. Could you tell me how to plant them too? And...where? Maybe one day after homework?" Though making plans for the future normally filled Ever with dread, this felt important enough that he was easily able to ignore his anxiety.

"Oh no? So a bit like home, then." Ever says with a nod, taking in the bright flora around him a touch wistfully. Once there's a moment for it, he'll try and do some rubbings of all the various colours around him so that he can remember them (as he isn't keen on a return trip via-manticore).

Glancing up from the pages of his notebook, Ever mmmms? precisely as his foot catches beneath the root Mateo had jumped over. Stumbling forward and flapping out his arms to catch himself, he knocks into Mateo as the other boy notes the giant fungus. "Sorry!" He exclaims brightly, taking a few steps back. "Sorry, sorry!"

Peering over Teo's shoulder, Ever's jaw drops to behold the mushrooms. "Whooaa..." He whispers, watching as a trio of squirrels descend from a tree, only to shoot into the air and catch onto a higher branch, via a huge bounce from the mushroom.

the words you speak
become the house you live in