Dormant

19

Everything is grey,
Everything was grey,
His hair, his smoke, his dreams,
His hair, his smokes, his dreams,
And now he's so devoid of color.
He don't know what it means,
Doesn't know what it means,
And he's blue,
And makes me blue,
And he's blue,
And makes me blue.

-Colors, Halsey

19

"Why don't you ever take off your gauntlet?"

The question caused War's body to tense as he froze in packing the supplies that he had taken from the backpack that Jessica had prepared for him, his eyes locking upon the water canister still in his hands. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Ruin's head fling up, ears flicking up as he chewed on the mouthful of grass he had as he stared at the woman who had asked the question.

It had been a great morning. The air was great, the morning dew drops heavy in the air and cooling the humidity that was trying to take hold. The sun, orange rays dancing, was beginning to peek about the gray clouds that painted the horizon, holding the promise of rain. War could smell the rain that was arriving and the occasional flash of lightning from the clouds building behind him in the opposite direction of the rising sun flickered across the landscape. Birds chirped in the remaining trees, some dancing over the grassland that they were about to start crossing. Other small animals just waking up bounced by them, stopping to investigate, before leaving. Abbygail greeted them all by petting their heads gently and wishing them a great day despite the fact that they didn't speak her language as a human. Even breakfast had been great with the wonderful gravy that he had reheated with Jessica's instructions from the day before.

But there was no doubt that Abbygail's seemingly innocent question had ruined his day. He had noticed that about her rather quickly. She didn't mean to hurt people; she was a naturally curious person who wanted to know if her theories were correct. She had already surprised him yesterday by asking him if he had ever wanted to be anything besides from a warrior. The answer was simple -he hadn't ever dreamt of being anything else. Everything she said contained a naïve tone to it, like she honestly never had thought about it before.

Thinking, War continued to pack his things. After a few minutes, he decided that it was better not to answer. He would much rather sit in an awkward silence than describe to someone what it was like to live without half of an arm. To him it was a reminder of a time that he had disobeyed orders. It wasn't something that he wished to tell people and certainly not Abbygail.

At first he thought that he had gotten away with not answering. He walked by her without so much as a glance as he approached the cart that Jessica had given him to transport the materials that were needed. They both believed that Ruin was large and strong enough to be pulling the cart; he hadn't once faltered trotting through the forest that they had gone through yesterday. Jessica had given one warning. Like any horse, Ruin could possibly run himself dead. War knew his horse's limits. He was mostly more concerned about the cart staying together during the journey. It was already squeaking wherever they went.

He could feel her eyes on him as he called Ruin over and strapped the horse in. But she never asked. Didn't push for him to answer her question. And yet he wasn't surprised when he saw her shadow fall across part of Ruin as he fixed the last strap. It was silent for a moment before she took a deep breath.

"If you don't want to talk about it, then that's okay," she started slowly.

"I don't want to talk about it at all. Your guilt trip doesn't work on me," War snapped, turning away from her so he could gather the supplies he left.