translucent | invisible snufkin

seven

moominpapa asked if he could come in, to which he got no reply. he was concerned, so he lifted the flaps of snufkins tent, and tried his hardest to contain his shock. he saw snufkins coat, trousers and boots, but he couldn't see snufkin.

"ah, hello my boy. is everything alright?" moominpapa inquired, not sure wether to bring up snufkins appearance.

snufkin reaches for his hat, placed it on his head and shook his head. he realised that he could only really communicate in head movements and shrugs, but it would have to do.

"can you speak, snufkin?" moominpapa asked.

snufkin shook his head.

"alright, i'll uh, be right back." moominpapa got up and began to walk back to moominhouse. snufkin felt like he could confide in moominpapa, he had all those years ago, after he ran from home, and moominpapa never brought it up again, or told moomin.

moominpapa returned a few minutes later, with a few sheets of paper and a pen. snufkin immediately understood what he was meant to do. he took the pen and paper from moominpapa, and began to write.

[all the bold text is snufkin, regular text is moominpapa]

"thank you."

"you're quite welcome, snufkin. now, may i ask why you haven't left your tent?"

"i couldn't bear to. i wanted to, but i felt like if i was around people i would get trapped."

"i see. did something happen while you were travelling?"

"no."

"you can tell the truth snufkin. i promise this will stay between us."

"he found me."

moominpapa placed a paw to his mouth, trying not to show his anger.

"the joxter..?"

"yes."

moominpapa and the joxter may have been good friends back in the day, his opinion on the joxter soured after he had found out what he did to snufkin.

"im terribly sorry, snufkin. did he do anything to you?"

tears began to drip onto the paper. moominpapa looked up at snufkin, with a somber look on his face. he didn't know exact what to say in that moment.

"he looked at me. he called me by my old name and tried to run after me. he was yelling apologies at me, telling me i should go back home with him. he said i would be safe. he said he had changed. i just kept running."

moominpapa withheld his rage as he read the words on the paper. they began to get scratchier further towards the end. he could feel the anger in the dark ink.

"thankyou for telling me, snufkin. i'm so sorry that you had to go through that. he truly is a terrible creature. would you like me to see if moominmama can find something to help with the.. er.."

snufkin nodded slowly. he wanted to get better.

"would you like to come with me? moomin is out with snorkmaiden, so he won't be home for a few hours."

snufkin silently stood up. moominpapa reached out his hand, and snufkin reluctantly took it.

in that moment, he felt safe. moominpapa has always been something of a father figure to snufkin, after what happened with his own.

the two made their way to moominhouse.