>>13230089There were scratches on her face...scuffs and scrapes on her arms. She hummed merrily as she opened the small, convenient cooler that she had, Gold could only assume, purchased for the sole purpose of transporting a frozen, dairy treat.
"Ethan, I didn't know what flavor what you liked...so I just got vanilla, okay? No one doesn't like vanilla, right?"
"...Yeah...vanilla's fine..."
Gold squinted...joining his close friend in a seat near the crackling fire. That bracelet...he took a closer look at it. In the revealing glow of orange flames, he could make it out much more clearly.
...Wrapped loosely around her wrist, tied with a cheap bit of pocket string. It was hair...a clump of bright pink hair...
"...Lyra, are you sure that everything's okay?"
It took every ounce of self-worth that Gold had simply to mutter that line without stuttering.
There were no distant nightmares...no cloudy memories of lives he's never lived. This was Lyra. This was a girl who frightened him. His limbs were weak...lips quaking as he forced himself to stare squarely into the giggling girl's eyes.
Even if she was staring at the cooler, all he could see where flames...hot tongues of bright orange fire that spoiled the calm, pleasant brown.
...Times like this, she didn't blink. It was no exaggerating. He swore, he could stare at her as link as he liked right now...she would not blink.
"Everything's fine, Ethan! Why wouldn't it be?"
"...But...Lyra...Lyra, listen, you're covered in-"
"THAT'S...not important right now, Ethan, okay?"
Her voice wavered...shaking momentarily with seemingly random bouts of poorly veiled giggles that marked and punctuated the beginnings and ends of her straight-forward sentences. "What's important is...drink up!"
