✋from Wendy :> -- @constantdangers
If he were to be completely honest, the whole... ordeal had left him more than unnerved. It felt as though he wasn’t in his own body when he followed the others to the secondary camp, the bellowing cries of a giant close behind them. Although he smiled on instinct every time someone glanced his way, reassuring the few who noticed his distress that no, no, truly there's no need to worry! It's fine, of course he's fine.
After all, nobody else seemed to be... concerned by the whole situation, so it’d simply be silly for him to be.
The thought provoked a startled laugh out of him, quickly covering the sound with a cough. Perhaps he was starting to get used to matters. Not long ago, the mere notion of suggesting that the concept of a towering beast, who desecrated entire forests without blinking and eye, being frightening would be inane... He felt like laughing again, only the memory of those glaring eyes and glinting teeth silenced him, sending a shiver down his spine and leaving him a touch faint.
Yet, in this hellish world he found himself in, such things seemed to be the norm, if how his companions responded to things was of any indication. To think that a mere couple of them went out to fight the damn thing, as if it were nothing some menial chore!... It all seemed to be more fit for a novel than for real life.
Perhaps he shouldn't be so shocked. Everything, from the food they ate to the ground they walked upon, felt as though it were straight out of some madman's dream. A fantastical world with a horribly macabre twist, where everything was out for blood and where you could never quite escape the feeling of being watched—
Warmth grasping his hand startled him out of his quickly spiraling thoughts, his first instinct telling him to get away get away get away was abruptly silenced as soon as he realized who it was that approached him.
...his niece, ever the splitting image of Jack's partner.
He felt his heart ache at the mystery he was too cowardly to dig into. So many questions he wanted to beg answers for, of how and why she was there, why she was so old or why Abigail was—
Her hand ( so much bigger from when he’d first seen it, yet still so, so small ) squeezed his lightly, her piercing gaze ( no child should have such a haunted look ) turning up towards him, unreadable.
William wasn't quite sure what she saw, what she had seen to call for her action. Once, a long time ago, he and Jack could always tell when the other was upset, perhaps she...?
It didn't matter, what mattered was that he should be the one comforting her, not the other way around. Wendy was and would always be the priority, he owed as much to her and to Jack, and it would be a lie to say he hadn’t been enamored the moment Jack had allowed him to carry her and her sister as newborns . So he mustered a light smile, and squeezed her hand back, pushing all of his prior concerns to the back of his mind. Although a touch of embarrassment uncomfortably pricked at his chest, how wrong was he— how much has he yet to learn for his niece to be the one comforting him?
“ Good day, Wendy, ” he said still smiling. Get a grip of yourself, William. It wouldn't do to weigh down your own niece with your foolishness, “ May I help you with anything? ”
