[ He couldn't claim to have somewhere else to be even if he knew it as an option, so he pulls his hand back and takes her lead, instead. Reluctantly, and careful to position himself safely out of arm's reach (or close enough that reaching him might require a significant lean), he sits down on the shore of the chattering stream, knees pulled up halfway to his chest.
It probably isn't helping to deter her from imagining him as a child.
A sullen one, who digs his pale, yellow-veined bare feet into the watery silt that dips down under the brook's edge, again, before appearing to settle entirely. The fluttering brown birds that visited upon him, before, also return to ground as he does, bouncing cautiously upstream on his far side, in deference to the stranger's presence. His wariness might as well be a current between them. ]
Thank you.
[ A pause, and then he starts again to clarify, lest she mistake his intent as he looks away solemnly over the clear, sparkling flow of water: ] For not uprooting them.
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It probably isn't helping to deter her from imagining him as a child.
A sullen one, who digs his pale, yellow-veined bare feet into the watery silt that dips down under the brook's edge, again, before appearing to settle entirely. The fluttering brown birds that visited upon him, before, also return to ground as he does, bouncing cautiously upstream on his far side, in deference to the stranger's presence. His wariness might as well be a current between them. ]
Thank you.
[ A pause, and then he starts again to clarify, lest she mistake his intent as he looks away solemnly over the clear, sparkling flow of water: ] For not uprooting them.