I had pulled the light of my power as deep into my core as I could, and I had shrunk my body to its smallest possible state, and when I spoke to the child, I had tried to be as gentle as I could, but I would have understood if she was afraid and she ran away from me, and my question.
I was death personified, and I would not be shocked if a thousand years old Arcanist fled from the sight of me, and yet, despite the fear I could smell from the child, or her wildly beating heart, she did not run, and this fear that I sensed, it was not being directed towards me, but my power.
"This child… why did she not fear me? And why does it hurt so much?"
I saw the child look at the fox in her arms as if for assurance before she looked back at me; then she began to slowly walk towards me, until she was a few feet away.
Her eyes grew wider the closer she came to me, and then she stopped. "Um, El, you should get up," she swallowed. "Lazy cur…"
