[ Used to falling as he is, those other falls come with the benefit of being from much farther up and with time to correct the downward course - or be saved by a wyvern with faster reflexes than his own could ever hope to be. Neither of those things happen here even if he pulls Hilda closer still to somehow lessen the impact if he can. The air's knocked out of him in a rush when they hit the floor. On second thought, he would've accepted being tossed on the ground in the maze again. At least the earth has some give.
Though he'd tried to protect her, what he's managed doing in the same instant is reopening his own invisible wounds. Hilda's weight in his arms and the exact way she feels is something Claude wanted to believe he'd erased from his memory for it to never be part of it again. For it to be something he'd never have to remember, and yet it'd taken all of a second for all of it to come flooding back with her face right next to his in a way she's made clear is an impossibility for anything outside of this.
Those injuries will last longer than any bruises from this fall to the ground, and he knows it. ]
They seemed solid enough. Are you --
[ Claude was about to ask if she was alright as he carefully detangles himself from around her to start sitting up, but then his eyes catch on the contents of the box scattered around. Or rather: one item in particular in gleaming silver he recognizes quite well from being the one to proudly select it from the tables in the markets to bring back like a prize. It's been evicted, it seems, even though everything she's ever brought him still sits on his own shelves where it belongs.
He shouldn't be surprised. Hurt shouldn't run like a bolt of electricity through him with the current being as strong as any electrical spell ever aimed his way and landed. But for a second, Claude feels it so strongly it even slips through as a ripple crossing over his face, there and gone in an instant like it was never there at all when he wrangles all of his walls back into place and moves away to get more boxes to start over. Nothing else to do but to keep moving forward like always. ]
no subject
Though he'd tried to protect her, what he's managed doing in the same instant is reopening his own invisible wounds. Hilda's weight in his arms and the exact way she feels is something Claude wanted to believe he'd erased from his memory for it to never be part of it again. For it to be something he'd never have to remember, and yet it'd taken all of a second for all of it to come flooding back with her face right next to his in a way she's made clear is an impossibility for anything outside of this.
Those injuries will last longer than any bruises from this fall to the ground, and he knows it. ]
They seemed solid enough. Are you --
[ Claude was about to ask if she was alright as he carefully detangles himself from around her to start sitting up, but then his eyes catch on the contents of the box scattered around. Or rather: one item in particular in gleaming silver he recognizes quite well from being the one to proudly select it from the tables in the markets to bring back like a prize. It's been evicted, it seems, even though everything she's ever brought him still sits on his own shelves where it belongs.
He shouldn't be surprised. Hurt shouldn't run like a bolt of electricity through him with the current being as strong as any electrical spell ever aimed his way and landed. But for a second, Claude feels it so strongly it even slips through as a ripple crossing over his face, there and gone in an instant like it was never there at all when he wrangles all of his walls back into place and moves away to get more boxes to start over. Nothing else to do but to keep moving forward like always. ]