Her brow quirked, and she opened her mouth very much prepared to protest before he waved it off with a laugh. All the gusto she'd mustered up in an instant, deflated. Lotte huffed out the breath she'd sucked in rather anticlimactically and ran her fingers through her own tousled hair.
"Well that explains it." She hummed, took in a breath of the smoke from his cigarette, thick and a little bitter. "Not sure I have much light to give, they must have known."
Giving light to something else probably would have required someone who hadn't spent the past five years stubbornly, angrily, bitterly keeping this town alive. It wasn't that she'd withered away here, exactly. No, she'd simply become something else. Something other than the girl that had been dragged her against her will but that still had hope. Anger, too, but hope that the sheriffs would understand she'd been kidnapped. That they wouldn't bring her back. Then, that if she was successful at working with the land, she could get away without having to run. That the men who dropped off her measly bag of potatoes or what have you wouldn't try to force the door open and overstay his welcome.
"You laugh, but what else could I do?!" Lotte protested, looking over at him and choking down her own creeping laughter. "I'm all alone out here! You think anyone would have cared if some man forced his way in here and did whatever he liked to me?"
She watched his eyes sparkle, with mirth and magic and more than a little bit of intoxication, found it hard to look away.
"The stupid ones don't understand magic, so it doesn't always scare them. But flying out of that door, swinging that thing around? That's a universal language!" Lotte scoffed, "Maybe I should have brought it along when I took you from the Queen. Could have saved us some time."
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Her brow quirked, and she opened her mouth very much prepared to protest before he waved it off with a laugh. All the gusto she'd mustered up in an instant, deflated. Lotte huffed out the breath she'd sucked in rather anticlimactically and ran her fingers through her own tousled hair.
"Well that explains it." She hummed, took in a breath of the smoke from his cigarette, thick and a little bitter. "Not sure I have much light to give, they must have known."
Giving light to something else probably would have required someone who hadn't spent the past five years stubbornly, angrily, bitterly keeping this town alive. It wasn't that she'd withered away here, exactly. No, she'd simply become something else. Something other than the girl that had been dragged her against her will but that still had hope. Anger, too, but hope that the sheriffs would understand she'd been kidnapped. That they wouldn't bring her back. Then, that if she was successful at working with the land, she could get away without having to run. That the men who dropped off her measly bag of potatoes or what have you wouldn't try to force the door open and overstay his welcome.
"You laugh, but what else could I do?!" Lotte protested, looking over at him and choking down her own creeping laughter. "I'm all alone out here! You think anyone would have cared if some man forced his way in here and did whatever he liked to me?"
She watched his eyes sparkle, with mirth and magic and more than a little bit of intoxication, found it hard to look away.
"The stupid ones don't understand magic, so it doesn't always scare them. But flying out of that door, swinging that thing around? That's a universal language!" Lotte scoffed, "Maybe I should have brought it along when I took you from the Queen. Could have saved us some time."