Time we became friends

Ulric kept a curious eye on the young man beside him as he insisted he was alright, noticing how he seemed to struggle to stay relaxed, as if he was pretending to be okay rather than actually living it. He didn't call the boy out on it right away, letting him work through his words as he mentioned training and getting a better team together for hunting and started saying something about his mother before he cut himself off. Ulric abandoned looking at the roof entirely and focused on Rudyard instead, still quiet while the gray-hued boy struggled to find the words and eventually deflected to asking about the roof he had been eying. He offered him a small smile and a chuckle, saying, "As nice as a skylight might be, I think it might be better to keep our training dummies from being rained on all the time."

Letting his expression grow a bit more serious he settled onto his haunches and went on to ask, "Are you sure you're alright? You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to, but... if you do I'm all ears." He didn't want to force the boy to open up about anything, but he also didn't want Rudyard to feel like he was alone in this either. Resin's condition had been hard on them all, but he knew it would hit her children and Tamsyn the hardest - understandably so. He cared about Resin as a mentor and a friend, but that didn't hold a candle to being his mother. "I've lost both of my parents," he offered after a moment, hoping to bridge a bit of the gap between them. "I know a little bit about what you're feeling right now... Or if you'd rather just ignore it for a while and help me figure out how to fix this roof we can do that too."

Ulric Adravendi