Man or a monster?

Alaric stepped forwards towards the waves and dipped his front paws in. He listened carefully to the waves and the sound of Atreyu's voice. He could pick up the emotion she was trying to hide from him, and a wave of guilt washed over him like the water that danced past his toes. Maybe he had been too...off-putting. Too cold. "This world is a cruel one." The words left his lips in a honest sigh. Those words were exactly how Alaric viewed the world. Cruel and unforgiving. He'd witness it too many times for it not to be true in his eyes. He turned his head finally to face her, his expression thoughtful. "Not that it matters, but I'm sorry for the loss of your homeland." He cleared his throat and turned his head back to face the ocean. He looked out to the starry night and horizon of the ocean. Moments ticked by. Home. A word that conjured up so much bitterness and pain for Alaric. He had no home. What home he had was pillaged, destroyed, and turned into a slave camp. What family he had scattered to the winds and left him in chains. Not that Atreyu needed know this. He wouldn't dare spill his backstory to someone, that level of vulnerability wasn't so easily earned in him. "I lived in the mountains away from this land. It was a small village but it exist no more." That was all she would get from him. No details of his slavery, his abuse endured, his family abandoning him. Nothing of true substance.