She affirmed his beliefs. She would listen. She wanted to hear as much as he wanted to tell, and so he would find himself seeking the words. His mind fought him, for the very existence of this story was enough to prove him a vulnerable creature - a fact he'd spent a lifetime trying to deny. Still, some part of him wanted her to know that he was vulnerable, to know that he had faults - and in turn she might accept them for what they made him to be. A sigh fell from his lips, nearly inaudible but present nevertheless. "I was a child, a season old - maybe two. Damn, it seems like so long ago now..." Indeed, it did. "Anyway, I was out exploring. I wasn't supposed to be - at least they made it seem that way. A volcano had erupted only hours before, but it was a good long way from where I lived and so I hadn't really thought about it much. I knew the adults all seemed tense about it, but why the hell should I have cared about it? I was out, chasing a rabbit or something like that, and suddenly everything went dark. I was coughing, hacking, dying. She came and found me, this woman named Sixx. I think she was one of my father's women, they all were back then. She pulled me out of it - the cloud or whatever that had taken over most of our territory. My insides were burning and stinging like hell, and no one knew what to do. It took hours for the burning to stop, and the healers said my lungs were permanently damaged." He paused, remembering the feeling. "I haven't been the same since then. I don't get attacks as often as before, but there's been times when I haven't been able to breathe or even move. I've blacked out a time or two." As he said it he regretted saying anything at all. This was something he didn't tell most, and now that he'd chosen to tell her he wondered if it hadn't been the smartest of moves. "Listen," he started, a dead seriousness to his tone. "I don't share this with everyone and I'd like it if no one else found out." There was only one other soul who knew (besides those who'd been in Glaciem with him) and that was Mercy. Anxiety crept into his core as he awaited her response, half expecting her to laugh at the lung-crippled Praesidio before her.
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