"Wondrous"- Rian/Deet
He finds Deet and the base of the cliff long after the others have gone to sleep, cross-legged in the glittering sand. She smiles when he sits beside her, the same little smile he had seen across the circle, grateful that the darkness hid the color in his cheeks.
“Look at this!” she says, gesturing to a patch of little pink and red flowers peeking through the sand. “It’s incredible that they’ve managed to survive out here. And they feel...clean, somehow?” She brushes a petal, gently enough to not damage it. “The Darkening hasn’t reached them yet.”
They would look lovely twined in her hair- a thought that comes to him with an odd mix of tenderness and guilt- but it would be wrong to pluck something pure and healthy, especially when everything else seems to be starting to decay around them. It will make her happier to leave them whole.
“...They’re beautiful,” he says. It is almost what he means.