[ Panic swarmed in his throat. That was always where it struck first, immobilizing his ability to speak or think clearly, a thousand wriggling emotions clenched in that squeak hole where words should be; whatever the most basic of human functions were, fear took it like a fast-acting venom spearing through his veins. As it always tended to. Regardless, he ran. Madly, blindly, he whipped around, tore through the dense growth and let it tear through him, a debt being repaid. Red sprung from the scratches littering his skin from his careless searching. He continued, anyway. His environment, as beautifully verdant as it was initially, had turned into an expansive obstacle he needed to ruthlessly trample down.
That was how he tried to think of it, flying from the road straight into a field, then another one: This was something that needed to be done. Beet leaves were squashed down underfoot. He kicked down corn stalks. But Denji's best efforts to find his friend only served to confuse him more, spun him about as an infinite turntable would, and sent him off-course. He was lost. He was probably going the wrong way. Wait, was that a bark?
Denji dove backwards, started to reverse out from the farmland, then hesitated — was he just imagining things? The doubts that hurtled in his brain made the dreadful ringing in his ears worse, and his chest pumped harder than he knew it was allowed to. He couldn't do anything about it. Couldn't do anything, except lose his mind and trip on the exit wound it left behind.
Speaking of. That moment of doubt did no favors for Denji. Waffling, he shifted his footing back — and then immediately tilted, his heel sunk deep into a soft section of soil. Ankle bent, he flopped from there, creating a depression in the ground. ]
Urk… Damn it…
[ He laid there, fingers twitching in the dirt. Feeling defeated. But then he heard it again, an anxious sound like a yelp or a whine accompanied by a desperate digging at the back of his foot. Slowly, his face raised, dark and smudged and hot with big, endlessly sloping tears. ]
P-Pochi…
[ Leaving the rest of his name unsaid, he shot up, arms tightened around the small devil with a sob, smothering his hiccups inside the comforting pull of Pochita's fur. Finally, Denji felt all his relief crashing in on him. It was a feeling so overwhelming, he scarcely noticed anything else. Not even a pair of tentative steps approaching. ]
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That was how he tried to think of it, flying from the road straight into a field, then another one: This was something that needed to be done. Beet leaves were squashed down underfoot. He kicked down corn stalks. But Denji's best efforts to find his friend only served to confuse him more, spun him about as an infinite turntable would, and sent him off-course. He was lost. He was probably going the wrong way. Wait, was that a bark?
Denji dove backwards, started to reverse out from the farmland, then hesitated — was he just imagining things? The doubts that hurtled in his brain made the dreadful ringing in his ears worse, and his chest pumped harder than he knew it was allowed to. He couldn't do anything about it. Couldn't do anything, except lose his mind and trip on the exit wound it left behind.
Speaking of. That moment of doubt did no favors for Denji. Waffling, he shifted his footing back — and then immediately tilted, his heel sunk deep into a soft section of soil. Ankle bent, he flopped from there, creating a depression in the ground. ]
Urk… Damn it…
[ He laid there, fingers twitching in the dirt. Feeling defeated. But then he heard it again, an anxious sound like a yelp or a whine accompanied by a desperate digging at the back of his foot. Slowly, his face raised, dark and smudged and hot with big, endlessly sloping tears. ]
P-Pochi…
[ Leaving the rest of his name unsaid, he shot up, arms tightened around the small devil with a sob, smothering his hiccups inside the comforting pull of Pochita's fur. Finally, Denji felt all his relief crashing in on him. It was a feeling so overwhelming, he scarcely noticed anything else. Not even a pair of tentative steps approaching. ]