These boats are terrible. He’s fairly certain that it’s all Fade nonsense — that it doesn’t really matter, that even if he fell off he’d somehow find himself back in the boat. But it doesn’t change the raw fear of it all — he’s uncomfortable with heights in the best of times, and everything about this seems manufactured to be the worst of it all. Crumbling rock, holes in the world, fragile bridges, islands hanging in the voids ——
The light little thump as the boat docks makes him grit his teeth, and he has to positively pry himself off the sides with a force of will he’s exercised too often in these recent days. And then, shaking a little, he carefully —— carefully —— steps out, bracing one hand on the rock and stepping off with one leg and not letting go until he’s certain his footing is sound. It’s only then that he can send a squint back to Aksel.
" No, " he grouses, grumpily, sulking a little. " I’m fuckin’ not. " He is, though: he manages to get his feet back under him, and he just announces, broadly, " Fuck the Fade, " with a kind of bluntness that’s almost comical if he didn’t mean every word. Of course, before all this, the last time he was in the Fade involved every fear and insecurity of his getting pulled out and laid naked, so he may be a little biased in giving it many chances.
At least the trip to the next eluvian is short, and making their way through it is a little easier since it’s moving back into the material realm, and he can take a deep breath of forest air, and that relaxes him considerably. " Where we goin’? Th'camp first? "