Herbert
[@Eyeris]

The widening of those brilliant emerald eyes gave rise to a thousand thoughts, like flies to a fetid corpse. The girl’s comforting words shuffled to the back of his attention as all the dread of the great blue expanse came crashing back like colossal wave on the shore that was his sanity. The nameless terrors of the deep. The untold fathoms above. The crushing pressure. He was drowning in fear. Darkness closed in around him. Blood thrummed in his ear. Muscles resisted his will. His chest was being crushed. A scream choked him. 

Air. He needed air. Breath came ragged and fast. His wild eyes focused on Dzel, on how she held her tiny frame with unique assuredness. Oddly, the aura she radiated must have affected him in some way, for he gave a curt nod. A pink tongue flicked across his thin lips, and he wiped his sweaty palms dry and took her hand. 

There were question floating around his brain, but his body was full of catecholamines and his heart beat remorselessly; survival first, questions later.

With barely a word, he would follow Dzel as best he could.