The swimmer’s sudden change of mood and the wave of sadness washing over his companion made the entire scene change in front of Rinen’s eyes. One second, he was preparing for another fight with the fastrunners even if he knew he had no way of reaching them anymore, the next he was seeing the emotional resignation of the only dinosaur who had shown him any understanding in a long, long time. The atmosphere of anger and tension seemed to lift away along with the sight of the cursed fastrunners. Part of it was due to his liking of the swimmer but indeed, it also brought his own hopeless situation to his mind. He still had nowhere to go and for a moment, he remembered the newfound sense of meaning hearing of the swimmer’s struggles had brought him earlier.
Rinen shook his head in an effort to clear his thoughts. He still yearned to settle his score with the omnivores but for the moment, he could only see himself as another mindless brute he had learned to regard his fellow children as during his time with his old herd as he looked at the mental exhaustion of his companion. A wave of guilt washed over Rinen, not in the least because of his actions, but because of the effects they had for the swimmer. In this moment, Rinen saw the depth of the disappointment the other boy carried towards him and that realization killed Rinen’s will to hold up his antagonistic stance completely. To anyone else but the threehorn himself, it was clear his mask of confidence had dropped. Where only seconds before had stood an antagonistic, enraged threehorn, now there remained only a lonely, lost and fearful child. His voice was silent and sorrowful as he spoke.
“I’ve got nowhere to go, sw… Aquarius. I have no herd, no friends, nothing. I had hoped to search for some, any place better than this one and that’s what I’m still going to do. But… but if this is the last time we meet, I’d like you to know that my name is Rinen.” He said, only barely swallowing his sobs before they could be noticed. No matter what Aquarius would decide, Rinen would accept it gracefully. If the swimmer would be another companion he’d lose due to his mistakes in this world, the threehorn knew that fact would serve him very well after all that had happened.