It was like a disaster waiting to happen, the guy in the cast and the toddler running off. Jacob winced when he saw the guy fall and ran after the little girl, offering his hand if she'd let him take her back to her dad (or what he guessed was her dad).
"What can I do?" he asked once he got back to the guy, wondering if a clinic trip was up next.
Mathias groans, but he manages to sit up, feeling a little silly that a complete stranger has watched him fall over and has had to rescue Sam from running off forever. "Just give me a moment," he says, his mouth twitching up into a smile very briefly before it's gone again.
"Thank you for grabbing her," he adds, looking at Sam, who's happily holding the other man's hand and looking at Mathias's cast. "Needs more fishes," she decides, pointing at the ones she's drawn.
"My friend has a cousin about her age," Jacob said, thinking about Claire back home and how she used to torture Quil. "She's a handful too so I figured it was better to go ahead and catch her for you since you uh...were otherwise occupied."
"Occupied with falling down," Mathias offers, another faint, tired grin stealing across his face. "One little girl and four dogs do end up being quite a handful. Especially with a broken leg." And he's the only one to blame for that, so he knows he shouldn't complain.
"I'm Mathias," he adds. "This is Sam and the dogs are Hak, King, Taser and Rembrandt."
"Jacob," he offered in kind, nodding toward the cast. "How'd you manage to do that, if you don't mind me asking? Running after the little girl, I guess?"
Or the dogs. Or anything else that could happen on the island between underground cities and space stations falling from the sky.
"Falling down a mineshaft on the other island," Mathias admits, rubbing Hal's nose when she comes closer, looking at him in concern. "It was a little day trip that went wrong." More wrong than Jacob can know, but Mathias has a hard enough time expressing himself to those close to him, and so he won't explain how it was so wrong.
"But it could have been worse," he adds. "At least the cast will come off eventually."
"Oh. I haven't been over there yet," Jacob said, eager to ask him questions about it. Since deciding to start up kayaking and extreme diving on the island, he'd been looking for places to do that to.
"It's what, five miles off the coast here? Something like that? I'm starting up a kayak club," he explained. "Thought it'd be a good day trip or something."
"About that," Mathias agrees, nodding as he gets both the crutches under his arms again. "We took a few canoes over. I thought it would be a good way to spend the day."
It had ended badly, though. Somehow, he thinks, he should have known that it might. "It might be nice, I think, if you were to stay away from the ruins. That might be dangerous."
Jacob really hadn't heard anyone talking about the other island and what was over there, not yet, and the idea of haunted ruins kind of made him want to go check it out more than stay away.
In a manner of speaking, Mathias supposes it might be. Down there in the dark, he knows he heard voices of ghosts from the past. Pablo screaming, the vines whispering to him in German, Eric calling him a Nazi. As terrified as he'd been at the time, he knows now it was all in his head. The only ghosts there are his own.
"Just dangerous," he says, finally, shaking his head. "The mineshaft we fell into was covered. Who knows how many others might be there."
"You'd think the council would want to send people over there to make it habitable or something," Jacob said, thinking that over. "Building crew or something? I mean, it could be dangerous, yeah, but that's a lot of living space that's not getting used at all."
Mathias nods his agreement, but he knows that he'll never be living over there. No matter what they might do to it. "I think there is still plenty of unused space here, but it would make sense to ready it for whenever we might need it," he agrees. "There are many people, I'm sure, who won't want to live near the dinosaurs if we end up taking up the rest of the space."
"What can I do?" he asked once he got back to the guy, wondering if a clinic trip was up next.
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"Thank you for grabbing her," he adds, looking at Sam, who's happily holding the other man's hand and looking at Mathias's cast. "Needs more fishes," she decides, pointing at the ones she's drawn.
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"I'm Mathias," he adds. "This is Sam and the dogs are Hak, King, Taser and Rembrandt."
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Or the dogs. Or anything else that could happen on the island between underground cities and space stations falling from the sky.
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"But it could have been worse," he adds. "At least the cast will come off eventually."
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"It's what, five miles off the coast here? Something like that? I'm starting up a kayak club," he explained. "Thought it'd be a good day trip or something."
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It had ended badly, though. Somehow, he thinks, he should have known that it might. "It might be nice, I think, if you were to stay away from the ruins. That might be dangerous."
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Jacob really hadn't heard anyone talking about the other island and what was over there, not yet, and the idea of haunted ruins kind of made him want to go check it out more than stay away.
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"Just dangerous," he says, finally, shaking his head. "The mineshaft we fell into was covered. Who knows how many others might be there."
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