Alyosha's tongue flicked again, her amusement coming all unbridled, and she lightly pinched his upper arm between thumb and the bend of her forefinger. Entirely teasing. "I wasn't going to wonder aloud how you survived it! I can imagine it was beautiful. I see in your eyes that it was. I've never been..."

Happiness made her radiant, and her smile creased the scarred side of her face. She looked out to the slow roll of the surf. Sea birds bobbed here and there beyond the break, waiting for shoals of prey to swim beneath. "It's good for the soul, I think. To be reminded how small we are, and how vast and strange and beautiful the world can be. Even when it's also terrible, and terrifying, and utterly beyond us. And I'm glad that you've found parts of it that move you."