Right... That spring guardian wasn't exactly Dark Lord caliber.

[Emery offers Zel a weak smile, still doing his best to not start crying with, uh, mixed success. His eyes are definitely very shiny right now and it's not solely due to the fey reflective quality.]

But I'm still the one who dragged you into here assuming you'd be totally fine. I should have thought things through more.

[He's normally the first one to go que sera, sera about troublesome situations, but it's one thing to get himself in a fix, it's another thing to drag somebody he cares about into one.

He blinks a few more furious times and scrubs at the corner of his eye with one hand, leaving a smear of dirt on his cheek.]