The tears stopped flowing. Cosette thought it was because they had run out. But it didn't stop the sobs from threatening to explode from her chest. She bit her lip at what Euzec said. Thousands of memories of her dad flooded her mind. Some grand, some happy, most sad. She sat silently for a minutes, gathering all her memories and picking out the ones that would answer his questions. She took a deep breath before continuing.
"Well he was my father, obviously. Mr. Rudolph J Anastasie. He was a wanderer, traveling the desert, usually with me right at his side." She smiled slightly, now only having the post cry hiccups. She took another deep breath. "He was an amazing man, and I am not just being biased. Ask anyone around Atlas Verde. They'll agree with me. He was not a quiet man, always out making friends with people from all over Serendipity." She felt herself getting off track, losing herself in her memories. "Anyway, one of the men he met one day was also a traveler, exploring way down south, going to places i had never heard of. This grabbed my dad's attention and he found himself preparing for the longest journey of his life, and the last." Her voice broke on the last word as she choked down tears. She cleared her throat and looked up at him, judging his expression on the information. She readjusted herself and moved on with the story.
" He didn't want to leave me alone with a nanny for 7 months so he decided to take me along with him...such a stupid decision. I couldn't have been more then 12 at the time. Anyway, we had been traveling for 2 months, all was going well. We had stopped at 4 different little towns, purchasing necklaces and scarves from here, paintings and instruments from there. I was like a little kid in a candy shop." She sighed, smiling. "One day, after sleeping the night in a quiet little town, we were traveling. We made it through half the day when my dad fell quite sick. We had to stop early setting up a sturdy camp up next to a cliff-like area." She closed her eyes, drawing details from the past she had been trying to forget. "The sun began to set a few hours later. I was sitting by the campfire, looking at the presents from the last town. But somewhere off in the distance, there was a loud roar. Louder then the one i heard yesterday. It was far enough in the distance that my dad didn't worry about it too much. But a few minutes later we heard the noise again, from much much closer, maybe a mile off. My dad still didn't want to worry too much about it, figuring that if we run we will only attract attention to ourselves. But i grew more worried about my dad...worried he wouldn't be able to run if we were attacked. I begged him to let us pack up and leave. Finally he agreed and we started collecting everything into the bag and moving to a different location. We got maybe thirty meters before the tiger struck out at my dad'..." A sob escaped her throat, cutting off her story.
That was as far as she could go, unless he would want her to begin her fit of sobs again. She didn't like crying but hiding her emotions would not be possible with Euzec around. He drew them out of her, allowing her to feel both comfortable and vulnerable at the same time. I guess it was something she would just have to get used to.