The lack of compulsion feels strange, and it catches him off guard for a moment. It's not that he doesn't have the same ideas planted in his head, but while she used her gaze it was so much easier to act on them, as if everything was pointing him in that direction even if he wanted to look the other way. There is a certain emptiness with that lack of direct suggestion, though, and it makes him feel lonely and worried.

He hesitates at first, trying to sort these feeling out in his head. She hasn't done anything to him. She wants to keep him safe. Why does it feel so much harder than a moment ago?

It's hard to move when his hands are chained behind him and he's still too weak to stand, but after spending a time searching her with an uncertain gaze, he slowly starts trying to make his way over to her. Once he's close, he settles back down onto the ground in front of her, bent over his knees in a posture of submission.

He looks up at her, and his tail thumps against the stone.