After spending his night in the same tent as Laurel, Tom felt uncomfortable even though he could hear Meryl's whispers that ensured his safety.
She never stopped talking to the teenager. She often appeared to him and had avoided him many toe-bumps until now. Fighting against her loneliness, she kept sapping stamina from the boy by sticking around all day. The bad sensation people would get by walking or staying next to Tom impeded on the relationships he tried to create.
He thought he had Claudia and Laurel dancing on his hand, but it was the opposite, he was just being delusional. As the sole heir of a successful merchant family, he took any victory and defeat as a meaning to improve himself, not in a way to get along better but spread his net further.
The little bit of physical changes Oswald was expecting hadn't occurred yet on Laurel whereas his little teeth behind each canine stopped poking his tongue because the free muscle had two dents at its tip to prevent getting bitten.
