Dim is never very far from her. His hippo-snout touches her hip in what could pass for reassurance but is also a conduit of communication between them though she would always know his thoughts as if they were her own. Once shadow and skin start to meet, Dim becomes less substantial and hippo-shaped. He starts to flow over and around her as if a second skin and a second set of consciousness.
In truth he is but he has always been so much more than that as he pours off the other side of her into a dark puddle that gains yet another new shape. This time he is a bat of night and fang that clutches at her wither. His yellow eyes are piercing and continually take the measure of the mare before them but he can find no fault in her - no reason to turn Glim aside from the naturally occurring bond that has sprung up between them. So he gives his blessing: I like her.
Glim manages to keep her chuckle to herself but knows that Dim can more than sense her amusement and approval. It meant so much to the little filly that he approved of the decision her little but stubborn mind had already made up - one way or another, she was going to trail after the painted mare with the black dream-fangs. Nor did she have to tell him that throughout the exchange between Kagerus and herself, that she had come to respect and admire the mare - she did not hold back the words from her tongue and did not coddle Glim as if she was some dumb foal fresh out of the womb. She afforded as much respect as she was given and Glim took an instant shine to that.
It put her in mind of her absent mother. Caw was like that: impressive and engaging. This was despite the obvious difference in bone structure or the fact that her mother was as shiny and black as an oil slick and Kagerus was more blood-and-bone. Amazing she could recall that much given the amount of time she’d been on her own.
Glim felt herself leaning dangerously towards the mare as if the entirety of her world had distilled to that one moment of singular importance in which the shadow and she made their decision before even being asked for it. Everything tapered to a sharp point (like a fang) of feeling just right as she is given the keys to the precious knowledge surrounding the colt that is like her. Glim feels like she has been given a great gift - a name by which to call him and a color to recognize him by. Even the shadow-bat digging claws into her wither to secure his perch is swift enough to keep this knowledge close to his shadowy breast lest his mistress ever forget it.
“Khaedrik.”
She says but once. The tone is curious and the name strange in her mouth but holding no more weight to it than a swallow of water, light and necessary. His name would not be lightly forgotten and if anything, it births a small flicker of a flame inside her to find him. But there will be time for that later once she has settled into the mare’s home. Hm, home... she never thought she’d have one of those.
Sounds nice doesn’t it? Dim offers wryly from her back with a flex of his wings.
Quite, she returns as her lips catch and curl in a dreamy vague sort of smile. Glim cannot find fault with her parents for never providing her with this. They were not the type of creatures to be bound thusly as she might be, even if only for a little while. The allure of permanence was too tantalizing to resist for one like her that had been roaming since her formation in the womb. She’d just always roamed the pathways of umbilical awareness that had once kept her connected - (tethered) - to her mother.
How quick she’d been to shrug off the mantle of blind obedience and parental constraint! The flicker of the far-off on the horizon had proved too much for young Glim to ignore. That was before Kagerus became the embodiment of inspiration - surely she was what belonging to somewhere and something looked like! Good health and importance that conveyed itself modestly in her step and the hang of her head. Smiles that found themselves genuine and kind in their stretch of the mouth. Even a shine in the eyes that Glim’s couldn’t match yet but maybe one day... maybe one day.
Dim then feels the weighty look of the mare’s eyes on him. He meets that look and holds it because it is a significant look. How can he deny that Kagerus knows dream as intimately as he knows his place as procured shadow and nothing more? Manipulations. It is all about manipulations but he never once thinks that she’ll manipulate Glim in error. It all passes between them unspoken - shadow and dream not so very different from one another, almost like siblings for all that they only share but that one part of heritage that is mixed and made up of brain matter, soul, and imagination.
Glim nods in understanding. Sometimes, her shadow-creations only last a few hours. This could be attributed to her lack of mastery over the power and a general inexperience tied to her lack of age. Or it could be that manipulations like theirs’ just aren’t meant to last except for Dim. She has no explanation as to why all the others that she conjures up come and go but he remains as intact and faithful as ever.
Her attention has wavered as it can only do in the very tender at heart. She has seen the carcasses left behind by those that raid the land in predatory need and desire. Glim is aware that for every smile there is a frown and for every dream, a nightmare. It is only natural that Kagerus has dominion over both and what a burden that must be!
She cannot imagine what that must be like to grant a flight of fancy one moment then unleash a tribute to terror the next. The mere thought was exhilarating... all that power in such a package of grace tempered by humility! Glim did not think the mare would set her nightmares running across the land in reckless abandon. No, there was a trace of chivalry to her that might rein in the much darker impulses and Glim thought them quite conquered and brought to heel before this grand master of manipulation that could dream up something as simple as a pair of black fangs for added flair. All that she can reply with is this: “Balances must be kept.”
Yet she is an exception - the manipulation of darkness comes with no balance in her flesh. She cannot summon light as she can shadow. Perhaps the world deemed it to be too much for ones like the brother and herself to carry both. Glim is not stupid enough to disbelieve in the presence of those that can craft and command light. Balances must be kept after all.
However she does not think the world is so black and white when it comes to being a manipulator of darkness - she does not believe she is evil because the dark is in her. But at that moment before the gravity of such heavy thought can drag her face down into a ponderous expression, her eyes flick up from the ground and her two front feet to follow the painted mare’s own line of sight to a horizon fast aflame in sunset colors. She squares up her little spotted shoulders causing Dim to squeak out a batty protest before alighting into the coming night (he swoops back to hover above Glim’s little head) and says, “Let’s go. Daylight is almost gone.”
Which is so blatantly obvious as both of them had just looked at the setting sun but Glim was bound and determined to make sure Kagerus knew that she was coming.
@[Kagerus] ditto, I never write novels like this! kag gives me so much muse! <333