when the night calls; kagerus - any

[abysm]

He dreamt up a mother for himself.

(Never knowing that dream and reality would collide and so soon!)

He dreamt them together in other forms - a sleek fox and her kit, a rumbling bear and her cub, a woman brushing her hand against his tender child’s cheek. No matter the shapes they wore, there was always love radiating from her even though he never saw her face. It remained hazy and vague as if memory and dream wouldn’t let him make her up any further.

But one thing always stood out in these dreams he dreamt himself into:

a sigh -

“hyaline...”

a squeal -

“Hyaline.”

a shout -

“HYALINE!”

Until the day he asked his father about that word and learned it was the name of a land. But his father said no more on the subject and Abysm knew better than to ask about it. Perhaps he sensed how heartsick Rapt would be if he told him. Perhaps he knew it was best just to lay a kiss against his father’s cheek in the midst of the night and leave him with a good dream that can’t be remembered the next morning except for that feeling of goodness, and be off on his first journey away from his father’s side.

Hyaline. 

It stayed with him. A word. A thought. Until it became all consuming and a decision was made as he took off in the dead of the night. It was not hard to find that land - he’d found it often enough in his dreams after first hearing the name of it. That and others knew which way to point his eyes and his nose when he asked them about it. Soon enough the peaks of the mountainous stronghold loomed before the colt but he was unafraid. 

So much so that he charged the rocky slope of what seemed to be a path and scrambled up it until he stood looking down on the world below. He could imagine himself with ropes of muscle trumpeting his unshakable spirit and freedom to the eagles and the sky. Except Abysm was just a scrawny little thing still as he flung himself up and over the lip of dirt and rock. His descent was not entirely graceful but rather left him with a scrape on his butt from the half-sitting slide he managed amidst the loose shale. 

His abraded skin smarted as he shook himself off like a giant dusty dog then peered about with as much childish curiosity as one like him could muster. Which was a lot. His eyes were practically bugging out of his head until he remembered why he came and knew he couldn’t let his mother - if she existed, as he’d begun to doubt - see him like that. So with a snort, he pulled himself together and set up at an easy lope until he hit the source of many scents coloring the air meaning that many cane this way and he’d likely happen upon someone soon. Or they’d happen upon him, whichever occurred first.

@[Kagerus] figured you’d still want to do this even though she’s not queen any more? and the posts will get better, hopefully. <3