[any]► limned with gold leaf; the scarlet brush

[abysm]

Abysm has weathered the winter better than most —

Caves to linger in that trapped the warmth between the rough-rock walls. Plenty of grass beneath the thick-knit trees the snow couldn’t reach. Countless hours alone that allowed him to disappear into the dreamlands. 

Dreamlands.

Dreams.

He had to stop himself from going there. Parts of him had begun to go incorporeal as he struggled to maintain more than one foot in this world. But he managed it. Deep breaths and swaying branches overhead helped to center him. Grounded him, until his shape took root here and the incessant tug of dreams became a low roar to match the blood in his veins.

It was easier to breathe now, to concentrate. Though never far from the forefront of his brain was the dark slant of a girl’s eyes. Sometimes full of love. Sometimes full of fear. Or maybe it was loathing. He couldn’t be sure but knew it varied from one extreme to the other. 

Abysm shook himself. 

Shook the dark eyes and the cobwebby entrapment of the dreams he could so easily touch upon from his mind as if he was shaking water from his skin. Then he froze —

Traces of dream; sometimes confused with and caught up in remembrance; seemed to flirt through the shadows on gauzy wings of dust-note and light. These vague shimmers pulled him forth through bramble and low-hanging branch with no thought paid to a single scratch. His nostrils fluttered on imagines threads of scent until scent alone brought him to her - faraway herbs and horse.

Naturally he stops and stares. It is what he does best. An ear moved to the pace of her slow breathing and lack of other sound in this deep dark part of the woods. Abysm though, was not afraid and merely offered a wordless grunt to gain her attention.

@[Yidhra]