Golden eyes watching our every move
Losing time without the sun or moon
He’d noticed. The shadows react differently to his presence, whispering through the darkest reaches of his hidden realm, heralding his arrival. It was impossible to miss, especially for one so closely entwined with those very shadows. He hadn’t liked it, so odd and foreign in the place he draws the most comfort from.
They whisper to him as he draws closer, reaching cool dark curls across his skin. As though they might protect him. But they are slaves to his whim. Even they know it, but still the call to him. They are his, always.
Icy fingers crawl across his spine as his name trembles through the empty space. He bares his sharpened teeth, snapping at the air as though he might snatch the hollow syllables from the wind. He searches for him in the empty spaces in between, in the hollows of the real world. The places he has always loved to hide.
A part of him wants to flee, wants nothing to do with the beast that touches these shadows so cruelly. But another part of him is curious. Too curious. None have ever sought him before. He has always been so good at invisibility. The world might never even know he existed if he hadn’t found little Cimmerian. Or rather, if Cimmerian hadn’t found him.
He would protect that boy with every last blackened bit of his soul.
Determination fuels him. Parting the shadowy curtains, he peers into the depths of the forest. Light struggles to find purchase here, but that is why Ether loves it so. And here is where the demon finds him, the endless pitch of his body blending so perfectly with the darkness. Only his eyes indicate his presence, gleaming and golden, eerie in the depth of shadow. He is silent, no scent to give away his presence, no muffled breathing or shuffling of steps. The world’s most invisible and lethal of predators, if only he knew it.
“Who are you?” he whispers into the dark, voice melding perfectly into the hush of the deep forest.
ether