Lillibet had wanted to leave the South. Anything his twin would have asked of him, he would do. Anything to have her back to himself, to shake this strange feeling of tension that had started to run through them since “Manny” had shown up. She had wanted to leave, a great adventure, just the two of them now that they were young adults. It had been surprising (most of all that it had been her idea and not his) but suddenly it was as if there had never been any sort of rift between them. Not even a whisper of it.

And then the South had plunged beneath the sea… Before either of them could leave. Before they could even tell their parents. He hadn’t known where he had ended up but it had been alone. No sign of his twin or Oceane or the one eyed polar bear. Link had never truly been alone. Ever. He had screamed for them, night and day, until he had no voice left to scream and no more tears left to shed. Surely his mother and sister were gone, somewhere beneath the sea. It didn’t feel like Lilli was gone but how could she have survived? Only Ledger might be out there, somewhere, he reasoned. That was the only hope he had. That his father had shifted and surely a polar bear wouldn’t drown underneath the waves.

Surely his overprotective father was looking for him. Hadn’t given up.

For days he wandered. And then he stumbled across this place, whatever it was. It was eerily silent, more so due to the overwhelming darkness as the moon hid her face behind the clouds. Even without the light of the moon, he carefully picks his way through the strange stones and towering rocks. A hazy glow emits enough brightness from his body for him to make his way but the terrain is rough and he pauses, debating if perhaps the panda within could navigate this more easily. Just a few tumbles and climbs and maybe he would make more ground out of… wherever this is.

A faint sound reaches him from the left and he cautiously rounds a corner only to find a black and white mare ripping at the grass that had sprung through the stone. He hesitates for a moment but his belly has other ideas, rumbling loud enough to wake the dead. With a sheepish grin on his glowing mouth, russet eyes flecked with gold find the mare’s gaze as he takes a soft step forward towards her. “Sorry… It’s been awhile since my last meal.” Before she might tell him off or flee herself, he fires a rushed question into the still night. “You haven’t seen a one eyed stallion have you? Or a one eyed white bear?”