I should have loved a thunderbird instead
at least when spring comes they roar back again
They may have made a home here, but Aegean does not so quickly give up his love of wandering. There is still too much for him to do and see—too much for him to find—and so he instead directs his attention toward wandering the sprawling expanse of Tephra. Instead of focusing on distance, he chooses to focus instead on the details. He looks for all of the hidden groves and the winding paths. He discovers the way that the beaches look at sunset and the gardens that grow up lush around the near island and the places where the ground still carries the marks of scorched earth, as if forever scarred by the war.
He is fascinated by the world that envelopes him and the people that he meets along the way. He is fascinated by each and every detail—especially when he colors it with the shades of his own gift. He brings the animals that he has seen on his previous wanderings along with him. He splashes colors against the mighty trees that grow in the groves and then he brings the very stars down around him in the afternoon just because he loves to watch the way the constellations dance along the horizon.
Today though—today he enjoys the ocean, much like he had with Pteron’s company not so long ago.
He walks alongside the blue whales and the sea that parts before him. Every so often, he feels the phantom spray of water against the broad sweep of his forehead and tastes the salt on his tongue, but it is never lingering. Such things never are. When he sees the red man, he nearly loses his hold on the illusion as the familiar wave of curiosity washes through him, but he maintains it—a testament to the many years that he has spent practicing. Never one to deny his own curiosity, he angles his path toward the other, bringing with him the oceanic illusions that he paints around himself. When he is close enough, he pauses and dips his glowing, pale head. “Hello,” his voice is melodic and soft. “What brings you here?”
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead
(I think I made you up inside my head.)