[open] tired of nothing

[Gale]

Gale run away with me-- lost souls and reverie running wild and running free   Gale had never been a wayward child, not with the entertainment of his siblings and the wanderlust quelling magic they possessed. Why sneak off to see the nereids of Ischia when he could tweak Tiercel’s vision so that Eyas had a tail and fins, and the mesa they lounged upon looked suddenly like the surface of the sea? Wandering around Loess was another thing entirely, and Gale adds with a smile: “It’s a good thing your little one will be corraled in by the water.” As soon as he says it though, he thinks of the piebald Cormorant, a boy who’d wandered through the waves to find the island. So he adds: “But if they’re the type to be fond of the water, I’ll be sure Erne keeps an eye out as well.” At the sound of his name – or perhaps at the chime of thought that passes between them – a distant osprey keens. The brindle stallion explains the bond between himself and the seahawk, how Erne sweeps the island and Gale uses his vision magic to share his sight. “The opposite of showing you the island,” Gale continues, “Instead of seeing what you see, you’ll be seeing what I’ve seen.” Taking a breath, the winged stallion focuses. At first, Aedan will see what Gale does in this moment – himself, standing on the shoreline. But then there is a shift, a blurring, or perhaps a clearing, and the view is entirely different. Beneath them spreads the rainbow of the island’s remarkable flora: pink-leaved palms, giant blue acacia, even the eye smarting orange and yellow of the papyrus near the water. Ahead of them is the island’s central lake and the rocky black peak at its northern edge. Erne has told him that it used to be a volcano, but that time was so far back in the osprey’s tales of history that Gale wonders if perhaps the ancient birds had just confused it with Tephra. He shares this fact with Aedan, in case the starry stallion knows more about volcanos. When they pass over the general area of his nest he points it out, just as he does the distant rise of Ischia and the haze of the mainland to the east. After, Gale shares with Aedan a few seconds of darkness, knowing from experience that it tends to ease the first-time nausea of those unused to his magic. Then, with an excited smile, he asks: “So what do you think?!” @[Aedan]