"But the dream, the echo, slips from him as quickly as he had found it and as consciousness comes to him (a slap and not the gentle waves of oceanic tides), it dissolves entirely. His muscles relax as the cold claims him again, as the numbness sets in, and when his grey eyes open, there’s nothing but the faint after burn of a dream often trod and never remembered." --Brigade, written by Laura
When he says he can change into anything the eye can see, Avelina looks around them. She does not think of the trees, though, or the rocks or the forest itself. She’s drawing on her own experiences and notes instead the signs of the animals that live here in this dream-forest. The nest of a squirrel, the gentle tap of a woodpecker. She does not have the imagination to think beyond that, beyond what her own powers can do, so she is delighted to discover that when Skandar said anything - he really meant it.
But, of course, why not? Why shouldn’t a magnificent creature that has woven themselves into her dream be able to turn into the forest itself. With awe that eclipses how impressed she had been over the firefly mimic, she admires the way he adorns himself in the very trees that surround them. No longer a god of the sky but one of the earth and forest.
It doesn’t seem good manners to inquire about whether he’s aware that this is a dream, so she does not bring it up. Apart from not wanting to be rude, she’s also not looking forward to waking up. Not when her dreams are filled to the brim with such delightful fantasy.
“I’ve never met anyone that could shift into anything.” She admits admiringly. “I can turn into any animal. My mom can too but she likes the snow leopard best. And my father can turn into a panther.” That much she knows of him, that much she’s been able to glean. His absence in her life only bothers her on occasion, though - and today is not such a day. “I tried to shift into a dragon once but I just became a green lizard.”
This is not mentioned with any sense of loss or petulence - she had enjoyed that lizard shape, for a time, chasing her brother and pretending they were dragons.
“Do you have a favourite? Of all the things you've turned into?” Avelina doesn’t - which is why she asks. She’s curious about those that have preferences. She assumes she'll find one eventually - some sort of cat, probably, if she keeps with her family's tradition.
