[open] i could open the door and breathe in the dust

[Gale]

Gale started under neon lights, then it all got dark i only know how to go too far The emptiness on the other side of the river has not changed in the years he has watched it. There was the far bank, and the trees, and then… Each time he tried to look farther, his gaze slid away. His attempts to cross had only ever been that - attempts. There was nothing tangible to find. He had tried far below the earth and miles above it, but each time he had found…nothing. There was no barrier to throw himself against, no complex shield he might dismantle. There is simply nothing at all. He’d tried throwing lightning at it once, only to watch the bolts snap out of existence. It had been a flare of temper, but the results soon had him trying other things, just to watch them vanish. Flames, water, leaves, and this morning he’d even tossed an entire yellow-leafed aspen. What about something living, he wonders. He tries himself at first, jumping, flying, and falling, but with no change to his earlier attempts. He heads toward a seemingly impossible collision and then…doesn’t collide. He tries Erne next, tossing the black osprey across the river, but his companion has the same experience he had. So Gale asks another bird, and this one (a brownish sparrow) disappears just like the aspen had. Intrigued, he tries a small hare. Another successful vanishing. Curious if size is a factor, he next tries a badger, whose thick grey body disappears. Motion at the corner of his eye drags him from his contemplation. It’s a horse, and has arrived at an opportune moment in his hypothesizing. “Would you mind helping me with an experiment?” @Hourglass