Our skin gets thicker, living out in the snow
CREVAN
Dreams keep him awake, and so he runs them ragged at night.
They nip his heels as he runs, a swift creature of unusual strength and size but still, a wolf all the same. Haunted by their meanings and unfulfilled requests, Crevan often finds himself racing the twist and bend of no-man’s land besides the babbling riverfront area until, exhausted, he’s ready to return home to Merida but tonight feels different. Tainted.
His pale chest heaves, exerting itself as he streaks like a blonde comet through the shadows of this world while branches try their best to snag and mangle his fur. Each stride is purposeful in its landing, every hunch of his back sending him into wider leaps until at last the roar of water drowns out his breathing and the heavy salt of the nearby ocean whets his tongue. The shifter’s traveled far tonight, far enough that as he eases down to a plodding walk he can feel the burn of exertion in his lungs and legs.
He stretches the feeling out, lets his powers do their work while he parts bush and grass as he stalks towards the water, and when the chirp of crickets and night-toads fills his ears he feels refreshed - healed already though he’d been racing his nightmares for hours.
When the smell of the antlered mare reaches his nostrils though, Crevan’s paws have already sunk into the wet mud of the banks. Immersed and downwind she’s caught him by surprise; ears perked and eyes wide he lifts his head to watch her, silence shrouding them both for a moment until he finds his voice. “Nightmares?” He guesses, in a tone clipped of emotion. Was she like Lace, or terrified like Briseis?
Or was she neither, and all the more dangerous for it?
@[Kagerus]