Already choking on my pride // Any

[Kagerus]

Kagerus

{ and in my dreams I've kissed your lips a thousand times }

I'm visiting her again, in my dreams.

It's not a true visit, in the sense that she is more hologram than any ounce the real version of herself. But it is her, or the her I have stored in my memory from our meeting long ago atop the peaks of Hyaline, that I visit: swathe in vines and tattoos, my very likeness and my very name. Kagerou - Queen of the Amazon Jungle, the land within which I was raised. In my dream, I follow her about her kingdom, visiting old haunts and reimagining my childhood as if she had been with me all along: it will be painful to wake up to later, knowing I never had that and never would, but it feels good in the moment.

I wish I could be in your kingdom with you, I say in the dream.
I know, dear granddaughter, comes her reply. I know.

As the dream falls away and dissolves, I expect to awaken to the comfortable (though hugely overpacked) family grotto in Hyaline: but instead, I am suddenly perched atop a mighty cliff, the powerful scent of salt water burning my lungs as it comes without warning. "God's damnit!" I mutter as my blinking eyes swing from side to side, finally identifying this place as Nerine. I've not visited often, but I recognize it, and more easily, I recognize my homeland's mountains due south. "When I'd wished to be in your kingdom, I hadn't meant literally."

Sometimes, dreams are fickle like that - and besides, this is a minor offense compared to what's gone wrong with this magic in the past.

Sighing, I turn to begin the journey south. But the rising sun illuminates what appears to be a gemstone in the shape of a horse, her facets reflecting rainbows like prisms and diamonds. I'd heard of Sabra, opalescent queen of a kingdom some years ago, but we'd never met; I remember also hearing vague stories of her illicit fun with Krone. The thought makes me smile a bit, mostly because I've done far worse with my own wife - in the privacy of our dreams of course - but I wipe the lustful expression off my lips as I approach the gorgeous mare.

"I don't believe we've met, Sabra," I say as I stop next to her, eyeing her from beneath the mighty crown of my antlers. "I'm Kagerus."

@[Sabra]