"I-."
"Had a weird dream again?" Cassia interrupted, her voice rather more nurturing than the speed with which she had dissected her son's preoccupied expression and completed his own thought for him. That particular trait was an artifact of her soldiering days, and did not make her easy to rely on when he was upset.
Martin nodded. Where perhaps an elaboration would have been warranted, the branded colt lingered in sheepish silence with his chin tucked lightly against the gemstone in his chest. How could he ever hope to explain such a thing, when dreams that felt as vivid and real as his own memories collapsed into dust within moments of waking? How could he justify their importance at all?
Short answer: he couldn't. So he stopped trying, and as time went on he learned to face his dreams in silence.
Martin stood at the shoreline with the saltwater up to his fetlocks, letting the wind and waves wash over him. This was not the first sea he had encountered in his travels, but he felt a strangely satisfying finality in looking out on the unbroken horizon and knowing that, in this direction at least, he could go no further.
It comforted him, too, to be reminded of his own insignificance. Whatever splendor existed in the universe, it yet had space left over for simple folk such as he.
Martin closed his eyes and lifted his head toward the warm sun, breathing deeply of the briny air. There may not have been answers down here along the Terminus Sea, but the gilded unicorn found for himself a moment's peace among the soft cries of seabirds and the rhythmic splashing of the waves.
Sometimes, that's infinitely more valuable.
@Pan & anyone else interested!
