She looks like the stars – so much like them that it is hard to know where the world ends and the mare begins. If Pan wouldn’t have seen such things before, he wouldn’t have thought her something real at all… but in his many years (for Pan had many years, despite his childlike wonder and appearance), Pan had seen all manners of creatures. He had walked with gods, swam to the depths of the sea with dolphins, and in some worlds, he’d even flown without wings. Here though, he had found a strange sort of world – a world with no door, with no way out. Here, he’d been trapped and lost to time, for… who knew really? It had been months.
I’m Pan! he quickly adds as the golden mare and the shed-star share their names. And this is Oliver. he gestures to a furry brown otter, now nestled between his ears, peeking out from under his mane as he rests along the crest of Pan’s neck. He offers a gentle smile to Warset, as if to tell her that all was okay. Still too, the boy is pleased to have found company in the dark void of the star field. When he’d come to the island, it was something different in its entirety… but the magic must have shifted, and trapped him in the process.
She asks the question that he too wishes to know – was there a way out of this island? For months, he’d been looking… but he hadn’t found one. He hadn’t found anything really – just one shade of magic to another. It was a wonder then, that he’d even found one creature in the void, nevermind two. If they were able to enter this place, surely there way a way out. Where did you come from? Surely you could come back the way you came?
Don’t cry… he adds, It’ll be okay… we’ll find a way out, together. He shifts slightly, sending a well-worn brown satchel sliding across his shoulder. Rummaging through it, he pulls out a golden eagle feather, one he’d collected a lifetime ago during his travels. Offering it to Warset, he gives a second smile, this one more encouraging than the first. Here – Someone told me once that birds are the messengers of the gods – that when you find a feather, it is a gift from a spirit. He liked the sound of it, for it offered something more romantic than a simple coincidence. Maybe the gods will guide us home…
Which gods, it didn’t matter… Pan believed in them all. He had regularly worshipped each of them at Verenor Peak, just as he had in the Rift, and at Ravos. The boy had to believe that they would come to rescue their followers. Without the faith, he would have lost hope long ago. There had to be a reason that he’d been stuck in this place for so long. Maybe, it was to find Warset and Elena, and to help guide them home once more.
@Warset @
