[AW] This grand show is eternal

[Eik]

"Eternal sunrise, eternal sunset, eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls."

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The court walls are beginning to drive him insane. He's walked them time and time again, some nagging thing driving him to map each stone in his mind. As though there is some clue in their construction, some secret message left by the builders, waiting to be found. It is not the first time something like this has happened- he often feels that there is a veil between him and the reality of things. He reaches out but can never push it aside, never see what lies beyond or even know for sure that it is there. It is just a feeling, but he cannot let go of it. He is stubborn as a child in that way.

He planned to spend the day at the coast, to wash his body in the ocean. But instead he pushed rocks around to make an arena. It was grueling work, but satisfying. Eik is smaller than most of his clansmen, and without the gift of wings or magic or companion to help. But he is strong and determined, and worked without complaint. He started before the sunrise, before the brutal heat kicked into full force, and worked until his legs were shaking and the sun was setting, stopping only for a few hours during the peak of the day.

And then, despite his body's protests, he began to walk. He could have waited til the morning, or until his aches faded in a few days, but the ocean had been calling to him all day and he could not deny it any longer. When an idea entered his mind he had to see it to its conclusion. Besides, the moon was full, a good omen. And good for traveling- with it he would not be alone, and it would not be dark.

He follows his feet and his intuition and the vague directions a stranger gave him. He is not afraid of trespassing on foreign lands or encountering some strange beast. Perhaps this is foolhardy. He does not ponder it.

He reaches the beach as the sun begins to rise, the sky blossoming a hundred shades of crimson, orange, and royal purple as the velvet curtain rises. The moon and stars weaken with the strength of the sun, and he finds himself a little sad to see them go. The feeling is dismissed soon after he recognizes it. They will be back the next night, and the following, the celestial dance continuing long after his bones have crumbled to dust.

Though the view is stunning, he closes his eyes and inhales deeply. There is nothing like the scent of the ocean. The sound of the waves crashing is hypnotic and he feels a deep, heavy relaxation creep over him. The exertion of yesterday's labor and last night's travels hit him now, and he is keenly aware of the ache that blooms across his body. He imagines himself sinking into the sand, and then deeper still into the earth, back in time through millennia of rock. And realizes slowly the ache is inside of him as well, deep down in a place of himself he did not know was there.

He opens his eyes, mind elsewhere and feeling as wide as the ocean before him.

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E I K

;;Eik walks all night to get here and half dozes/ponders as the sun rises. Anyone is welcome to join him!