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cue the aimless searching — part i. <3

something compels him.

it's an undefined urge, a low tug in belly — an itch in his mind that would not ease until he rose from his place of rest, too early, before the sun had even risen. a need, dracarys believes, to map the lands around the territory his sister intended to claim for her kingdom until he knew all their secrets.

until he could traverse them without sight; recalling them from memory alone.

motion offers the siren prince relief from that compulsion, and he finds his steps slowing as he traverses along the black sand beach, chunks of ice floating along the waves of the seawater haunting like phantoms in his peripheral, large shadows cutting through the fog. icy dread pools in his belly, slithering along his spine as flashes of before — still too fresh to dracarys — threaten to pull him beneath the surface.

his shoulders tense and his steps halt. a low huff of annoyance is given, a sharp incline of his head is given before he offers the water an ugly scowl and keeps moving.

Ampoule watched him. He seemed lost in thought, as if his consciousness was elsewhere other than his own body. It traversed the landscape and he was the unwilling charioteer, bumping and bouncing along. It was almost entertaining to watch; mostly because Ampoule preoccupied herself with a small guessing game about whatever could be on his mind. Perhaps

hunger drove him, or some great tragedy that he was attempting to thwart.

Ampoule herself had just traveled a great many days in succession, and was well-versed in the type of locomotion she witnessed now. However, she herself tended to be more overwrought with convivial musings.

She would venture to say that he was not.

When his own path cut close to her, her own curiosity got the better of her. The woman stepped forward and chuffed, wondering if he would stop and pay her heed, or if he would travel on without noticing she was there.

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Rune Discovery : 「 Partial failure ; Clue unlocked for increased chance of success in the next thread these characters post. 」 

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As you search, your paws pressing into the dark sand, the world around you seems to still. The roar of the waves, once abundant in your ears, quiets to a dull hum. The water, the tides, and the rocking of the glaciers seems to hush until everything around you settles and stills. It is strange how quickly it has become quiet.

A voice suddenly fills your head. You hear it, but you cannot see the mouth from where it stems. Yia af an yet drie lat yia sak, kien yia tsie krosir, it says, foreign and rippling and more powerful than the ocean's tide. You cannot understand it, but you can feel it.

You feel compelled to look at the ice, and when you do, it is not your reflection that you see ... but the face of a strange wolf. The Dream Visitor. You see his reflection instead of your own in the crystalline surface, and he speaks to you again. Ut sepal somahire yia hale ban sepafire. This time, you understand him. It is somewhere you have been before.

His reflection fades, and in the ice you see something else. A location.

A frozen lake.

And then, suddenly, everything comes rushing back. The smells, the sounds, and the rush of the freezing water against your feet.

You are alone again.

it is the woman dracarys sees first, her chuff drawing his gaze away from his path though he eyed it less as if he were studying it and more like a secondary nature. he trusted his instincts not to lead him too terribly astray. at the very least, he trusted his distracted wandering not to lead him into the water; a irony that does not slip the siren prince's notice.

perhaps he would need a new epithet soon. siren prince. lord of the tides ... neither were necessary anything he wanted any part of given how he'd ended up here.

his lips pause to speak, only for his jaw to snap shut; guard hairs prickling along his spine as the world stilled and flushed with silence that leaves dracarys feeling uneasy. his head and gaze goes to the woman, trying to decipher if she too, noticed this.

and then he heard it. no, not just heard it. felt it. saw it.

and when he blinks, as if awakening out of his fever dream, dracarys can still see the beast behind his eyelids, and past it the frozen lake.

d-did you see that, too? he asks the stranger in rough hewn common, forgoing his native tongue. there was no room for miscommunication here ... not when he had so many questions — mostly, presently, revolving around his own sanity.

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