FENRER

Bile burned behind his ribs and set his stomach aflame. Bubbles of oil bounced into his heart. Owls hooted long into the night with Kon's footsteps breaking apart the small sticks on the path. Stars swung in the sky and left trails of white dust when he tried to pick out the north star to guide him home. As long as you can find the northern star, Father instructed one of his navigational lessons taught to all young Hanekans with a map of the stars to match the map of the land. You can navigate along the sea. Each one moved and disoriented his placement, though Kon sent cursory glances upwards himself to follow the heavens.

Ugh... Knives dug into his temples when the world went dark with the sound of rushing water.

"Stay with me, Little Wolf."

Yes... you said you'd come back.

Misty bubbles fluttered in the abyss behind his eyelids. Days of studying and training with Father. Mother teaching him proper stances. Days he explored the entirety of the state in preparation for when he would be the Lord of Sungrove. His journey took him through the town to mark down any landmarks and preferred spots of joy for the townsfolk. As the runesmith pounded on metal and supplied new fighters to train, housecarls sat on the battlements and waved down to chat with those who passed by, never alone in their watchful duty. Wells which dotted on the outside, with the creek as the supplier to the underground watering holes to then be filtered into the pipes leading to each and every house for their use.

Gone...

"Little Wolf," someone's distant voice begged.

I'm here, Mom... Dad...

He squirmed when it came to a jolted stop and the motion of a kneel sent vomit over his tongue. "Little Wolf," Kon's voice came into clarity, and he dragged himself back into the ashen, empty world. "Can you do me a favour?" He adjusted Fenrer to face the river he stopped beside, with the rapids further downriver. "We are almost to the cliffs. We'll see Sivaport soon enough... but you must be thirsty." Kon unhooked a translucent waterskin from his massive belt. "Can you touch this?"

"Touch it...?"

"Yes, that is all I require."

Fenrer shifted to release his arm trapped against Kon's chest and raised his blurry fingers to the waterskin. Green resistance met the edge of his hand, causing Kon to sigh in apparent relief. Fenrer frowned when Kon inched closer to the river to dip it into the rushing water. His waterskin swelled, and he tugged it out. Extra droplets of water slipped down its supple surface. Kon tipped his head before shaking it. It bounced and swished, and a puff escaped his nose. "This should give you some relief, Little Wolf, but first..." Kon's brow scrunched as the ethereal mist surrounded the waterskin. Tiny glyphs of the same swirling morning injected themselves. "I do not want to risk contamination in your state."

"I thought you said toxins wouldn't... effect giant's blood..." Fenrer coughed.

"They wouldn't... but you're unwell." Kon lowered it to his lips. "Here."

Fenrer wrapped his hands around the thick neck of the waterskin. Chills swept down his cracked throat. It carved ravines through the crust of bile behind his teeth as he shivered for its relief. He hungered further for full cheeks of cold liquid.

"Careful not to choke, Little Wolf." Kon sat down and waited.

He squeezed the last drops out of it and slumped deeper into Kon's forearms. It slipped out of his hands and back into Kon's, who hooked it back onto his belt. "Do you feel better?"

"No..." Fenrer snuggled closer to chase the nausea out of his temples. "Thank you for the water..." He rested his injured arm across his stomach. Numbness flowed through his body when Kon lifted them both off the ground with ease and held him close.

"It will help in increments."

Fenrer listened to the coursing river to send him into a familiar lullaby Mom sang him to sleep with. Words garbled and bubbled underneath the sea's tempest, but gave a promise of love and warmth. It roared with the tempest the longer he floated in the darkness, wanting nothing more than to hunt with Father. His child-sized bow could do nothing more than take down a rather sluggish rabbit, but Father promised. He promised. Promised endless hunts, a guidance into his place as Lord of Sungrove. Promises. Fenrer whimpered when Kon adjusted him in his hands and the rapids drowned out into swallowing waves against spiky rocks. Fenrer tore open his eyes again. Stars fell along the empty, blue horizon as Kon kept a safe distance from the cliffside.

Kon lifted his head to the giant shadow which stood on the tip of the gulf.

"The first pillar..." Fenrer mumbled and held on tighter to the wolven furs around his shoulders. "King Pyren."

Waves raised and smashed into the cliffs below.

Kon waddled into its shadow with wide, emerald eyes with no pupils. Flames danced at the peak of his hands when he stretched it out to the sea in silent offering. Fenrer tried to wiggle the tips of his fingers and toes, but it went numb once more. "Dad said someday he'd... take me to the top..."

"It is huge, a marvel of stonework," Kon mumbled and traced the edge of the cliff to the brink pointing out into the sea towards the archipelago unseen. One small lamp sat over the entrance into the statue's inner workings and magick architecture., but his hopes dashed when Kon went past it to gaze at the other peak, and the second pillar who held his own flame.

"King Kolis..."

"Yes..." Wistfulness whispered into Kon's tone.

"You heard of him too?"

Kon lowered his head to him, then a smile graced his misty, yet solid cheeks. "Maybe not in these forms, but I have when I still... walked this echo." He returned to the shelter of Pyren's massive statue, the anchor to the barrier around the gulf to sit back down facing the horizon. "I shall give you some time to rest before we enter Sivaport. I see it on the cleft, and the lighthouse guiding ships." Fenrer twisted to investigate his words, but coughed and almost fell out of Kon's arms, who adjusted him back into the previous position. "No, rest, I am only observing the change."

Foam spit out from the rogue waves and the dangerous riptides to alarm unwary swimmers. He sat there with the dancing stars before slipping back into the darkness. Familiar arms rocked him into a gentle slumber, swaddled in blankets as the humming continued in his ear. Warm. Safe. Everything in his nightmares whisked into incensed smoke and filled the air with the smell of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. He reached into the dark to grasp someone's hand, but the rocking stopped.

I want to sleep...

Only Kon's adjusting movements betrayed the presence of the Aeoniir, but the longer Fenrer tried to rifle through his brain of all his studies, information on the Aeoniir passed him by. Maybe... Maybe Father was going to teach me that next? He returned to the spinning world to eye Kon, who kept his jade sight on the horizon. "Are you not thirsty? You've been walking a lot... carrying me..."

Kon's attention from the call of the sea broke. "I need not food or water anymore, Little Wolf." Dark shadows dug underneath his eyes. "My tether to this world is through you." He poked his nose. "I know you are tired, Little Wolf. Your power courses through the connection, but we must need hurry the moment..." Kon's gaze fluttered to the starry expanse. "When I feel the tether start to fade."

"Will it fade forever?" Fenrer gripped onto Kon's armor. "Don't leave me alone, please."

"No." Kon shook his head. "In your condition though, I can only remain in this plane for so long before I start sapping you of further strength. This... is new for both of us. Better to get you somewhere safe — with the Storm Wardens, and allow us both rest."

"Are you tired?"

"Hah..." Kon chuckled. "I shall manage, Little Wolf, I need not sleep in the same way you do. Do not worry about me."

It went silent without the song of the silver dawn. Fenrer clenched his fists to battle the sweeping prickles through his skin and underneath the bandage. One aura swallowed the rest of the steaming colours rising off of Sivaport. One of morning hues and stormy seas. Kon rested his back against the statue and continued to stare out into the horizon without cease. Hypnotized by the movement of the waves and currents, Fenrer hummed out the last piece of the song before allowing his eyes to close, his fear dissipating with the stars. Am I going to go back home? It was so close to his reach within the void, blooming along the flowers, trees and grass. Yes... I need to go back home.

He raised a foot, and then another to come closer to the brightening images.

Stay with me.

Stay.

Stay.

Mother and Father's figures waited for him on the border of light and shadows with their backs to him. Mud squelched beneath his boot, but he trudged through it to return to them — to home. Their whispered promises pushed him forward to keep his own. I'll... I'll be a giant...

Warmth touched his skin, and drew into his lungs.

Foam carried the molten sun to slap it against the cliffs in sparkled stars. Kon's shoulders tensed when the clouds parted and skies cleared of the rain. Over the horizon, a sphere of light drifted, carried on the arms of the ocean to send its piercing rays into the crimson clouds. It chased the last limbs of the night, the tail-end of the Princess of Evenfall's constant journey around the world. Her feathers of purple flames dissipated and brought with it another daybreak.

"See, Kon...?" he whispered when the light flowed through the grass to strike both of them, though when it raised over Kon's face, faint pupils revealed themselves in the deep emeralds. Fenrer pointed out to the horizon of flames, his shaking finger trying to catch the rays. "I told you... the dawn must always come... He told me... It flows with the night, into the sun..."

His arms went limp.

Kon lifted himself with the rise of the sun to follow its trail until it reached the peak of the statue to the first pillar of Haneka. King Pyren, his ancestor who split the heavens apart to reveal the sun beneath the dusk. Kon's breath caught in his chest, but his attention returned to him with a smile not of woe, but of hope. Hope forever lost but forever found. "Yes, Little Wolf." He knelt back down as his smile shone further and split the sea of despair creasing the spirit's expression. "The dawn will return, always and forevermore. In the sky — in our hearts — in our souls. For those that have come before, and those that will come after. With the wind at our sails, the sons and daughters of the sea," his words came out a fervent prayer. "You are the sun, so precious, and you must live."

Fenrer frowned at the glass sending a layer of rainwater over Kon's emerald eyes and his translucent aura, thickening with the distant tolls of the bells. "Kon? Are you okay?"

"It is a memory," he whispered with a softer smile. "A memory to hold fast to. You have... reminded me of the sun though I doubted your words. The dawn must always come."

"Yes... the dawn must always rise." Fenrer flailed in the darkness when Kon brought him closer. "Kon... I don't want to die."

"I promised, it is my duty," Kon insisted. "You will survive, Little Wolf. Look upon what you've brought me."

Harbor bells tolled to greet the new morning as Fenrer twisted his neck to watch the rest of the sunrise along the ocean. It filled the expanse with a deep, golden color and flaming hues. "It's beautiful..." Fenrer tucked his cheek against Kon.

"Fenrer, I seek your permission."

"Huh?"

Kon's smile turned almost devious, strong, and resilient like a giant should be. "I can... get you to Sivaport. I shall not steal anymore of your strength — I shall give you my own. Do the Storm Wardens remain on Euros?"

"Yes..."

Kon blinked and considered the city below. "You are in no state to move, but I would be too... conspicuous. I can flow through the tether to move for you."

"... move for me?"

"Yes."

"Would I grow taller?"

Kon's brow furrowed. "No, Little Wolf, but you will feel strong again, if for but a moment."

Fenrer gripped onto the snout of his wolven headdress to tug it closer, to seek its support. "I want to feel as strong as a giant. You have my permission, Kon... just don't leave me."

I... I'm not ready to cross that threshold back to them... I'm sorry, Mom and Dad... I'm scared...