The first dream was the most jarring. Nir'wei had been drifting through blank unconsciousness - a dreamless, thoughtless sleep that he'd passed through many times before. Then, abruptly, he jolted as though something sharp had pushed through his skin, but he didn't wake. Instead of the ceiling of his aunt's makeshift hut somewhere near the edge of one of the fields of Desnind, a milky-white sky without a sun or moon hung overhead when he opened both eyes. There were no trees on the horizon and no grass under his feet. All around there was only stone, carved and chipped and weathered, turned into a great box that surrounded him on all sides, constricting him, making it hard to even breathe. Then a shadow fluttered overhead. Nir'wei looked up, coming face-to-face with a small squirrel balanced on the edge of one of the walls, peering over with curious dark-brown eyes.
It didn't say anything, but two words suddenly came to his head, said only once but constantly revolving in his head as images rapidly flashed before his eyes, of castles and village houses and knights and nobles, forests and fields, ships and dragons. The pictures were too fast to focus on, cascading down over his head, drowning him with a loud, heavy rushing in his ears that was near-deafening. Somehow, through the intense sensations, one simple command echoed back through his head, suddenly causing his head to snap back.
"Find me."
Nir'wei awoke in a cold sweat, shivering, with his aunt draping an animal pelt over his naked shoulders. "What's wrong?" Her face showed concern. "Did you dream of your mother again?" The memories brought a lump to his throat but the boy swallowed it and shook his head mutely, still struggling to catch his breath.
Instead, he spoke of his dream. Of a squirrel, high on stone walls, surrounded by nobles. Unnervingly, his aunt's face only seemed to become more grave as she nodded along to his words, eventually turning away and staring at a wall for several long minutes, as she was prone to doing at the most inappropriate of times. She hung there just long enough to make the boy think of asking what she thought, before she cut off the words still in his mouth. "It's time," she said reluctantly, as if she was forcing the words. "Your familiar has called and it cannot be ignored. If.. if only your mother was here to guide you," she mumbled with a sniffle, wiping her nose with the back of one hand and drying her eyes quickly. "D-Doesn't matter. You'll do her proud."
The next days were spent preparing and learning. Everyone had some wisdom to part, no matter how small or inconsequential. Supplies were gathered for the journey and packed into bags, food and water wrapped in neat little bundles, little farewell gifts and well-wishes. By far, the best advice was from his father's half-brother just as he was passing through the Itọju. The brash man clapped one arm around Nir'weis shoulders and leaned down, whispering, "Don't be afraid.. and head north." That was the last time he saw his home city, or any of his remaining family. Nobody would accompany him, his only guide would be a squirrel and there was no telling when he would return home again.. or what he would be like, when he did.
There was only one way to head north. Nir'wei caught a boat to Strosdyn, where he struggled for answers on the city his dreams had spoken of. Nobody could even understand the words that came from his mouth. Struggling at the very first hurdle of this seemingly-impossible quest, another vision came during his dreams that night, speaking of a port city where men and women walked on one leg. A few days later, a boat left for Ivorian with half-human, half-snake fisherman on board.. as well as Nir'wei.
The city was beautiful. Rharne, even more so, as he continued north, pressed and pushed by every night as his dreams were almost haunted by the squirrel and its cryptic messages. The young boy was close, though. Rharne's bustling city, filled with drunk revellers all too eager to regail anyone within earshot of their journeys, finally gave Nir'wei all he needed to know. His final destination was an island even further north, practically on the other end of the ocean.. and as far away from his homeland as it was likely possible to reach. The Kingdom of Rynmere. Why this land had been chosen, the boy would never truly understand, but all that mattered was that soon he would finish what his mother had never started.
From the bow of the fishing boat he'd caught a ride with in exchange for what little manual labour he could offer, the castle-city looked even bigger and more grandiose than his dreams. Despite the glaring lack of trees or other natural life amongst all the pale grey stone keeps, its sheer stature was jaw-dropping for a Sev'ryn that had spent all of his years under the gentle shade of trees, running through fields of grass and skipping over narrow streams of forestland with nary an occasional boulder to climb, let alone... this. Basking in its size almost white-washed the fact that it just meant he'd have even more to root through in search of his spirit animal. Even worse, he would have to do it without any further guidance.. because, for the first time since his quest had begun, his dreams did not include the squirrel. At first, he thought nothing of it; the hardest part of his quest was finished now. All that was left, was to find his familiar, wherever it was.
A season passed, with no success. Another followed, and a third after that. Still, no dreams.. still no guidance. It felt as though, to Nir'wei, he would never find the squirrel - he didn't even know where to look any more. He almost stopped looking completely half-way through the third season. Nothing felt different.. Moseke was still as beautiful as ever and he was happier than ever to just be alive at all. That in mind, he cut work for the day and instead took a break travelling out to one of the surrounding regions: Burhan. In some parts of the dense woodlands, it almost felt like he was back in Desnind. "It almost feels like home," the young boy said to himself quietly as his feet carried him deeper into the forests, down unfamiliar paths.
Unwittingly, he'd followed a river upstream and back to a powerful waterfall guarded by thick-trunked Redwoods. Occasionally a large log tipped over the edge of the thick stone high above, toppling down into the grooves below and splashing back into the rushing water's full force.. and the calls of men further upstream felling more trees for the carpenters would echo down in muffled yells.. but otherwise, it seemed as secluded a place as he would find. Just being there, next to wrathful cascade of water, bordered by blooming plants and trees the likes of which he would likely never see again after returning to Desnind, brought some kind of deep calm and gaiety. It compelled him to sit, but he took it one step further and sprawled over the damp moss at the edge of the water, arms and legs spread like an incredibly-content starfish.
For what had felt like arcs but was probably longer, ever since the first dream, Nir'weis mind had been clouded with doubts. After all, his mother had failed in her journey. Not even the combined efforts of everyone he knew and loved, as well as many he'd never met before in his life, could stem the pain that it had brought her. What if he failed? What if he never found his familiar, never bonded.. what if he simply died along the way? All questions without answers, frightening thoughts, nightmares and worse that plagued every hour of his days, gnawing like tiny dark monsters with many teeth. For the first time, though, all those things seemed to wash away. Maybe it was the water, or the warm air, or the sounds of wildlife chirping in the trees above.. but time seemed to blur and melt in its presence. He might have been sleeping, or meditating, or a little bit of both, because he couldn't remember exactly when he closed his eyes. When he did, though, there was a squirrel stood on one of the smooth rocks beside the waterfall. Unthinkingly, Nir'wei smiled and slowly reached a hand out, beckoning it closer. There was a pause, but he didn't pull back. Then the tiny brown-furred creature hopped forwards a few steps, cautiously, then crawled onto the back of his outstretched hand and settled there.
Funnily enough, there was no bright flash of light, no sparks of fire, no cool chill, as he'd heard happened so much from the others. An intense calm washed down over all of his muscles, as if a part of his body he'd never knew was lost, had suddenly been restored. Nir'weis smile widened a fraction and he looked down with half-lidded eyes into the squirrel's milky-white gaze. "There's much to do," it said.
"Later," Nir'wei replied, "later." It almost floated across his mind, in an afterthought: the running waterfall nearby felt exactly like the first dream. All those images, pictures, flowing like water.. the rushing noises. The answer, for all this time, had always been staring him in the face. He'd just not acted on it until he listened to his uncle's words.
