Raiden blinked, letting his vision focus as the spark of memory faded, wondering who the little girl was, and why he’d been playing a magic skill building game with her.It wasn’t the first time he’d seen her in his memories, and they always came with a deep sense of joy and pride.Whoever she was, he loved her.
An incredibly strange idea formed as he looked at the owlcat.“Daya raised you, right?Did the two of you ever play hide and seek?”
Her head tilted in a curious way, eyes brightening in interest and tail swishing.
“You want to play magic hide and seek, Neka?”
She chuffed, wings fluffing and resettling in a way that indicated she was ready to move.Retracting her front talons so they slid back into her enormous paws, she flexed her toes and then stretched in a low bow.When she finished her preparations, she loped over to the barn entrance and looked back at him.
“Guess we’ll give this a try.”
Daya talked to the animals constantly, treating them as intelligent beings, not far from people.Why shouldn’t he do the same?
He carefully stowed his weapons in the special wooden rack he’d made for the makeshift training room.A matching one sat in his bedroom to house the weapons at night.Giving his injured arm and leg a good stretch, he headed to the entrance.
“No cheating,” he said, with a look directly at Ember.
Her squawk of indignation followed him out of the barn.Grinning broadly, he hustled into the rain and moved carefully across the open yard to the tree line.Adrenaline pumping, he scanned the forest for the best shadows.It was just a game, but already his mind began to work in a different way.
His vision shifted in and out of focus, illuminating the shadows with depths of gray.Gazing into the field of trees, he could see which shadows were longer and deeper.Better to hide in.Using the new skill, he picked one underneath a particularly large tree and melded himself into it to wait.
After a few minutes, the air stirred above his head.Neka sat poised on the trunk of a downed tree, wings beating the air in silence.Huh.He hadn’t thought about shielding above himself.Was there a difference?
Trying again proved there was.It was awkward, but he was able to use the same method to close the air above him into his shield of shadows.
Laughing, he saluted Neka and went to hide again.This time, when she found him, she blew at the tracks leading to his hiding spot.
“I don’t get it.”
Neka pawed at the ground until the tracks were scuffed back to normal dirt.
“No way.That’s not possible.”
An annoyed growl told him he was wrong.
Figuring he had no reason not to try, he knelt in the muddy earth and pressed his hand next to a footprint.His vision sparked and sputtered like a dying candle, but the sharp pop indicated he could indeed differentiate the print from the plain dirt.
Incredible.Using the same instinct, he hid the track as if it were an extension of himself.It disappeared partially, as if he’d run out of magic for the rest.
“Neka, you are the smartest owlcat ever.”
She preened at the complimentary tone, and he chuckled.He had his work cut out for him relearning magic.Maybe the sword wouldn’t be the hardest skill to rebuild.
Over the course of the afternoon, he improved his shielding skills but couldn’t get more than a few steps worth of tracks to disappear.Neka was careful not to hurt him but seemed to enjoy hunting him and pouncing when she found him.
By the time dusk glittered the air, he was exhausted, drenched in mud, and had tufts of Neka’s fur sticking to him.Smiling, he gave her back a scratch where her wings met as they came out of the woods.Purring, she leaned heavily into him in what he’d decided was an owlcat hug.
“Go hunt, we’ll play again tomorrow.”
Raiden rubbed his chest as he stood in the pouring rain, letting the sky wash the earth from his body.Playing with Neka had been challenging and fun and made his heart ache for something he couldn’t define.Someone he couldn’t remember.
HearingDayamovingaroundin the room beside his, Raiden set down his sketches and massaged his hand.She had come in very late with nearly silent steps in an attempt not to wake him.It hadn’t worked, but he’d let her retreat to her room in peace for the remainder of the night.Daylight was now pouring through the window, and he needed a cup of tea.
Setting the pages aside, he got up and sheathed his dagger.After working with it and carrying it constantly, he was confident he wouldn’t harm Daya with it.He wasn’t willing to pick up the sword in her presence though.That weapon still brought horribly vivid and often bloody memories to his mind.
He’d woken from a similarly harsh dream a while earlier and sat down to sketch images from his memories.Symbols and simple designs covered the page.The same ones over and over.He got the feeling his mind was working hard to recreate something, he just didn’t yet know what it was.
Dawn filtered through his window, bringing the faint scent of rain with it.This close to Zamyra, storms came with a thick humidity even during the cold months.After a slight hesitation, he decided to continue behaving as if this were his home and decided to leave his shirt where it hung over the back of his chair.He was still overheated from the nightmare, and Daya wouldn’t hesitate to tell him if it made her uncomfortable.
