Alpine Lake the dreams are dark

The waterway made his travels seem so insignificant. At least two days had bled together already. Silas hadn't kept track. Sometimes, if he traveled close enough, the sound of the waters could almost drown out his misery. This wasn't even the direction he had last scented Tambourine in, but he was starting to feel afraid to go back. Maybe.. it was safer this way. He could wander into the ether, or hell, the river's current Silas was tired of loss, and so it seemed, he was bound to suffer it again and again. Just when Tambourine had been all he had left, and the brightest light to his meager days.. of course he would vanish.

He knew he should have expected this, and maybe he felt guilty all over again, but there hung this worry. Something had to have happened to him, Silas reasoned; not without a single word to him. He had a bad feeling, but this was normal. This one felt bad. Everything felt bad. He couldn't get the wince off his face as he contemplated where to go from here.

But.

What if Tambourine came back?

He hated these what ifs. They were the same ones that had kept him in the Keep for as long as it had, and looking back, he still regretted it. Could he do that again, too?

But.

Silas knew Tambourine's unease with the Glade, and how poorly he fit among them. Maybe that would play a part in his return. Maybe it would be in his best interest to leave. Maybe he was just dead somewhere and all of this was for nothing. Silas hated these frighteningly endless unknowns too.

Somehow he brought himself far enough north to hear the waterfalls that poured from Aspen Lake up above. He swallowed thickly and began to head closer, angling slightly towards the northeast in his path. Feeling like he had little to lose, he trotted onward quietly with his head low.