Dragoncrest Cliffs tanpèt lannwit

The Obsidian spoke with pride. A pride the boy could not summon, though he tried. He wanted to feel the same wonder and excitement of his cousins; to experience the confidence he could see yet not touch. But the only emotions left to him were apprehension and a healthy serving of doubt.

Jean-Heron felt (before he saw) the cold glare of Shadess. He looked towards her to catch the brief and ugly disgust smeared across her face. His spine tensed with shame, and he looked away, skin hot as he prickled indignantly. He could hear the others splashing through the water, and he would have been content to stand there staring at the ground if it were not for Sobeille and her nudge.

“Come on, weenie.”

Mere slights and woundings that would have been treated with playful teeth or boyish retaliation before his accident, now filled him instead with bitterness. Crippled and ridiculed, the contempt he felt from those who would grow to be his superiors— from those he was being raised to support— scorned him.

He thought: What did they know about real fear? Had they ever felt the sea suddenly change its mood and start pulling them irreversibly down? Did they know about the light of the seagraves? About losing air to the point of unconsciousness? Did they know anything about experiencing a powerlessness so overwhelming that their brain chemistry would become forever altered? What had they learned of pain and suffering and having to drag themselves up from the metaphorical pits?

Resolve, borne of resentment, welled up inside him.

Jaws set grimly, he cast one last look at his mother before leaning his shuddering body against Sobeille as she anchored him towards the Thoughtstone. It was oddly selfless of her, adding a sudden gravity to this moment he had been unprepared for. That even she wanted to see him to the stone stunned him.

The chimera stiffly braved the frigid waters, managing well through his limp, and came to rest upon the icy stone that allegedly housed sleeping visions. Hypothermia dreams, more like. He stayed as close to Sobeille as she would allow and remained silent, staring at his paws, while they waited for night.

As the sun sank low and the temperature began to plummet, the only image in his mind was the disturbed look on his Chacal’s face before he’d left the shore.