Sun Mote Copse On the 858th day...

Wraen had always liked the idea of familiars, but she had never formed such a close relationship with any other species than her own. When you were one of the apex predators in the area, your choice of friends was very limited. Anyone smaller and weaker than you or simply something you usually hunted and consumed for sustenance had a potential to become prey, when hard times would hit. There was always an option to spare your friend, but then what would happen, if you ate his aunt, uncle or a close friend by accident? No, better mix with your own kind only.

Anyone bigger - let's say a bear - meant that you could become their dinner dish and she did not think that any friendships could last for very long, if you had to always wonder, whether that best friend of yours was looking through recipes of, how to cook you best. And then there were cats, who despite their small size, are claimed to be plotting murders and world domination plans. It suddenly occurred to her that Towhee had not specified the way her alien friends had died and, while she suspected that it was not likely of her deciding to snack on them one day, she did not dare to ask either. What if that was true? It would spoil the mood of the dreamscape!

"Well, if you want to have a long-lasting friend, choosing a bird - does not matter, whether it is a wren or anything else - is not a good idea. They are notorious of dying of heart attacks suddenly. Just scare them the wrong way and they will drop dead," Wraen said, thinking now that the paradise of the birds must be full to the brim. The winged critters were just as good in reproduction as they were in dying. "I would rather... well, what do a ghost know," she cut her attempt in giving an advice short, laughing. After all it was Towhee's own business on, why she preferred the company of animals of other species. "Care to tell, how you communicated with them? I have always had a feeling that they must have some sort of language," why else they would have brains. "But I had never thought that there may be a universal language that all animals understand."

The next question left Wraen silent for a longer time, because she did not have a ready answer to that. Her green gaze followed the flickering lights of the fireflies above the green and brackish waters of the swamp, and tried to come up with a feasible explanation. Had it been lack of wanting? No, not really. Had she not cared enough? That was far from truth, why else would she have sought Towhee out now. Had she not been able to? Truth to be told, trying to push through the veil had never occurred to her before. "I do not have a satisfying answer to give," she sighed, giving her friend a look full of sympathy. "Dying for me meant cutting all the ties with this world and disappearing in the next. I cannot say that "life"," funny way to put it, because it was not exactly like that, "is the same as it is here. You kind of let it go. Accept the fact that this is it and then just go with the flow." 

"Umm... I think the best way to put it - at least to understand my experience - is the difference between you and your reflection. When I died, I became that reflection. Almost like myself, but something very important missing," she went on. "And the longer time I spend here with you, in your company, the more like my old self I feel. The emotions, feelings are more real, the memories are more acute. But you do not realize the difference, when you are there. There... you are always content, peaceful, existing in permanence," she told and then grinned slyly. "You know, what - maybe I am a ghost vampire that feeds off your life energy!"