There was nothing said in reply to Noah’s silence and he was allowed to wallow in his thoughts. Elann settled into her stance beside him and let the unknown chimes tick on past. He listened to the world around him and ignored the people on the other side of the wagon. Again, the hooting of an owl could be heard and it was the heartbeat of the woods there before him. He pictured the rodent that would become the owl’s catch and it led his imaginative mind into the skies of his old domain just outside of Syliras.

Before he had met Elann, he would go hunting two times a day and flying just for the sake of it whenever. His job as a courier was always finished early so he could escape the confines of the grey castle city in search of the freedom of his woodland home. There were several trees he would perch on to view the world from and he remembered the feeling of deep security because he was the ruler of that demesne. Here, at night, he recalled soaring high in the sky above the trees and observing the shadows that Leth forced the trees to cast onto the dimly lit forest floor. It took a year to stake a claim that large and he had been ruling it for two more before Caesarion and Elann came into his life. For the first time he had understood what it meant to be atop the world and unchallenged and understood the position his father probably felt as if he were in.

Elann’s whining stretch and words brought him back to the present and he looked over to her as she spoke. “I’ll stay here,” he uttered. Having remembered what it felt like to be that high instilled a sort of pride in him, one that made him reluctant to show himself to the rest of the people of the caravan because he was so low now.

It was saddening to think about his past. Not even his dreams were filled with his memories of the past. When he did dream they were vague or sad, the most recent being the nightmare he had. Whether Elann left or not, he put his attention back forward towards the darkened trees and let his vision blur because his focus was in his mind and not there around him physically. He brought his arms up to hug himself as he thought on the night-terror.