[se] wildest dreams

You made yourself a bed
At the bottom of the blackest hole

LongNight was in full swing when Alys arrived at Tal's new home, bag of necessities in hand. Sascha bumbled along in the seer's wake, lumbering shakily through the snow behind her bonded. From time to time, she would stop to shove her nose into a drift or run to dive playfully into a bank; for the most part, though, the little cub stuck to Alys's side like a burr, unwilling to stray too far from the woman.

It was strange, the change in Alys since finding Sascha. She'd never thought of herself as particularly motherly, but she'd taken to caring for the cub as easily as breathing, and she found herself fiercely protective of the ursur in a way that she'd never before experienced. When Alys was young, her mother had always said she'd had to have eyes in the back of her head, to keep track of her children when she wasn't looking. Now Alys found that to be far too true: Sascha had a penchant for mischief in a way that only a toddler could. Just now, for example, the cub peered curiously around her, and Alys could feel the cogs of her mind turning as she grew excited to explore a new place.

Lips twitching with a smile, Alys knocked on the door. She knew Tal was expecting her, but she didn't know if he'd left the door unlocked, and it seemed rude, anyway, to barge in without him letting her in.

And convinced yourself that
It's not the reason you don't see the sun anymore

Alys

The lantern that he had made with Liam hung from the eave of the courier depot-slash-home, burning brightly in defiance of the dark. Light shone from the windows, welcoming and warm on the cold night that lasted seven days, and smoke trailed unseen from the chimney into the greater blackness of the sky above.

The door was, indeed, unlocked, but after Alys's knock there came a bang from inside and a muffled cursing beneath the galumphing sound of a large dog - or the draconic equivalent - charging down a flight of stairs. "Coming!" a half-strangled voice carried through the thick, recently-painted wood before a scaly faced pressed up against the nearest window and Boreal crooned a greeting through the glass.

The door opened a moment later, a sheepish Tal in stocking feet hauling his dragon back by one of her horns so that Alys and Sascha could have room to enter the cozy downstairs of the working courier depot before the cold and dark was once again shut firmly outside. "Alys! Glad y'could make it!" Boreal gave the seer's hand a nudge with her muzzle but then pale eyes fastened on the roly poly little cub and she lit up, forgetting all about the humans. Flinging herself down flat on the ground, she crooned happily to the newest companion, scaly tail sweeping the floor behind her and threatening to take the two-leggers out at the ankles.

"C'mon up. I just pulled the bread out o' the oven an', uh... it's mostly okay. Nothin' a little butter won't fix," he reassured her with a sheepish grin. "How's your LongNight been so far?"

You made yourself a bed
At the bottom of the blackest hole

The sounds from within the depot-house had Sascha tilting her head to one side in confusion and Alys chuckling to herself while she waited for Tal to reach the door. She never would have imagined that she'd consider the courier and his dragon such dear friends, or that she'd be joining him for a few days at the height of LongNight, but here she was, and she was all the happier for it.

Sascha peered curiously up at the dragon's scaly face as she appeared in the window, bleating an excited greeting. As the door opened, a sheepish Tal in the doorway, the cub barreled through the courier's legs and into the warmth of the indoors, skidding to a stop to snuffle Boreal in greeting. Alys shook her head. The little ursur would tire herself out soon, and then they'd have some peace; until then, though, she hoped that her companion wouldn't cause too much trouble. Surely, between the three of them, they could keep eyes on her.

Alys followed her cub inside and closed the door behind her, shutting out the cold and snow in favor of the light and warmth of Tal's home. "Bread sounds great," she told him with a grin, setting her bag on the ground and shrugging out of her parka. She'd dressed comfortably in a fuzzy sweater and a pair of comfortable pants, and her wild curls were pulled back into a low ponytail. It was far more casual than usual, but it had seemed silly to dress up when they were just going to spend time indoors. "I brought some drinks." Wine for herself, and Tal's favorite as well.

As for LongNight... "It's been quiet, except for Sascha," the seer said, wrinkling her nose at the cub, who rolled around on the floor while trying to grab Boreal's tail. "She's proving to be a handful. What about you?"

And convinced yourself that
It's not the reason you don't see the sun anymore

Alys

Used to excited dogs - and one particular dragon - using him as a door, Tal just stood still as Sascha dashed between his legs, trusting Boreal to keep the cub out of anything truly dangerous in the building. She'd mothered enough of the sled team's pups over the years that the courier trusted her instincts, and she'd dote on the little cub until Sascha fell asleep.

Sure enough, the dragon was more than happy to twitch her tail this way and that as she curled around to watch Sascha pouncing, rumbling encouragement as the humans did silly human things in the foyer.

"Hey, thanks!" Tal scooped up the bag as soon as it was set down, peeking inside eagerly before looking back at his guest with a grin. She was looking softer than he was used to seeing, but they were a fairly matched pair in style tonight. Tal's long-sleeved shirt with cream and grey stripes was of a soft fabric and looking a little frayed at the wrists; clearly it had been worn more than a few times. His trousers were likewise a little lived-in, the linen shiny at the knees and seat as he turned to lead the way upstairs.

"It's been..." he paused, trailing off as he wrinkled his nose. He hesitated, waiting until he got to the top of the stairs before he continued. "It's been okay, 'cept...A few nights, er." Grimacing, he waved his free hand vaguely at the week-long darkness outside the shuttered window. "Two day-candles ago, I guess. Did y'happen t'look outside an' see anything'... weird?"

You made yourself a bed
At the bottom of the blackest hole

While Alys trusted Boreal's instincts, the newfound protectiveness in her did not. She kept one wary eye on her energetic cub until Sascha settled down to try to pounce (rather ungracefully) onto the dragon's tail, each time rearing into the air and flopping onto the ground, only to miss the twitching appendage and roll back to her paws to try again.

With a silent tug through the bond, Alys pulled the reluctant cub away from her new best friend and up the stairs, letting Sascha and Boreal lead the way up the staircase. At the top, Sascha bumbled her way past Tal and turned to wait for Boreal, eager to continue playing while the humans did their strange human things.

Distracted by Tal's hesitation, Alys frowned at her friend. "Weird how?" she asked, which she supposed answered the question. "I don't remember looking outside, to be honest." Reaching into a pocket, she fingered the deck of cards she kept there. So far, her LongNight had been quiet, almost peaceful - she wondered now if that had been deceptive, and if there had been strange things happening outside while she stayed warm and safe indoors.

And convinced yourself that
It's not the reason you don't see the sun anymore

Alys

Boreal was more than happy to tempt Sascha up the stairs, using her twitching tail-tip as bait. Once up into the living quarters she coaxed the little cub towards an open space on the floor where they could roll around away from both humans and hearthsparks that might catch on fur.

Tal set the bag on the little table, beginning to fuss with glasses and plates as Alys asked for details that he didn't have a lot of. Not nearly as many as he'd like, and the impatience of it chafed under his skin anew. But they were caught in the dark until LongNight had passed, and there wasn't much he could do to speed it up. 'Lights," he revealed, scowl threatening to ruin his welcoming grin. "In the sky. Two of 'em, like shootin' stars, headin' east. During LongNight," he added ominously for emphasis.

He headed to the stove to grab the (only slightly burnt) bread from the cooling rack and brought it back to the table with the butter crock. "Sah an' I are goin' t'check 'em out soon as th' sun's back," he added, his scowl giving up and resigning itself to a thoughtful frown. "Whatever they were..."

You made yourself a bed
At the bottom of the blackest hole

Sascha was all too easily led up the stairs and into the open area on the floor, where she continued to play chase-the-tail with Boreal as the humans talked about boring human things. Who cared about lights in the sky? Those were stars, dummies. They're there all the time.

At any rate, Alys joined Tal at the table, taking a glass from Tal before he dropped it in his fussing. She could tell that the lights had shaken her friend, and she desperately wished that there was something she could do to fix it. "How do you know they weren't just shooting stars?" Alys asked, cocking her head to one side. After all, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck... But Tal seemed to think that it was something more. Something ominous. And that set Alys's teeth on edge.

"I can go with you, if you'd like," she offered, a little unsure. She wasn't sure what the lights were, where they'd come from, or where they'd gone, but she could surely help her friends in locating them. (Was Sah a friend? She didn't know him that well, truthfully, but he seemed to be on Ru's and Tal's good sides, so what the hell?)

And convinced yourself that
It's not the reason you don't see the sun anymore

Alys

He shot Alys a grateful but brief smile as she took over setting the table, but the topic of conversation didn't lend itself to ease. Instead, as he retrieved the bread and butter, he gave a hard shake of his head. "Because it's LongNight. There aren't any stars, shootin' or otherwise," he pointed out, worried and hating the way it made the inside of his skin itch. "An' there never has been. Ever. So I mean... even if they were fallin' stars, it's still not... not right." He was struggling to put his feelings of wrongness into coherent words and he knew he wasn't doing a very good job. His mouth tugged down into a self-conscious scowl as he poked the warm crust of the bread with his finger.

Alys's offer drew him back from his internal frustration, a little surprised - but at the same time, not really. She was a good friend, and he knew he could count on her in a pinch. But there was a part of him that didn't want to drag her into potential danger - not with the memory of that poor Attuned who had been killed in the Oerwoud still so fresh in his memory. "Thanks," he murmured gruffly, trying not to think about how the tips of his ears warmed at her easy willingness to go with him into the unknown. "But th'Peregrine only fits two. Least for now. I'll let y'know what we find as soon as we're back, though."

You made yourself a bed
At the bottom of the blackest hole

If there was anything she could have done to ease her friend's mind, she'd have done it, but in this particular situation, there was little she could do other than listen to his concerns. As much as she wanted to assure him that it was surely no big deal, it would have been a lie, and she couldn't bring herself to give that lie a voice. Instead, she simply nodded, her brow furrowed with concern. "Alright," she agreed. "If there's anything I can do to help, let me know."

The table was set, the bread and butter fetched, and Alys turned her attention to the food, hoping to distract Tal if nothing else. "It's not as burnt as you made it sound," she teased, studying the bread. Sascha, distracted from Boreal's tail by the promise of food, toddled over and stood on her hind legs to paw at Alys in a clear show of 'up!' The seer, ever the patient human, bent to lift her cub into the air. There would come a time when Sascha got too big for holding, but for now, both ursur and human would simply enjoy the added closeness. "And Sascha thinks it smells good," she added with a smile.

And convinced yourself that
It's not the reason you don't see the sun anymore

Alys

He shot her a look of pure gratitude when she accepted his worries without belittling them and instead offered her help. He wasn't sure exactly how yet, but he knew the time would come, and when it did he could rely on her.

Boreal realized her tiny playmate had toddled off and pushed herself to her feet, giving an indulgent shake to settle her scales. She followed Sascha to the table and looked from the bear as she was picked up to Tal. There was an unsettlingly cunning calculation in her eyes as she gazed at him and the courier raised both hands defensively. "Oh no, you don't! You're way too big for that anymore!" The dragon huffed her disbelief but turned her attention to the table instead and the gently steaming bread upon it.

"Aw, you're just sayin' that," the courier mumbled, clearly pleased at Alys's reassurance as he reached the knife to slice them both a couple of fresh slabs. Meat and cheese had been added to the table and open faced sandwiches were the dinner of choice tonight. Nothing fancy, but everything was fresh, and Tal popped the cork on one of the bottles Alys had brought in order to pour for them both. "So, how's your studies at th'Academy comin' along?" he asked, trying to keep the conversation lighter. "An' have y'been gettin' outside o'Halo much?"

You made yourself a bed
At the bottom of the blackest hole

Alys had never been one to belittle her friends' concerns. As a seer, she was more accustomed than most to following one's gut instincts, and if Tal's told him that these lights were something to worry about, then Alys wasn't going to question that. The only thing she could do for now was to distract him, and as she hoisted Sascha onto her hip, she laughed at Boreal's attempt to convince Tal to pick her up, too.

As for the bread, it was a little burnt, but it wasn't terrible, and it certainly wasn't anything a little butter wouldn't fix, so Alys sat at the table, settling Sascha on the chair next to her, and accepted some bread. A slice of meat went to the ursur before Alys completed her own sandwich, and she accepted the drink from the stash she'd brought before waiting for Tal to dig in. "Oh, the Academy is going fine," she told him, swirling the wine in her glass before taking a sip. "But honestly? It's starting to get a bit dull. I mean, Ru's been gone so much lately, so a lot of the group activities have been on hold. And my magic doesn't feel like it's getting much stronger on my own."

Which led to Tal's next question. "I've been thinking about traveling this season," she admitted. Without Ru, and with Tal traveling so much for work, Halo was just another place. She missed her friends terribly when they were gone - not that she was going to put that guilt on Tal. "I've spent seasons now in the tundra, so I feel like it's about time I went to see what other parts of the world are like. I thought I might check out King's End first, and then... I dunno. They say Stormbreak is open to Abandoned now. Maybe I'll see what the big city is like."

And convinced yourself that
It's not the reason you don't see the sun anymore

Alys

Boreal knew better then to rest her chin on the table, but she still rested it barely half an inch back from it, eyes darting from the meats and cheeses to Tal until he tossed her a slice of cheese with a grin. She snapped it from the air and rumbled happily as he constructed his own sandwich and, when it looked like Alys was ready, he toasted her silently with his wine glass and then took a hearty swallow before tackling his food.

It gave him a chance to listen to Alys while he chewed, and at the mention of Ru's lengthening absences the courier nodded glumly. He could understand being sad about that. And about feeling like he wasn't getting any stronger; not when Sah seemed to be leaping ahead of him again. "Well, how 'bout in Flowerbirth we do some trainin' together?" he suggested. "I mean, I'm no magic teacher, but maybe practicin' in a spar would help jog somethin' loose?"

He perked up a little at hearing that the seer was getting bit by the travel bug, pale eyes brightening. "Guess I could see more of King's End, too," he said slowly, not sounding entirely enthused, but the mention of Stormbreak had the smile returning to at least his eyes. "But I could definitely show y'around Stormbreak! There's still lots o' places I haven't been, but I'm lookin' t'open a courier depot there, too. I'd love th'help, if you're around t'give it." The last was asked with a shy sort of diffidence, as if he was afraid to make the assumption.

He was too used to having his hopes in other people dashed to dare to let himself feel much optimism these days.

You made yourself a bed
At the bottom of the blackest hole

Sascha was distracted with her slice of meat. She was still young enough that meat was a delicacy that she wasn't quite used to, and it was clear from the way she curled up in the chair to gnaw on the slice that she'd been given that she was enjoying herself immensely. Alys grinned watching the companions, who each seemed to have gotten their way in one way or another, and turned her attention to the conversation.

"Training together would be wonderful!" Alys agreed, taking a bite of her sandwich. It had been a while since she'd had a proper training session, and she was overdue. "Besides, any training would be beneficial, not just my magic. I've noticed that it's all connected. The stronger I get in general, the better I am with my magic. The more I work on my magic, the better I feel overall."

As for travel, Alys perked up at the thought of traveling with Tal. It would be nice to not be entirely alone as she explored - at least, not all the time. "Of course I'll help," she said warmly. "It's so exciting, seeing your business expand." She paused, then added, almost shyly. "I've been thinking about opening a shop, myself. Maybe after traveling this season? I just want more to do," she confided. "Everyone around me seems to be so busy and thriving, and I'm just sort of here. I want to do something exciting!"

And convinced yourself that
It's not the reason you don't see the sun anymore

Alys

Cheese had distracted Boreal from playing with Sascha for a little while, but the little cub was clearly enchanted with her own treats. Realizing that she was momentarily on her own, the big dragon flopped down onto the floor by Tal's chair and proceeded to look up at him with the saddest of eyes, doing her best to look pitiful.

As muscular and well-fed as she was, it wasn't very convincing and Tal did his best to ignore her.

Which was a lot easier with Alys there to distract him and talk to, and he grinned at her enthusiastic agreement to train together again. "Yeah? That's great t'hear! I hope I can help y'out, then." He might not have Sah's powers or Ru's experience, but he was a champion at taking a hit!

...wait, that didn't sound nearly as cool as he wanted it to be.

Shaking off the moment of consternation at his own thoughts, he was happy to turn his attention to traveling. His apprentice still hadn't materialized half a year later. And while it sounded like the kid had his own issues to deal with, Tal might as well make use of the fact that Peregrine still had an empty seat most of the time. Being able to travel with a friend would be... well...

His heart squeezed tightly around the sudden, traitorous desire. He trusted Alys, but he'd trusted others before, too, and his Frostbite Cuff couldn't protect him from being burned or frozen out by people he'd let into his heart. All he could do was take it step by step and day by day, trying not to hope too hard, for fear of how much it would hurt when it was over.

The emotions swept by in a flicker of feelings more than conscious thought, though he did look openly relieved when Alys agreed to help. His own smile was a bit shy at her praise, the tips of his ears warming to a tanned pink as he remembered who had suggested that expansion, all those seasons ago. "Y'give good advice," he assured her gruffly. "You an' your cards. I bet y'could do good business in any city on Caido. We just gotta find the right one!" He cleared his throat, an idea bobbing to the surface, but he wasn't sure... except...

Oh, hail, why not? "The delivery depots are mostly storage," he began, shredding some meat nervously between his fingers and subconsciously dropping the bits into the waiting mouth of the dragon below. "So, I mean... easy enough t'set up a shop like yours next door. Or even in one, if y'don't mind sharin'."