Witch Doctors Inc: SEASON TWO (Ongoing)

Part 4.10

SNOWFALL FOREST,KADREA
ONYX

The moon is an icy bauble over Snowfall Forest. There are no stars, only holes where light once dwelled. Far below, a black cat becomes one shadow, then the next, then the next. Moths flit out of its way, irritated by the magic puffing from its fur.

The forest is lit with shining puddles that reflect in the cat's eyes. A particularly large puddle stretches the length of one moonlit clearing.

The cat meows.

No, it reminds itself. I must not splash in it. I have business to attend to.

The cat continues on its way, despite the puddle's allure.

"Ruff!"

A mini snow bear bounds over to the cat. Its white coat looks impossibly soft.

I cannot play right now, the cat huffs. I must attend to my business.

The mini snow bear gets up on its hind legs and blinks at the cat. Its irises are blue snowflakes.

Do not be silly, the cat says. Go and play with the other snow bears. I am a cat. I have no time for frivolous activity.

The mini snow bear bounds away, ruffing its annoyance.

Before long, the cat finds what it is looking for.

Wrapped in emerald flames, it could be a human if not for its leathery skin and horns.

The being starts. Its eyes, the same emerald as the flames, grow wide with surprise. "Onyx."

The cat meets its gaze. Emerald flames paint its irises.

Scion.

*

The way Scion says his name has Onyx wondering. There's a bit of apprehension in his tone, but there's interest too. Onyx isn't sure if this is a good or a bad thing.

"What are you doing here?" Scion sulks.

Can I not visit a friend?

Scion grunts. The flames around him fade, then flare up again. "Do not bother me when I am energy-sensing. I require focus."

Onyx pads past a patch of ice-breathing bluebells to give the mini snow bear, who has followed him to the clearing, a dirty look. They are not coming, you know.

The flames die down again. Scion scowls. "What are you blabbering about now?"

The Ariadni. They are not coming.

Scion's scowl deepens. "Dionysus is free. They will track his energy signature. They are coming."

Onyx settles into the bluebell-dotted mist. When you close your eyes at night, do you hear them?

"Hear what?"

Onyx shifts his obsidian gaze to the sky. Butterflies.

Scion doesn't answer for quite some time.

"Yes, I hear them. The murmur of their wings." He shakes his head. "But you cannot mean...surely, not after all this time?"

The past has found us.

Onyx closes his eyes. A bluebell breathes a cloud of ice-mist over his paws. I think I have been wrong, Scion. I sought to leave the past behind, but it has followed me wherever I go. There was too much pain there, so I ran, but I could never run fast enough. It was always there, right behind me. With the portals opening soon, I have been thinking. The dimensions exist together. They always have. They are different faces of the same thing. One universe, seen from different angles. Perhaps the past cannot be left behind because it is the present.