The tapestry of the never-ending night sky continued to scream in silence as a few stars sent light down to individual leaves, which began to waltz around innocently. The blue air around Mount Marble was tranquil; after leaving a trail of stardust along the southernmost part of its top, it returned to its former self. Despite all the room being available for a sound to be eked out, neither of the two ladies would utter a word. Charlotte’s lips gripped onto themselves like her life depended on it, Morgen, however, was willing to amend, but felt short of thinking of any idea of note. Her mind had given up almost completely.

They were running. Charlotte’s eyes didn’t betray her this time. Luckily, she had a detailed instruction for Morgen to follow before they embarked. She could feel the soft fur rubbing against her chin and her cheeks. “Morgen’s… Soft as always…” She said in a prim voice as her sleepy head continued to murmur. Morgen’s galloping was as smooth as it was elegant. The way she could smash a boulder impeding their paths while remaining steady as if the road was a straight path was immaculate. For a second Charlotte thought she was sleeping in her comfy bed back at the log cabin she resided in.

“Have you ever dreamt, my Morgenwyrm?” She whispered. The delay was unusually long, but nonetheless she returned, “No… What is it?” Charlotte smirked drunkenly. “I’ve never done that either, but they say when you sleep, if you’re very lucky, you can dream.” She slowly faded into her drowsy snores. Morgen’s eyes were lit for the first time. In a clever maneuver, she launched a shake that woke Charlotte up for a split second, almost sending her flying. She asked for more. “What does a dream do to you? Does it give good sleeps?”

Charlotte began hammering down on Morgen’s back childishly. “Don’t do that. It hurts, you know that?” The girl resumed. “It shows you pictures, memories, perhaps, like a good performance, a theater of our own mind. I don’t know.” Grievingly, she stopped and panted, eyes closed. “Memories… I wish our times would last just a little longer.”

“I wished.” Morgen’s voice was as sincere as she could. “I wished-”

“I don’t understand you at all… Why do you do something so careless as to not tell others what you’re feeling? The pain, the fright others might have…” She murmured.

“My Morgenwyrm would not do that…” Loud snores came roaring back, then a sound sleep.

The quietness eerily crawled back. Morgen only ran further without elaborating. Her absence felt enough for her, to leave the conversation untethered and washed by the same West wind she was riding.

“The darkness… When will it ever end? I wonder.” The thought sounded louder than any words Morgen could utter on her own.

…

“Hilderia woodside, we have reached you!” Proclaimed Morgen in a thundering manner. She stared at her back. The poor Charlotte was still snoozing with a radiant smile, unbeknownst to her for so long. “I thought you were awake. I guess this dream thing is something of worth, after all.” She upended aggressively, sending her into the air. The girl’s eyes swung open faster than water could flow. “Huh!” As she was crying loudly, her palms held her body and stamped into the ground with inhuman strength in an upside-down stance. “So aggressive, Morgenwyrm the ‘kind-hearted’.” She fell to the ground gracefully. The dust she clapped away wallowed in the small breeze, flying off into the yonder.

She looked around. The greenery here was much fresher than the ones in the north, where the presence of Mount Marble seemed to influence them in some way. The ground was softer, wetter, and the cries of birds afar could echo around the area almost aimlessly, combining into a resonance.

“An acquired taste, huh, these chirps and caws?” She jokingly opened as she stared at the terrain beyond them. She could hear water, showering like a waterfall. “Most certainly. I’ve been here often. Aefen was a very picky eater, especially when it comes to berries.” Charlotte’s inquiring eyes surged.

“Can you hear it? Is it the river’s doing?”

“Of course we could hear it. It’s because we’re beside the river.” She picked up her paw and pushed Charlotte. She almost fell, shrieking. “There's water.” She pointed. Below them was a coarse crash of water which glided down from the wider river into a narrow passage of waterway. The steep elevation provided safety against sprinkling water droplets here and there. Slowly she sat and observed the river’s flow, a seamlessly motionless body, with light sparkling and reflecting into her eyes. The cold night’s wind continued to make its way to her, although the presence of the West wind was missing.

“An outlook on life, short as it may be.” Morgen lay down beside her while the girl patted her softly. “Outlook?” She lowered down to meet the beast’s eyes. “Definitely. You are young. To learn is to grow. I am fragile, I am frail. Things that should be easy aren’t what it looks like anymore.” She chortled, ironic in her tone.

“You are strong! Otherwise, you wouldn’t carry me for hours to this place.”

“I hoped I was lying.” She beamed, coughing sporadically. With the help of the medicine she drank, the coughs were much tamer.

Suddenly Charlotte faced away, an inkling of doubt in her mind. Morgen could physically feel the girl moving away from her, even as her face was not in her line of sight. “What is it? You seemed troubled.”

“I want to say something.”

“You can. Go ahead.”

“It’s about you.”

“Yes? Go on.”

“I… I don’t know what to say about you anymore, about why you won’t tell him. It’s hard, I know, but shouldn’t he at least grasp what is going on?” The patting continued, although in a rather nerve-racking way. The rhythm was off, slow when she talked, and extremely fast as she was wrapping up the sentence. “Ah. That one.” Her voice was dry. In a polite manner, she began to clear her throat.

“Do you find it interesting, how I came here in the first place without telling him much?” Charlotte quietly waited while Morgen stared listlessly at the water, whooshing and tackling at each other to make way for itself. “My Aefen, he’s a rattling, proud one. What he’s not open about, is that he’s very trigger-happy about me, a level that you couldn’t comprehend from his normal self.”

Charlotte turned, a tiny stick between her two fingers and a doodle on the floor .“But at least you could have told him, no?” Morgen stepped in abruptly.

“Even with a dry stick of information about me would drive him amiss. I hated having to use a stronger voice to get him to do something these days. Even now, I’m wondering if he was following me this whole time.” She paused to rethink, sorriness in her eyes, and sighed.

“Right… I was wondering if someone would tell him instead. Maybe you, maybe some critters you could entrust that with; I don’t know.”

“You’ll tell him. I’ll make sure of it.”

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“What are you implying? Not one of your sly tricks again, now.” She chortled.

“Oh no it’s not. It’s one of those ‘When you retire, you can suit yourself however you wish.’, that sort of thing. I don’t know how to appropriately call it.”

“Retire? Me?”

“Yes. After dropping me off at Orregenia after we return from our adventure, you’ll retire, officially by me. Then, you’ll fetch him and retire at that place you talked about, the South. I heard it’s quieter there, and the grass and berries are sweeter too.” Charlotte stood up. “Is that a good deal? I’m tired of having to see you hustle up for me for so long…”

The two approached to hug. It wasn’t as tear-jerking as ones before, but more of a professional sincerity and emotions later. “Thank you.” The words were very concise. “But wouldn’t he stray off somehow? I’m not sure, given his situation.”

“He wouldn’t leave his pose. It was I who made sure you told him, aren't I? Five times should do just fine.” She laughed it off. “Right. How wouldn’t believe in the great Charlotte-ton, the second wisest in this world?” Charlotte playfully bounced. “That nickname again! Come on.”

“What about you? Without me, how would you proceed in the future?” Charlotte laughed almost maniacally. “You think of me too?”

“Of course I do, and a little bit of curiosity. That’s all.” Almost suddenly, her poise turned into a wistful one. The swift change from fun to work was almost too harsh. “I’ll find a way. Surely there’s some folks that would help me. The squirrels, perhaps?” She said as the winds carried brushed her hair away, almost as if it was concealing her expression. The sunshine of childish face got washed away, and the voice eventually dulled out at the tip of the word.

“I’ve thought about it a lot over the days, and now I realize that things would be harder without you, much harder. It’s conflicting, to be honest. Well, the future's problem is for the future, right?” Her fingers danced around the back of her own hair, and in seconds, the knots and braids were back in shape, toppled with the same gleeful smile. “That magic, it's been a while since I've done that.” She hummed the same tune as back then again. “Morgenwyrm… Unfurl… Grace… Churning… Dreams…” They sat like that for a while, yawning and singing, the stars glimmering above them.

…

“That was a fun session. Now, where were we again?” She tried to reach her back to get her satchel. It was wide open. Scrambling to recount her tools in the kit, she dropped a note. “I didn’t close it properly from that time. Such a fool. What fell off… Now, now.” Sweat ran down her face.

“We’re nearing Hilderia cliff. A quick run should let us pass through it, approaching Skiafal landing. And of course, I did open your bag.” Charlotte stared her in the eyes angrily. “Why didn’t you tell me!?”

“You were asleep. I only need to know about where we’re heading. Besides, it was just minutes before I woke you. Nothing should be missing.” The beast tossed the note on the ground to a flat plate of rock. “I read from this one.”

Swiftly, the note was snatched from its place, so quickly that even Morgen failed to notice who took it. It was Charlotte, her face unpleasant. “Don’t pry into others’ stuff like this. Proprietary, very much so.” Charlotte wiped off the dirt on the corner of the page. As she was putting it back, Morgen exclaimed with passion. “Page seventeen!” Charlotte froze. “Hmm?”

“Seventeen. What are you looking for?”

“Elaborate.”

“You wrote all these places of the region, and then you drew a line with a piece of graphite. I wasn’t sure when I looked, but judging from where we are, I’m guessing that you’re following the West Wind itself, not partially, but at every turn, every twist it has. Or rather…” Charlotte gripped as if bracing.

“Or rather, what the wind carries.”

“What made you think of that?”

“The stardust. The instructions were awfully specific, even by your standards.”

“Fine.”

They laid out the note in front of them. Then, Morgen began pointing. “Here, at page seventeen, you wrote about the locations, and interestingly it seemed to follow the exact trajectory of the West wind. At first, I thought it was coincidental.” She flipped a page. “Here, on page eighteen, you mentioned something. I couldn’t picture exactly what you were sketching, but it was very neat.”

“Thank you. Next time, no poking around. I said it.”

“I promise, although one thing tickles my mind, if I may address.”

“Sure. I guess it doesn’t really matter much to hide it like that.”

“I was asking about what we’re looking for. This time around, you make it very secretive. Something is going on, with the flakes that fell from Mount Marble.” She kept insisting. “Is it about the stuff you sketch? At least tell me something.”

“Right.” She neatly closed the note, arranging the mess in her note so that nothing would be folded in the note. “We’re looking for a fog. No. The fog.” Morgen’s eyes glowed. “The fog?” She paused for a dramatic effect. “What fog, exactly?”

Charlotte almost collapsed. “Why do you do that? I thought you knew by now. Guess. It’s not that hard.” The two stood back up again. “Here.” She pointed at the same drawing. “The fog? There was mist this morning around Orregenia outskirts last time I went there, but nothing that you can call a fog.”

Charlotte slapped her forehead. “Again. Look at the layer, its contours, its thickness.” The beast pondered. In a flash, a thought came up. “I know now! The fog-”

“Shh! You’ll wake the rest of the forest with that amount of shouting!” She eased her tone and walked to cool herself down, a cloth-wrapped graphite rod between the crevice of her ear.

“The fog of Dream?” Morgen carefully whispered.

“Yes. Rightfully so.” The two shook at the mere mention of it. “The omen you talked about that day. I knew something was up, but not at this level.”

“I know, right!? When I first knew of it, I couldn’t believe it at first. Well, it came.” Charlotte quickly sealed her sachet shut, double-checking its tightness. “Well, we know our target. While I slept, the fog should be long gone from here. Let’s make sure we catch it before it goes away. Treasure hunt time!”

“Where? You sure are fast with your emotions.”

“You know where we’re going.”

“Skiafal landing?”

She toyed with her hair sheepishly. “Not exactly… Yes. Yes, we're going there. Where else would the West Wind bring it to? Does that fulfill something in you?” They both laughed. “Here. One good joke to amp this up.” Morgen counghingly raised her paw with excitement. “Tell me. It better not be one of those bad jokes you tossed around.” Charlotte smiled while patting Morgen's back. “Easy now. Don't rush it.”

“Right… Where was I?” Morgen scratched her head. At a glance, the smile on Charlotte's face dropped at the sentence, though she remained still. “It was in here. I swear it was right there.” Morgen's clueless face was almost charming, a pair of curious eyes and a bedazzled face. “Is it about the fog, or was it about the water that I was doing?”

Charlotte was unconvinced. The situation began to feel uneasy for her.“Come now. You were just going to speak seconds ago, weren't you?” She began patting more strongly than before. Her eyes swung around. “Yes. Maybe, is it because you interrupted me?”

“Where was that Morgen that pointed out the exact page in my note minutes earlier, that sharp-minded beast?” The tempo of her patting continued to rise, to the point where even Morgen had to turn back to look in confusion. “Oh, sorry. Old habits.” She changed the topic. “What about the joke? Remember anything?” Morgen eased. “Ah, forget it. It was just a single bit I thought of. Maybe it wasn't even funny.” Charlotte acutely raised her voice. “The joke. No idea at all what it's about? Just remotely would do me wonders.”

“I don't remember. Sorry, my dear. Do you want me to make a bit that much? I'll figure one out. In the meantime, we can talk and walk, right?” She nudged the girl by the side, careful not to push her too hard. The pause went on for seconds.

“Yes… My ride. Our treasure hunt.” She climbed slowly. “Let's make it! To Skiafal Landing.” Morgen pridefully announced as she lifted her front legs like a horse and dashed ahead.

…

No. How is that possible? Troubling thoughts still remained on a certain face, clinging onto a side pocket on her sachet that held the greenish potion. Morgen's galloping had become more pronounced, a clear sign of joy. Charlotte continued to stare intently ahead. “Running faster, huh, you reckless go-getter? Don't trip yourself along the way.” She caressed Morgen's mane. The fog, as of now, had become the lesser of the two worrisome matters.