Ursus took a step forward...

and stopped immediately when the humans started screaming - adults and children alike, their voices echoing outwards, filled with fear. Strangely, the radiated more fear now in Ursus' presence than they did in the presence of their slavers. Then again, she mused, the little one was far more dangerous and far more deserving of their fear than those pesky humans. Confused, the little one simply stood in place and looked over the quivering humans with a curious gaze. He wasn't going to kill them; she knew him well enough for that. Still, he could if he really wanted to. A single tug of his mind would be all it takes to rip apart the hapless humans before him.

The little one, however, was completely oblivious to the fear of the humans before him. He did just save them from a gruesome fate and now he was probably at a loss as to what he could do. Well, if it was up to her, she'd probably just leave them alone and walk away, but it was not up to her and that's why things were interesting - up to a certain point. Ursus took another step forward and tilted his head when the screams intensified.

It was a shame, really; the little one was just barely awake. His eyes lay at the crux of truly opening, but he was not quite there yet. Nyx had never really met an infant before, looking back; she'd seen plenty of them, asleeping and dreaming up their own multiverses, but she'd never met one. Ursus was a special case then - a waking dreamer. He couldn't quite reshape and alter the dream as he should be capable of, but such control came in due time; the little one was still limited by his origins within the dream itself, anchoring his mind and casting arbitrary limits that only he would someday break. When that happens, she'll come back to guide him, before an idiot from her side of the family comes and teaches him weird stuff.

If someone like Kathoolu came and mentored him, Ursus might gain a weird fetish for tentacles, slimy things, and eyes on the walls.

A cold silence washed over the humans as Ursus walked over towards their young, who were bundled and tied together separate from the rest. And then the screams resumed; this time, however, the adult humans were standing and shouting at Ursus in a petty attempt to distract him from whatever it was he was planning to do. The little one ignored them, of course; they were harmless and bound and were practically just waiting for their deaths, until Ursus came and killed their captors.

The little one raised one of his massive paws, claws outstretched, before bringing it down towards the children of the humans. The tips of his claws, sharpened beyond any natural means, sliced through the rope that mound them. The children scurried and ran towards the adults. Ursus moved towards them as well; this time, however, there wasn't nearly as much screaming. One of the humans - a female - stood up extended both her arms, bound at the wrists, forward towards Ursus.

Have fun with the humans, little one...

Losing interest in the scene, Nyx willed herself through time and space, and immediately found herself standing atop the edges of a familiar well. She glanced down at the bubbling, churning mass of colors and frowned. Her future self was still there, chattering away with one of her kin. She had sent an echo of herself forwards in time to speak with another errant sibling, one whom she had no idea was even here, until she sensed his presence. And so Nyx listened on as her future self continued its conversation with Resheph.

Nyx was rather proud of her ability to manipulate the flows and currents of the concept of time to this degree. Most of her kin, the lot who bothered with dreams and realities anyway, held varying degrees of proficiency over controlling and shaping an aspect of specific reality. Each one, of course, had different laws and aspects, which made learning them a chore and so there were also others who went in without knowing how anything worked and prompty made a mess of the dream and its inhabitants. However, there was one aspect of every dream that stayed the same - no matter what.

And that aspect was time - the constant, unseen, and untouchable flow that enabled all motion in any reality. Of course, it didn't exist in her home, but every dream had it. Every dream was affected by it; sure, the dreamer could remove the aspect of time from their dream, but that would just make everything way too stale - the dream wouldn't move without time, without the constant flow, without the source of all motion.

And so Nyx had taken it upon herself to master time.

After all, why should she humble herself to joining the flow of time when she could simply step out of it and orchestrate?

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It was so much more fun that way.

Only a few of her kin ever bothered with the concept, whilst others flailed around in their attempts at controlling it.

Nyx glanced down at herself and waited for her conversation with Resheph to finish. When it did, she stepped out. Hey

Her future self turned. Hey

Resheph groaned. I hate it when you mess with time, Nyx; it hurts my brain when I try to understand how you do it.

Nyx shrugged. Don't leave yet, there's someone I want you to meet.

She turned towards her other self. Huh, your fur's dirtier than mine.

The other Nyx shrugged. Resheph's living conditions were less than stellar and some of his dirt got onto my fur.

Nyx tilted her head as she turned towards Resheph. Anyway, don't leave yet - there's someone I'd like you to meet. He's... one of us, but still an infant - don't ask how or why, because I don't know either.

Resheph bubbled and churned, colors melting and moulding into other shapes. He was surprised - Nyx could see as much. Of course, infants were almost always a big deal for everyone. Like an actual infant - here? Is it the dreamer?

Nyx shook her head. Truth be told, she had pondered on the very same question for a while now and hadn't arrived at any conclusion. Ursus was too young to be the dreamer of this dream. Sure, the flow of time meant little to her kind, but it did matter somewhat - at least, with regards to the dreams themselves. The little one was simply far too early in his development to have conjured his own dream, but then infants weren't usually born within dreams, which made the whole thing way too complicated. Then again, he could simply be the avatar of a very passive dreamer, who only very recently chose to awaken, but there was no way of knowing for sure. I honestly don't know and neither does he, but I'd like you both to meet, anyway.

Resheph shrugged. Sure, I'm not exactly in a hurry.

Her other self turned to look at her. Should we merge now? The timeline might just crack if we stay apart for too long.

----------------------------------------

The humans were afraid of me - I guess, I could understand why. After all, in another time, I might've considered the lot of them to be simple food, easy prey. Now, however, I hardly saw any nutritious value in them; it'd be like eating ice - sure, I could feel it in my mouth as I chewed and swallowed, but I'd ultimately gain nothing from them, no matter how many of their kind I ate. And so there was really no point in hunting down this particular group of humans, at least. There were still those among them who held the sweetness in their blood. They would make for better food.

One of the humans stood up - a female - and held out her bound hands towards me. 'Ah, this one's smarter than the rest of its kin.'

With a lazy swipe with my right paw, I sliced apart the strange material that held her hands together. Her eyes widened as she looked towards me. The human female, though standing on both her legs, was quite shorter than me - standing just barely below my nose. To think that such a weak and feeble creature would have the gall to actually stand before me, without quivering in fear was astonishing. Oh, she was afraid - I could smell it off of her - but the fact that she had the strength, at all, to actually stand up was refreshing.

The human woman muttered something under her breath and lowered her head. Was there something interesting on the ground? I glanced downwards and found... nothing out of the ordinary. 'Huh, humans are weird.'

She muttered something again, but I wasn't listening to her anymore. Their young were free, alongside a single adult; that should be enough for their bloodline to survive - I thought.

I turned and walked out of the human habitation, out of the walls. Nyx had disappeared again, but she always found her way back, so I wasn't worried. I glanced over my shoulder and found the human female had picked up one a shiny metal thing from one of the corpses I'd left on the ground. With it, she was able to cut through the binds that held the other humans in place. 'Smart....'

And, to my confusion, they all looked towards me, before lowering their heads at the ground again. 'What's so interesting on the ground, anyway?'

I glanced down too, but found nothing unusual, save for the corpses and the blood. Oh, is that what they were looking at? Oh well, they must've found it interesting, I suppose; humans were weird creatures and I wasn't about to pretend I understood everything about them. With that, I turned around and walked right back into the woods. Nyx mentioned something about someone wanting to meet me and I was rather curious about that. Nyx and I were... related... somehow. So, whoever this was, was probably also related to both of us, which didn't make any sense to me, but then I could do a lot of things that defied the things that made sense, so I wasn't about to question any of it.

I paused when I heard rushing footsteps echoing behind me. When I turned, I saw one of the human children - a male, I think - running towards me, holding a strange thing in his tiny hands. He stopped in front of me, caught his breath, and held out the object. It was a wooden... thing that was shaped like a bear cub; there were symbols all around it, but I couldn't recognize any of them. The human child lowered his head onto the ground and fell to his knees, but kept his arms outstretched.

Was he tired?

Was he giving me this... thing?

Okay... weirdo

I tugged on the tiny object with my mind and grabbed it, before turning away from the tiny human. It was a curious little thing that... didn't make any sense to me. Still, I kept it and placed it on my back, where Nyx usually sat on so that it doesn't just fall off. The tiny human yelled something as I left, but I wasn't listening to whatever he said.

Now, where's Nyx?