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They had a few more moments of happy, huggy mushy stuff before Shou's stomach growled with a vengeance as a reminder that they'd missed lunch and might miss dinner if they didn't get to cooking soon. The freshly poached stag Kalokin had dragged in smelled of fresh meat, and Kesh had plenty of surplus magic to cook with. He wasn't in a mood to bloat himself though, so after he'd cooked up a hearty steak for Shou, he gave the wolf a rudimentary lesson in field-butchering a deer. It essentially boiled down to "Cut out the parts you want, or cut out the parts you don't want." They traded campfire stories, some legends, some history, while Kalokin played idly with illusions to accompany them. Kesh was half tempted to leave his work half done after making more than a meal out of Kalo's kill, but to do so would dishonor the deer's sacrifice. Food wasn't wasted in the deserts. Either you ate it yourself, or you found a neighbor to help.

By the time he'd stuffed the meat and muscle into his stomach, Shou had managed to dig a decently sized hole to bury the remains. Offal disposed of and blood magicked away by Kalokin, it was late enough in the day that they could justify piling into the back of the SUV to go to sleep.

And yet... when night fell, Kalokin felt his tail twinge with discomfort. An afternoon of storytelling had done a good deal to wipe away his sorrow, but he didn't want to be alone, not now, not for the long night ahead. Sure, he could find his siblings and see what entertainment was on this night's menu, but he had a different idea, one he'd been wanting to try all afternoon. The serpent and the hound were both starting to drift off to sleep when he gave the latter a small mental nudge.

Shou... can I join you in your dreams? I don't want to be alone... not quite yet.

Kalokin's question had her ears perking, then splaying as she smiled a little once more. She nudged him right back, making a clumsy first flex with her now-borderless mind. Of course you can, Kalo.

With the back seats folded forwards, they actually had a decent amount of room to sprawl out. It wasn't nearly as comfortable as Khaesho's favorite sand pit back in the deserts, but with Shou in his arms, it was comfortable enough. He sleepily reshuffled his coils around her and gave her a small lick on the cheek.

"G'night Shou. G'night Kalokin."

Shou nestled against Khaesho, pleased to share her warmth and share his in return. The comfort was much needed after the afternoon's trial. She slowly began to relax, stealing a lick along his chin as her mind started to drift... and as she drifted, she almost thought she felt a little ray of blue sunshine following her.

Sleep pulled the exhausted girl into it's embrace quickly once she began to slide under. She didn't dream, not at first, but the feeling of deep, dark peace mortals found in their sleep was exactly the kind of peace he needed just then. He relaxed, letting his grip on reality slip, until quite suddenly he realized that Nikolak was shaking him by the tail.

Oh! Nikki, sorry. It's just so peaceful in a mortal's subconscious, I must've-

Nevermind that, Kalo. The fact that you didn't notice is a testament to how tired you are.

He sprawled out, stretching his two-dimensional body as far as he could in the depths of Shou's mind. His reply failed to surface, so Nikolak haltingly spoke the words she knew were on his mind.

It's getting harder to control, isn't it? Ever since I claimed Shouyousei as my vessel, I've felt you slipping, like it takes more and more of your focus to stay in tune with me.

He shrugged, a ghostly ripple that traveled down his form. You know why. We have different vessels. Sure they're madly in love, but they're still different people. When you didn't have a vessel, it wasn't a problem, but now, we're both acclimating to different people, and that makes it harder for us to synchronize.

She quivered slightly in anxiety. Hearing him state it so plainly somehow sounded worse than it had in her head. What can we do? You know how it gets, how maddening the noise is. I could never bear it, and if you're unable to enshroud me-

I know what would happen, Fear.

Then what can we do?

Silence preluded his response, a lack of noise more complex than the simple words that followed. I don't know.

Nikolak paled slightly at that revelation, but ventured one further question. How long?

It depends. Judging by how fast we're separating, two weeks. Three, tops. Worst case scenario, we call the other three and the split my soul from Khaesho's. Then, I should be able to protect you again.

Her whole form trembled in a mixture of fear and rage. How can you even suggest such a thing! We... there has to be some other way! Khaesho is the best thing to happen to you since Rikh Ghanyr, and you deserve to be happy as much as I do!

He turned then to look her dead in the eye, and she remembered exactly what she was talking to at his next words. Remind me, Fear, when I've ever felt happy?

She didn't have that answer. As far as she knew, he never had. Never felt anything, except for a deep seated need to help her. Softly, she pushed a few thoughts before reaching to pull him around her. We'll think of something, my dearest...

Shou's mind no longer seemed peaceful with their troubled souls inhabiting it. Neither had any ideas, and when they became whole again, Kalokin still worried at what the future might hold. Perhaps some of that bled over into Shouyousei, or perhaps she was destined to dream of darkness and fear but the scene that built itself around the Naga was -not- one of peace.

It was an unfamiliar place to Kalokin, but Shou knew it well. A theatre, the theatre where she had her debut. There was much rushing backstage, colors were muted but for a few, and the curtains blocked the sight of the auditorium, but there were so many people. A great crowd clearly waited on the other side of the curtain and the muffled sounds reached the back, muddled though they were. Shou was staring in a mirror, nearly hyperventilating as she looked at herself in the crimson and orange garment. Kalokin had a sharp memory, and he recognized it instantly; it was the firebird costume she had shown to Shelandra, one of the few things from her previous life that she'd deemed important enough to keep. He knew that garment down to the atom, and he was ecstatic at the chance to see Shou perform in it. Her anxiety, he dismissed as stage nerves; Khaesho had infrequent panic dreams about some of his assessment days, he figured this was more of the same.

Her feet were wrapped in strange shoes, toes pinched uncomfortably together, laces up her legs in a brilliant yellow. She looked several years younger, not yet grown into the curved and well-muscled form they knew. Her eyes closed and she was breathing carefully, trying in vain to calm herself. A knock at her door caused her to lurch in surprise, such that she almost missed the indecipherable words that followed. Heart racing even in her body, in the real world, she stood and made her way to open it, determined.

The wolf in the dream was worried to grey fur about a performance that could mean the life or death of her career. She opened the door cautiously, only to be greeted with an empty hallway. She poked her head out, confused, but nothing was there. A breeze wafted by, thick with the scent of cotton candy, and a thin weight settled around her wrist. Looking closer, she saw a thin metal wristband, the exact same color of her fur. It was a Serpent committing Ouroboros, nibbling on its own tail. Beautifully crafted, she could count the scales in the skin, and she gasped in surprise when it one eye glowed briefly as it turned to regard her for a moment. The eye closed, and then it was absolutely still, just a metal band around her wrist.

Staring at the bracelet around her wrist, she considered it. She didn't quite remember what it was, or why she wore it, but stroking it brought her a level of peace... until a moment of panic spiked through her. The performance! She picked up her pace and started for the stage entrance. Vague forms moved in the shadows, stage-hands, she told herself. Never mind that some of them looked ever so slightly the wrong shape, they would do their job if she did hers. She did her best to put them out of mind as she moved to her place in center stage, knelt and waited. Heart, thundering in her chest, she tilted her head down and closed her eyes. The plumed headdress weighed her neck as she moved, a distraction she'd practiced with countless times, but one she'd need to take care to remember as her show began. Crimson feathers matched a crimson dress; she was every bit the firebird the show promised.

It was such a beautiful, but stark contrast to the almost colorless set around her. The curtains opened, stage lights all but blinding her sight of the audience and the music began. It was classical, the violins singing into the air as she moved up suddenly, and began to dance. Steps were taken, twisted, and she disguised her glance for the partner she knew would perform this pas de deux with her.

Time passed and the music continued, but she remained on-stage alone. Pre-show nerves grew to real worry, then almost crippling panic as she remained alone. It was a nightmare she had often, usually just before a performance; The first show of her career, her partner would be missing, and she was left standing alone, looking like a fool. He was late already, and her cheeks were already turning crimson at the thought of being laughed at again. They always laughed as she tried to dance alone through moves designed for partners. Not only that, but the audience... something was different about them, and their eyes glowed with hungry glares. Something was wrong with them, especially the solitary figure in box five. A spare glance towards the best seat in the house turned her blood to ice in her veins. He saw her and smiled. Not a kind smile, nor a comforting one, but the smile of a hunter who had cornered his prey. Words echoed through her subconscious, half memory and half the creation of a nightmare.

You can't run from your past.

You can't run from yourself.

You'll come back. They always do.

The fear bubbled up in her gut, he wasn't there, her partner was gone, missing, vanished. She felt heat suffuse her cheeks as she felt a thread of panic worm it's way into her chest, threatening to rise to constrict her heart until she felt something very different constricting her wrist as Nikolak's voice floated through her mind.

Kneel.

She finished one turn with a flourish, sinking to her knees with grace as if she'd planned it all along. The lights dimmed, not to black, but to a twilight darkness that rendered her barely more than a silhouette. The metal band glowed with black light and twisted around her hand, growing as it did. From the audience's point of view, a silhouette spiraled from her wrist, piling into the form of a Naga made from smoke and shadows. The ephemeral form coalesced into a form Shou recognized. Not Kalokin, but Fear lay before her, dipping her head in a stately bow. Something looked odd about her, which she couldn't quite place until she spread her arms and Shou saw the feathers. She was coated head to tail in inky black plumage, and his arms looked almost like wings. Dull red light glowed from her skin, outlining her feathers like the cracks revealing the red-hot heart of cooling black coal. A Feathered Serpent wasn't exactly in the program... but if she could pull off something at least half convincing, she could cover for her partner's absence and spare herself the embarrassment. If the audience got a show, any show, maybe it would be enough. Shou's lips were locked steady as she rose, not a frown, not a smile, but a look of utter concentration, as she stood, bowed, and squared against the snake before her.

This was not how The Firebird went. She knew it had deviated, it had never deviated before. There was the humiliation, and then damning questions of the reporters, and she woke up in an adrenaline panic as her dreams crumbled into ashes, but this was different. It was very different as the twilight sprawled around her. Blue eyes had left shadowy forms of the audience, and were all for the ephemeral form before her. Her breath caught and her eyes widened slightly at the sight of Fear. Feathers, she had feathers. Not something she had seen, but it was handsome all the same. Her artist mind already imagining what those feathers would look like dappled with the night's stars.

Onto her toes she went, and reached for his hand, without his support she could not continue her dance. Her voice was too low to be heard over the music, and she spoke to Fear as if she were an old friend, a favored dance partner.

"Support me as much as you can... soft, sweeping movements of your arms. Twist when I move around you... We need only a few moments, a few moments to cover... a few moments before the curtain falls..."

She could count the seconds in her head, there was only two minutes until the curtain would lower and end the scene. If they could manage for just that long.

He took her hand in his and kissed it, spurning a pretty blush of surprise to her face, before he placed his hands on her waist; a waist that she abruptly noticed was now covered in scales. The costume grew tighter, until the feathers melded with her flesh, and her legs weren't responding. As she bent to move, her body lengthened behind her, twisting after her path until she too bore a serpent's coils. Like Fear, she was adorned with plumage, hers a bright fire contrasting Fear's subtle coals. She felt the air tug at feathers that now felt quite real, a feeling that almost distracted her until Fear spoke in return.

"Relax... follow what feels natural. Your soul knows this dance. I'm all you have to fear, and I'm here at your side."

The sight and feel of feathers and scales had her breath catching in her throat, eyes widened once again when she realized that the soft sensations were hers. No longer a wolf, but a feathered serpent, she almost panicked as she tried to move legs that no longer existed. She almost collapsed into a puddle of tears, but Fear held her up, twisting with her suddenly limp partner by tugging against her weight. Shou looked up at her, and for a moment, nothing else mattered. Nikolak was with her, and that would be enough

It felt right, somehow. Perhaps because it was a dream, and it had deviated enough from the norm that it would be a welcome change? She could only speculate. But her form brushed against his, and she moved with slow deliberate movements. At least until she allowed her shoulders to relax, and flow with the natural feelings she could discern. As she realized that flexing her coils felt as natural as dancing ever had, she finally gathered her breath to ask the question weighing on her mind.

"W-what... is this..?"

She didn't answer, just smiled as she led her through an odd sort of dance. Their bodies brushed as they slid, crossed at multiple points until the only way to tell their flesh apart was by the color of their feathers. Shou found that Nikolak's smile was quite becoming for her, and she found herself surprised. This was Fear, and she was smiling. More than that, she was dancing with her. Whatever she was now, a feathered serpent or a girl, she was dancing with a nightmare and they both were having a good time.

They were not tangled, but one wrong move would have rendered them in a knot on the floor. They did not err though, they simply slid in soft spirals and jagged crosses, around, over, beneath one another. The dance ended after a short time, with her chest directly atop his as he lowered his back to the ground. He smiled warmly even as the curtain began to fall on a moderately vigorous applause. The moment the curtain was down though, he was gone. She was a wolf in a bright red feathered costume, kneeling alone on the stage and holding tight to a black bracelet.

She had opened her mouth to say something, but the moment vanished as the curtain came down and he was gone. Eyes widened, panicked as she looked around for him. Then her attention was caught by the black bracelet. Picking it up, she moved to stand.

"What a curious thing..."

The dream faded as Shou stepped towards backstage, sliding deeper back into darksleep. Kalokin smiled as Fear did the same, slithering towards him and out of the shadow she'd vanished to. You could be happy here, in her dreams, even without me, if you needed to.

It was a thought they both shared, but the difference between a choice and a necessity was often what made one preferable. Nikolak had started to say as much before she was abruptly aware of the feeling of ice on her back. Turning in a rush, she caught glimpse of something with black eyes masked in shadows as three words slithered through the air.

She is mine.

Who are you?

By the time she formed the question, he was gone, nothing more than a phantom in the in the mist shrouded corner of a theater that was already dissolving into the nothingness of Shou's subconscious.

Nikolak, I'm over here you know.

No, Kalokin, didn't you see? There was someone there...

He shrugged nonchalantly as he was wont to do. _Look around. I feel three souls, mine, yours, and Shou's, with Khaesho next door. Whoever you saw, it must have been a projection of her dream._She wasn't sure she accepted that answer, but she didn't dispute it and the two slid back together before leaving their dark haven to face the coming day.

Deep beneath the darkness, buried beneath the weight of Nikolak's soul, he watched them leave, whispering the words to himself as he did.

She is mine.