Today the one unable to sleep was her oldest, always so entranced with the ephemeral.

"Mother, why do I forget my dreams as soon as I awaken?" The colt whined, somewhat impatiently. "I remember only that they were beautiful. But I wish I could remember more."

She could only smile and laugh, settling down into their bedding for the night. "Well, Beauty, that's the power of dreams. You see, every time we go to sleep, the Motherfather puts a little bit of magic into our minds- and we use that magic to create the world we see in our dreams."

This settled him down a little bit, but only enough to make him huff. "That's nice, but it's not what I asked, mom."

"Be patient, I was getting there," she chided. "The reason your dreams fade away when you wake up is because the Motherfather needs to use that little bit of magic in you in order to color the real world. Haven't you ever had the feeling that when something happens to you, you've seen it happen before in your dreams?"

"...Maybe once or twice?"

"See, that's what I mean," the doe clarified. "Every time we go to sleep, the Motherfather looks into our dreams, and they pick the most beautiful and most interesting parts of each one in order to create the world around us. They give one to us that we'll remember forever- that's our Name- and the rest, we're paying back to them."

"But then... what about when I do remember my dreams?" Asked the colt, innocently.

"Then those are the dreams you're responsible for yourself!" Merry chimed, a big smile on her face. "If it's a terrible nightmare, then it's your job to make sure it never comes true. If it's a wonderful dream, then you should work your hardest to make it into reality."

Beauty tilted his head. "Oh." He let out a big yawn, but shook his head. "...What kind of dreams have you tried to make reality?"

Merry laughed. "That's a story for another time. Come now, it's getting late- if I went into that, we'd be awake 'til sunrise. It's time to sleep."

Sky Full of Tears was a less needy fellow, hence less apt to bother his mother when he was bored; but he still sat patiently nearby on the days when he couldn't sleep. When Merry dramatically polled the audience of her children for requests, he rarely spoke up, head too far in the clouds to be paying much attention. But when she laid eyes on him and sincerely asked, his question was almost always the same- "Mother, why did you leave the desert?"

She hummed, thinking a moment.

[story for deadly about what happens when those good times go- perhaps after death?]

[story for land- possibly about finding yourself, probably direct continuation of fading's story. overall the theme is supposed to be a long series of stories to kind of go with the kid friendly(? less murdery) scheherazade theme merry has going here.]

[and finally a short little song for a lullaby in birdsong, at which point the kids are finally asleep lol]