Dusk wakes while he's sleeping.It's not a graceful wakeup, but it could not be called particularly abrupt either - his eyes close and then reopen, and he finds himself transported from the beach to the swamp, as seamless and easy as breathing, or blinking. Maybe it's why he doesn't find himself particularly alarmed, or worried, or any of the number of emotions that he would normally find himself having for something like this. Instead he just feels a vague sense of curiosity, and muted as it is Dusk decides to indulge it for once. So he stands and does what he does best - he watches the scene in front of him unfold.
He watches as others came to the obelisk, wondering about the carvings, which he too wonders about as he circles the large stone. It's strange he's never seen it before, as large as it is, but others in the area seem just as confused as he is and that gives him some measure of reassurance, and also pause. How had no one seen it before, and how did it just suddenly appear? There's no answer to his question, he knows, and it only leaves him feeling uneasy but he still stays. He is here as an observer, and he will not abandon his task before it's finished.
So he paces, he wanders, and he watches.
He watches as a red one traces a hoof against a marking and the carvings begin to glow, watches another headbutt it (and wonders for a moment if his daughter would do that, before the thought slips away), watches again as the glow dims. He is but a quiet guard in this whole show, an unseen guest, and he doesn't move any closer to touch the carvings as he weaves his way through the crowd. There is nothing for him to earn from touching them, he somehow knows, something instinctive that he knows to follow while he's here. There is progress made and then lost, and Dusk can't follow the half of it as he ponders the situation in front of him. But then progress is made and the glow begins and doesn't stop and it is beautiful and blinding and -
terrifying.
The moment is both eternal and a blink in time - he feels himself caught in the light and then gone from it at once and he is shocked, trembling as watches eleven points of light point out deeper into the swamp, beyond the clearing they're all caught in and beyond the trees and onwards to who knows where.
And then Dusk wakes up.
For a moment his sides heave as he breathes heavily, fear and unease shot through him, and he glances around but there is no threat to appease, no giant rock in a clearing that he's never seen before. No kin that, while he dreamed of, knows he will never remember their faces or names if he ever caught them, simply all blurred into a mass that remains of the dream. It is only him, and his small shelter in the trees, and the sunlight that is signaling the start of a new day. Only him, and the crash of the waves, and the feeling that whatever is to come, he is going to be involved somehow.
Later, when he can, he travels to the Obelisk, feet guided to a path he never knew before but can trace by heart now. He stands in the clearing, and stares, and stares, and stares.
The unease lingers on his way home.
WC: 594