Chioniphobia

Dream

Before...

Before, with a capital B. That's what we call it. Before the Man in the Moon split the world in two. Before there was something that wasn't scars on my back. Before he chose you to be a Guardian.

-The- Guardian. The first.

Do you remember Before?

I remember.

We were all drifters, back then.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

He had no name. None of them did.

He was small, compared to most of the others. His enemy, his opposite, was tall and dark and sharp, contrasting his golden glow and soft features.

He passed by a tiny cave, and paused, and looked back. There was something in there, something dark and sharp. Whether it was tall he could not tell, for it was scrunched up in the shadows. He drew closer.

The thing pulled away, huddling into itself. He caught a glimpse of black feathers shrinking behind it.

His enemy had no wings.

He reached out a hand. The thing shrank away, and he moved toward it again, hand still outstretched.

Its eyes were white lights in dark caverns. Twin slits glowing strangely, peering up at him, for although he was small, he floated above it, this dark and sharp and scrunched-up thing. He floated lower, drifted closer, and the lights grew wide and round.

Finally, it placed a hand in his; a bony, clawed hand, colored the same as the shadows around it. It curled its fingers so that its hand fit in his own, small and soft and golden cradling long and sharp and dark.

He made a series of gestures, first pointing to the creature, then to himself, then crooking his fingers and hooking them together, turning them, hooking them together again.

(You. Me. Friends?)

He held out a crooked finger and waited.

The creature looked up at him, crawling forward out of the shadows ever so slightly, and he saw that it was a she. She looked up at him with those wide white lights, lips slightly parted around small, pointed teeth.

Her teeth closed together in a grin, and she hooked her finger with his.

(Friends.)

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

I hadn't had any friends before you.

It never felt quite right, calling you just "friend." It seemed...inadequate, somehow.

I tried out other names for you.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Friend."

She tried the word in her mouth.

"Frieeend."

She ran her teeth over her lower lip.

"Frrrrrriend."

The word was fine, but the golden man was more than a friend. She had other friends now, like the shadow man. The shadow man was a friend. The golden man was a...

...a what?

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Father?"

She wondered if the word might fit, and so she tried it. The golden man turned around, but his face was confused.