Blackwater was really beginning to feel the strain of his cursed eye. In the past it had been an occasional nuisance--a niggling low-grade headache here, a restlessness against sleep there--but now it was beginning to grow into a real problem. He had never been quite so strong like his father or his other siblings, and he lied to himself about it often by saying it didn't bother him. Being delicate was fine. Also, the sun wasn't that hot in the summer and rabbits could fly.
Dark circles were beginning to grow under his eyes, almost an extension of his pelt's markings. At least, that's what he hoped they looked like. Blackwater often fell into himself even when with family, and in the middle of the night? It was like a layered abyss he kept finding new depths in. This night, with a full moon overhead, he wandered. Maybe for the better: this week he had been featured in a number of nightmares he'd rather not revisit. Not in the dream world at least.
The Redwoods were dying. No-one knew why yet, but it was clear that it was. In his nightmares he felt himself decaying with them, flesh sloughing off the bone like trees shed leaves. But if he sat there and looked right at them in the moonlight, alive and well, maybe he could put the irrational anxiety to rest--and then he could quickly follow suit. Blackwater had always been afraid of toeing past the watch points, but he couldn't keep staying afraid, right? And Mom hadn't let him so much as drink without being there to make sure he didn't choke.
If nothing else, the pup knew how to be quiet and sneaky. He wanted to be an assassin like his dad--that was the only way to make them proud, right?--and those were two necessary skills. It was still spooky, though, being out there alone in the mostly-dark. In the distance he heard something hooting. Blackwater Raptor shivered as he approached a particular tree, one that looked all but hollowed out at this point. An large knob gaped at him like a silent, screaming mouth where a branch had been.
He hesitated before he spoke in a soft voice. "Leave me alone, okay? Please. They're my dreams, not yours."
