Alone in the world. It wasn’t the most pleasant of feelings, but yet, here she was. The day was cold, a normal temperature for this part of Irithyll. Danu knew no better though. She would remain curled in a bowl, her little wings covering her body. She didn’t like it, but she didn’t know anyone around, not after leaving her parents and the small herd they had formed. She wanted to see the world of Irithyll! Not, settling in the same old routine that every other peryton was doing.
Joke was on her though. While they were all likely in a warmer spot, grazing happily, Danu was huddled in as tight of a ball her lithe body could form. “Hahaha.” She muttered to herself. “Go on an adventure. See how fun it actually is.” Fun, was not the word she would use. Never again in the situation at hand.
“Come on Danu,” she muttered quietly, feeling her teeth chatter. “You can’t stay here all night. You got to move.” And so she did.
Placing one for before the other, Danu felt herself lift from the hard ground. “Maybe head south. That might be warmer,” she said to herself, as small sigh escaping her maw as she did. Family was south. “You can go home.” She reminded herself, taking small steps as her joints awoke. “Yeah, but then you’d have to face them.” She countered.
The moon shone brightly above, illuminating the Irithyll landscape. The stars twinkled, just as some of the bioluminescent plants began to glow. The young peryton could not help but stop and admire the scene, a small bit of warmth growing from inside her body.
The plants reminded her of home.
“Maybe it would not be so bad to face them.” Danu reckoned, speaking with herself.
“I mean. It would just be awkward that first night, maybe first couple nights. It can’t be that bad. They can’t stay angry?” She asked, referring to her family. “Didn’t they do dumb things as a kid?”
“You seem lost child.” The voice whispered from the shadows.
Danu froze, glancing quickly to and fro, searching for the bearer of the voice.
“I what?” She asked out loud, eyes shifting. “Who’s there?” She called out.
The voice remained hidden, although the echos of the world around her seemed to grow, intensify, as the peryton tried to concentrate.
“Please don’t hide from me. Show yourself…!” Danu tried to make her voice confident, but it came out quiet, frail-like. “please.” She added afterwards.
The being materialized from her hidden spot amongst the warped trees of the Irithyll forest, presenting herself. She was dark in color, winglike markings upon her back. Around her neck, an orange crystal pulsed, shining and shimmering against the dark.
“You’re an…” Danu paused staring in awe at the ethereal before her.
“I am.” The ethereal smirked. “But, we are all creatures of Irithyll here. My kind is just as special as yours, as the wisps, and as the jackalopes that roam.” Ingary paused, thinking of more of the wildlife amongst the Irithyll lands. Perytons knew just as well as ethereals, she didn’t need to elaborate.
“But…My parents always told me you guys stayed more north. Ethereals haven’t crossed the herd in well… ever.” Danu explained.
Ingary gave a quizzical look towards the young peryton, occasionally quirking an eyebrow as she thought.
“I can’t say I can answer why, but the ethereal roam where they please. To the North, the Sound, beyond the veil and into the labyrinths. Maybe you are around those born under Mesmer, who will manipulate the shadows to remain hidden?” Ingary offered with a small shrug. “But, I digress on my kind. You speak of your parents’ herd, yet there are no peryton herds for miles. Why are you out on your own? Are you lost?”
Danu glanced at the ground towards her hooved feet. She kicked the dirt, looking anywhere but at the dark ethereal.
“So you are lost.”
“No.” Danu said quickly. “I’m not. I’m just…on a quest. A mission!” She tried to figure out where her mind was going with this, but she was failing miserably.
Ingary spotted it, but remained quiet.
“We have to go off on our own, and when we complete our mission, then we return home!” Yeah, that worked. Good job, Danu.
The ethereal gave another look, shaking her head. She knew the peryton wasn’t speaking the truth.
“And yeah um. I’m just out on that mission now! I need to uh…find a crystal! And uh…bring it back home….?” Her confident tone waned at the fiery look the female ethereal gave her. “…okay. So I’m not lost. I just…don’t want to go home. Not right now at least.”
Ingary let out a sigh. “Why, child, do you not want to go home?” The wolf creature asked.
“I just…” Danu wanted to flop on the ground, sprawl out her legs and wings and just rub against the dirt. It was a comforting action she had grown accustomed too as a child in times of anxiousness. “I don’t know.” Why was she spilling her life story out to this stranger? Something about the ethereal was…comforting to her. “I just wanted to be myself. To learn what it was like being my own and not having to be part of the herd.” She looked towards Ingary. “Is…that bad? Thinking that way?” The peryton looked at the ground, ears drooping forward as if she had uttered terrible words.
Ingary paused, thinking. “I do not think it is bad to want to find one’s purpose. I think there is a right way and a wrong way to follow that path. But…there is only one creature that can you tell you that way, and that is yourself. What I see as right, or as wrong, may not be the same as what other’s see as right and wrong.”
“Then what do I do?” Danu asked, glancing at the wolf.
“You do what your heart wants you to do. Follow it. Trust it. You only have one, and it rarely will lead you astray. Learn to listen to it. Then, you can decide what is your path.”
“…I guess you’re right…” The peryton said defeatedly. “But…what if my he---huh?”
Danu looked around. The ethereal was gone. The only presence left of her was a few paw prints sunken in the soft dirt.
“…Maybe the morning will bring me more answers.” She said quietly, laying back down on the ground, intended to get some shuteye.
[1088 words]
