Having a gift didn't make Ysmaiu feel any different.

He still found himself charmed by handsome bucks who didn't want much more to do with him after one very memorable night together. He still gorged himself silly on sweet fruit and salt-preserved leaves and drink in consolation. He still wanted to flee in embarrassment afterward.

Only - well, he supposed he felt a little different. He didn't want to run toward the Grandfather Tree anymore. He didn't need his life to be changed again - though technically no one knew he was a gifted noul now. Except Ysmaiu himself. Unfortunately, Ysmaiu was probably the nobody who needed to know this the least. His gift felt heavy with responsibility, and intimidating. What if he did something wrong? He'd heard the Lifebringers had brought back something terrifying just recently. He was no Vivify - he was pretty sure - but what if he did something similar?

It was easiest to run mindlessly through the Barrens. There was so much open space there. Sure, sand was not an ideal running surface, but neither was the Homewood's dirt, and he'd always done okay. Besides, it was what he'd always done, even if he found himself now course correcting away from the large tree silhouetted on the horizon.

It felt good to be tired. When Ysmaiu was tired, he didn't need to think very much. He just had to keep going, and he'd grown very good at doing that. The monotonous scenery - yellow, cracked, somehow comforting though all it portended was death and Vykeli's past decay. Endless, like the ocean that still tormented his dreams.

Of course he could not really run forever. He slowed to a walk eventually, and unearthed a meal underground. Then he just kept walking.

The Barrens weren't truly monotonous. Sometimes there were alien rock formations, standing tall out there like a signal for a civilization whose last vestiges had sputtered out long ago. Sometimes the land would curve away beneath him, and he could see a ghost where water had rushed and pooled once. He followed along sometimes, because in the stories they said that rivers would lead to the sea, and often he'd thought that if he could just find it then it'd stop coming for him every night. He'd never succeeded. He just found big empty pits that echoed at him. Lonely.

That was all he really expected to find on this particular run, so of course, that was not what he found.

He liked to walk in the middle of those empty gullies, imagining the strength of a real river rushing all around him, carrying him forward to its dumping-ground where he could be buoyed along more easily. That was what this had looked like once, right? Something in him missed that feeling, even though he'd never had it for real - Homewood's waters were fairly calm. So you could excuse him for not noticing the way he was slowly climbing uphill as he traveled. A riverbed wasn't even, anyway.

He couldn't close his eyes and pretend that the dusty grey behemoth at the end of his path wasn't there, though. Ysmaiu looked up at it and felt something drop in his stomach.

It was Other-made. There was no question about that. It was wide and sharp, angular, going all the way across the mouth of this gully. What was it - a castle? And what had the Others hidden on the other side?

Of course, the construction was not infinite. He could've gone around. He could've headed back to the Homewood. But...

But he didn't want to. Its size was intimidating but also extremely tempting. This was no ordinary settlement construction - the Others had put it here for a reason, and Ysmaiu had a sudden craving to know what this beast's belly might look like from the inside. He wanted it more than he'd ever wanted a buck, even.

It was obvious that this was no simple task, though. But Ysmaiu could go off and...forage first. Yes - that was a good plan. He wasn't beholden to anyone, after all (not anymore), and he could stay here as long as he liked.

With that in mind he began to scale the gully's walls. It was tough - but somehow, it was easier to work with the thrill of that imminent discovery. Perhaps he wouldn't make his way in immediately, but it wasn't a dream, either, like the ocean might be. He chuckled to himself, and then found himself double-taking at all the unfamiliar foliage.

Well - the fact that there was foliage at all was surprising, of course. Out...here? But of course there had to be pockets of Vykeli, other than the Homewood, which were not Barren. The plants were clearly malnourished, but they did live on. They crowded right up to that gigantic building, too. They probably needed tenacity, to survive out here with no-one minding them.

He snorted, making his way around and partaking of the grass happily. Plants always retained some moisture even out in the Barrens, and he had to admit his throat did feel very parched right now. Anyway, it w -

What was that?