It wasn't long until the two were an inseparable pair.
A childhood magnetism and strange telekinesis drew them together on the strange and few nights when Isa's father did not come home. With curiosity they would tumble down to the river just beyond the clearing in the wood and poke at the fat toads who lay spread out on the cold stones of the riverbed, who, with arduous croaks, plopped into the tepid water. Isa settled comfortably into the soggy undergrowth along the stream, not minding the slow dampness creeping up his legs. Lea, adversely, seemed to be on quite disagreeable terms with water, and sat cramped on his haunches.
"Ya know, Eyes," remarked Lea, using Isa's least favorite epithet, "This is really boring." Lea hopped over to examine a much more interesting rotting log, the surface of which was brimming with every sort of slimy creature imaginable.
Isa didn't look up. He ran his fingers across the side of a particularly corpulent bullfrog that sat croaking loudly on a rock. The amphibian blinked his orb-like eyes slowly before opening his mouth in a wide chuffing yawn. With certain indifference, Isa plucked him from the slick rock and placed the fat creature into the water.
"Hey, what's up, pal? Frogs getting tiring?" Lea said, crawling over to Isa's side, still suspending himself above the soggy ground, "You look a little… blue."
"It's nothing."
"You sure?" Lea asked, still doubtful.
"Yeah," said Isa, still feeling despondent, "I just spaced out. Sorry."
Above them, a large barred owl looked about, wondering where his prey had gone.
With a start, Saix awoke from an otherwise uneventful sleep. He let out a deep sigh, wiping away blanket of sweat from his brow. Blinking his luminous eyes, he searched his room for any Dusks that may have been responsible for his vision. It was typical for the mischievous creatures to whisper their report of the day in the ears of the sleeping Nobodies. Often Saix would awake with an inane story buzzing in his head, the result of some desperate Dusk who hadn't had the chance to relay his report when the superior entity was still awake.
Nothing.
"Strange," he whispered to himself. If it wasn't a Dusk, what could it have been? A dream would have been impossible; it was well-known that Nobodies were incapable of dreaming. If not a dream, then what?
Saix sat back in his bunk, letting his eyes adjust to the dimming light filtering into the room. Not a dream, not a Dusk's report.
A memory.
