It was cold this far north. That had been the first thing the man had thought all those years ago, when he'd replaced the heat and intrigue of one place with the cold and intrigue of another. After the events of one life, the whispers of another had called to him, and he had always been the sort to listen when the whispers spoke.
The man had gone ranging north of the great hulking wall, some fifty years ago now. He had travelled far and wide to seek the thing that had called to him in his dreams. He had found it on the edge of the world. A thing teetering on the brink, filled with chaos and despair. Something that would make almost anyone else shiver with fear.
Not him though. Oh no, the man stood firm and without pause. He had gone into the darkness, into the depths and produced something fantastical. He had seen the edges of the world, torn down the thoroughfare and delivered the goods of time and tide.
And now? Now he dreamed.
Darkness engulfed the boy who wished to fly. The boy shook against the bars of his cage, and the man watched. Or rather his ravens watched. They saw the boy, and they saw what had broken him. They whispered his words. Promising to free the boy, to let him fly if only he would free his mind and come northwards.
The man sensed doubt in the boy. Doubt and fear. The boy was scared that his mother would not approve. The man knew the boy's mother. He knew what she would say, and he knew how to get her to change her mind. But that was not his decision. No, the boy needed to do that himself.
His vision changed then. To a ship. This ship was owned by a kraken, one that courted danger and death. On the ship, there were mutes who turned and twisted as they were wont to do. Shimmering through the light. His interest was not on the mutes, but on the two men who were scrubbing the decks of the ship. One was the bat he had seen many times before, and the other? The other was white dragon, who seemed to be bent on something.
The man had seen the white dragon before, when he had been a wolf. Now, he seemed to flicker between the two. Shifting and turning, growling and snapping. The dragon wanted to break free, but was restraining himself from anything too dangerous due to orders from the bat.
That made the man frown. No dragon should take orders from a bat. The only other person a dragon took orders from was another dragon. But for the time being, the white dragon held, and the kraken flickered between contempt and intrigue.
From there, eyes turned to the capital. A place that the man had known very well in his other life. The changes were not that vast now, compared to what he had expected. There were many more lions stalking about though. The lions had not been strong during his time in the capital. They had been weakened by the Dance, and had only really recovered under that great schemer, Gerold.
The man's son had nearly given it all away and only the actions of the new 'old lion' had prevented that. This new old lion was someone dangerous. He schemed and schemed, but his capabilities were not what they had once been. New men were coming to replace him and he knew it. That was why there were so many other weaker lions in the capital. They were there to report to him and to let him know what was occurring, so he could plot.
The capital bored the man and he turned his eyes further east. Toward the city where dragons still lived. There he found Egg's descendant. His true descendant. The boy was growing strong, and working to achieve something that many thought impossible. The man knew that the boy would be guided toward the smoking ruins of their ancestral homeland soon.
The eggs that the cheesemonger had given him weighed heavily against his side and his turn. He did not know where he would venture to, only that he would. The man would keep a close eye on the boy for the future of the world depended on him.
A creaking noise brought the man back to reality.
"What is it?" He rasped in a voice barely used anymore.
"The horn has been found." The voice replied.
He opened his eyes and smiled, his skin ached as he did so. "Then it has come."
The figure before him nodded.
"Send the figures out. The time has come." He commanded. The figure nodded and disappeared. Destiny was being fulfilled.
