It began with a whisper. Pressure within the light that fell upon his body. He was sleeping, as he had for a dozen lifetimes. There had been no reason to wake and many reasons not to.
The whisper, the pressure, was not what he expected. Occasionally, very rarely over the many lifetimes that had passed, there would be the sense of passing companionship. Of others who had come to sit in the shade beneath him, protected from the glaring heat of Ossus' burnt sky. They came and waited for him to stir in his slumber, waited for him to acknowledge their companionship and recognize them as kin. They had been few, and fewer still with each passing century. He remembered one in particular, a vibrant soul who had sat with him for far longer than any other; she had come and gone, then returned and departed again. It had been many years since she had last sat beneath his shade. He missed her company.
But this whisper was not kin. There was no sense of presence, no familiar life-glow. Metal feet clamored over his extremities, tickling his weathered body. They came and they stayed, crawling awkwardly over the ground around him, clawing gingerly at the chasm that he had long ago used his roots to seal shut.
They remained, skittering over him, scratching and prodding.
Irritated to be disturbed, and yet feeling that it was perhaps finally time, he slowly began to wake.
Author's Notes
I know I said that I'd go through and respond to old reviews, but I've been distracted. It's still something I'd like to do. This is the first of a series of Missing Moments that will be released whenever they are ready, I'm not sure how many there will be in total. Also, there's additional Interregnum art which can be viewed over on Ao3, in Interregnum 3!