I was the wind.

My hooves dug into the ground, jumping away from the undergrowth. Breeze whistled through my hair as I bounded effortlessly through the endless towers of congealed smoke. I landed on a fallen log, pushed off and over, and then kicked against one of the great trees. I tucked my feet in under me, curved my back, lashed out and launched deeper into the greenery. My hand reached up and snagged a low hanging branch, holding on just long enough to swing towards another tree, accelerating ever higher. My momentum pushed me further into the leafy canopy of the Dark Forest, and at last I began to see the blank starless sky, wounded by the silver orb of the moon.

I was the wind, and I was lost in an endless night. I was Zephnos. 

The name fit me like a glove, wrapping me in warmth in a world that seemed to have none. It reminded me of the Salamander’s fire, and gave me a faint respite from the despair of its loss.

I’d seen it several times by now. Every now and then, there would be a faint glow in the distant grove outside my reach. Every time I tried to catch it, something always made me look away. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to get to it again. I had too many questions for that to even be a possibility. But there was some sort of compulsion that stopped me. I would blink, or a branch would snap, or I’d misjudge a jump and have to recover. I’d tried to keep my eyes on the glow, but it inevitably slipped into the distance again, taunting me. No… taunting wasn’t the right word. Taunting implied intent, and the Salamander didn’t seem like the kind of creature that would do that. However… I wasn’t certain it was the one calling the shots.

As I finally breached the leaves covering the top of the trees, their thick needles poked into my bare shoulders. When I had first been abandoned, their prickling would have bothered me, but not anymore. I stared up at the moon, wondering about it. It was the one greatest mystery in the Forest, and one that I was almost certain the Salamander would have an answer to. I snapped off one of the branches so that I could lean back against the trunk, staring up at it. The moon made no sense. It never seemed to move, and was always full. My paradoxical knowledge told me this wasn’t possible, but over time I’d learned to stop trusting that voice. This whole world wasn’t possible, and yet here I was. What really got to me was the lack of stars around the moon. Why was it the only thing in the sky? What was it? How had it gotten up there? Could I touch it? At this last thought, I reached out my hand, framing the moon between two fingers. I could imagine grabbing it, bringing it close. 

“The moon is made of cheese.” I’d never had cheese. I’d never had most foods. My body didn’t seem to need them. I could stay up here forever and never have to move. 

But I would eventually fall asleep, and there the danger would return. Some of the things in the Forest could climb. I shuddered. The dragon had never used its wings, but I had no doubt it could fly.

I hadn’t thought about my near-death encounter for a while. Ever since the spell, it hadn’t come after me. It seems the Forest kept its word and stopped him from leaving the Rootways, much to my surprise. Why had it responded so strongly? I stared at the stick in my hand, still sparking with the Forest’s power. Was there something about the wording that had bent it more strongly?

What was I even doing up here? I didn’t know, even then. I’d explored the Dark Forest for what felt like months, but I knew it had only been weeks. I laugh at that, my own voice breaking the silence and stillness of the Forest. “Weeks! You don’t know if it’s been weeks or months or years! This place never changes!” I fell silent, startled by my outburst. It felt good to speak, even if I was the only thing to hear it. “Is something wrong with me?”

Yes.

“What do you know about it?”

I know what you know. This isolation isn’t good for you. You need to speak.

“So what if it’s not good? I’m eternal. I don’t need food, I barely need sleep, I heal quickly. Nothing here even seems to notice me. I defeated the one thing that actually did. And I can even travel freely in the Forest now. I’m as in control of this world as the Salamander is. I can talk, and the world listens.”

Why does that matter?

“I… I don’t know. I just need to speak.”

You’re talking to yourself.

“So what? It’s not like there’s anyone else to care about it.”

Do you care about it?

“Clearly I do. I’m arguing with myself.”

There wasn’t a response to this. I reached up to my face. 

“I’m talking to myself.”

Louder. I needed to be heard.

“I am Zephnos! I’m talking to myself!” I shouted it out over the treetops, and it echoed out.

I lept to my feet and my hooves dug into the tree bark. “I am me! I am Zephnos! I will be heard!” I began to laugh.

You’re going nuts.

Between choking laughs, I responded. “Yes, yes I am.”

What are you going to do about it?

“I need to be heard…”

What can hear you? Who should hear you?

“...”

You know the answer and so do I.

“The Salamander.”

Try again. You already tried that. You can’t get there.

“I can’t get to the Campgrounds…” My brow furrowed. I thought back to the figure I had buried. The one who had given me the book that had helped me learn to use my abilities. The only other individual I’d met.

Maybe there is something that can.

What was it the Salamander had said? That “Very few people ever made it to the Campgrounds.” But that had to mean that some of them HAD made it there. If I could find one of these people, then maybe I could follow them. Maybe protect them? They could lead me there.

You know what you have to do.

I grinned, feeling much better now that I had a plan. “I need to find ‘people’.”