The creatures of day and night: Chapter 5

He was standing on the top of a tall mountain. It was spire like, and there was just enough room for his feet. He looked around in hopes of recognizing something. Even if it was as little as a rock or a bush. But there were no rocks or bushes. The spire he was standing on had completely desolate surroundings. That is, they were impossible to see, due to the thick fog surrounding the spire. He was just above the clouds. Thus, the sky was completely clear above him. It was twilight. Not finding anything to look at besides the completely white distance, he steered his gaze to the blood red sky. To his surprize, despite the lighting, there was no sun to be seen anywhere. He barely had any time to be confused, before the scenery disintegrated around him, and he was swallowed by the emptiness, barely managing to remember the strange visions.

A small shiver went through Eiken’s body, from his head to his paws as he snapped out of the weird dream he had just witnessed. The first thing he noticed was the sound of the tranquil ocean waves carefully hitting the shore. Recollection hit him as he noticed the hard ground bellow him. He was not in his tree today. Instead he was waking up on the big, sunken rock he had collapsed on from exhaustion yesterday. His green eyes slowly opened and blinked, adjusting themselves to the morning light. It was sunrise. The squirrel sat up and yawned. He let his dry lips form a small smile as he looked at how the ocean beautifully reflected the sun’s glow. It looked as though it was shining. It was so pretty.
  Eiken’s tranquillity was brought to a halt when he noticed something was missing. Lynatt wasn’t there! Eiken spun around and hoped to spot the canine. Suddenly, like an answer to his call, he could hear hawking close to him. After sharpening his ears, he heard the noise was coming from behind a rock a few meters from him. He ran around the rock, only to spot Lynatt…barfing up the seawater he had tried to drink. Feeling concerned at this unhealthy source of liquid and angry that Lynatt had made him so startled, he shouted:
-Hey! Don’t drink that! Stop!
Lynatt turned his head and let out a small cough, closely followed by a careful whine, like a child trying to say sorry about something they didn’t know. Eiken sighed resigned.
-Saltwater is not for drinking! You’ll get sick! Or…I think you will.
Eiken started feeling a little unsure at his own words. Could moon creatures eat or drink other things than sun creatures? But he felt a little sure again
when he saw how the wolf did not seem like he had a healthy reaction from drinking it.
-You have to drink freshwater! Not this! I’ll show you. C’mere! Eiken commanded in as friendly a tone as he could. The clueless and rather stupid look on the wolf’s face still made him feel like he was talking to a kindergartener. As irritated as that made him, since he wasn’t used to kids, it also had its own charm, and Eiken couldn’t deny it was kind of cute. He turned around and made his way to the edge of the rock, the part that led back to land. He stepped out in the water and made his way to the mainland. Lynatt followed his example. Both of them shook all the water off them and Eiken started leading into the forest.
-I know the best drinking place in the quadrant! I’m sure you’ll love it.
  Eiken started feeling better. As he walked through the woods once again, he felt his irritation becoming milder. He sometimes turned around to make sure Lynatt was still following him. He made the right decision, as the curious canine would often stop and smell the plants they walked by. Eiken had always liked going on walks by himself the most, since he would mostly get annoyed at how much the other animals would talk, but it was strangely refreshing to be accompanied, especially when his company didn’t talk at all. All he could hear was relaxed panting and sniffing as they made their way to his destination. As they finally got to the top of the hill, Eiken felt the familiar scent of his favourite water source. It was a small pond surrounded by maple trees. It was mostly isolated from the sun, except the middle of the pond, where there was an opening in the leafy roof where the branches of the trees would meet. A small stream of water ran down into the pond, while another stream would run down to the ocean. This pond was a relaxing place to spend the afternoons when he didn’t have anything better to do. It was a special place. It was a fair bit away from the official pond, and it was so closed off that Eiken was fairly sure that only him and his best friend, Trevinge the woodpecker knew about it.
-This is it! he said satisfied while he turned to face Lynatt. The wolf just stared at the pond. Eiken had no idea what was going on in that head, but he knew that he was looking forward to this.
  With a childlike laughter he couldn’t resist letting out, he jumped right into the pond. As he floated up to the surface, he could see Lynatt looking rather shocked.
-Don’t worry! Eiken said loudly and began lazily swimming around on his back.
-Come on! Jump in! he shouted enthusiastic. A nostalgic place like this had a tendency to cast a spell over him. Everything suddenly seemed fun and hopeful! He didn’t know if it was the place or the memories he had with it, but all he wanted to now, was to play. He wanted to be a small child again! Lynatt smelled the water for a few seconds, then he jumped in, and after a few clumsy kicks, he started swimming surprisingly well.
-That’s it! Eiken laughed.
  He turned around, put his face under the water and dived down. He swam in a loop, and then went up to the surface again, taking a deep breath and letting it out.
-By the way, I would suggest you drink now. This water’s really fresh, and you must be parched!
He demonstrated by sticking his face in the water again and taking a sip. The wolf did the same, and came up again with a satisfied look.
-Tastes great, doesn’t it?
Lynatt, for the first time since Eiken had met him, gave him a small smile back, and then a hiccup.
  They swam around and played in the water for quite some time. Eiken hadn’t had so much fun since he last played with Trevinge. A while later he had taught Lynatt how to climb the maples. He had a tendency to slip and fall into the water, causing Eiken to laugh. It was ok though. The wolf laughed as well. Or…as close to laughing as he could get with the different language he spoke. At least he seemed like he tried imitating the squeaky laughter of the light red squirrel.
  When he’d finally gotten the hang of it, they were laying on the branches of the trees, looking up at the blue sky through the hole in the leafy roof.
-Ah…Eiken sighed.
-I love this place! I don’t come here so often anymore, but now I’m reminded of how good it feels. I feel like I could be here for days, but it’s a fair bit away from my neighbourhood, and for some reason, I never feel like I have the time. Maybe I’m just lazy. It’s still nice to be here again though.
A small grunt could be heard next to him, like the wolf was approving.
-You know, after you and I have played together here, it’s probably appropriate that I tell you who I used to play with before. Do you want to?
The wolf grunted again, Eiken took that as a yes.
-You see, I don’t exactly have many friends to speak of. I used to have, or…at least I thought they were my friends. I was young and naive, so, I probably didn’t realize it then, but…they weren’t very good friends.
  Eiken sighed. He didn’t like reliving these memories. The memories that the ones he thought liked him would later be making fun of him.
It seemed the wolf understood, as he carefully made his way over to the branch next to Eiken’s and gave him a shy nudge in the side. Eiken gave the big head a grateful pat, and continued.
-But, he said, closing his eyes and smiling.
I’ve always had one good friend. My very best friend. She…well, she…her name is Trevinge, and I’ve known her since we were both very young. I always loved playing with her. This is our secret spot. This small pond right here. We both love water and trees, and we used to play tag on these branches!
As Eiken spoke, his smile slowly faded away and was replaced by a sombre look in his eyes.
-But, you see, she’s a woodpecker, a bird. She can’t live in this quadrant, and I can’t live in hers. I rarely get to see her, unless there are meetings or visits, and that doesn’t happen very often…
As Eiken realized something, he turned away from Lynatt, not wanting to look him in the eyes.
-And yesterday was the day we would visit the birds, but…because of you, I…
Eiken felt his eyes becoming wet. The wolf let out a small whine, like trying to say sorry, but Eiken just stood up and jumped down in the water. He swam to the surface and sat down on the grass, with his head low.
  He heard a questioning whine above him. He decided not to answer. For some reason it was suddenly hard to. A splash could be heard; this time behind him, and moments after, a wet snout touched his back. Eiken suddenly got angry, stood up so fast that the wolf gave out a shocked sound and turned around to once again face the meddling canine.
-Hey! Don’t you realize that when I move away from you, it’s possible that I don’t want you to follow me?!
The wolf took a step back and lowered his head.
-I wanna be alone now! So you’ll stay right here! You have water, and you’re safe! Stay here! Eiken commanded with the same angry tone. Right now, he wanted to get away from this beast. So without another word, he turned around, and with a graceful leap, climbed up a tree and disappeared. As he ran along the treebranches, he heard a few barks behind him, that got lower and lower, until they stopped completely.