Suddenly I stirred. My eyes felt stuck, lids stiff like stone, resisting my curiosity.

How long had it been? How long since I knew the warm grass and chill evening air? The wind whistling through my antlers?

That's right... That wind. That warm wind cutting through the twilight, carrying with it the stories of a thousand mile journey. That warm embrace...

Just a peek now...

Is it true, then? Has Breeze awakened from that dream? It is all so very still. Even the grass seems resistant to sway in the early morn. Dare I part the muzzle that has, for so many moons, thought only to breathe the slightest breath?

I cannot bring myself to call out. I cannot bring myself to look. I can't yet know what it is I am in this moment. I am so very afraid. Should I rise too soon before the world is remade beneath me I may become just a smudge on this canvas of clouds and stars.

I do not wish to become lost beyond the roof of the world. I wish to remain here and run once more through the infinite emerald sea.

There is more dreaming to be done, yet. These bones ache to resume their flight, all the same.

Let my eyes shut again, to return once more to the evening realm... That I may, on the morrow, return to the waking world I once called my home.