Ravel awoke to the sound of sand falling off from something and the feeling of gradually falling down. Quickly opening his eyes, he shattered the lid with a punch and leapt out. Looking downwards, he saw his bed falling off a desert cliff alongside a river of sand and rocks.
Landing gracefully on solid ground, he gained a better view of the waterfall of sand. It led several hundred feet down at least, from what he could tell. He lost sight of his bed, feeling quite irritated that he woke up and lost his bed at the same time. Not to mention the fur inside.
"Hrng." He couldn't lose the fur inside, so he decided to jump and land on the bottom. He sprinted off the cliff and jumped downwards, taking half a minute before landing on the sand, spraying it on his face and blowing some of it away.
He called some wind to clear off the sand on his clothes and walked towards where the sand landed, a large lake of water. His powerful eyesight allowed him to catch a glimpse of his piece of fur landing in the water along with the sand.
He ran towards the lake and jumped into the water like a professional swimmer, navigating through the clear lake water and heading towards the clouds of underwater dust. He followed the flow of descending clouds of dust and used his magic to blow it away.
Focusing his thoughts, he made a hand gesture that immediately turned the clouds of dust into pieces of glass, falling down to the bottom of the lake like sharp raindrops.
With the sand mostly turned into falling shrapnels of glass, Ravel easily spotted his piece of fur trapped inside a spire of glass. He shattered it with a powerful punch, sending ripples over the water and swiftly grabbed it before the collapsing spire could bury him under the lake.
He swam to the surface and took a breath of the desert air, "Hah. Sqrgh, puh!" He spat out some water from his mouth and swept his wet hair aside. Holding the fur on his right, he swam to the lake's shore and climbed out of the water completely drenched.
To dry himself up, he spoke, "Heat." And an explosion of air erupted from him as water vapor was repelled from him, some sand turning into glass around him. He tried to detect his horse, finding no sign at all. 'I'll find him later', he thought.
He looked around, seeing only desert in the east and west, the mountain from before on the north and a gradually green landscape to the south, flowing forth from the lake. 'The river always leads to the sea', a wisdom he had found during his hunting days.
He follows the river and into the gradually expanding field of greenery. A few miles down the river and it felt as if the desert was long gone, supplanted in its entirety by a lush jungle, identical to the ones teeming with beasts to hunt and carpets of vines.
After hours of walking deeper into the jungle, the sun begins to set beneath the horizon. The warm air of the jungle slowly faded away into cold, damp air. The wet ground turned from a cooling comfort and into a bed of cold water.
The Lord of the Night sat down beneath a large tree, setting up a fire before him and holding his piece of fur close. He stared at the fire to pass time and fall asleep. Sleeping now felt like a chore, needing effort without the feeling of darkness and compactness provided by his bed.
Speaking of which, he pondered on what happened earlie. Waking up almost falling down a waterfall of sand, disappearance of his steed and his inability to contact said steed using magic as usual.
Eventually, he managed to somehow make himself sleep and when he does, shadows lurk among the trees, circling him like sharks drawn to prey.
The shadows do not touch him at all, merely surrounding and circling him. They did not leave marks upon the trees either or upon the air. Only sight could see them, for they made no sound, no feeling nor scent.
After several minutes of circling, seemingly predatory behavior, they dispersed to seemingly random paths, moving far faster than any horse could ever reach.
This night, Ravel dreamt of his mother, a rare dream, one he had not seen for centuries, maybe even longer. A vivid landscape, him sitting right under a tree, covered by its shade from the midday sun.
His mother sat crosslegged, facing him and wearing the ornate dress she always wore in the time they lived together. Her jewelry was also identical, so was the rest of her appearance. She held a bowl of broth and gave it to him, "Here, eat son."
Ravel almost hesitated, but received it from his mother regardless.
A wooden spoon was conveniently placed within the bowl and he began to eat. For a dream, the taste of the broth felt all too real. From the saltiness to the scent, the softness and moisture of the broth, it felt too real for just another dream.
Finishing his bowl, he wiped his mouth and asked her, "Centuries? Why now?"
"You didn't seem to need me much when you had your pets remember?" Her light hearted smile was exactly how he remembered it.
Amanah was never serious, always lighthearted in any situation. Even when things seemed to be at their bottom, she'd never worry at all. That trait of her was the most memorable of her personality, something no one, both human nor animal has ever shown him.
"But Mother, I haven't forgotten you at all, I even ask for you every day."
"I know, the statue's nice and all but everything has its own time Vel, you should know that." Answered Amanah.
"I know, but you can't expect your son here not to miss you." Ravel smiled, a rare occasion outside cooking and eating. His youthful features were exemplified with that smile, his fangs adding to this image of a handsome youth.
She paused, her smile gradually widened, "Fair point. Want to try some tea?"
Amanah levitated a clay pot and cup, offering him warm green tea.
He shook his head and Amanah had the pot and cup vanish into butterflies, scattering around into the vast fields that surround them.
"What brings you here this time mother?" In all dreams that she appeared, there was always a message, a warning or a lesson. The dreams were practically a continuation of his life with his mother, though they halted abruptly centuries ago.
"I am glad to announce that your wife is near."
"My wife? Just when I explored beyond my forest for more of these humans?" The sheer amount of coincidences, from meeting the humans in the forest, learning of the union of marriage, to setting out into the desert and having this dream. They all began to add up, and it amused and irked him at the same time.
"Was this planned mother?" Ravel had deduced from long ago that his mother was anything but his lesser. Although what she is remains a mystery, he had never seen her limits at all.
"Planned?" Amanah raised an eyebrow playfully and let out a short laugh, "There is no straight answer for this Vel, but it is closer to no. I'm here to tell you more about her."
"Is she human?" He blurted out.
"Definitely."
"Are we human?"
Amanah twirled a lock of her golden hair and replied, "Not at all. I'm the farthest from a man in fact."
"Then, why would I be marrying a human? And having children with them? I've never seen a wolf lay with a rabbit." Ravel was quite confused, even till now about raising children and procreating. It all seemed so forced and sudden, and now, it seemed outright odd.
"Well, you are right that a wolf would never lay with a rabbit, but that is because they were not built for that. I created you to be amongst men, you are of your own kind."
That answered why, for laying with a human woman at least. But still, he's confused, why is raising a child important, he is immortal.
Unlike humanity, he will not age and even if he does, he had found a way to restore his youth endlessly.
"I'm still confused, why do you need me to lie with a woman and help her bear children? I don't think I'm set out to do that, to start a family and raise children."
Amanah stopped twirling her hair and walked towards him, kneeling down to his height and answered him, "Why aren't you set out for that? I made you strong, handsome and capable, that's already strong enough for any human wife to accept."
"It just seems so hollow, to just find a wife, pleasure her and make her bear children, then just raise them, only for them to leave and do the same as I did." Ravel looked into his mother's eyes with all the seriousness he could muster, eliciting a smiile from her instead.
With her signature sunny tone, she concluded, "Then, follow it through first. If your wife does not please you for a year, you are free to do as you wish. Marriage also takes process, although you have seen people simply taking others as wives as they please, I'll have you know that you will earn her."
"Earn her?" Ravel was intrigued, in a somewhat confused way. In the two villages he watched, there wasn't much of even a date, it was all either marriage in a whim or decided from years before. Perhaps those human women brought by travelling caravans weren't free to marry?
Pulling her body back a little, she explained, "Unlike what you've seen, my design is for marriage to be a union of flesh and soul. You can't trust both to a random stranger."
He nodded, "Fair."
"So here is my oracle, your wife will come to you. You need to show that you're a fine man and then she'll slowly come closer to you." He nods.
"It involves getting to know her first. Once both of you agree to sex, then I'll bless your marriage and you will both be husband and wife. Any questions?"
He pondered for a short time, then replied, "So I must simply live amongst man, show my worth and wait for her to come to me?"
She nods.
"I accept."
"Good, I believe you should wake up by now. See you later Ravel." She promptly kissed his forehead and vanished with the dreamscape, dissolving into brief darkness.
Ravel opened his eyes, facing the morning orange sky, gradually turning pale blue in color as the sun makes its rise from the east. The morning fog has lifted and the cool, damp air surrounds him like a blanket to the sun's growing heat.
He stood up, holding the leather on his right and marched south, his sandals leaving footprints in the mud.