Last night I dreamed my brother and I took a runaway train to the Fae Wilds. It was a one-way ride out of the caves, but we never looked back. All we took with us was the clothes on our backs and everything we could shove in a knapsack.
Beyond the borders between worlds, I thought we’d find freedom. Never looking back because then we might see what was chasing us. But I was wrong, and shadows dogged us through the trees.
We went searching for solutions - taking our train cars up the stairs of the old university, we faced a puzzle of switching tracks and twisted geometries. But these were always my brother’s strengths. He solved it with ease and stayed behind to guard the train while I continued upwards.
An open room with airy windows. On every wall leaned racks stocked with endless clay figurines, glazed in every color and pattern and texture imaginable. This was a test. Take one and blow it, and your mount will come to carry you away. I huffed and puffed and hoped. Some whistles were silent for me, some companions were too small to carry both my brother and I, until finally -
I found a cobalt whistle, shaped like an owl, larger than the rest but still small in my hands. When I blew it, a great beast came. A gryphon of epic proportions, owl-faced with feathers of cream and ultramarine, and six great paws to carry my brother and our train and I away. She appeared and agreed to carry us, but then the windows slammed shut and tried to halt our progress. A challenge, but no match for our combined might, and the three of us escaped into the sky outside.
Soaring above the trees we continued our journey into the Wilds. But I cannot help but wonder if we were truly freed, or hunted forevermore.