The Call - Kazik

The winds whispered his name, coaxing him towards some unknown, away from his forest. The trespasser’s flexible tail gave an annoyed swish. In truth, he had a guess with what the direction was, and it was a place far less unknown than he would have preferred. 

His name passed through the wind once more, and he wanted to follow the source simply to destroy whatever it was that called for him. And that was a thought, wasn’t it? 

At last, he allowed his gaze to swing in the direction of the call, the wind whispered a note that sounded akin to sigh of relief. Like an unburdening. And Kazik hated it, and he would be glad to burden whatever it was that called him further, but he would not give away the game yet.

He prowled from the forest that hosted his bower towards the town where he had once been happily in love, another lifetime ago.

Until he had been betrayed, an even sorer subject lately than ever before, after he had met the esk empty of any memory of being his beloved. Who had been transformed not long after him, and only knew they had been driven there by immense pain.

Kazik would not admit it aloud, always running from the truth, but even after Maks’s betrayal he would not have wished pain upon Maks. It had never crossed his mind to enact revenge. Indeed, he had instead still found himself looking at the world and wishing to share it with his beloved, despite everything.

It had grated upon him that he was trapped a world away from his love, despite what had occurred. But now that Maks was closer than ever, Kazik could not bear to visit the hollow remnants of the being that had once been his love. 

At least, Kazik thought wryly, he would not have to bear walking into the town and seeing his love when his love could not see him. He promptly hated himself for the thought. It would have been better for Maks to live a full life and then pass on properly, no matter what Kazik suffered.

He entered the town, and he was less surprised than he wished to be when the call led to a place that was familiar yet not. 

It was Maks’s home, but it was boarded up. It felt all wrong to look upon. Kazik wondered if he had gone far enough now that the call would release him.

Yet its whispers persisted, louder than ever before. He couldn’t exactly walk through walls, he wasn’t that kind of ghost… Was he?

He focused on the world, and felt his attachment to the tangible loosen. A part of him, ever curious, wondered if this was a symptom of the call or else a part of being an esk that he had not yet discovered.

In truth, it did not truly matter. He would find whatever was calling him and he would… Make some kind of decision when he found it, he supposed. For all that he was more immaterial than ever, his pain was transcendent, being this close to where Maks had lived and now did not.

And he would only get closer on his journey towards what called him.