Life in the Void

He woke up.

Like every day.

It was nothing new or special at this point.

The crystal on his device spun slightly faster as he applied a red glowing magic to it, checking the hands on the round disk it held at its bottom.

It was seven in the morning.

At least, it would be, if he was in Aer. There was no need to look out of the windows to figure that out, even if he could have. Most of them were draped with thick curtains to avoid him having to look outside anyway. He hated everything out there. It was enough that he could hear the rushing of static every morning, being emitted from the imitation of an ocean nearby.

He scratched over his purple fur that hid beneath light green pyjamas, his long thin tail with its tuft swaying  after him as he stepped out of his far too small bed, stretching his acheing legs with a grumble. But this place hadn't been made for him after all, so he couldn't complain too much. It was a place to live, after all.

And whoever had once lived here, must have been a good portion smaller than him.

At least the ceilings were high enough for him to stand beneath without having to duck.

The tiny room served its purpose though. It was actually rather tidy, given that he had more than enough time to spend cleaning, but it was cluttered nontheless with books and pillows, little oddities from his travels and crude little drawings made by childrens hands.

Just across was the bathroom, his next destination for the morning.

It was usually the same routine. Get up, briefly wash up with the little water available, try to find something productive to do.

Breakfast would be up next and perhaps after that, he could set up some learning sessions or write. It wasn't like it truely mattered, but doing nothing would just drive him insane.

His gaze was trapped briefly in the crystal mirror on the wall of his bathroom, tinting his face ever so slightly pink as he gave his blueish mane a quick brush, gently avoiding his single horn and sighing.

Usually he wasn't this pessimistic about getting out of bed or just living, but the last week, at least he believed it was a week, had tired his being. He was not just bored but felt the nothingness slowly gnawing on his very soul.

His thoughts briefly shot to the idea of maybe just wasting away time with a book or five today, instead of actually doing something worthwhile.

After all, most of the thousands of books in the library still were open to read, but not all topics were necessarly his case, not all books even in a language he could read.

His long ears perked as they took notice of suspicious noises from his cramped and small kitchen.

It wasn't hard for him to figure what was going on though.

He only lived with a single other person.

There was only the two of them here.

"ISKAR MADE BREAKFAST!" a young, black, cat-like animal with dark blue chicken-like hindlegs yelled at him, paw and claw prints covering the entire floor, cemented in batter and flour alike. Sirup stuck to its fur, clumping the feathers of its tiny wings together, but oh did it look joyful about its achievement.

He barely even reacted, despite the nearly heart shaped pancakes that the creature had made him being a genuinely nice gesture that he did somewhat appreciate. Pulling one of the chairs out from the tiny dining table, he sat down with a tired mutter, before he finally dared to give the animal a glance, patting its head exactly twice, its soft ears twitching as its mouth curled to a grin of pride.

"Good job, Iskar."

Normally he would be scolding the small beast for using supplies so carelessly, but he couldn't bring himself to do that today, despite the pancakes tasting bland and mealy. Besides, maybe a portal would open and they could actually go somewhere that had sunlight or a fresh breeze of air, if they ran out of food.

They had never gone hungry since they had been here and he doubted that it would start being the case anytime soon.

The portals had always been an oddity, springing forth from his own hand, his own magic, yet never under his control. He wasn't even sure when and where he had obtained the ability to make them, but he assumed it had to do with the place they now lived in.

They would show up whenever they saw it fit and send him to places in Aer he sometimes knew, other times didn't, just to steal him back to this world of nothingness once he had achieved some sort of goal.

After the last bite of his breakfast, he got up, the meal laying in his stomach like several heavy stones and began to clean, his face void of any expression as he let his thoughts wander. Where to however, he wondered. Not even his mind seemed capable of even stimulating itself with stories that he used to come up with. There often didn't appear to be any sort of purpose in being here, despite him hoping there was and him trying to figure out what it might be. His thoughts briefly flickered to Iskar, one of the reasons he did have for living.

The critter seemed to be doing just fine here, but it did not really surprise him. Unlike him, the Sphynx had lived nearly his entire life in this place, only visiting the outside when he allowed him to do so.

He looked up to see where the critter had gone to, only to spot him perched on the pillow he had set up for him at the round kitchen window. His tiny tongue was slipping over his dark fur, cleaning it of any leftover messes the breakfast had brought along. To him, it beat bathing.

With the kitchen now spotless, he ventured to yet another crystal, like the one he had in his room, spinning it with his magic once more. It was eight now. So many hours before bedtime. It was like time itself did not want to truely budge in this place.

"MRAU!" he heared Iskars excited gasp from the window. If anyone could get amazement from the outsides in this place, it was him.

"WHISPER! WHISPER MRAU!" he began to meow frantically as he stood, his front paws starting to pad on the soft cushion as his eyes were glued to whatever it is he had spotted, "MRAU! COME HERE, QUICK!"

Whisper did not hurry to follow the creatures pleas, given that there was probably just some random structure building itself up somewhere in the distance again, something that always made him squeak around until the Elanthra came running to look as well.

"What is it?" , he sighed, not truely interested in giving anything beyond the window even so much as a glance.

"THERE'S A PERSON!"

Whispers eyes shot open as he pushed Iskar to the side to see what sort of person could have stumbled into this place. Another living thing, out in the Void? This was unheard of.

He knew the area around them was mostly safe, it being the only consistent place he could ever recall seeing of in fact. There was absolutely no doubt that if someone needed shelter, they would come running to them.

Their building stood on a cliff and probably could be seen from afar, high above an ocean of thick substance that mimicked the looks of an endless, vast night, billions of small stars reflecting from its oily black surface. The gentle static noise it produced always lingered somewhere in his ears, though by now it rarely bothered him.

His eyes wandered over the purplish red grass grew around them, something he had always found unpleasant to walk over due to the sounds it made when it met his cloven hooves, despite it being harmless. They even had a visible sky, green in hue, with a broken, blue moon hanging above, providing no light at all.

Beyond that, along the only path that lead to the unsafe areas, he could make out spikey, erratic canyons and mountains that shifted noisily as they made their way across the face of the white backdrop, far off shapes forming above them and dissipating without his mind even able to truely comprehend what they looked like, before they were no more.

Movement caught his attention as vortexes opened from nothingness, swirling out black, barky objects being pulled thin until they too vanished once more out of existence.

There was always something in motion or happening out there. Things could just pop into being, always feeling familiar and yet so alien and soon they were gone as sudden as they had appeared.

But nothing stood out there, that truely seemed to be actually alive.

"You are seeing things again, Iskar." he let out a dissapointed mutter as he backed away from the window, giving the Sphynx his space once more.

He should have known better.

"MRAU! NO! ISKAR SAW HIM!" the animal instantly protested, slamming down all four feet on his pillow in defiant hops, his little wings propelling him ever so slightly upwards with each bounce, "WE NEED TO SAVE HIM!"

"We are not going out into the void!" Whisper shook his head as he left towards the library, the tip-tapping of Iskars bird and kitten feet telling him that the critter was following him.

"It is far too dangerous and you know this." he swiftly added as he assumed that he had pursued him in order object further.

"BUT HE NEEDS OUR HELP!"

Whisper stopped, his gaze not wanting to meet with that of Iskar, but he knew that he wouldn't stop with this if he didn't give him at least a bit of a stern look. His green eyes finally met the golden yellow ones of the Sphynx, but he found that there was nothing but bristling determination staring back at him. So very unlike any other time where he had saw something.

Iskar was convinced that it was life he had witnessed.

"I can not risk this." the Elanthra said with a shake of his head, "The void can kill us."

"MRAU! ISKAR KNOWS! BUT IT CAN KILL THE PERSON TOO!"

He was clawing up Whispers leg now, little stabs of tiny paw daggers digging into the Elanthras skin, so that he plucked him up into his arms, giving his rough mane a gentle pet.

"You mean well Iskar, but as I said, there is no life in the void."

"BUT ISKAR SAW IT!" he meowed once more, ever so desperately.

"How about a story?"

Whispers attempt to distract him fell flat as the Sphynx stuck his tongue out at him and leapt from his arms, tiny growls and insults hurling forth from his throat. He sighed deeply, his mind not ready to deal with an upset child right now. Maybe if he did comb through the library once more, he could get his thoughts elsewhere, and hopefully the critter would be calmer until then as well.

Unlike the other rooms, their, or better, his library was vast, making up most of the building. How all these books had gotten here, why they were here, he never truely had figured out. Those written in languages he understood usually talked about certain subjects or  told stories from all over his home, the land Aer and beyond, from all sorts of different time periods, almost as if they had been personally witnessed by someone. Some even mentioned him, but it sadly was never anything he didn't already know about himself.

Though the books were nearly countless in their numbers, none had any tale of the place he currently resided in though, unless it was one that he yet had to decipher. Though given how this area functioned, he doubted that there would even be much to tell of it in first place.

There was no life, no plants, no animals, no people. Aside from Iskar and himself, of course.

The Void, as he had come to call it, was everything and nothing at once. It built structures and landscapes, surreal and without a purpose or meaning, tearing them down whenever it seemed to see fit. He was more than certain it would easily tear them out of life as well, if they were to ever leave their safe zone.

It tried often enough to simulate life as well, but nothing ever was truely alive, as if the place itself couldn't grasp what life even meant.

His fingers lazily slid over the covers of a few of the books, as he tried to decide which one he'd give a chance today. It was easier to pluck them out when wearing his scarf, as it acted as a pair of extra arms for him, but he couldn't be bothered to change his clothing. It wasn't like he was going out.

The history of Dragons.

How to tame a Gryphon safely.

One-hundred ways to use Sugarfluff fur.

He had read these all at least twice, if not more.

He felt like maybe he should just spend his time actually sorting these instead.

But he also questioned the point of it, just like he had many times before. If only he could understand the reason he was here, but even with all this knowledge on one spot, he felt like he barely knew anything at all. His hooves moved him sluggishly, until he flopped into his reading corner, sinking into a soft, red cushion that had been filled with only the finest of Snakkalon fur, covered however with Iskars rough and ragged pelt that he tended to shed everywhere.

He grasped for the nearest book that simply had a brown, leathery cover, a blue unicorn with wings majestically painted on its front. It always had been odd how these stories in particular had gotten here, telling of a distant future that made him surprised the prince and princess of his former kingdom were even still alive. At least, they were in these tales. He could only speculate how long it had been since the kingdom had fallen and this story had taken place, but he never doubted that it was at least a few hundred years, given some of the things mentioned within, such as airships. Finally he found his mind spewing forth an image of what it must look like to part the clouds with a flying ship, how majestic it had to be to look down below as everything became broader to see.

He wondered if he would ever witness one in his ventures through the portals, but the places he was usually sent to were either boring and from around his time, merely serving the purpose to keep him fed and hydrated.

Of course, outside of that one time he had aqquired Iskar.

He never wanted to repeat anything like that again however.

His brain began to wonder if starving himself to death would make the time back in Aer last at least a tiny bit longer, whenever it was his magic would allow him to visit again. After all, it usually waited for them to get supplies before it sent them right back "home".

He quickly waved a hand in front of his face in an attempt to rid himself of such dark thoughts. No, he had to be there for Iskar, after all.

Ever since the Sphynx had become a part of his life, he had made it his duty to raise and take care of him and teach him everything he needed to know. The Sphynx was special and he was well aware of this. Normally animals couldn't speak, aside of the Elementals, but Iskar had no issue with learning speech. They usually weren't capable of using magic either, but Iskar had his own odd abilities that could shift gravity for those who it surrounded.

He remembered Lepori being desperate to get their paws on him as well, but he had managed to steal him away right in front of their whiskers.

Sometimes, Whisper felt like that this must be his purpose, to make sure Iskar grows up safely and with enough knowledge. For whatever reason the universe had put in place for this to happen.

And sometimes, it was the only thing that still truely kept him going.

Staring at the cover of the book he was holding once more, he let the pages roll over his fingertips, trying to remember how far he had read it to Iskar yet. The creature enjoyed stories with kids, like he was, who were brave and adventurous, like he thought he was.

For what he could tell, the tales he had chosen for Iskar were all about young people, growing over the course of their adventure and becoming wiser through their experience. They were perhaps not the most childfriendly things he could be reading to him, but then again, life was harsh sometimes.

How else would Iskar learn of concepts that only existed in Aer? Things such as loss, trauma, coping and coming out as a better person on the other side? To him, such lessons were important.

Iskar, was important.

He arose as he laid the book back onto the shelf he had taken it from. Perhaps the Sphynx was a bit calmer now and he personally felt like he might have been too harsh with him. Raising an intelligent pet like him was not easy. Social interactions, let alone with children, were more a burden than a blessing, but he couldn't deny that Iskar still meant a lot to him.

If even because of the mere fact that he was the only company he had.

His first destination was a secluded corner in the bottom floor of the library, dimly lit with crystal lamps that Whispers magic let glow ever so slightly brighter as he passed by them, waving his hand across their form. The area in question was littered with little plush animals, a few cardboard boxes, pillows and their casings and some easy to read books that he was just as much allowed to scribble in, along with a sheer endless amount of papers and wax crayons in a rainbow of colors.

Drawing was one of the Sphynxs passions, despite him not being particularly good at it. His little cruddy drawings littered the walls and parts of the floor, some more colorful than others.

To Whisper however, a creative mind shouldn't be held down by whether or not it was talented, but by how much passion one had for what one was doing.

Most of the drawings were of him and Whisper playing or learning together, others were about how the creature had been taught to use his odd magic or were from the stories he had once told him. One of them stuck out in particular, with Iskar riding the blue, winged Unicorn. Whisper couldn't help but smile, knowing that the animal in question probably wouldn't like that idea too much.

But then again, maybe he had changed by now.

"Iskar?" he called as he made his way back up a spiral staircase. If he wasn't in his drawing corner, he probably was sleeping in some crevice again and that would take ages to find. Whisper reminded himself to aqquire more boxes the next time they got out. Setting those up had proven to make him easier to spot, given that he enjoyed resting and playing in them.

After what could have been several minutes to an hour, he gave up on his search, certain now that Iskar probably had laid down in some impossible to reach spot and was sleeping out his frustration.

He could feel his throat scratching anyway, so much nothing happening that it had made him thirsty. Water, while a limited ressource in the void, was something he always made sure to have plenty of, at least when it came to drinking. Entering the kitchen once more, he looked for one of the rosy tinted bottles he had set up, but as his fingers readied to free it from the cork that held it closed, his eyes caught a piece of paper on the kitchen table that hadn't been there before.

On it, Iskars hard to decipher handwriting had been scribbled all over.

Whisper felt the bottle slipping as he managed to understand their meaning, his palms growing sweaty and his face pale.

"ISKAR IS LOOCKING FOR THE PERSON. HE HAS TO SAFE HIM."

The tiredness and boredum that had plagued the Elanthra the entire morning had left him in an instant, his legs trembling as he now began to blame himself for not paying better attention. He could have prevented this or at least already be out there, searching for the Sphynx.

He did not even bother to change out of his pyjamas, quickly waving a hand over the crystal of one of his clocks once more.

Ten thirty.

Iskar could already be dead. Consumed by the void, never to be seen again, or perhaps worse.

He raced out as fast as his legs would carry him, scanning the area around the house for the animal.

"Iskar! Are you here?!"

Why hadn't he kept an eye out for such an event? Then again, he had trusted that Iskar would never actually go out all on his own. He never had before.

The red grass that surrounded his small, castle-like house, crushed with the sound of broken glass beneath his hooves, as magenta particles sparked forth from each step.

The green tinted sky soon faded to white as the distance to his home grew, even the moon vanishing out of sight.

His stride slowed to a halt.

He was nearing the edge of the area he knew was safe, staring into the distant horror that was the Void.

It had already changed its appearance from what it had looked like earlier, a vast structure of thick web slowy faded into existence, convulsing like snake in deep pain as it spanned over the floor as far as he could see. The holes in said net were a flat plane of no color he could pinpoint with no texture he could recognise, droplets of what he assumed was perhaps a form of water being pushed out, before dripping back into and through said plane without any sort of sound. There was no real physics in place, each drop acting as if following a set plan of movement, as if animated into motion by incapable hands.

Carefully, he raised a hoof, placing it ever so lightly upon the net, his ears being met with the sound that resembled a horrible, wet squelch as if someone was giving up their stomachs insides. Despite it otherwise being sturdy to stand on, he could feel his body already sweating as his bowels twisting uncomfortably from the sounds alone.

He knew, that if he wanted to cross the voids perils, he would have to be quick, so that the net actually was still there to walk across.

All he did now however, is question why it had to make any noise at all.  He knew that some things in the void did not bother to have any sort of sound attached to them, so why did this have to?

He wasn't even sure this would lead him to Iskar, but he couldn't just wait and see if the Sphynx would end up coming back on his own.

It took his entire willpower to set his other leg onto the net, that bubbled up that horrible sound once more.

As nimbly as he could manage, he began to dash across it, his ears folding back as every step invoked the urge for him to puke up his breakfast again. His only hope being, that it would end at some point.

Just as he took his next step, his hoof met with nothing and he was flung downwards, phasing through the net that he clearly could still see, holding his breath as he expected to meet the surface of some form of liquid, but the sensation never arrived. His eyes darted open as he could suddenly sense the air taking the form of damp, wet stones, every breath feeling like they were scraping against his lungs gently in an uncomfortable yet oddly relaxing experience.

He shook his head as his nostrils gasped for actual air, his arms flailing about but feeling like their motions were being heavily limited.

As his eyes wandered, he could see thin strings cutting through his entire body, thousands of them gleaming in the light of nothing and hanging from what appeared to be the underside of the plane.  A mess of tangles and lines that felt like they could strip him of his life at any moment. Allthough there was no pain and no blood, the visuals alone made Whisper scream out the last bit of his air and he attempted to roll himself out of it, the wires snapping soundlessly as if they were trying to respond to his distress.

He never landed however.

Instead, he found himself suddenly standing in a area of what appeared to be smooth, blue, square rocks layered over each other like someone attempting to make a village, holes carved into them randomly, like tiny windows and doors. Despite their smoothness, their texture was like that of a fine sponge, with this ever so slight hint of fleshyness as some pulsated occasionally.

Quickly, his arms felt over his body as he took in deep breaths, expecting to meet with loose string or the holes they had buried through his body, but there was nothing.

He was still perfectly intact.

Still, his knees gave in as he shuddered, slowly collapsing to the floor as his arms gripped around himself in hopes to find comfort. As thankful he was for the solidness of this area and the silence that radiated throughout it, he felt like he had been consumed by the void already. There was no telling where he was or if he would ever find Iskar before something actually horrible happened to his body or he was dissolved along with his environment.

"I-Is this it? Is this what it all was leading up to?" he muttered to himself as he could feel his fur bristle and his stomach churn, "What was I thinking, running into the void like this..?"

He lifted his hand, staring at it fear and anger, giving it a shake as he pressed air through his teeth "If I ever needed a portal, now would be the time..! Do something! Bring me to Iskar!"

The hand didn't respond, leaving him in silence. His hopes began to sink as he let his gaze drop to the floor. This was his end, he was sure of it.

Suddenly, a sharp, distorted noise sliced through the thick air like a dagger, immediately gripping ahold of his attention. His ears were unable to truely pinpoint what it was, but he swore that among it, he heard the Sphynxes quiet meow.

His crawl from the floor swayed into a careful stand, as he hurried in the direction he assumed it had come from. As far as his eyes could see, the blueish "buildings" stretched out into nothingness, forming white paths between them, going up and downhill, lights shining from some of them but extinguishing the moment he approached.

There simply was no sky, just whiteness above him as well, making the place feel even bigger and emptier than it already was.

The noise, now closer, echoed through the walls, as most of the blocks around it reacted with a gentle pulse themselves.

He squinted.

On top of one of the squares stood... something, on all four. Clad in an erratic darkness, sharp, needle-like fur shone prismatic at its tips, but it did not seem constant as parts flew off of it like smoke. Glowing, flat red disks formed what appeared to be eyes, long ears rotating as if it was hearing sounds he could not.

A pastel, multicolored rainbow of a thick substance trickled down from its stomach, all the way up to the edges of its mouth and while it resembled a canine, there was still a lot on this thing that just seemed.. off.

Its head turned, natural and yet like a painfully slow stop motion play, before it tilted it nearly ninety degrees towards Whisper. A low rumble began to escape from it, the colorful slime bubbling and flowing from its snout, long strings of drool floating into the air before they evaporated into smoke.

The Elanthra couldn't help but stare at this thing, frozen on spot, his heart beating so loud the buildings around him appeared to respond by imitating its rythm. Had Iskar been right? Was this, the "person" he had seen? Though its movements were clunky and erratic, it was closer to anything living the void had ever shown to be capable of making before.

Whisper shook as he felt words forming in the air, as if he could see letters of a foreign language invisibly around him. His ears taking in impressions he would usually only be capable of witnessing through his eyes, his eyes feeling the low vibrations from the creatures chest. The beast just stared at him, unmoving and unblinking, but he swore it was trying to communicate, trying to etch a message to him into midair. He could feel his brain starting to hurt as all his senses began to take in  things they shouldn't be, his skin replying to the cold vibrations of sound, his nose taking in the soft feeling of fuzzy and wet drops of rain.

It was like this thing was crushing his brain, as his mind tried to free itself from things it just couldn't understand.

His face was suddenly brushed by nothing, but the sensation was that of Iskars rough fur and tiny wings.

Then, as if that had been all it wanted to do, the air was once more silent and his senses once more his own, his breath flat and frightened as he stared at the floor. His heart felt like it would rip out of his chest in terror at any moment, pounding mercilessly.

The square buildings around him no longer moved, their spongey skin now overlaid with  a sickly tint of grey, their structure appearing to be slightly molten and their perfect edges now slanted and wet.

Still, he couldn't stop shivering. He still was under the impression that the floor was moving, the words he had saw burnt into his mind, though he could not truely see them or grasp how they sounded or even what they meant. He dreaded to look up to the beast again, yet, he still dared.

It was gone.

Where it had been, a bright, yellow path had been cut, not taking care if it sliced the structures open or if it dug a trench in one of the many lanes. The innards of the objects was revealed to be fine arrangement of hard webs, yellowish-red and umoving like flesh colored bone, leaving no room within besides a few small gaps. Despite the outer parts slowly melting away, the insides did not appear to be effected, simply ceasing to exist rather than decaying alongside their shells.

At the end this newly created passage, one of the squares stood, its sides still proudly straight, its hue brighter blue than the rest had been and a large enough part missing in it to give him entry if he so wished.

A spec of oddly out of place order in an otherwise chaotic world.

Had this thing truely been alive? Sentient? He could still feel the chills that its voice gave him, if he could even call what that had been a voice. Letters or words that it had sputtered wildly roaming about in his mind, things his eyes had heard and ears had seen.

It was a blend of his unability to understand and how the world had treated him so far that forced him back to his knees.

He just.. needed a moment. A moment to make his world stop spinning.

"I-I can't believe.. this is happening..." he shook his head, his hands covering his face, "I can't.. what even IS happening?"

The Elanthra tried to think of something more pleasant to calm his mind. Better times, long ago, back in Aer. Back when everything wasn't perfect, but good enough.

He couldn't even recall how long he hadn't seen his home, his last memories of it being of the kingdoms fall.

His head shook once more, trying to rip himself out of his thoughts again. Every moment he stood here, he risked his death. He risked Iskars death.

He finally managed to stand up, breathing in deeply.

The buildings around him appeared to now almost fully gone, goopy puddles of their former selves all around him.

A sense of fear tingled through his spine. Maybe this place was about to vanish again.

In a hurry, he ran down the yellow path, towards the blue structure, stopping only as he finally got near it. The "doorway" of it, was blocked by the same hardened web the others had sported, but his determination to still somehow get through it made him slip a hand into it anyhow.

And through it.

It had looked as hard as stone, but it was in fact soft and mushy, letting his hands easily dig through it. The sensation as it met the skin was like that of moldy pumpkin, but he couldn't let that distract him as he buried a path through the mass.

After a few seconds, he finally could see something behind it coming into view. It was pitch blackness, and a brief moment of the Sphynx walking off into the distance.

"Iskar!" he shouted, shoveling away the last bit of the thick web, before his hooves once more lost halt and he actually fell this time.

He could feel something plush breaking his fall, as it stabbed right through his stomach.

A spike with incredibly soft edges had pierced through his middle, breaking his body in two, as both parts plummeted to a lower canyon with him screaming wildly. His face was met with black dust that poofed around his face, leaving him spotless however as it settled once more, flickering in thousands of colors.

With no pain from his stomach, he spun around, to find his lower body still attached properly and let out a discomforted noise of distress. The void kept trying to kill him and he managed to survive so far at least, but he wasn't appreciating any of the things he was having to go through. He scrambled to his feet quickly however, hoping that wherever he was, it was near the Sphynx.

"I-Iskar...?" he called out, looking up the chasms walls, their sides a solid black that reflected everything around him. Eveything, but him.

"MRAU? WHISPER?"

Iskar pawed against the inside of the dark walls, looking out at Whisper with a tilt of his head.

"How did you..", the Elanthra was about to ask how he had gotten in there, but it dawned upon him that Iskar probably did not even know himself. He looked around swiftly, hoping to find a rock he could use in order to bust the mirror wall open with, but unfortuanally, there was not a single piece of debris lying around.

"IS WHISPER OKAY?"

He shrieked as the sound was suddenly right next to him, Iskars yellow eyes staring up at him from his hoovetips. Frantically, his eyes darted from the Sphynx, to the wall where he too did not have a reflection, then back to the Sphynx, "But..?!"

"MRAU?" Iskar tilted his head in confusion.

Whisper was sure he was going insane, but didn't bother to question it any longer, scooping the critter up in his arms with a whirl, before hugging him tightly, "Do not ever do such a thing again!" he scolded, but his voice was too relieved to show any true anger.

Iskar let out a few purrs, happy to see the Elanthra as well, "BUT ISKAR IS OKAY!"

"I know.. I just.. we need to get out of here and go back home!" Whisper insisted, his eyes darting around for a way to flee from this hell, as he wasn't entirely sure on how they would even make a journey back again.

"NO!" Iskar began to wriggle out of his arms once more, "ISKAR HASN'T-"

"I saw the person, Iskar." Whisper interupted him, his gaze wandering right back to the critter, "I believe you and know he exists. But I think.. I think the void is his home."

"IT IS?" the spynx took in a raspy breath, his little mind wrapping itself around this new fact.

"He.. talked to me. And told me where you were. But the way he looked and spoke.. I believe firmly that he actually belongs here."

"THEN ISKAR DOESN'T HAVE TO SAVE HIM?" the kitten asked, gripping his own face with his tiny paws, "MRAU!"

"No.. no, we don't have to save him." the Elanthra replied with a tired huff, happy to finally have convinced Iskar that they could now finally head home.

His hoof suddenly slipped back as his tail tip, despite being just being the hairy tuft, feeling the sensation of burning.

Whisper spotted the ground slowly vanishing into a thin grid, chips of what appeared to be rock rumbling away beneath their feet. Without taking even so much as a second to properly process this, the Elanthra held on to the Sphynx for his dear life and started to run down the only path the canyon offered.

It was vanishing and he didn't want to end up being a part of this. He had found Iskar.

This wasn't the time to die now.

He heard the Sphynx panicking but just tightend his grip to ensure he wouldn't lose him.

"Magic, please, I need.. something! A portal preferably!" he yelled out.

Again, he got no reply.

Suddenly, he was halted by the path before him ending in a pale nothingness. He was trapped, unsure if to just leap into the void before him or risk coming in contact with what was dissolving his surroundings behind him.

Before he could make his choice however, his eyes met with two red disks.

The creature of the void stood on nothing in front of him, its fine claws gripping into midair as it stared at him.

"IT'S THE PERSON!" Iskar yapped out, Whisper nodding simply as he shook, his ears already folding back as he prepared for his senses to be assaulted once more.

Within the flash of a second, the beast suddenly was wrapping itself around him, the goo dripping from its insides squishing against his fur and mane, feeling oddly warm and firm, its claws pinching where they poked into his skin, rendering him unable to move.

His ears could hear the deep, ominous hum of the creature once more filling the air.

He felt his hooves slip again, as there was barely anything around him left to stand on.

Screeching into existence, the same letters and words began to surround them, visible only by his ears, the deafening noise making his brain hurt again.

Until, layered under all the tunes and buzzes, he heard something he could finally recognise.

"BrING... HoMe.... bE .... SAfE."

Words in his language. Words he could understand.

He felt his being dissolve painlessly into nothing, before the sound of a shattered window and crushed glass ripped his eyes open again.

Whisper was laying on the red grass that surrounded his house, Iskar still in his arms, the Spynx blinking in severe confusion over what had just happened. He sat up, shivering as he looked all over his pyjamas for even a splatter of rainbow colored slime, but found them to be spotless.

Had anything just actually happened? Had it been a dream?

Life.. didn't really exist out here, did it?

As he prepared to rise again, he spotted something in the distance.

Two glowing red disks, locked on him as the beasts nose dipped briefly, before it rushed off into the void and disappeared.

"MRAU. I THINK YOU WERE RIGHT."

Iskar waved a paw at the beasts departure, sighing sadly as he hung in the Elanthras arms.

"Of course I was..." he absentmindly answered, the words it had spoken still lingered in Whispers mind. How had it even known any of them in his language?

He felt ashamed that he not been able to thank this creature for saving them form certain doom, though he hoped it still knew that he was eternally grateful.

How it had even done it, he'd probably never be able to explain, but it had to be alive.

Thousands of new questions hurried into his brain. Was it alone? Where their more? What even was it and how did it manage to interact with its surroundings the way it did?

He would have to write about this, keep it secured in a book, lock every scrap of knowledge onto paper.

New life sparked in the depths of his soul, giving him yet another new purpose to follow. A book about the Void. Why not? After all, he didn't seem to have any of those.

He cradled Iskars in his arms with a smile, the Spynx letting out a tired hum, and made his way back to his house. The kitten would need his rest and hopefully had at least learned a lesson as well. Namely to not just run into the Void if you aren't sure that what you saw in the Void, doesn't actually belong there or not. Or just generally to not run into the Void.

He still smiled regardless, happy that they were safe and happy to have actually met someone else out there.

To know, that it actually existed and they weren't perfectly alone.

To know of life in the void.