The male was silent as he slid his little barge silently through the water. A cloth now covered over his muzzle to hide his face and make it harder for him to breathe in the ash that still lingered in the air. The entirety of the surface of the water was black. His pole stained from the ash and fish and other wildlife floated dead and bloated. The only semi colourful thing in this world, and it was ruined by death and decay. Many of the things dead for days, or even weeks. There more things dead, sick, or dying then there were things to eat them. Layers of slime, half rotted carcasses bobbing up and down... surely there was a world of the dead, and he had somehow ended up within it. Still, he fished out what he could. What was the most freshly dead, what wasn't yet bloated and rotting. It was hard work, but he needed to eat, preferably with as little chance of dying as possible. He had already survived this long, he didn't want to keel over now.

He looked to the sky with a sad, forlorn look. Still the thick smoke seemed to linger in the air. The fire and flames seemed to have disappeared, the fires that had laughed the forests and swamps now long burnt out and disappeared, but the smoke hadn't yet dissipated. As if the world itself still smoldered and wanted to keep them all trapped in darkness. Still the sky remained dark, regardless of what the time of day it was. He wondered idly if the dark might ever lift. If he was now doomed to be in an eternal darkness and see nothing of the true sky once more. Like dark hands trying to cover and choke the life right out of the very planet itself. He had never before been one to be superstitious about much of anything. Even in worshiping the moon. As far as he was concerned it was just another thing bringing light from sky. Like the sun, or the stars. He had never seen any proof of it being anything of a deity or something worthy of praise. 

Even so, he wished nothing more then the see the moon once more. A blink of the stars. The warm sun beating down upon his fur. He could understand why darkness and the tales of a Nightmare was becoming more prevalent. There was an eeriness to the darkness. As though it was a living, breathing thing. Something that wanted to reach out and suffocate you. To consume you and take away everything you were... Yes, as the world was now, that he could come to understand. 

He paused suddenly, turning his head as he thought he saw movement at the edge of the bank, frowning some and squinting at the bank, slowing his barge a little more to try and slow it a little more, trying to pinpoint where the movement had come from. Staring along the edge he frowned a little as his eyes adjusted, seeing the outline of... something. What was it? A toskal? No... it was far too large for that of a toskal surely? His eyes widening as she shadow only seemed to be getting larger... it had been crouching?! Toskal eyes glinted in the dark, meeting with Bards as a shiver went down his spine and his mouth felt suddenly dry. 

Of all the stories... of all the tales. Never had he thought the great beast of the stories and tales to be real.... and yet... and yet there it... there HE was. Staring at him from across the bank, slowly prowling along the bank of the lake with the barge. A predator stalking its prey, waiting for the right time to strike. A predator that seemed to have all the time in the world.. He was surprisingly quiet for something of such large size, which only seemed to make him all the more terrifying. Now, seeing the creature, he could understand the stories and tales that were told of him. Of the monster made of shadows that left no one alive... though surely he must otherwise where would such takes come from? But for him to REAL? He never would have thought it so. 

Perhaps he was imagining him? He had finally cracked under the situation and now he was seeing monsters where there were none... But he certainly looked real. The Nightmare moving branches and stepping over fallen trees, or the now cold and no longer hot liquid fire. No longer burning and dead... was he going to die? It certainly seemed that that would be the case if he went to the edge of the lake. He didn't doubt for a moment that those black claws could tear him apart with no trouble at all. He was no warrior, and if the tales were true, Nightmare had killed hoards of warriors more skilled then he. Yet even with knowing all that... 

"If you are looking for an easy kill you do better to hunt someone else." he called to the other, the creature pausing a moment to look at him, looking to the water a moment and then to Bard... was he truly a toskal? Or was he something else? Something that could traverse over the water and come and claim in within a few seconds. His heart jumping to his throat as he saw a flash of white. A snarl? Or was it a smile. "I do not plan to die today, and if that means I remain on this boat then so be it... I am sure you will have easier meals then to wait me out!" he called. There it was. Laughter. His words had amused the beast. 

"Who said anything about eating you when I was done?" he asked curiously, the voice sending another shiver along his spine, the urge to shock hard to reign in. "You do not?" he asked, trying to hide his fear and instead entertain the beast. "Not usually." he answered, making Bard frown. "Usually?" he countered, the great beast shrugging. "Sometimes a meal is a meal." he countered. "Perhaps you should try it some time." he challenged, Bard blanching a little. "I think I will pass, thank you for the offer, however. My statements still stands. I will not make myself easy prey for you... and you've no need to kill me anyways." he called after him. 

This seemed to interest the other. "No? Whoever said I needed a reason?" he asked back... Talking to the creature of nightmares... the one who WAS those Nightmares... it was an uneasy feeling. Surreal and confusing. "I suppose not all the time, no. But if the stories of you are true, you kill those who worship the moon... I do not." he informed the mountainous alpha, still stalking him from the riverbank. "You say that now, but you wouldn't be the first to lie in order to keep their life." he pointed out.

Ahh, a brute and smart. That made him all the more dangerous then if he was just a mindless beast looking for nothing but a fight. "This is true... but then how devoted to the moon can the be if they are so willing and ready to denounce it the moment their lives are under threat?" he asked, Nightmare giving a shrug. "It proves you a coward to do so and even less worthy of your life." he pointed out, Bard humming some. "There's a coward in everyone. I'd say more so when faced with their own death in front of you." he pointed out, the melanistic alpha seeming to consider that as he scratched at his chin curiously, seeming to mull them over, before a chuckle seemed to leave him once more. "I suppose that's true." he told him simply, seeming to flex his claws rather pointedly. "And you?" he asked, eyeing him from across the water, the sound of suction coming as Nightmare's feet sank into the mud of the bank, creating small pools of water themselves every time he took another step. 

"I suppose I am afraid... It would likely be foolish not to feel at least a little fear when faced before a creature such as yourself. Something as large as you, as black as the shadows themselves... but that does mean I am going to row into my death willingly and lay myself before you as though I were some willing sacrifice. I fear, but that does not mean I won't fight." he told him simply, the black creature giving a laugh again in response to the others words. 

"I think I like you." Nightmare told him, grinning a little as he continued to follow after the other, slow and steady. "If you go back and go to the wizened old tree, there is a dead croc there that tried to make a meal out of me. It's meat is fresh, and will be less likely to poison you... Even the Darkness has kindness when the occasion calls for it." he told him, bowing his head some as though he were bestowing a gift upon the other. Bard frowned a little in contemplation, not sure weather he should trust the creatures words or not. 

Watching in silence as the great black creature stopped stalking after him and backed away from the bank of the lake, into the cover of the trees with the deep darkness, the line of his form beginning to blue once more until there were only shining eyes looking at him. Then they blinked, and the creature seemed to be gone altogether... but was he really? Was it a trap? His cynicism wanted to tell him yes, but something told him the monster was many things, but he wasn't so sure liar was one of them. He didn't seem the kind that needed to lie in order to get what he wanted or needed. It seemed to him, that for now, his life had been spared. 

A shiver went over him as a sudden breeze of cool, fresh air ghosted its way over his fur, rustling it, looking back he paused suddenly, staring up, up, up into the inky black sky. But not the black sky of ash and smoke... no, there were STARS out this night, making Bards breath hitch and catch. It was a new moon, but the stars were clear enough, blessed and longed for. His gaze suddenly turning back to where the Nightmare had been. What odd timing it was indeed... one could almost be driven to religion with just such a coincidence... almost.