Phobos Stories

Phobos stared at the rock and felt a gaze in his pelt that made his skin crawl. But the deeper he looked into the beautiful, green stone, the more he began to realize what he felt was a reflection of himself. The voices had turned quiet now, as if they didn't dare destroy this moment with any sound. Courtly and without thinking about it twice, the hob grabbed the rock and ran towards a close by river to clean it first. It took a while to get all the dirt off the rough surface, but when he was done, the stones color was even better visible. Now he wanted to cut and polish it, to make the stone perfect, but didn't quite know where to start. Phobos used a claw to scratch the surface of the mineral and noticed it was a rather soft stone, so there was no force needed to achieve his goals. He checked the riverbank for a smooth stone to use as a whetstone and, after a little search, discovered a hard, round pebble. The voices were urging him on and he didn't want to waste any time.

The piebald wedged the Amazonite in between some other rocks in a shallow part of the river, so it wouldn't get washed away, then proceeded to use the smooth stone to treat the gift he received from his brother with. He sat there for hours, smoothing the surface of the stone, using sand and water to polish it later, until he managed to turn the green rock into a perfectly round ball. He looked at it with satisfaction and for once he ignored the voices commentary on it. But now Phobos wondered what to do with it. The gemstone was so pretty, he didn't want to risk losing it by leaving it in his den where it could be stolen or similar. He took one of the riverbank stones and threw it onto another one until it split into many different shards. one was rather long and pointy and he used it as a tool to drill a hole into the Amazonite. This was very tricky, as the green and white hob was scared he might destroy the rock, but he treated it carefully and managed to succeed after all. He grabbed the rock and ran back into the depths of the jungle, looking for some vines, which he found easily. He rolled multiple vines into one rope and put it through the rock, then tied it around his neck. Despite the white streaked mineral orb now being smaller than before, it still felt a little heavy, but he didn't mind that, because it made him feel grounded and proud. All the hard work had been worth it, he knew that, despite the voices telling him it's not good enough. 

On the inside Phobos felt he wanted to show the gem to someone specific, and something seemed to drag him to the faceless Salikos, but he didn't know why and wouldn't dare setting foot into their camp again...at least not that soon. So he walked back to his den where Huacapuran was already waiting.

«You looked different back there.»

«What do you mean?»

«At the clearing. There was something else in your eyes than when you had your first seizure. What changed?»

Phobos shrugged his shoulders, he had no clue what his older brother meant.

«Either way, I think you're doing progress. Maybe you should check by from time to time.»

«I don't trust them, they're menacing! They want to hurt me, I'm sure of it. Their claws are digging into my brain whenever they look at me!»

Now Huacas eyes lit up and the edge of his mouth twitched for a second.

«Then don't let them get inside. Claw them back, show them you're stronger than them!»

«But I'm not! No matter what I do or where I go, they're always stalking me, hunting me, even in my dreams.»

«Don't mistake your power, Phobos. Your dreams are the safest place, they can never hurt you there. Let them unwind, don't struggle. Dream with confidence and change the dreams to your bidding. You'll see you will feel more powerful when you awake.»

The piebald thought about that for a while and then nodded, more to himself than the full maned Saliko.

«If you think that's a good idea, then I'll try it.»

«Very well. Keep me informed about how that works out for you then.»

«Sure.»

A quarter-moon went by and Phobos tried his best to fight his nightmares, but in the beginning they simply overwhelmed him. He was drenched in sweat every time, tossing and turning until he jolted awake, feeling more tired than before. Every time he closed his eyes he told himself what he saw wasn't real or...at least that it couldn't hurt him. Because to him it seemed real enough.

That night he dreamt he was walking through a dark forest. There were small puddles everywhere and the rain was soaking him to the bone. Then, all of a sudden, he felt a hit on his head and as a little trickle of warm blood ran down his face, the smell of copper in the air, time froze. The raindrops didn't move anymore, but when he walked through them, they scattered on his pelt like a thousand little diamonds. He looked around and saw lights glowing in the forest all around him, but it took him a while to realize those lights were glowing eyes, all staring at him. They were hungering for him, ready to tear him apart. Fear shook his body and he tried running away, but despite his limbs moving, his body remained where it was, yet the creatures slowly crawled closer. In the midst of them he saw a Saliko standing there, looking at him with closed eyes. While Phobos was studying the strange hob, he noticed how it was warping and changing, growing feathers and horns until it was hardly recognizable anymore. A shiver was running down Phobos' spine and he felt himself shrinking until he was no more...