4. Trent Phoebe{ManxMan}

•CHAPTER 1

Present day

I remember a dream I used to have when I was young. A dream of darkness with threads of shining light, each thread was different in its own way, colour or feel and one always called out to me, one always seemed to scream for my attention.

It was brighter than the rest and in each dream I'd go towards it and I'd touch it and I'd end up in a hallway of shimmering white and one door. The door was always locked and behind it I could always hear crying until one day. That dream came the night before it happened. Like always I went for that shining screaming thread and I was in the hallways of shimmering white and I held the door handle, it opened, easily without fight and beyond it I saw him.

He was haunched over a cauldron, he was sobbing and through this image alone, I felt all things at once. Regret, fear, lonely, hatred and even love, even joy. It was overwhelming.

I couldn't move past the threshold and I woke up before he turned to me.

In this moment I felt like my dream had come to life.

I was surrounded by darkness and I was floating, the concept of gravity seemed void here and I saw nothing. My heart was beating fast and I felt as though I was choking on air and like a switch I saw a thread, so thin and frail, it looked as though it were falling apart and I didn't care. It's light shimmered on and off like it was fading and in my panic I reached for it.

"Please," my plea was desperate and I sounded so much farther from myself.

And then it was within my grasp, the thread was cold and the scent of mud was heavy around me and suddenly I could breath and I fell hard.

The world around me seemed to be spinning and I was coughing and gasping and rolling in mud, I stared above me to see a hole in the roof.

Where was I? This didn't smell like home.

Travis? Claude? Hello?!

My mental link felt intact, it was as though I hadn't left the pack lands, like I wasn't far from them and yet, I couldn't smell them, I couldn't sense them.

I sat up and spat the mud that got into my mouth, looking around in shock. There were horses and hay everywhere. A stable.

I heard footsteps and the creaking of an old rusted bucket and then his scent. I froze at the familiar scent that triggered my childhood, a scent preserved in one room of the pack house where nobody, not even myself was allowed in.

Boots covered in mud met my vision and my lips parted, my eyes trailing up over ragged pants and a shirt with a few holes in and then-

"Dad?" My voice croaked and my eyes burned staring up at the youthful face of Elijah. His eyes were so blue and yet the glint I'd seen in his pictures, the little knowing smirk that always seemed to linger was not there and instead, his eyes held a deep dullness.

"Who're you?" His voice was low, soft and empty, nothing like how I'd ever have thought it would be. He looked down at his bucket, adjusting it then back up at me. I looked around myself in confusion and focused back on him.

He was small, I realised as I went to stand, shorter than me but also just so small.

"T-Trent. I'm Trent."

I took a step back, his aura strong and overwhelming, the power that radiated off him was more than I had even thought, more than what I remembered. My father stared at me, his eyes travelling over me as mine did his.

His face was gaunt, his cheeks sunken in and his hair short and black. I saw his cheeks dust pink and looked down only to cover myself suddenly.

I didn't know where I was, or rather when I was but I had arrived naked.

"I-im sorry! I j-"

"You should leave before your caught trespassing. Nobody is allowed back here but me." He said looking away from me, frowning.

My heart skipped at his profile and I wondered for a moment how far this dream would go.

"I... I have nowhere to go." I found myself saying instead and he looked at me. He stared into my eyes for a long time, his brows furrowed as his head tilted and he winced. He reached for the side of his head and he shook it a little.

"Let me feed the horses, then I'll get you a bath and some clothes," he frowned looking at me. "Then you should go."

I spent a few minutes watching him move from horse to horse. Petting their heads and staring longingly at them, he was not the man I had seen from Theodore's eyes, not the one in the pictures and the stories other pack members had to give, this version was sad and...dare I say, lonely.

He came to me then, abandoning the bucket and not sparing a glance. I followed aware of how naked and muddy I was.

I entered into what looked like a shop, it had all kinds of equipment, mostly for farming and it hadn't opened, I assumed. There was a door he opened and I entered behind him and there was a bed and a fire going, he looked at me then and grabbed a bucket.

"Wait here."

He left and I looked around the dark and humid room. The bed was covered in furs mostly, his scent was all over the place. There wasn't a single personal item, like a book, or a photo, wait, were there photos around this time? What time am I even in?

I felt frustrated and lost and he came back with a bucket of hot water and poured it into a bigger bucket and my eyes widened realising there wasn't plumbing.

"Er-"

"One more bucket," he scanned me, "you should be clean enough with one more."

"Right." I blinked and he left, returning with another full bucket and an empty one. He gave me a bar of soap and I sniffed. It was strong and made of eucalyptus, I cringed wondering how my skin would react with this concentrated mix.

He left then after setting some clothing on the bed. I got to washing myself, feeling relief as grime after grime disappeared from my body.

I wondered why he didn't use magic, he could have summoned hot water without having to leave this room.

I dressed in a shirt and pants and boots of leather. When I left the room he was in the shop, staring out the now open door, alone.

"El-" I paused and thought, he didn't know me, or even show recognition, I most definitely was not home, at least, not in my time and he never gave me his name. "I'm done."

He stood wordlessly and got my buckets, he went outside and I followed him with the other bucket. He used the water to water plants and I cringed.

"You should be on your way then."

"I..." He was walking away from me now and I ran after him. "I never got your name." I decided to say.

"You won't need it." He was at a well now getting water which he was using to rince the buckets.

"You can't know that."

"I know that."

"How? Did you see it?" He paused in his movements and continued. "Why aren't you using magic?"

He froze then, his back went still and his breathe hitched. "What?"

"Magic, I know your a caster."

His face turned to me then, his was pale, as white as a sheet and his eyes were wide staring at me in what I could only smell as fear. He stood, the buckets tumbling over and stepped back, his hands raised, palms facing me as his breathing picked up and his heart threatened to jump from his chest.

"Woah!"

A\N
Written: 26 January 2022