Firnspiegel

Hunter; Fisher; Insect Hunter; Macgyver

The origin of his transformation is mysterious, but what followed is not. Feeling the call of the Search intensely, he set out away from the Icefield and began to wander the land. The several seasons he spent so were adventure-filled, but frustrating. No direction or senses were apparent that might lead him to his unknown Charge, only a vague and directionless pull.

*

Until the Thundercrack Carnivale. Suddenly the draw flared to bright and directed life, blasting his vision with Cyan light and pulling him almost bodily to the south--in his location, consistent with the Shifting Expanse. It lasted minutes at most, though the direction took longer to fade. Firnspiegel sought the Winds immediately, to seek his Charge in the lands of Lightning.

*

He did not expect the Winds to cast him out. He was not injured in the fall, fortunately, so he began to walk. Some sense of direction remained to him when in the Season of Fire he crossed into the Expanse, but it faded from there into vague mist, leaving the drive strong as ever. He walked on in the same direction, hoping that it had not changed since he lost it.

*

Not long into the trek, he met a Nightsky Fuiran which began to follow him. He allowed it, and moved on. Occasional tiny, brief flares of direction came to him, and every time he quickened his pace, hoping he was getting close. Once he had the distinct sense of life, which excited him even more.

*

He continued uneventfully through the Flameforger's Festival, stopping for no celebrations and fighting only those who challenged him. He picked up a couple of embers, but used them only to start cooking-fires.

*

Early in the Season of Arcane came the undeniable sense that she was close--and with it the realization that he has unconsciously given a pronoun to his unfound Charge. It felt right, so he kept using it, and he kept walking, following the ever-more-frequent whispers of direction. Surely he will find her soon.

*

He begins to pass by the clump of scrubby bushes, but something pulls him back. It seems like any other such thicket, larger perhaps, and maybe... colder? He circled around, sniffing. He has lost some olfactory acuity when he transformed, but not enough to cause problems so far. He caught something, something familiar, but he could not place it in his memory. Still it quickened his heart rate, and he became increasingly sure that it was her.

He circled, sniffing and scanning. The first pass nothing, just the familiar scent and the sense of rightness. As he circled around again he saw her. A Fae with wings the color of the sand, perched against a trunk of one of the taller shrubs. She was watching him, fins flared, from eyes as Ice-pale as his own. His element flared through him in response, seeming not to stop at all, along with the certainty that this was her. Almost at the same time he placed the familiarity. It had been seasons and seasons since they had met--all the way back from hatchlinghood. This was his sister, the first of their nest to depart--for Cindercone, he thought? What was she doing alone in the wilds of the Shifting Expanse?

He was about to greet her, and realized he did not know her name--both of them had ben nameless when she left. He changed midstride. "Sister--do you.... remember me at all?"

The Fae frowned at him slightly. "You were a Mirror before." A pause. "Why are you here?"