Seir- Nightmares

You were having a nightmare. You often did, especially soon after you had left your past life behind. You thought it was just because of what had happened when you were escaping, your time before, the emotional stress alone having done a number on you. 

Seir let you keep believing that. They lay, in their animal form, watching you twitch in your sleep, a thin blanket wrapped tightly around yourself. You were still several days walk away from your destination and you weren’t able to exactly travel in luxury. Your night terrors had been getting worse too. They might have felt guilty about that, but they couldn’t bring themself to. No, it was needed. After all, Seir still had the sulfurs of their home still coating their new body, it would be a while till it was dusted off. Also, even though their very presence brought on most night terrors, they wanted to keep near. Head tucked under your hand, their keen eyes picking up your erratic pulse. It had been too long since they had sat like this with a master. And it had been such a short time that these days Seir had discounted those few days. It only brought a twinge to their black heart and cruelty from their peers. Rightfully, however. 

They had been added to a list of demons that had the shortest time with a new Witch. They couldn’t even keep them alive for a week. Just a brief glimpse of the mortal world before they had dissolved into ash and sent back home. They had failed their own kindred, and they couldn’t bear to face them. 

Seir slowly closed their eyes, their new eyes, and focused on your heartbeat. They needed to be close, to hear it. His former master hadn’t been afraid. Not until right at the end. They sometimes could think back to that time, their head, smaller, in the form of a younger animal to match their own young age, pressed against their calf, as they held another rapidly aging animal to their chest. Tears streamed down their face as the fire burned brighter, harsher, with each second, as a woman’s echoing screams were cruelly cut off and they gave a sob at the noise. 

You kicked out your leg, jostling the blanket and Seir reopened their moon eyes, giving you a squint. They should probably go prowling, scare a drunken passerby or two, instead of enjoying the feeling of their tail against your warm body, wishing to stay right here. They should test the limit of this form, gauge what it means that this is what you’ve chosen for a part of your combined souls to inhabit. But also…

Their shape began to morph, their small spine cracking as it elongated before it dissolved into nothing, body growing, growing, growing until… Their other form. 

If anyone looked in, they would see two humans, tucked tight in a tiny bed, one fast asleep, one resting their sinewy, pale fingers against the other’s pulse in their wrist. Long black hair fanned across their shoulders, moon eyes staring, unblinking, as their unnaturally smooth, marble-like face watched the other sleep. 

Your nightmares didn’t fade, and Seir simply spent the night pressed tight against your side, humming a tune that had not been heard for a number of years.