***
{Inside The Projection}
Malik had returned...
To the same hill, the same night.
Before the same edge, next to the same metal pole.
The place where his victory over the king was announced to all.
Wind welcomed him with silence, and the world seemed to hold its breath.
Though only for a moment—
"Elder Brother!"
Feathers collided into his chest, wings fluttering in frantic disarray.
A black owl...
Its eyes were wide...
His tiny heart was beating fast enough to break a rib...
'His.' Right, Malik recognized the bird.
It was Sinbad.
"I… I say with no embellishment..."
He latched onto Malik with talons that trembled.
"None at all... That those ten minutes of separation felt like an eternity drawn thin."
His words were screeched in shrill panic, and yet they still somehow sounded calm.
"To be severed from your soul was a sensation most intolerable. My mind raced with every horror conceivable... I feared the very worst."
