// tw: death, gore

Darkness. Everything around him was darkness; a pitch black void, a chamber of shadows with no end.

Titan took a few steps forward into this e n d l e s s dreamscape, the sound of his paws ( echoing ) around him. He turned his great head—slowly—and surveyed the darkness before him. It was quiet — too quiet. Why was he here? Surely he was here for a reason; dreams usually weren't static like this.

However, it was just him and him only — or at least that's what he thought.

"Titan?"

His breath caught in his throat, nearly choking him right then and there. Titan froze immediately, not one muscle moving, not even that of his bushy-tipped tail. That voice... it was familiar; hauntingly familiar. It was a voice he hadn't heard in quite a long time.

The lion hesitated. "Caelum... ?"

Standing before him was a young lion, even younger than he was—his training partner from cubhood. His cheeks were fluffy and his brilliant, golden eyes were flecked with mocha. He was a fine-looking cub; he would remain like this for eternity.

"Titan, is that you?" The boy asked, wide-eyed and just as confused as Titan was. He could only vaguely recognize his senior; Titan had obviously grown from cubhood. Caelum, on the other hand, had remained the same since his passing. That also spurred another question to enter his mind — was this a vision? Was this just a dream?

The elder lion shakily nodded his head, padding forward towards the cub, his glowing amber eyes like two beacons in the dimness. "It's... it's me." What did Caelum have to say to him, he wondered. Perhaps he had come here for a reason. Why he in particular was the messenger was a mystery to him; they hadn't known each other too well, after all. They had not been close friends. They had trained together, with Caelum always being the more weak-willed of the pair.

However, Caelum's next words led Titan to be even more confused. The youngling did not bear a prophecy, foretelling of his coming greatness, any upcoming heroic feats, or his impending d o o m . He did not have a message from his presumably deceased family or mentors, or any other members of their pride for that matter. All the boy said was, "I'm sorry for being so weak." He gulped over a lump in his throat, and he began to chew on his lips in order to suppress any sobs or tears from flowing down his freckled cheeks. "I was so weak... and scared." Caelum told Titan, who had said nothing so far. What could he say to him? He could not find the words. All he could do was just look down at the cub, utter pity thawing onto his masculine features.

He wanted to tell him that he had felt the same, that he had been scared too. He had—

The ground beneath them had begun to rumble like a herd of wildebeest, thunder like a raging storm, pound like the beat of a war drum. Both looked from their paws to the scape around them, their heart rates racing and their confusion building rapidly. "What's happening, Titan?!" Cried the younger lion.

Titan gritted his teeth together, ears pinning and footing shifting so that he could steady himself on the unstable ground. "I don't know-"

Then appeared the antagonist. It was a fellow lion, though an ungodly size and stature, [sup]towering[/sup] over them by several feet. Its eyes were without pupils, though you could've sworn that they were burning into your own soul. Its fur possessed no color, only a dark ash- nearly blending in with the rest of the dreamscape.

Titan and Caelum held firm, their wide-eyes staring up and meeting their doom. The older lion dug his claws into the ground, quickly contemplating what to do next, when the beast had suddenly lunged forward — not at him, but at the cub. Titan froze again, holding his breath as mighty jaws wrapped around Caelum's neck and dagger-like canines poked into the flesh. An audible squeak rang out before a snap deadened it, and his golden body fell [sub]limp[/sub] in the monster's hold. It tossed him aside like garbage, rasping its tongue over rows of bloodstained teeth.

The male stepped back, jaws slightly agape at what he had just witnessed. He took a glance at Caelum's limp shell, his eyes voids and his tears tainting the pool of crimson surrounding his neck. Titan tensed and looked back up at the killer.

And, in that moment, he was eight months old once more.

A gut feeling of vulnerability, fear of the unknown, and faux bravery stirred within him as he stared down the beast. It quickly lunged for him too, awakening Titan with a jolt and ultimately ending the dream. He gasped for breath, almost certain that his neck would've been snapped by now as well. He reached up and smoothed the sweat-plastered fur on his throat, his heart pounding, and he took some deep breaths to ensure that he calmed down.

Titan sighed, shaking his head and looking down at his bedding. That had been the first dream of its kind, and it had all felt so real. Even the ending, where Caelum been killed right in front of his very eyes. The memory still burned into his brain like it was yesterday. Had that been the spirit of Caelum, visiting him in his dreams? Or had this simply been a flashback of his past, a sign that it was trying to catch up with him?

The lion huffed through his nostrils and he settled back down into his bed, amber eyes staring at the wall of his room. Was it even worth going back to sleep?

Eventually, his eyelids had drooped shut, sending him back into the stormy depths of slumber.

// exactly 1k words!! this was for the halloween event.
basically, titan has a dream in which caelum, a cub he knew in childhood, visits him. a great beast attacks caelum, killing him on the spot, and he lunges for titan when he wakes up in the dead of night. it's just a small look into titan's past.