04.10.08
First Memory.
His earliest memory was of cold and damp. It was not a pleasant memory, but only in a childish and simple way.
Later, as he ran from the sea, his brother’s mockery ringing in his ears, his mind flew back to that first memory, and he thought he saw a violent ocean before the memory faded again.
His worst nightmares were always of water. He was too close to it – far too close – and the gray, roiling sea was reaching up with hungry hands, eager to extinguish him. Those waves would fall back as he struggled away, only to rise again, and again, and again…
Later, while he was imprisoned, with nothing to do but sleep and work, he dreamed it often. In those later nightmares, the sea had caught him, and was holding him fast, and no matter how hard he struggled, he couldn’t get away, and it was going to drown him…
Then, after his brother and that lady helped him fly free of his prison, he fell. The sea rushed up to meet him, and he felt his old, childish fear seize his throat, and as his vision went gray something else seized him…
…And he woke to strong hands wrapped around him, and the sea too close, and as he struggled, the arms holding him tightened, and a warm voice whispered in his ear, and Weilend felt the last fragments of childhood memory pop into place, and he relaxed into his father’s arms and slept.
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