[Silver]

It was entirely possible that Nimbus would not have noticed anything wrong if not for the strange way some of his creatures were acting. They were much more sensitive to the world than he was, so he wasn’t surprised that they were upset about something he hadn’t yet noticed, but he did eventually feel at least a little bit silly for not noticing that the world was entirely devoid of color.

The creature who woke him up was almost entirely grey herself, so that set off no alarms. He should probably have noticed something as he walked through his home and went to heat some water for tea, but it wasn’t until he was nearly forced outside that he really noticed what was going on.

[Silver]

Nimbus walked outside and immediately shielded his eyes from the sun. It was really bright for being so dull. The sun glared through the grim grey sky as it often did on stiff winter mornings. Without the soft green of the grass to balance it out, he found it almost overwhelming to look at.

Still, it took him a moment to really put together what was going on. Everything was grey. He rubbed his eyes as though that might fix the problem. It didn’t work. He looked down at Sylvie and tilted his head as if to ask ‘are you seeing this?’. She, too, looked concerned. That confirmed it for him - something was wrong.

[Silver]

“Stormy! Stoooooormy!” Nimbus called out into the sky.

Just as he expected, a large dragon appeared and floated down to his side. He gave her a little rub for praise, but he was clearly too distracted to do it properly. Stormy felt slighted, so she tossed him to the ground with her nose and used her claws to hold him there until he complied.

“I’m sorry, girl,” he said. It was a genuine apology. “Here, take this,” he passed her a treat. Somehow, he had remembered to grab treats, even though he still wasn’t sure what he was doing yet.

[Silver]

“We have to go… somewhere. To figure this out. I can feel it, now,” he explained. He held his paw over his heart and thought about what it was trying to tell him.

“The mountains!” he suddenly blurted out. “We could go to the mountains.”

The mountains in the distance were grim and grey even on a normal day, so they might hold something of value. Maybe he was grasping at straws. Maybe he could feel something that he didn’t understand. Either way, he wasted no time in fitting Stormy to her saddle and pulling on his winter gear.

[Silver]

“Should we take anyone with us?” he asked Stormy. She wasn’t going to answer him, but if she did, she would probably be against it. She did have to carry literally everything he wanted to bring with, after all.

“Oh! I know!” he bolted toward the pen where his Sahounds were sleeping away peacefully. They had yet to wake up for the morning like some of the other creatures. Once one of them noticed him, they all came to the gate, wagging their tails and barking out greetings.

“It’s good to see you, too,” he said. He hastily rubbed his gloved hands over each of their heads as he passed them.

[Silver]

“Kaiki! C’mere Kaiki.” He clapped his hands to encourage her to come over, but the sound was muffled by his gloves.

“Hey girl, good girl, you are coming with me, okay? We’re going to go play in the snow! It’ll be really fun, you just wait.”

He brought Kaiki out with him and encouraged her to hop up onto Stormy’s back. She was nervous around the dragon at first, but with a bit of encouragement, she did eventually jump up and settled just behind the saddle. Nimbus promptly followed her.

[Silver]

“Okay Stormy, up, up!” The dragon burst into the sky and headed toward the mountains.

They flew for a while in peaceful silence. The trees beneath them blended together into a squishy blur of grey. Nimbus tried to focus on the mountain in the distance, lest he lose track of where he was going. Stormy didn’t seem bothered by any of it.

“It’s going to get really cold out here,” Nimbus said. He rubbed leaned down and rubbed Stormy’s neck for comfort. “I know you’re not built for it, so we’ll only stay for as long as we have to, alright?”

[Silver]

When he finally saw a good place to land, he urged Stormy down into the snow. She snorted to show her distaste of having to land on snow, but she did as she was asked. “Stay here, girl,” Nimbus said. He rubbed Stormy on the side and tossed her another treat from his bags.

“Kaiki! Let’s go.” Kaiki jumped down and crashed into the snow. She shook her head vigorously as though it would make her ears less cold.

“Hah, there we go. I need your help, okay girl?” Kaiki tilted her head slightly as if she was trying to listen to what he was saying, even though she didn’t understand it. Her oversized ears flopped around as she flipped her head back to normal.

[Silver]

“Kaiki, find!” he said, pointing in a random direction.

Kaiki knew what ‘find’ meant, but she didn’t really know what she was looking for. She sniffed at the air, trying to catch a glimpse of anything she could chase down. Nothing in particular came to her, so she looked back at him as if to ask if he was sure.

“Kaiki, find! I know you can do it. If anyone can find something out here, it’s you.”

She wasn’t about to shrug off the command for a second time, so she pressed her nose to the snow and followed the first scent she could grab on to. It didn’t smell like anything she was used to, but she did find it interesting. She could only hope that this was what he meant.

[Silver]

“That’s it, girl,” Nimbus said encouragingly.

Now, if only he knew what he was looking for. This wouldn't be the first time he wandered off into the wilderness with no idea where he was going, but this time he didn't even have a great feeling about it. Or Rhythm, for that matter.

If they came across some horrible snow monster that was eating all of the color, well, he would just have to become best friends with it. That didn't sound that hard! Plus, Kaiki might actually be able to find something. There was no creature better at tracking in the snow than a Glacial Sahound. Well, none that he owned and had trained to track, anyway.

[Color Harvested]

[Silver]

Stormy started to let out a low rumbling growl as Nimbus and Kaiki began to wander out of sight. She had been told to stay put, so she wanted to listen but she was anxious about them going too far away. How could she protect Nimbus if he was gone?

“It’ll be alright, girl,” Nimbus called behind him. “You’re too big for this one, so you have to stay here, okay? Stay here.” He put a heavy emphasis on the word ‘stay’ which he had drilled into her many times before. The last thing he needed was her knocking over trees and scaring away any clues.

[Silver]

Stormy squawked a disgruntled squawk and threw herself to the ground. She curled up in the snow, using her wings and tail to hide her face. She didn’t want to look at Nimbus since she was so disappointed about being told to stay where she was. She would probably get over it.

“Good girl!” Nimbus called out to her. He made a mental note to make it up to her. Even though he spoiled her in general, he did think he needed to show her a little more appreciation on long journeys like this one. She literally carried his weight, after all.

[Silver]

Kaiki plopped down and wagged her tail, creating a little arc in the snow behind her. She looked up at Nimbus expectantly, like he was about to hand her something. Nimbus looked down at his empty paws and said, “What? We’re not there yet, c’mon!”

Kaiki seemed offended by his lack of immediate praise. “Oh! I was talking to… oh never mind, you’re a good girl, too,” he said. He rubbed her head and made sure to get that spot behind her ears that always needed a good scratching. She pushed back into his paws, trying to make the scratching match where she was itchiest.

[Silver]

“There you go, now find, Kaiki, find! I’m still counting on you.”

Kaiki bolted off into the treeline and Nimbus hurried after her. She was way faster than he was, but he could easily follow her prints in the snow. Eventually she would either find something and get tired, then he’d be able to catch up.

Nimbus looked around at all of the sparkling snow and trees. Snow was normally pretty white, but he found it uncanny and concerning how pale everything was. He wondered if some creatures also saw the world this way, and what it must be like for them. If he ever got the chance, he would ask them.

[Silver]

It was strange to him how much he missed color. Especially the greens and browns of the forest. It was a place where he normally felt like he fit in, but it was just different enough that he felt like an alien. It was how he felt when he was in the city surrounded by people.

Nimbus never did like the grey and brown tones of the city, but he even found himself missing those. If the only color he could see was brown, that would be better than no color, wouldn’t it? Like one of those old photographs with the color washed out.