"It's not a matter of not good enough," Bath said, surprised. He seemed almost dizzy with the idea of more excitement after the month they'd spent.

"What ah, what. Then? Would um, be exciting?"

"I don't know." he said, restlessly, his tail flicking. "Something that is different. Different than all of this."

He gestured with a hoof at the surrounding trees. "Different. I'm bored."

"You...you saw what that was like," Bath said. "You can't mean you prefer the mountains?"

"I did see what it was like." he said. "And what it was like was cold and boring. It was a lot of walking around in the snow and the wind while everyone was very angry." He'd been angry too, but it had been easy to ignore it for him given that he was always really, furious. Hell he was angry right now, even just thinking about it. "At least in the mountains I'd be thinking about how hungry I was or how much I missed sinweed and wouldn't get hung up on how bored I was."

He kicked at a rock which went flying off behind him.

"Now I'm back here, I realize how little there is to do other than sleep!"

Bath was relieved Zar had meant on no terms that he wanted to go back to the mountain.

"Here? Well. There's always the plotting and the overthrowing and the, err, well, here, the arts, and the pursuit of a better understanding of the world. But I suppose...would you like to go see a play together?" Bath hedged.

Zar sighed. "A play? Like the ones they do over in Envy or Pride?" he made a face. "I've seen too many of their self-aggrandising rants to want to see them any longer. I hate the arts."

"R-right," Bath said, "And I suppose you want something a little more stimulating than a massage. Oh, I am sorry. I'm not of use for much, at the moment. I mean, even less than usual."

Zar sighed and sat his rear end down heavily in a dramatic sort of way.

"There's got to be more than this." There had to be, especially since now he'd witnessed that glimmer or something beyond the realms of the swamp.

He set his mouth in a thin line. "I got pretty fit this month and it's weird giving it up."

"Well, I think so too," Bath admitted. "About the more bit. If I could just all get it right, somehow. Abilities that defy normal principles. Forces that effect an area. How were those things built? How did it change the weather? And also...Zar, for a moment- did you dream, or perhaps were you somewhere strange?"

"Yes!" Zar said irritably. "I was. A strange place with a creepy little... beast that led me back to this motherfatherforsaken swamp again. I don't know if it was a dream. It didn't feel like a dream. My dreams are always a lot less solid feeling than that felt."

The experience had been strange and upsetting for him in a way that sleep never was.

"It was horrible." he said.

"The same place," Bath said, thoughtfully. "That only raises more questions. I didn't see you. But the same thing happened to me. I felt it wouldn't be advisable to stay. A small err, furry sort of snake helped. Not creepy, necessarily. I didn't think to interrogate it."

So they had both visited it.

"We were apart. And it wasn't a dream. More mysteries."

Zar hadn't liked that he couldn't see Bath in that place either, the idea that they could have been close enough to touch and yet invisible didn't sit well with him, it meant it was just that easy to pull them apart, and what if they hadn't come back? What then?

He tried not to think about it too hard.

"I don't really want to go back there." he said and rising to pace again, nudged Bath with his nose.

"I suppose I'd miss you."