#lakeshore

Mav hummed quietly, off key, stopping and starting as the mood struck him. Black water lapping at sand and sediment were the only other sounds. A tiny splash when he put his feet in the water, and then his soft hum again. But that was it. No clicking insects or cawing birds or distant city noise. It was just quiet. The lake shore stretched for miles in both directions, impenetrable fog behind him, and endless black water in front of him. How Mav knew it was a lake and not an ocean, he didn't know, he just felt that it was so.

Beside him, dense fog sat in the shape of a young turian. Mav's mirror image made incorporeal. "I'm sorry I got us hurt." The shadow said and didn't say. Again, Mav just felt that it was so.

"I know." He answered all the same. "We've had lots of accidents."

The Spirit said nothing for a long time. "I'll heal us as best I can." It promised."You don't have to worry about anything, okay? I'll make us better and I'll keep us safe."

"I know." The Spirit always had, though for some reason Mav was only aware of that when he was here. And he was only here, at the lake shore, when they'd had some kind of bad accident.

"Bye-bye, Mav." The Spirits touched their foreplates together and then the fog was gone. Dissipating out over the water.

Chicago, Illinois - Sep, 2025