Caillou

He awakens in a house of playing cards. Floors shift and dust begins a

cavalcade throughout his quaking den.

His feet touch the cold stones of a frozen beach. Before him spiderweb

cracks stretch their fingers along the surface.

His paw rests on the precipice of a world shaking without, digits spread

along the cracks in windowpanes. Eyes wide watch trees sway and snow

dishevel from their eaves. Stars blink and hide behind the trembling snow, falling

from their skies.

Whole body shaking he holds himself with claws unsheathed, fur raised,

breaths pluming in the air before him in staggered little mists.

Long hallways stretch before him and a cold touch on his skin. Eyes glazing

he falls into this place and does not eat for days. Within a few breaths time he has

not slept in weeks. Darkness overtakes his heart, beating at its door.

Cracks weave their way unto solid skin. He holds himself before the

window and sees himself reflected. He holds himself before the lake and sees this

great shadow in the water.

Breaths come quicker, closing in around him. So many black eyes watch

him from above and behind. They huff unto the nape of his neck, and with light

fingers coax him turn around.

Silently he cries out. Ice shatters upward to reach out and touch the sky.

Glass shatters outward and cold air takes from him his breath. Waters rage before

him and from them a shape rises.

It stares at him, with skin of black and eyes of blue, the great sea beast

Leviathan. He opens his mouth to taste the silence, thick gasps rending its flesh

before devouring it with a scream.

Ribbon steps back from his window, knees bent inward. Both hands fill his

ears with his eyes closed and teeth barred. His whole body quakes as if to shake

the sound that sends ripples in his mind.

A cat like him is laying in the snow, fur of black and eyes of blue. Ribbon

stands upon the threshold of the world with both feet inside.

The cat is soaking wet and shaking in his arms, eyes afraid and joints tense.

Ribbon brings him to his home and sets him shaking by the fire. They tremble as

the wetness leaves their fur, a scream still hanging in their ears.

He stands alone to face the beast, feet in the angry tide. It laps up at his

ankles and shakes his tender heart. Leviathan wades in it and his whole form

shudders.

Ribbon and Leviathan are both afraid of water.

Taking careful steps into the tide he feels the wetness creep upon his legs. It

swallows him, its tongue tasting his skin and lapping blood from his nails. He

wades before the great whale. They both are in the cold up to their shoulders,

Ribbon reaching forward to rub Leviathan's head.

A low moan trembling. Leviathan churns the water beneath him.

Petting and rubbing at the whale's side, Ribbon urges him forward, slinking

through those hallways together. They breach on the sand and Ribbon

continues to pet at him shh until moans become gentle purrs and ice begins to

form. The whale shrinks in his arms, carried inside. They sit on the couch together,

black and white, drying by the fire.

They sit on the beach, shaking and wet. Leviathan sets up to see his new

form, staring at his paws.

Eyes wide, looking up at his mirror with an open mouth. Ribbon offers a

paw and helps him stand. They walk together through the snow.

He licks his arm by the fire, tendrils of heat drinking wetness from him.

They stand on the threshold of the world. Before Leviathan steps inside he

checks behind him and watches the frozen field.

Ribbon sits by the window in his chair, glass solid under paw again. Sleep

flutters on his eyes, laying on the couch. Leviathan moans in his sleep from

another room.

Leviathan is awake from a long sleep under ice.

They sit together, walking in the snow.

The dampness of their fur subsides, playing hide and seek.

Ripples spread too far to see, pebbles sinking in the water.

Chasing each other's tails, the echoes of the scream subside.

The voices behind our ears quiet, and the earth ceases to shake.