Erhart opened his eyes, in front of him were wood craved handles, simple with curved ends. It offset the large stone stairs, that went up farther than his eyes could see. Looking down at himself, he pulled at the brown, rough robe he was wearing. Reaching up his hands, he noticed that he was wearing a hood that covered his red hair. Without much thought, he took the first step, his hand resting on the railing. That was smoother than water, underneath the palm of his hand. 

“Nothing hurts,” Erhart noticed has he took one step, then two. His voice echoed, but didn't seem to go far. His sounded like it was travelling up the stairs before him. Instead of out, like most echoes. Taking his steps up, Erhart looked around. To his left, what at first glance looked like rough stone side, turned out to be the bark of a large tree. Large enough that Erhart couldn't see the end of it. Looking up, gave him the view of endless branches that were thicker than his whole body. With leaves larger than his head. 

“It must be a dream,” Erhart decided. Once faint lights flickered in and around those large almond shaped leaves. His foot hesitated for a second, wondering if those lights were fairies. “I should keep going,” His dad always said, not to trust the Fae. They dispersed to the space to his right, could they hear his words? Erhart shook his head.  

“How far they go?” The stairs kept going up, and Erhart kept travelling them. He didn't know why, he only felt that he needed to go up. “I've never walked upstairs before,” Erhart heart raced at the normal action, he had never preformed. He was walking upstairs! This was awesome. He didn't know that walking up steps could be fun. He never even thought about them before. Not only that, but he found himself hymning and taking each step with great pride. 

“Do dream stairs count, though?” Erhart, steps slowed, his joy wilting; he was certain he had never dreamed of stairs before. With his heath, he had days when he couldn't walk. Taking stairs? Psst. Wouldn't happen. Dream stairs, well, he never thought of them before. With a bit more vigour, Erhart continued on, decided dream stairs did count. 

“Holy shit!” Erhart jumped to the other-side of the stairs, as a large, and he meant large! Snake snapped at the right railing side. It was gold, transparent, and more of an outline of the animal; and its head was the size of Erhart's house. Its eyes stared at Erhart, its tongue flickered out, but it stopped with a shimmering shine. There was a barrier that kept it off the stairs. “Nothing to see here,” Erhart clung to the left side of the banister, and side crawled up the stairs. The snake watched him go up, but followed him no further.

Erhart let out a grateful breath. Unfortunately, the snake was only the beginning for Erhart. A half-man half horse, he assumed it was a centaur, came pounding on the barrier next. A rabbit with horns, he wasn't sure what that one was. A deer with wings. Time and time again, they came, and the barrier warded them off. Every single one of them were strange transparent outlines in gold. Every single one of them was also piling up the nervous tension. That was wrecking Erhart enjoyment of this dream. 

“This is not fun anymore,” Erhart clung to the left railing side. Grateful for the centre tree, that kept things from coming at him from all sides. A few other things, that were vague, and more of a gold mist than an image. Came, and went. He wanted this done with. “If this is a dream, I should be able to run.” Erhart had to walk, but faster; right? “Grahh!” He didn't know why he screamed, but he was pretty sure it helped him speed up. Was that a troll to his right, no it was not. A mermaid? A dragon, a gnome, a nymph? No, no, no and most definitely no!   

“Ow,” Erhart tripped and fell flat on his face. His nose, palms and knees stung, as he did a flat out, whole body meets earth pose. “Dirt?” Dragging his fingers into the soft, black soil beneath him. It was night, it could have always been night; and he just hadn't noticed. 

Glancing behind him, he saw right away that the stairs were gone. Looking ahead, laid a layer of black dirt, curved into a path. Lit by stone lanterns on each side. Away from that light, Erhart wasn't sure what laid in the darkness. “A nightmare?” Erhart ventured a guess, when a small mewing sound brought his attention back forward. 

“Cute!” Erhart blurted out the first thing that came to mind. Scrambling up to rest on his knees to get a better view. The creature before him was solid, unlike the rest. Making it less terrifying by default. It was nothing like anything Erhart had ever seen or read about before. It was so tiny, and fragile; it had to be a baby. “Where's your parents?” Erhart's chest pained him, he didn't understand why. He rubbed his chest with a frown. When the little child came over and stared at him with another little sound. 

Sitting in front of him, like a cat, was the cutest thing he'd ever seen. Pure white, a soft glow surrounded its body. Its head appeared to look like a Chinese dragon, slender and refined, if they were ever that small. Looking up at him with large gold eyes, ringed with eyelashes that would make a model droll with envy. It had a soft fluff around its head, that might be a mane? Very much like a baby lion, it went upwards, but only covered the soft cream that was the two horns? Or antler nubs on each side of his head, right before its long pointed ears. 

It got up and stretched itself out. Showing off golden coloured hoofed feet, and a cream-coloured scaled back. A long, slender scaled tail waved in the air behind it. Showing off the white, and gold horse tail end like a large flag. It was as if it took all the best things from a dragon, deer, and, giving the long graceful neck... a peacock or giraffe? Whatever it was, Erhart had an irresistible urge to touch it. 

“Wait up!” Erhart called out, watching the little creature prancing down the path. Chasing after it, Erhart found himself always out of reach every time. Erhart was becoming tired, odd for a dream. The thing he was following was flicking its tail around like it was having a great time. “Gotcha!” Erin put his all into his pounce, and gathered it in his arms. A snake like tongue came out and awarded his eyes with a stinging lick across his eyes. Blinking pass the tears, he took the pain as a rite of passage for holding the ball of cute. 

“You're mine now,” a small voice whispered into Erhart's head with a soft voice.  

“Was that you?” Erhart stared down, those golden eyes held a universe of thought behind them. Many things could communicate telepathically, so it wasn't that big of a surprise. Should he have thought twice about pouncing it? Erhart hadn't thought that idea all the way through.  

“I've sent your Wing, please hold on.” They, nudged his forehead and flicked off his hood. Gold wind came and swirled around them. It made his already stinging eyes worse. Closing his eyes to the wind, he hunched over the little creature to help block them from the wind. Much like his dad would do for him. When the wind touched his body, he felt nothing.