He died.

Silvery mist swept his thoughts away, dancing through his senses and setting them loose on currents of time. He exulted in the ride, tendrils of energy wrapping around him and streaming away faster than he could follow. Everything swirled rainbow white and lightning sharp as he tumbled into infinity.

All too soon, a presence reached through the luminescent web and beckoned him closer, turning the world abruptly corporeal again. He found himself running, arms spread out to the side as he spun and stumbled in the sudden gravity, sprawling full length in the grass. He laughed up at the cobalt sky, comfortable once more in his original form.

"Who are you?" a voice inquired, and he turned his head to see a little girl staring curiously down at him.

"Kes!" He thrust his left hand into the air, thumb and forefinger almost touching. "I was this close! I almost had him, and you killed me with a stinger! A jelly stinger! That thing wasn't even in the fight until I backed into it!"

"Who are you?" the girl repeated. Blonde wisps of hair drifted down her back, far too long for someone as young as she looked. Her eyes sparkled violet beneath pixie bangs.

He chuckled, still caught up in the memory. "Of all the ridiculous ways to die... Top of the food chain, legendary squid brought down by a stupid stinger. I'm going to meet that thing again someday and it's going to laugh."

The girl let out an impatient breath, blowing her bangs up away from her face. "There are only so many ways to kill an immortal, you know. He was very insistent this time, and you only survived him by a day."

"I'm surprised you let him bully you," he said impudently. "What happened to making sure I learned something?"

"You are impossible to test," she informed him. "Tell me who you are before I send you back."

"I'm a giant squid with a vendetta, a faithful slave, and a stinger allergy," he smirked. "My lesson was that the capability for sentience doesn't necessarily correspond to an ability to reason, even though reason is only objective by comparison, and so on, and so forth. I also learned that some people don't do the 'master' thing very well, so next time could you make me the slave?"

"He didn't complain," she told him.

"Not to you!"

She chose to ignore that. "He's waiting again. Do you want your three questions or not?"

He grinned up at her. "Depends--are you going to answer them?"

"I always answer," she said primly. "You just don't always listen."

He laughed, arching his back and whipping himself up out of the grass. It was nice to be "young" again. "All right," he declared, giving her a saucy look. "What happens next?"

She folded her arms. "You can't ask questions you already know the answer to."

"I don't know that!" he exclaimed.

"They usually start with 'why'," she informed him, as though he hadn't spoken. "Or 'how'. Two more questions."

"I already know why," he pointed out. "Because it's fun. And I don't care how, so I say you get all the boring questions. I'd rather know why you're always a girl."

"Because you never have been," she replied cryptically. "Last question."

He rolled his eyes, his interest in the wordplay waning. "Where's Castor?" he wanted to know. "It's his turn to choose--"

A flicker of yellow darted out from underneath a nearby shadow, and he caught his breath. He had grown up dreaming of Pegasus, and here one came flitting through the sunbeams like an overgrown butterfly. The universe might be boundlessly mutable, but its mercurial nature seemed to make the smallest things more wondrous rather than less.

He closed his eyes, and moments later he felt something feather soft brush against his cheek. They didn't like to be chased, but they would come of their own accord if you wanted them enough. He couldn't quite resist the urge to reach out, and to his surprise the little creature let his fingers stroke its silky fur.

"It's not laughing," he heard Kes say quietly.

He opened his eyes, and silver glow met calm amethyst. "Excuse me?"

"That's the stinger," she said, tilting her head toward him.

He went very still. The pegasus lit on his shoulder when he became motionless, and its little wings settled briefly as it nuzzled his ear. Delight welled up in him, spilling over into his smile, and he saw the expression reflected back at him.

"You asked what happens next," she murmured, as a breath of movement signaled the creature's restlessness. "And I said that you already know.

"You do," she continued. "You go on. And you don't... because if you did, you might not." The pegasus' reflection danced in her eyes as it fluttered away. "Think of all the things you'd miss."

He felt the web reaching out to him, stretching and shimmering into the distance, farther than he could see or travel even on equine wings. Somewhere, the other half of his soul waited... and with it, the splendor of a universe he would never fully comprehend. The day he did was the day he had nothing more to live for.

He couldn't resist grinning at Kes as he lifted his arms above his head. "I thought you were supposed to let me learn these things on my own!"

"Learning isn't the point," she told him, and for a moment she sounded almost fond. "You are."

The ethereal mist engulfed him and he was swept away.