“It was never written.”
A Nightbelly reptile of Mythic: The Unshed
3 known connections · an open question
In the beginning — before the beginning anyone remembers — something crawled out of the water, felt the sun, and shrugged off its skin. The skin did not rot. It sank, and dreamed, and in its dreaming it invented spots, stripes, diamonds, bands — every pattern, waiting for owners.
It is happening now, under your feet: the Unshed dreams, and somewhere a hatchling pips with a pattern no parent wore. The old ones know. Old Hundred dreamed of it. The Tuatara recognizes it. The Abyssal is swimming toward it. None of them will ever reach it. That’s the point.
What may come: nothing. Everything. The Unshed doesn’t come — it’s already here, in every scale, every shed, every spring. When the last reptile sheds its last skin, the Unshed will wake, fold itself up, and the patterns will go back inside. Until then: dream.
“Old Hundred says the dreams are coming faster now — hatchlings pipping with patterns no parent wore, in every bask, every clutch, every warm dark nest. "It's waking up," he whispered, "or we're finally dreaming loud enough to hear." The Tuatara, for once, did not disagree.”
The Unshed is dreaming faster.
Before the first reptile, there was the first shed — a skin cast off 300 million years ago that never decayed, dreaming every pattern. 1 of 1 · never for sale.
Not for sale at any price
Some things are not collected. They are witnessed.
