***
The cool breeze and the relaxing feeling soothed Noctis' heart much better.
He shelved the thought of the hounds and his mother for later and just focused on the peculiar movement of the energy after being hit by the owl.
Focusing on it, it was certainly different from the normal movement that happened when he didn't focus on fastening it to get a boost in his strength and agility.
Even different from when he did so; it wasn't the deliberate siphoning of it to trigger a blast at one a point either and different still from when he tried manipulating the forest around him.
It was similar to it (the manipulation) as in; it came from the ethereal forest, although much subtler, like a passerby moving through place to place without standing out.
It concentrated in a way along and around his senses, that is the ears, eyes, nose as well as his skin. Less concentration and more of a deposition of a film, or a net in a way.
Noctis opened his eyes as he kept observing this strange phenomenon and cataloguing what he had learned so far of this energy along the way.
And as he expected through his eyes as well as his other senses, Noctis sensed a wholly different kind of atmosphere than he was used to.
He saw not the trees or the ground or even the blue sky but a strange blue mist pervading throughout his field of vision.
He could figure out the ridge and trees in the forest through the shadowy terrain but none of his other senses took note of the properties that they usually inhabited.
If it weren't for the innate sense of forests that he had developed or acquired somehow by now, he might have mistaken it for another strange dimension like the ethereal forest inside him.
Looking at it the slow moving mist his attention went to the motion of the currents. The sky for example had a different kind of movement than say the forest, the ridge itself or even the ground underneath.
The swirling and ebbing mists also reminded him of the silvery pinkish mist in the forest.
Thinking so far he focused in the middle of his forehead and went into the ethereal forest in him.
Standing in the middle of the forest, on the forest floor, he thought again of moving a bit higher, to a certain vantage point for a better view.
Surely enough he started floating and reached a height that he could overlook the floor as well as the mist expanding in the void.
Floating about in his mind-space Noctis looked at the movement of the mist in a new light.
With a thought he came back out into the real world and focused on the movement in the real world mist.
Feeling on the cusp of something significant Noctis kept moving forth between the real and the ethereal before he was knocked out of the cycle by a force on his back.
Noctis' out of focus eyes finally gained some colour after the giant bird hit him on his back.
Coming out of the strange state Noctis suddenly felt his mouth dry, breath sucked out of lungs as well as a sharp stinging in his eyes.
The compound shock of all this forced Noctis on his knees almost falling off the cliff if not for the giant bird beside him.
Kneeling on the cliff Noctis gasped for his breath while forcing down the pain he felt in his eyes and throat.
His eyes burned so much he felt like someone had put alcohol into it. He tried to call for some water but the dry throat only furthered the pain with even minutest of movement.
The giant owl looked at Noctis' state and shook his head before slamming his body into his, making him fall down the talk ridge before himself also diving down.
Noctis felt himself falling down after a force slammed him down the ridge but unable to even cry out he just curled his body bracing or accepting whatever came next.
The next thing he knew he felt lading upon a fast moving bed without getting hurt as it, along him kept falling.
Feeling relief upon the familiar feather bed of the giant owl Noctis relaxed and once again.
Big mistake it turned out as the next moment he felt himself falling once again only to meet a hard, wet and cold surface of a water body slamming him down its basin.
In an effort to resurface his out of breath body Noctis hurriedly lunged upwards accidentally getting some water in his eyes and throat.
Out of the pond resurfaced a coughing mess of an elf rubbing his eyes out to the chilling and relaxing crowd of forest dwellers drinking some water from the pond.
After a bit Noctis' opened his eyes to a very evocative group of animals and birds, eyes focused on himself.
The judging by eyes of the consortium of beings made him feel such indignation he almost went back into the pool of water before a giant owl landed near the pool and with other smaller ones.
The rest of the animals went scurrying back into the forest allowing Noctis to slowly peek out his brooding self above the surface of the pool.
Finally taking in his surroundings he noticed himself in a large pool of water with a loud cascading waterfall, whose sound had been drowned out in his sheer embarrassment, connecting it to the heavens above.
He took in the presence of the owlings with the giant owl too, noting the change in the colour of the sky and the almost setting sun.
'Just how long did that last?'