The Frozen Throne

The Waterfall Cave

When Noctis fell unconscious, Zephyr stayed by his side, watching over the prince, while Ignis, Prompto, and Gladiolus went in search of clues about the third royal tomb. Noctis slept for ten hours straight, this worried his comrades, making them believe that something bad must have happened to their prince.

Zephyr, who never left Noctis's side, fell asleep, resting his head on the edge of the bed. After a few hours had passed since Zephyr fell asleep, the prince regained consciousness. In all the ten hours that he passed out, strange events invaded his dreams, those events were so vivid that it made him believe they were real.

But there was no way something like what happened in his dream could be real, after all, he lived his life by Zephyr's side at the age of seven and never met a boy named Yozora who looks exactly the same as Zephyr. The only difference between the two boys is their age, as in the dream he had, Yozora was ten years older than Noctis, while Zephyr was two years younger than him.

There's just no way someone who's older would suddenly become younger, even if Noctis forgot that Zephyr is Yozora. Not being able to fully understand the dream he had, Noctis decided not to think about it anymore and thought it's best to wake up Zephyr. The prince touched Zephyr's shoulder as he called out to him several times while shaking his body a bit.

Zephyr let out a small groan in his sleep, "Let me sleep for five more minutes."

Noctis instinctively smiled, Zephyr's behavior reminding him of the past, the days when the prince tried so hard to get his friend out of bed to go to school together every morning. Zephyr always said the same words to Noctis, telling him every morning to give him five more minutes, but he never got up after the five minutes were up.

"Wake up, we have important things to do." Noctis shook Zephyr's body more than before, this time managing to wake him up.

Zephyr's eyes slowly opened, seeing the blurred figure of Noctis sitting in front of him. He blinked several times, trying to adjust his blurred vision, until finally he could see Noctis's face clearly.

"You woke up, I'm glad." Zephyr was a little dazed, as if his mind was elsewhere. Although Noctis had already woken up, he did not show happiness or that he was very worried.

The prince thought that Zephyr was going to be happy or at least worried, but he couldn't see anything in Zephyr's expressionless face. It was strange to see him so expressionless like that, usually when he hides his emotions something worries him, but what could that be in this case?

"Did something happen when I lost consciousness?" Noctis wasn't going to sit idly by, he wanted to know what happened to make Zephyr hesitate to show his emotions in front of him.

"Nothing happened, everything is fine." Zephyr didn't lie, as when he tells a lie, he tends to avoid making eye contact.

If nothing bad happened, why is Zephyr acting weird like something is bothering him? Maybe he had another dream or a vision of the future, that could be the reason why he is hiding what he really feels.

"Did you have another one of those weird dreams?"

"No, I didn't have one, and that's what's bothering me." Again Zephyr spoke the truth, feeling an ominous premonition about the sudden changes in his dreams lately.

Usually every night Zephyr would always dream of strange events, sometimes the things he sees in those dreams end up being connected to the real world. But when he dreamed of the king's death, this was the last time he had one of those strange dreams. Sometimes he can't help but believe that maybe something terrible is going to happen, and that's the reason why he stopped seeing those dreams every time he falls asleep.