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 Posted: Thu May 21, 2009 1:44 pm
It was starting to seem like one of those dreams Fish would remember in the morning, if only because he was feeling exceptionally lucid about everything in it. There was something familiar about the classical architecture that surrounded him, right down to the fact that he was surrounded entirely by water, yet not floating away. Not that he had ever been anywhere like this, of course. Just that it seemed familiar. Maybe it was a recurring dream.
The boy shrugged off his initial uneasiness and continued down the wide avenue. Huge kelp towers rose from between paving stones, reaching up towards the distant sunlight. A huge statue rose out of the square before him, a wild-haired man holding a trident.
Fish paused to contemplate it for a moment, unsure of whether it was of any significance to him or not. He drew an entirely inconclusive line of thought.
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Posted: Thu May 21, 2009 2:00 pm
Underwater dreams were uncommon, but not unusual. Usually when she found herself in a dream like this someone was drowning. But not the case now. Galleai peered around the watery environment and blinked. She was in the white feline form she was accustomed to but upon seeing the setting of the dream she made minor modifications in the way of fins and a more fishlike tail. Good enough.
Taking a deep breath, Galleai reveled in being in what ought to be a nice, safe dream. Something far removed from the craziness that was going on at home and in the dreamlands in general. It was an almost tangible sense of relief. Peering around, she sought the dreamer and spotted him almost immediately, contemplating the very statue upon whose head she perched.
Floating gently down, she spiraled around Fish until she hit the path softly. "Hello."
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Posted: Thu May 21, 2009 5:47 pm
Fish blinked in surprise. He had been almost certain this place was deserted. Furthermore, he had just been greeted by a -quite literal- catfish. "Hi," he replied.
"Do you, um, live here?" he asked, even though he was pretty sure this was a dream. He took stock of his current situation again and found that his cast was gone, rather than pajamas he was wearing a strange sort of toga, and the armlet he had found on the beach was wrapped around his upper arm.
For a dream this whole place seemed oddly corporeal. He ducked around the cat-fish-thing and half walked half swam over to the statue. There was something written on the base of it in a language he couldn't read.
"Huh," he said. Even though he couldn't read the language, it was passingly familiar. He looked back at the catfish.
"This is so weird," he said.
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Posted: Thu May 21, 2009 5:53 pm
"I'm just visiting." Galleai informed him, prancing beside him as he approached the statue. In dreams, water and air were pretty much the same for her. She could float effortlessly in either. But she liked the illusion of water. Sitting back on her haunches she looked up at the writing and then at the boy. "Weird? They often are." She said obscurely before asking, "do you live here?"
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Posted: Thu May 21, 2009 6:26 pm
"No, I've never been here before," said Fish, a bit too quickly. He paused and backtracked his thinking. "Well, I don't think I have," he explained. "It seems kinda familiar but, like, not really."
He looked up, studying the statue intently.
"I wonder who this guy's s'posed to be?" he asked. In the back of his mind, he had a feeling he ought to know. But he didn't.
He studied the letters again, searching for a clue, but they were utterly alien.
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Posted: Fri May 22, 2009 11:32 am
If the dreamer couldn't read something, it was unlikely Galleai could and she didn't even bother to try. Often what was supposed to be words were just gibberish symbols anyways. Instead she swished her tail a bit, enjoying the sensation. She liked being a cat-fish and wondered why she hadn't thought of it before. This contemplation took a moment and then she looked up at Fish and the statue again. "Maybe we can find someone to ask." She suggested.
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Posted: Fri May 22, 2009 3:25 pm
"Maybe," said Fish, now turning to survey the plaza. He couldn't tell what any of the buildings were meant for beyond that they had huge doric columns in front and looked far larger than life.
"I've never been anywhere like this before," he continued, hesitantly starting to approach one of the temple-esque structures. He wasn't even sure how this whole hearing-and-speaking-underwater thing was working, since he couldn't do that terribly well normally. (And by Not Terribly Well, he meant not at all.)
"Uh," he said, looking back at the catfish and feeling kind of silly, "You said you're just visiting. Am I making you up?"
Even if he was, she would probably say 'no', he suspected. Even if this was a particularly exceptionally lucid and realistic dream.
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Posted: Sun May 24, 2009 9:08 am
"No." Galleai grinned cattily at him. "You aren't making me up, I'm as real as you are." Though she failed to elaborate on the point, leaving the boy to wonder wether she really was part of the dream or real and living and breathing somewhere. "S'pretty here." She added unhelpfully. She knew as little or less about the place than he did, but there certainly was a lot to look at.
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Posted: Sun May 24, 2009 6:08 pm
"It is," Fish agreed. The underwater city, in all its marble splendor, was certainly a change from his usual environs. It was especially splendid in contrast to their modest home in Tidewater.
He chose not to question the authenticity of of the catfish's claim, choosing instead to half-walk, half-swim up a grand avenue. Some of the buildings were marked with the same strange alphabet at the statue.
"I wonder what language this is?" he asked aloud. He was not certain whether or not the catfish was still following him, and at any rate, the city seemed absolutely deserted. The water had currents, of course, but there was nothing - no noise, no extraneous movements - to indicate the city was anything beyond deserted.
"This is so weird," he said, with risk of sounding like a broken record.
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Posted: Mon May 25, 2009 11:51 am
"It looks dead." Galleai said softly. It reminded her vaguely of something, but she shrugged the odd feeling off. "Like a ghost town." She added, peering around. "I wonder who lived here?" The question was more rhetorical than anything else, since she didn't suppose Fish would know. Then again, it was his dream. So somewhere deep inside the knowledge was probably buried. She didn't mention that part yet, though.
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Posted: Mon May 25, 2009 7:38 pm
Fish climbed a set of stairs and surveyed the view from up top. He wrinkled his nose. "I don't think anyone did," he replied with a shrug. "It's too clean."
He bounded back down the steps. "But, I mean, it doesn't feel dangerous."
That was to say, his dreams did not generally turn into horror movies at the drop of a pin. And he was sure he'd had weirder ones. In fact, for his dreams, this one was oddly coherent, even if his surroundings were downright bizarre.
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Posted: Mon May 25, 2009 9:04 pm
"Someone must have built it..." She floated slightly above Fish's head to get a better look. "It looks made, it doesn't look like it just rose like magic out of the ground." She sniffed delicately at a wall, but scents were different in different dreams. And strangely nonexistent underwater. Galleai flicked her tail in perplexion, but she wasn't upset. Rather, she looked forward to a new adventure with a new dreamer.
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Posted: Tue May 26, 2009 5:00 am
Fish circled a pillar curiously, running his hand over the ridges on its surface. "But this is a dream," he objected. Albeit a very realistic one, but still a dream.
"If it's a dream, then I just made it up, right?" he asked. Except he wasn't making the cat thing up, apparently, so all the rules of dreaming might have been off.
He kept walking, and became faintly aware of distant footsteps that were not his own.
"Do you hear that?" he asked.
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Posted: Tue May 26, 2009 5:06 pm
"So maybe the someone was you." Galleai answered complacently, flashing him a furry little smile. Then, tilting her head, she listened for whatever it was he was hearing. "Oh... yes. It sounds as if we're being followed."
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Posted: Tue May 26, 2009 8:30 pm
Fish swallowed uneasily. This latest twist of events was not making him totally comfortable. He looked up and down the street, but saw no one. The footsteps seemed to be getting farther away, as it were.
"I'm just making this up, right?" he asked the catfish.
Just a dream, he assured himself. No reason to be scared.
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