Rakvald, or Craw as he called himself while inhabiting his mer totem, was sleeping deep in the ocean, in the embrace of that lovely mer lady he'd met on the beaches of Almund. He might've snored, as he slept, but instead a mix of bubbles and rippling water currents issued from his nostrils. And as he lay there, in the embrace of tentacles under the cover of a coral cave, he dreamed.
It was one of his few escapes from the ocean. After having left his totems at home, he was unable to resume his Lotharro form. Stuck as it were, as a mer for the time being. Yet for all that, he enjoyed the change. There was no lack of food under the sea. Rakvald enjoyed the veritable feast that lay beneath the waves.
His dreamscape was much as his waking life, a vast ocean of fish and other creatures, all swimming around him, their shimmering jewel-like scales reflecting the faint moonlight that filtered in through the waters.
Once he'd realized that he was in his own dreamscape, he resumed his lucidity and swam out of the cave. With a little bit of trying, he rose above the dreamscape, climbing higher and higher into the Untold, until he crossed through the Veil.
Then he found himself in an entirely different sea, a void of lights in the distance, and then dreamers, all lying in repose at various points in that sea. He saw his brands in the Southlands, in Desnind, and in Quacia. Behind him, his common-law 'wife' Ildred's brand shone brightly in Almund. He looked toward it but a moment, before turning aside. He could not return yet until he could ensure the lessons of how to grow legs was taught to him. So far, his mer mate had been reticent on the subject, giving him odd looks when he asked.
Instead, he swam to the west, into the unknown parts of the Untold, places he'd not yet seen.
There, he found a dark woman. Strangely, she reminded him of the woman in Quacia, who'd placed him in chains and forced him to unleash profane magics. Yet this one was different, not seemingly a mage, by the look of her. It was not Laora, the Inquisitor Priestess. Someone else, but similar in some hard to define way.
He reached out with his left hand, it's tentacle-like appendage caressing the cheek of the woman, getting tied up in her flowing locks. Oddly, he thought he saw the impressions of chains on her wrists and legs as she dreamt. Was she having a dream of imprisonment? He would see her freed.
Once he had a grip on her position in the Untold, he entered her dreamscape. As he did so, he established a Sanctuary over the dreamscape he was visiting, in order to ensure they would not be disturbed. His voice resounded through the dreamscape, calling out to the dreamer though his lips did not move. "Approach Dreamer, I come bearing gifts!"
The room was vile and shadowed, with walls of damp stone that lessened the screaming pleas of mercy echoing from down the hall. A sliver of cold silver light poured through the small viewing box, flickering. Navyri did not need to look to know when she was being watched. A pair of eyes and nothing more, peering into her cell, staring with calculating intent. Insults and gnashing teeth would have no effect. She had tried everything to garner a response from her captor, all for naught. Navyri rolled over, wrapping a wing around her in the darkest corner of the cell. She did not want to be seen or studied.
She hated this place.
Would she be taken to the glass cage today? Her stomach growled and she embraced the hatred that warmed her bones. It kept her alive.
An unknown amount of time passed, before the silver light returned and the unnamed viewer walked away, footsteps soft and mocking freedom. Navyri tugged at the manacles bound around her wrists, wincing at the pain that shot through her arms. Black crust and coated the edges of the metal and she knew it would fade - her blood would melt back to the shadows from whence it came. Maybe she would too.
"Approach Dreamer, I come bearing gifts!"
Navyri's head lifted. Someone was in the cell. Someone was here with her? But the door, it hadn't moved. What was this? A trap? Another experiment?
The Naer said nothing, azure eyes glowing in the darkness. Dreamer... She eyed the figure and then little by little her wings drew back to settle against her, their glow returning as she rose to her feet and stepped as far as her chains would allow, "Gifts?" her voice was smooth running water, but there was a lacing of danger beneath the surface. Her feet made no noise, but her approach was sounded by the scraping of metal dragging, "Tell me..."
She dd not recognize this stranger by appearance. Navyri knew no Mer she had ever done dealings with and this one... wasn't he quite hideous? Even in rags, Navyri felt the wash of elitism that caused her chin to tilt. Pride. Vanity. Stepping into the light, there was something quite predatory in the sardonic smile she wore, "Who is it that's feeling so generous?"
The chain clinked - a sign it had reached its full length and the pleasantry from her words ceased, replaced by suspicious venom, "And why?"
word count: 415
"At last. It has been too long since I have walked the face of this world. Too long have I been locked there, awaiting my champion to release me. My champion... This is you, daughter of Audrae. You have, whether knowingly or not, released me from my self imprisonment, and are here to fulfill the destiny I have seen written in the tapestry of nature. You, daughter of Audrae's daughter, will be my foothold in this world." - Belaera to The Nightingale, after the 600 arc imprisonment
He listened to her speak, savoring every word and syllable. She sure did speak pretty in common. He wished he met more women who spoke vahanic, but such was life. Common was the language of trade, and most were in the world for their own business, which often enough involved trade.
Laughter bubbled from the maw of the mer, over the tentacled mass of cephalopod limbs, the strangely deformed face that looked anything but merish, more like a bat had crossed paths with a mer. Finned ears sprouted out behind his head, in floriations. Yet he smiled, showing his fangs as he approached the dreamer, just out of arm's reach. "I am here to free you, offer you the key to emancipation from the dreariness of this place."
"Over there!" He threw his arms out, showing her a vast tunnel, or a watery cistern. It was hard to reckon what it might've been. "The Atramentous Trench. A road to many place, dive with me to conclusion!" He spoke in half-realized nothings, of course. It was the language of dreams more or less. It became harder to follow, possibly, when one reckoned with the fact that his common language was atrocious.
"Will you allow me to break chain, and bring into Veil? Join your body with your dream self, and follow me into Emea!"
He held out a tentacled arm, his left arm which was blackened with some profane corruption, unseeing red eyes bulging from several parts of it, and a pigs snout and mouth between the forefinger tentacle and thumb. It was a grotesque mutation, to be sure.
"Come wid Rakvald! Into the Atramentous trench!" He boomed through the watery dreamscape. "Or lie in the chains of ignorance!"
His laughter was thick, viscous. Navyri's eyes, which were bright disks in the dank prison bounced and blinked, the Naer scanning each detail of this new arrival with a quiet judgement. An aquatic creature of sorts, she swore she could hear the fins of his ears unfurl and flex, like a piece of leather unfolded. This creature motioned towards something she had not noticed before - a watery tunnel with an open mouth.
"Free me," she muttered, both confused and curious. Navyri stepped towards the great drop, the chains scraping across the floor. He spoke many words, much of which she should not have been able to understand, but dreams were curious things. She knew the meaning. She understood. Navyri stood, staring at the pit. Of her cries and prayers, he was the one who was sent for her? Unexpected.
"Free me," she repeated, although it was a question no longer. Navyri turned, her wings shifting as she did, her smile dangerous and thrilled. She did not seem bothered by the tentacle that reached out, pushing the manacles towards the strange corruption and its echoed words. She was not scared - not of going. Staying was what bothered her and monsters were things of familiarity. This one was just easier to identify. She waved the metal, impatient to be given the power of release. She had spent too long in this place, she would not stay any longer and struggled to contain her wild nature, "You are well met, Rakvald, you may call me Navyri"he spoke of Emea, of dreams. This was a place of many unknowns and secrets he could share.
Navyri loved secrets, "What are we waiting for?"
She would follow this stranger into the unknown and would face the consequences on the other side.
"Ho ho ho." Rakvald bellowed, his voice bubbling through the water in strange waves that were somehow audible to anyone near. Fortunately for Navyri, Rakvald had secured the dreamscape as soon as he entered it, to make sure that none intruded upon them, or followed from the Untold.
Yet, for all their talk and action in the dream itself, there was a danger to taking her past the Untold, into that great unknown of the Untold. "You are Navyri?" He scratched his chin, rolling the name over in his ears. Eventually he approved the feel of the name, and the appropriateness to the one bearing it.
"Yes, Navyri." He smiled, his pointed teeth glimmering in the dim-light of the deep waters. "It will be uncomfortable, you may feel you drowning as I take you to Trench, but you will not. When we get to Untold, just stop breathing."
So saying, he clung to her upper arm with his blackened limb, grasping her there and bringing her to lucidity. With that, the shackles binding her were broken, but so was the bubble of air that contained her, and the water came rushing in all at once, bombarding her form and even getting a bit into her nose.
"Don't squirm. Come up now, wid Rakvald!" So saying, he began to escort her, out of that dreamscape, and into the Atrementous Trench, the swirling Cesspool through which he'd arrived into her dream.
Navyri would feel many things in the moment she crossed from the Veil and into the Untold. The joourney was unique to every individual, and it was only hers to tell how and where she would emerge. What kind of space she would occupy as she ventured through that thin shroud that divided realms.
Rakvald dragged her through the Atrementous Trench, and back into the greater Untold beyond. Then, and only then after being unshackled, could she truly breathe.
Here, he let her go, and float amidst the formless realm of Emea. Slowly, the landscape began taking shape. But Rakvald wanted to see what it would look like through Navyri's eyes, and so kept his own shut as he waited for her to register a reaction.
"Open eyes Navyri, waken, and tell me what you see." He wouldn't open his own eyes until she told him what was before them.
Notes: This had the potential for sooo much fun, so I'm very sad it got abandoned. That said, it was a bit hard for me to review because the two of you didn't get too far- apologies for the wait on that. Rakvald is the type to look scary but be and absolute teddy bear and I'm living for it. Short but sweet; as always if you have any questions or concerns feel free to pm me with them!
