[OPEN] How We See

[Jameson Kindle]

Timestamp: 21st Day of Fall, 511 A.V. Status: Open. Purpose: Jameson sleeps the night before his arrival in Wind Reach. The navy night sky was a velvety blanket stretched overhead. For a brief, yet solid moment, Jameson wondered where his tent had gone. The walls of the canvas shelter surrounded him, the flap blown open by a gentle breeze, and yet the ceiling was virtually invisible, or imaginary. As he turned his attention back to the sky, little holes appeared in the thick darkness above. Little twinkling stars cut their way through the dark sky, growing larger and larger until they eventually swirled and blended into the navy hued sky. The stars gave the heavens above a purplish glow, with tinges of green and violet. The longer he watched the spectacle, the sicker he felt. And then it occurred to him: he could see. It was his favorite part about sleeping. In his dreams, occasionally, he was awarded with the ability to see the things he normally could not. Things at a distance, especially, such as stars, had been long out of his vision’s grasp. The whispering words of his loving mother filled his head with a milky tone as he sighed. His mother had been the only real woman in his life thus far, and he missed her dearly. She had been his strongtower, always shielding him from any harm that could ever threaten him. It shamed him that she had died because of him, and he wanted only to bring her back. Unfortunately, it wasn’t up to him what did or didn’t make its way into his dreams. The lump in Jameson’s throat left him feeling empty again, but he rolled over and stood up. The canvas tent had vanished, and Espin, his mare, was nowhere to be seen. Something in him didn’t panic at the loss of his companion. The swirling sky above settled down and wrapped itself like a fog around his nearly bare body. Only his trousers covered his skin, but he was comfortable. The cool air felt nice, though he wasn’t sure exactly what it was coming from. The sensation that had at once been the sky settled beneath his feet as a dark sea. He took a step forward and was walking on water. The dead silence was deafening, and for the first time in his life, Jameson felt truly alone.

[Landon Mora]

While Landon had grown up in the mountains of Kalea he had never been to this stretch of the mountains. Sure, he knew there were lands far past Lhavit but he had not ventured far from the city. He was not sure why exactly. Perhaps it just was not his time. He did not want to leave Sabastian, his younger brother. Looking at the two, one might have thought that Sabastian might have been older. He was about a foot taller than his older brother, although Landon did look older.

Landon was not sure how he got to this place, although few dreamers really remember how they reach their destinations. Before him he saw a tent and above, Lady Zintila's stars. He loved the stars. Call it is childish but he found them incredibly enthralling. "Good work Zintila."

Before him, the tent seemed to vanish and left behind was a man laying on the ground. He didn't seem anywhere close to being properly clothed for where they seemed to be. Even more so, it was strange the tent just seemed to disappear. With a shrug he walked over to the man. "Interesting trick there with the tent. I've never seen one just disappear like that." The man seemed so calm. It was a bit strange, at least to him. "Do you know where we are?"

[Jameson Kindle]

The words sifted in Jameson’s ears and breached his subconscious. He turned with a start at the appearance of a man he had never met or heard of before in his life. He squinted through the impending darkness to make out the figure. Dumbfounded, he looked from the man, to his tent, and back again. Do you know where we are? Jameson shook his head at the man and began to make his way to the stranger. With each and every step, the water beneath him faded and transitioned into another color. From deep, dark blues, to royal purples, to all the colors of the sunset, and back again. Over and over the colors rotated. Jameson placed his fists on his hips, a crease forming in his brow. He was still adjusting to being able to see the man’s features with such crisp, clean definition. His partial blindness was his one and only plague. At last, he responded, ”I didn’t do anything to the tent. It just…” He looked back at where the tent was incredulously. ”It just vanished. I haven’t the slightest idea of where we are. I don’t think we’re anywhere. I’m dreaming. Because I can’t see. I’m blind, but I can see you just as clearly standing over there as I can over here next to you. It’s not real… So you must not be real. Are you?” Tentatively, he reached out and touched the man’s arm. Everything was so vivid, he was second guessing what he was seeing. Had his blindness just disappear? Surely not, though he had heard of stranger things happening.

[Seodai]

Hydroponics was an art. Seodai and Theo had been working on it for years in Denval, where arable soil was scarce and there were more people to feed than there was room to grow the vegetation needed to do just that. It was enjoyable if only because it was a challenge. What Seodai really loved most was putting his hands in the dirt. Working the soil, nurturing the promise of life from seed to harvest. With the warmth of Syna upon his shoulders, the mark of Bala upon his back, and the memory of Her kiss upon his lips, Seodai was most happy when he was at work. To find himself kneeling in waters that changed colors might have surprised Seodai, but it didn't. He had found himself in stranger dreams still, which seemed to be coming with more and more frequency. Gone were the nonsensical flashes of image and light, of experience and sound. Now his dreams came alive and lingered in his memory for longer than they should. Now it felt as if there were a world for his dreams, a logical place built on the illogical. Sometimes he felt like he could affect those dreams, change them. Sometimes he felt like a victim in the current. Either way, he was certainly becoming more accustomed to strange journeys under Leth's watch. Bright blues lifted upwards, from the plant he knelt before. The two men were standing just there, to the left. Well within ear shot, but out of his reach. Both of them were entirely unrecognizable, foreigners to the young man who had never left the shores of Denval in all of his life. So it was that, with blonde curls dropping into his eyes, the farmer returned to the work before him. It was a plant, a vegetable of some sort. It had only been an inch high in the colorful water when Seodai had first noticed it, but now it was taller. He stroked the fragile stem, and tiny leaves sprouted. He was almost like a sculptor, drawing life out of the raw material of the plant, until it was as high as his chest where he knelt. Bala blessed him with the ability to manipulate life, and apparently it flourished here.

[Caoin]

Caoin lay on her stomach, her arm dangling over the side of her cot, knuckles barely brushing the ground. Somewhere in the distance she could hear the sound of the opening of her family’s living tent fluttering in the gentle night time breeze that swept across the Sea of Grass, she could hear the sound growing fainter as if she were moving away from it. At some point, the Drykas woman started to register the fact that her body was cooler than usual for the warm temperatures that Endrykas followed in its run. She slowly became aware of a gentle pricking along the exposed skin of her thighs and arms, the hairs rising, goosebumps forming because of the change in the temperature. Slowly she pulled herself from the black of sleep and pushed herself up with her arms to seek a blanket or her cloak, but she found neither. In fact, she found nothing of her usual surroundings, including the cot she had fallen asleep on.

The woman found herself on a rock in the middle of a seemingly endless sea of sky, something which should have been altogether frightening, and yet she was as calm as ever. Her feet moved over the side of the rock and she slid down from her stony bed to the water below, expecting to continue to move below the surface. Caoin found herself walking on water instead. Tiny ripples moved outward from her feet and she watched them move with the curiosity of a small child or an animal in a new environment. Nothing around her was familiar and for a moment, she felt alone in those strange surroundings, until she realized that what she had assumed was the flapping of her family’s tent opening, was actually the sound of distant voices.

Caoin looked down at herself momentarily, realizing that part of the reason why she was cold was because she wasn’t fully dressed, which made sense since she’d apparently been sleeping in her bed. She had on her underwear and her blouse, but nothing more than that. Not exactly the sort of dress one would desire to wear when encountering strangers, but what choice did she have in her strange, new surroundings? Without further contemplation Caoin started across the watery surface, heading in the direction of the voices. As she walked, Caoin folded her arms against her chest, rubbing them gently to warm them against the cooler air that she wasn’t used to. Her legs were less easily warmed, and as she realized this, she increased her speed to a light jog. The figures she was moving towards were steadily coming into focus as she drew nearer, becoming more than just dots in the distance and turning into normal looking people, though, admittedly people she did not recognize.

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[Xnnn]

Ears twitched. Nostrils inhaled deeply. There seemed only the one scent, that floated above all the rest. One that he didn’t know – yet. On velvet paws he moved, skirting the water. Closing in, he spied her with his large green-gold night vision eyes. Crouching down onto the shore that was darker than the lapping waves, he waited for her, feeling each light footstep vibrate through his bones.

[Jameson Kindle]

It wasn’t until after he spoke that Jameson realized the man off to his right. A strange sprout had breached the surface of the water, and was being molded by the hands of the being knelt before it. He shaped it with tender touches of his own hands and fingers, his flesh emanating a sort of growth hormone for the plant. The little thing sprang up and flourished as if its cycle was in a fast forward motion. He blinked and stared, captivated by the interesting spectacle. Just as he had opened his mouth to question the curious green thumb, Jameson heard a hurried footfall. He turned and looked around, searching for the origin of the sound. There, in the distance, sprinted an approaching dot. A woman, it seemed, judging by her slender frame and flowing hair. Jameson squinted, thankful that his eyesight had been restored, even if only for this simple – yet odd – dream. The dream world was proving to be a strange one thus far. Never had he experienced one so vivid, so strange, so random. And random fit the description, as little crystalline flakes of snow began to swirl their way down to the water. Looking to the shoreline, Jameson noticed the water touching the lip of the bank was beginning to freeze over in the same fast forward motion as the little shoot had when touched by the skin of the kneeling man. Jameson cleared his throat and swallowed, folding his arms tightly across his bare chest. The snow was bringing with it a brisk, chilly breeze – and an unwelcome one, at that.

[Landon Mora]

Landon looked at the man strangely. "Of course I'm real. I'm standing here, aren't I?" Landon almost reached out to the man before him to smack him across the head to prove he was real. He held back though. The Lhavitian looked the man over curiously. He was blind? He didn't seem blind, although a lot of blind people might not seem like it.

The conversation between the two men might have lasted longer but a girl walked up, in her underpants no less. Running his fingers through his hair he walked up to her, a smile sitting proudly on his lips. "Isn't it a bit cold for you to be dressed so lightly?" The snow was lightly falling around them seeming to be coming out of nowhere. Sliding his jacket off of his shoulders he offered it to the girl. "Take it, I insist. I'm wearing much more clothing than you. Clearly..." He could not hide that his eyes were trailing down her body. There was a half naked woman in front of him. Looking back at her face he smiled with a small chuckle. "I'm Landon by the way. Landon Mora."

The flower caught Landon's eye as he turned to look back to the man he had met at first. It seemed to be growing right in front of their eyes. Was it fertile soil or just another strange thing happening in this seemingly random place? The man jumped a little, taking a step in front of the girl when the cat walked up. Would it harm them? If it tried he supposed he could attempt to hypnotize it, although he had never tried his art on an animal before. Nodding to the man he had spoken to earlier, he spoke quietly. "Hey, do you know what that thing is?" Why was it not attacking? It was a cat of prey, or it seemed like it was from the sheer size of it. Looking back to the girl he grinned with a wink. "Don't worry. I'll protect you."

[Seodai]

Seodai's eyes rolled upwards to regard the small gathering, even as it grew. If the other men present responded particularly to the young woman's state of undress, then that reaction was lost upon Seodai. He seemed distracted, focused, busy at work on the plant in his palms. As if it mattered. As if, somehow, it was crucial. Even as the snow began to fall, and an act of nobility lent the Drykas girl a jacket, Seodai focused still. The rapidly freezing ice soon encroached upon their space, though an invisible barrier prevented it from forming beneath their feet. An oblong shape of colorful water remained, even as the newly formed ice outside the ring crackled and popped in the suddenly bitter cold. As Caoin accepted the offering, the breath that spilled from her appreciative smile became a golden spark. A flickering, fragile thing that wafted away from her pretty face and danced on an invisible breeze. It skittered across Jameson's knuckles, and singed the end of one of Seodai's golden curls before it landed atop the plant he had so painstakingly created. There was the smallest fruit hanging from the bush, at which his fingers had been hard at work. His face contorted into something of horrified grief when the spark landed. For a moment, nothing happened. Then the entire bush was suddenly aflame, and despite the glowing mark of Bala upon his slender back, Seodai could not save the precious fruit. He groaned as he fell back, fingers burned. "No, no..." he complained. The bush roared to life in a fire that heated them all, a mercy in the arctic atmosphere. His distress seemed illogical and unnecessary. "No, you've ruined it..." he said, accusing no one in particular. Though the fire burned, the bush was not consumed. It crackled, sending flying sparks into the darkened heavens above. Seodai continued to panic over something unseen, and when he reached his hand into the fire to save the abandoned fruit, the world around them shuddered. As if an earthquake had found its birth just beneath their feet. Seodai was already upon his knees, but the others were brought low as well by the seismic upheaval. The cougar that had seemed so intimidating moments before, and had been momentarily forgotten, sprang from his place in the shadows. His target was clear; the young woman. With the whole world shaking beneath them, none of those closest to her could offer any aide. Just when clawed paws neared her shoulders, the figure shifted into something else entirely. A handsome young man, completely unclothed, completed the pounce. His hands curled around her more fragile shoulders and he pulled her into his chest, twisting his body as they both fell so that it was his own frame that struck the ice, cushioning her blow. The young farmer cried out and, in a miserable effort, tugged the unripe fruit free. Their universe responded in a vicious whiplash of color and sound, blinding and deafening. For a full second there was nothing but absolute chaos; every color imaginable, every sound ever made inundating their unprepared senses. And then it was finished. The night was quiet. The bush was gone, but replacing it was a very typical fire that still possessed the power to keep the cold at bay. The waters beneath their feet had at last become ice again, as if that plant had held it at bay. Seodai stood on the opposite side of the fire, shadows dancing upon his fresh, young face. The fruit was in his hand, and that same hand was blackened completely. "You ruined it," he said miserably, wide blue eyes in absolute distress as he glanced up towards Caoin. "No hope now," he murmured, more to himself than the others. A tear trailed along his unblemished cheek, and fell upon the fruit in his hand. It sizzled, like grease on a fire, and then the flames surged higher. When, once again, they were lower, Seodai was gone. Or, rather, Seodai still stood in exactly the same position. Except that he wasn't Seodai anymore. To Jameson, he was a man just slightly taller, a bit older, and with the same eyes and hair as his son. He held a poker in his hand, blazing hot as if he had just taken it from the fire. When eyes that should have been filled with paternal affection found the face, in the little band of dreamers, that looked so much like his, they hardened. A sneer curled the man's upper lip, and the tightening grip on that poker made the old scar on Jameson's back flare up angrily. When Caoin looked at the place where Seodai had stood, she saw Ruith. Bloodied and dead, half of his face decomposed. A stray arrow still protruded from his breast, a place where it had never belonged at all. His Drykas finery was rotting and torn, as if he had literally stepped out of the grave to greet her here. For the cougar turned man, the tanned face of a Benshira swam into view. One hand held out towards Xnnn, the mark of Yahal blazing against his palm. His appearance was hardly frightening at all. It was as welcoming and warm as it had always been towards the kelvic. The horror here, then, was most likely the pain of betrayal and lack of understanding son had for father over days long passed. Finally, for Landon? A shock of red hair, a beautiful smile, and a gorgeous girl with her arms crossed across a bare chest. She shivered, gooseflesh rising on creamy skin. Her wide eyes fixed upon his face and then, with a dejected sort of sadness, towards Caoin. The jacket had fallen off in the tumble and was laying uselessly atop the frigid ice. It was with hurt and silent accusation that she stared at him, wordlessly. The winds picked up, howling like a beast at their heels. The snow was like a blizzard outside of the circle of light. Where the fire kissed ice, however, it fell in pleasant, warm sprinkles that tingled when they touched bare flesh.

[Caoin]

Caoin was completely unaware of the feline figure that watched her as she strode across the dreamscape towards where the other figures were gathered. As she drew closer, she noticed three men. Two were talking and the third was crouched over some sort of flowering plant. The two who were standing seemed to be discussing where the group was and what was going on, questioning the reality of their surroundings and eachother, the gentleman in the jacket insisting that he was real. She couldn’t help but wonder the same thing. Was everything around her real and were the men real? She would take them as her current reality for the time being. What other choice did she have? She was there, they were there, and it all seemed to feel so real.

Caoin looked from the man wearing pants, to the jacketed man, to the one crouching on the ground. Her arms drew around her body more tightly as one of the three approached her and addressed her, with more than just his voice. Not only did Caoin feel his eyes on her body as she accepted the coat that he offered her, but she could see him clearly examining her with less than innocent intentions in his pretty blue eyes. He did have a point though, it was growing colder and she was sparsely dressed for the occasion. The jacket slid around her shoulders and she allowed it to simply hang there, as if it were a cloak instead. “Thank you,” she offered with a smile, before returning his introduction, though not for his benefit alone, “I’m Caoin.” As Caoin smiled and spoke, her breath came like a fine mist in the cold, a fine mist that turned into a golden spark. Brown eyes followed that golden spark for a moment, entranced by its beauty.

It was then that the rather forward gentleman noticed the beast of prey that had been watching Caoin. Landon turned to her with a grin and a wink, offering to protect her, and in her mind she chuckled softly. Protect her from a cougar? She’d seen far worse on the Sea of Grass. No one could look at a regular predator the same after encountering the terror that was a Glassbeak. “Protect me from such a kitten,” Caoin sassed back, “you underestimate me, sir.” There was no fear in the young woman. No indication that she even acknowledged the large cat as a threat. She was Drykas, and the Drykas knew how short life could be.

Distracted by the cat and Landon’s forwardness, she had failed to follow the burning wisp that had slipped from between her soft, pink lips as she had smiled so innocently. But it was hard to ignore the green-thumbed gentleman and the effects of the spark that had originated with her, the only woman there. Perhaps the strange reality was trying to tell her something, to tell the men something. Caoin could only watch the escalating destruction and ruin that came from her smile. The once beautiful plant burst into flames and Caoin’s eyes were immediately drawn to the light. The gentleman who had nurtured the plant started to panic and Caoin started to move to calm him, but her reaction was too slow. The young man’s hands reached into the fire and Caoin’s world turned upside down as her footing was lost.

She felt herself beginning to fall as the ground trembled beneath them, and worse yet, she watched as the large cat leapt at her with clawed paws reaching out for her in a moment when she truly was just a helpless girl. What could have ended badly for the woman turned out to be not as horrible a situation as she had been led to believe, and though fear and adrenaline still coursed through her body, she felt warm flesh wrapping around her shoulders instead of the padded paws of a cougar. Caoin felt her world, her body spinning as she was pulled into the arms of a man, pulled against his body. The jacket that Landon had given her slipped away, and only the arms of the man holding her were left around her shoulders as he pulled her around, their bodies twisting in the air so that she landed not on the hard, angry ground, but on his own soft chest.

The fruit was tugged free and pulled from the fire. The world responded with further violence. Colors and sound. Chaos. She drowned in it. And yet, as quickly as it had come, that chaos was gone. The bush was gone, in its place there was only the fire that had started with her. Caoin stared beyond the fire, through the fire, at the saddened face that stared back at her, and she was horrified by the pain she saw. “You ruined it. No hope now.” Those words, his eyes, tore deep into her, but not nearly as deep as what she saw next.

Caoin thought she had put it behind her. She had worked so very hard to bury it deep within her. Palms pressed hard against Xnnn’s chest as Caoin’s body went rigid. The horror that had been written on her face when she looked at Seodai was nothing compared to the horror that she displayed at the sight that Seo had become for her. Those pink lips… so soft… lips that generally only spoke the gentlest of words, parted again and Caoin screamed with a fear and pain that could only come from the deepest and darkest of places. Her hands came away from Xnnn’s chest to cover her face and block out the sight of Ruith. Nails bit deep into her skin, the smallest beads of red welling up around them. Caoin could only scream and shake uncontrollably.

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