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"Dreams, Dreamer, Lover"
It was raining and grey.
The clouds were covered with still more clouds and the wind blustered and
howled through the rain-slick towers of Arderial. Sensible Arderians kept to
the safety of their lofty homes, few daring to venture into the treacherous
winds. A lone sentry struggled to stay aloft amid the unpredictable gusts of
wind, his cape and hair heavy with rain. A sudden thunderbolt brought Sorreah
to a halt, his wings beating furiously to maintain a stationary position in the
storm. Beyond the flash of lightning, from below the rolling waves of thunder,
he had heard a new sound—a most unusual and unexpected sound. Music. A song
perhaps, though he couldn’t distinguish the words. The melody was slow and melancholy,
a sadness that seemed to embrace the dreariness of the day.
As he listened, the
music became clearer, lilting up through the heavy clouds from the lands below.
There were words, although he still couldn’t understand them, coming from a
voice that was sweet and high, ringing out through the storm with the sound of
bells and chimes. Curious, Sorreah dove into the thick clouds, his drenched
cape tossing and tumbling in the wind behind him. The clouds parted and he
swooped downward across a rain-filled landscape of enormous trees. The colors
of the forest were muted to olive drabs and dusty browns, only momentarily
revealing their true vibrance as lightning flashed across the cloud plane
above. The music drifted up from below the treetops, continuing its steady
melody which spoke of sadness and lament.
Sorreah made a careful
descent into the trees as thunder rolled through the forest and gusts of wind
brought cascades of rain pelting down on him from the soaked foliage. He
touched down in a bed of springy moss, water squishing from beneath his feet as
he settled his weight. The music drifted clearly between the trees and he began
to follow the sound through the dense underbrush.
The forest rose up a
steep ridge, but the music led the Arderian down a slippery path alongside the
ridge, where he discovered the opening of a small cave. From within, the music
emerged loud and clear, its haunting notes echoing in the depths of the unseen
cavern beyond. Sorreah was wary, realizing that this music was far more than
ordinary. It was deeply moving, filling him with sadness while at the same time
inspiring a strange sense of awe for its unlikely beauty. It was magical in
nature, of that there was no doubt. Sorreah deeply mistrusted magic, yet he
also could not deny the exotic pull of the song. It beckoned him to enter the
cave, to come and find its source, to stop the sad loneliness and bring joy and
comfort to the singer.
Sorreah recognized this
cave, of course, from the many stories he had heard about the ancient warriors
who had once been turned to stone within. Tony Jones, by defeating Morag and
Agram, had also broken the spell upon these brave warriors, allowing them to
escape their dark prison at last. Although he had never been to this part of
Naroom himself, he knew that this must surely be the place where Tuku and his
follower’s had once thought to take on Agram. The fact that such powerfully
magical music was now emerging from within was a clear warning sign of possible
danger for all the Moonlands. He bent to examine the cave entrance more closely
and then hesitated. This place, the site of so much dark magic in ages past,
was suddenly alive with mysterious new magic. He knew he should return to
Arderial and bring back some of the Arderian Guard before venturing within.
Hadn’t he heard a rumor that Morag might still be hiding somewhere in Naroom,
perhaps in this very spot? Yet, the pull of the music was so strong, so urgent.
It seemed to be pleading with him now. Come and end the sorrow. Come and
bring an end to the loneliness.
Carefully, Sorreah
stooped to enter the dark cave, his furled wings scraping the stony walls. Down
a short incline, the ceiling opened up and the floor became level. A grey fog
crawled over the ground and the walls were wet and glistening in the dim light
from the entrance. The air was heavy, with a strong musk-like odor. After
all these years, Sorreah mused, the stench of Void magic still lingers.
The music filled the
musky air, surrounding him. He could feel its pull as a physical force now;
tickling his feathers, teasing through his ebony hair, pulling at his dripping
cape, tugging at his heart. Taking his staff in one hand, he passed his other
hand over the small red crystal embedded in the crown. Soon, the crystal began
to glow with a soft pink light, sending the darkness of the cave fleeing into
the nooks and crannies of the stony walls. Ahead, a tunnel opened in the far
wall. The song beckoned him to hurry.
The tunnel led downward,
becoming ever steeper. Soon, the rocky slope gave way to a series of
magi-carved steps in the slippery rock, easing his descent. Down and down he
went, wondering if the stairs would ever end. No wonder old Tuku and his
followers had thought this would lead them to the Core! Sorreah knew that
was impossible, of course, as there was no physical way into or out of the Core
itself, but this surely felt as if it would go on and on forever until it
reached the center of the Moon itself! Finally, after many long hours spent in
descent, the stairs began to widen and finally came to an end upon a broad
stone plaza. Before him opened a vast cavern, as big as the Orothean Vault!
Unlike the colourful
mushroom jungles of the Underneath, this cavern was devoid of life. Nothing but
cold stone adorned the towering walls. The song filled this space with its
lonely yearning, swirling about him, swathing him in silken folds of magical
notes, beckoning him forward across the plaza. Sorreah, it called him by
name now. Sorreah…help me. Sorreah…save me. As he shuffled forward, now
half-dazed by the power of the music, he discovered a series of statues,
arrayed in a semi-circle. Various magi, wearing outdated clothing, were all
carved in various combat poses, their stone eyes all focused upon a single spot
where an invisible enemy had once stood. Suddenly, Sorreah remembered that the
tale of the ancient warriors had also claimed that not all of them had been set
free of Morag’s spell. Those poor souls who had been caught in the direct line
of Morag’s spell had taken a much stronger dose of his vile magic, and they
remained frozen still; haunting the dark lair to this day. And here they were.
Sorreah shuddered, the
fine feathers along his wing crests standing on end. But then the music took
hold once more and he found himself moving to stand where Morag himself must
have once stood to cast the stone spell upon these foolhardy warriors. Slowly
he turned to face the statues, suddenly dreading to feel their accusing stares
fall upon him. As he turned, he saw something completely unexpected.
The gargantuan form of a
mighty gorath rose up from behind the statues to stare down at him menacingly.
His heart leapt in fear as the music suddenly stopped. He raised his staff, the
words of a spell upon his lips, but before he could utter the final phrases,
the gorath reached out with a mighty fist and slammed him backward into the
rough wall of the cavern. He lost his spell as the wind was knocked out of him
and he felt himself beginning a slow slide to the ground. A flairing pain in
his right shoulder told him that one of his wings was broken. The gorath began
to reach out for him as he completed his fall to the stony floor. The last
thing he saw before losing consciousness was the cold stony stares of the
ancient warriors who had once thought to save the Moon from the ravages of the
Core and who had, instead, come to their own terrible end.
v
"Hey!!! HEY!!!!!!
Beautysleeper!!! Wake up would ya!" Sorreah heard the coarse young voice in his
ears, piercing through the fog of his dream.
"WOAH!!!" Sorreah yelled,
still remembering the gorath reach out to grab him. His arms shot out in a
defensive gesture. Kalius jumped away from his sleeping cloud.
"What’s up with you
man?! Didn’t ya catch good dreams?" Kalius asked.
Sorreah sat up slowly,
his head still filled with the images from his dream. "Wow…I just had the most
realistic dream? He stopped when he looked up to Kalius and saw that the young
scout wasn’t paying attention. The dream still clung to him and he shook his
head to clear it away. So real, he thought.
"C’mon, sleeping
beauty…Up and at ‘em!" Kalius chimed. "Jaela has a job for ya!"
Slowly Sorreah rose from
his tangled bedcovers. A twinge in his right wing told him he had folded it
under himself in his sleep again, an unconscious habit which often caused him
to be sore upon awakening. He flexed the wing to loosen the aching muscles,
yawning hugely as he did so.
He turned to ask Kalius
a question when a new voice said, "Sorreah…help me. Sorreah…save me."
There was a hint of music in the air as well,
which dissipated as quickly as it had come.
Sorreah whirled to
discover the source of the voice, but there was no one else in the room.
"What? Hey, what’s the
matter with you, man?" Kalius sounded irritated.
"Who was that speaking?"
Sorreah turned to demand of the scout.
"Whaddya mean, who was
speakin? I didn’t hear nothin?"
"You didn’t just hear
that?"
"Hear what?" Kalius
shook his head. "Man, you gotta lay off the Kybarite brew! You just can’t hold
your liquor!"
"No…that’s not it?
Sorreah gave up. It’s just that dream, he told himself. I need to get
out in the fresh air! He turned to the balcony of his sleeping chamber and
strode out into a foggy morning. The land below was hidden by dense gray
clouds. The smell of rain was in the air. He breathed in the cool air and felt
his head beginning to clear. Over his shoulder he asked, "So what’s this that
Jaela wants me to do?"
v
And so it was that Sorreah found
himself racing before an approaching storm on a reconnaissance mission for the
Regis, who was curious to know what the Dark Twins were up to down in Vash
Naroom. They had been suspiciously quiet of late.
Back on the balcony of his sleeping
chamber, his friend Kalius watched him disappear from view into the thickening
clouds. Shaking his head with a low chuckle, Kalius muttered to himself, "Poor
Sorreah! Hearing voices in his head. Insane from loneliness is what he is! He
needs a girl for sure!" He leapt from the balcony and swooped up into the
lighter layers of cloud which lay above the towers and spires of the city.
Still talking to himself he proclaimed, "Yah, right! The day ol?stuffy wings
finds a girlie is the day that the Dark Twins will visit my home door!
Sorreah’s problem is that he’s stuffed with his own feathers and they’re all
soaking wet!" He laughed merrily at his own cleverness. He found his remarks so
clever that he decided he must share them with Sorreah right away and decided
to join him on his flight. He turned and dove recklessly into the storm clouds
below, wondering if he could persuade his older friend to take a side trip to
go vellup hunting.
v
Some time later, their
recon mission completed, Kalius and Sorreah had discovered a half dozen or so
vellups swirling thru the air.
"Yahoo!" hollered
Kalius, pleased that Sorreah had joined him in the hunt, knowing that his
friend needed the diversion. Fortunately, the storm had not yet broken and they
had been able to find a flock of the notoriously dim-witted vellups with ease.
"Check this out! You take those three and I’ll take the other ones." Kalius
pointed his ring toward his chosen targets. In a flash a Warlum was dreamed up
near the vellups which flitted away in three different directions. The Warlum
dove after the vellups while Sorreah was just watched and waited, a smile of
mild amusement on his face. He enjoyed the youthful enthusiasm of his young
friend and he appreciated Kalius?obvious efforts to distract him from his
disturbing dream.
"Yah!!! Chaos
everywhere! Hit ‘em hard!" Kalius yelled to his Warlum while casting a Shooting
Star on it. Sorreah grinned at Kalius?youthful enthusiasm, preparing to join
him in the game. Suddening the chirping cries of the vellup were silenced and
the music from his dream filled his head once more. His mind travelled far
away. He saw the gorath reaching for him, felt the accusing stares of the
statues. Suddenly, a loud yell broke through his vision, returning him to the
present.
"HEEEY!!! Are you out of
you’re mind!" Kalius yelled in Sorreah’s ear.
"Uh…what? What’s wrong?"
Sorreah asked, surprised by the sudden anger his friend was displaying.
"What’s wrong?!
You don’t gotta Shockwave my vellup! What were you thinkin?/i>,
man?" Kalius?ears were turning red. The sky suddenly lit up with a jagged
flash of lightning and thunder boomed all about them. "Did ya hafta go and open
up a hole in the clouds just now!" Kalius had barely finished his
sentence when hard rain started to pelt them both. Kalius yelled to Sorreah
over the rising wind, "Let’s get back to the Sky Ring before this gets worse!"
The two Arderians dove headlong into
the storm, fighting the increasing winds as they made their way back to their
city in the clouds. Rain tore at them in heavy sheets, stinging their eyes and
saturating their wings. Lightning ripped the air between them and suddenly
Sorreah had lost sight of Kalius. A ferocious crash of thunder rolled across
him as he hovered, trying to find his friend. The echoing waves of thunder died
away to leave behind the soft melancholy notes of the song from his dream.
Sorreah shook his head to clear it, but the music merely grew louder. A voice
seemed to come from the rain and the wind, "Sorreah…help me. Sorreah…save
me."
Before he knew it, he found himself
in a steep dive, whipping through the sleeting rain and the gray mist of the
storm clouds. The forest suddenly appeared below, and Sorreah gathered his wits
enough to pull up sharply before plummeting into the trees. The song filled his
head, pulling him downward. He descended through the treetops and found himself
landing on an all too familiar patch of rain-soaked moss.
He had one final moment of clarity,
where he realized how potentially dangerous his situation had become. He was
obviously being controlled by a powerful spell of some sort. "Sorreah…help
me. Sorreah…save me." The music
swept away his fears and doubts and all he cared about was following it to its
source.
He found the cave easily, his feet
almost moving of their own volition. Ducking within, he paused only long enough
to light the gem on his staff before hurrying to reach the endless downward
staircase. Down and down and down he went, the music pulling him relentlessly
onward. Finally, after what seemed a very long time spent in a foggy haze,
Sorreah reached the bottom of the stairs and stepped into the cavernous plaza.
There, in the distance, was the
semi-circle of statues, their backs turned to him as they gazed eternally upon
the empty spot from which their enemy had once confronted them.
Curiously, as he set
foot upon the smooth floor of the plaza, the music faded away. Sorreah’s head
began to clear from the effects of the spell and his normal cautionary self
took over. He glanced around warily, looking for signs of a trap, an ambush. He
remembered the gorath from his dream only too well. The cavern was enormous, certainly
large enough for him to fly about in, and so he took to the air, flying slow
circles over the periphery to look for signs of trouble. He found nothing. The
cavern appeared to be totally empty aside from the statues.
With a sigh of
resignation, he landed before the statues and turned to face them. Now their
stony gazes bore into him once more, but they were not quite as he remembered
them from his dream. Their eyes held the anger and accusation he remembered,
but now he saw that there was also fear etched upon those stone countenances.
One statue in particular caught and held his attention. This one was somewhat
smaller than the rest—a young woman, barely old enough to be a scout, he
thought. Her face was frozen in a howl of rage, her wings pulled tightly to her
back and her fist pushed forward as she prepared to invoke a creature.
"Sorreah…help me.
Sorreah…save me." The words echoed through his mind, and suddenly he knew
they were coming from this statue.
"What’s this?" he asked
himself, moving closer to the statue, his eyes never leaving its cold gaze. She
was pretty, he admitted to himself, even with her face contorted in anger.
Suddenly, the floor of
the plaza began to tremble. Sorreah prepared himself to meet the gorath, sure
that it would appear now. But the trembling continued and the gorath did not
appear. The statues began to wobble. Several of the statues crashed to the
floor of the plaza, startling Sorreah. He reached out to catch the falling
statue of the girl before she met the same fate. The weight of the statue put
him off balance and he went down under, cushioning its fall with his own body.
Suddenly, he held a
warm, living breathing girl in his arms. Amazed, he lifted her up so that he
could look into her eyes. Deep and blue, filled with tears.
"…………..Ssss? Sorre?Sorreah???" Her
voice was light and musical, the voice from the dream song. Her gaze met his
own and he found himself trembling slightly.
"How…how do you know my name?" He
asked, too stunned to think of anything more eloquent to say.
"I’ve been…dreaming…about you," she
replied. "You’re real! You’re really here! You saved me!"
He tore his eyes away from her long
enough to glance over at the other statues to see if they, too, had returned to
life. But no, they remained as silent and stony as ever. So why had this girl
suddenly returned to life?
"I don’t understand," whispered
Sorreah.
The girl shook her head. "I’m…not
sure I do either. But, I’m very glad to see you!" Tears were running down her
cheeks now, cutting shiny paths through the stone dust which covered her pretty
cheeks.
Suddenly, Sorreah became aware that
he was still lying on his wings on the floor, holding this strange girl in his
arms. His cheeks reddened and some of his usual manners returned to reassert
themselves. Slowly, he lifted himself and the girl from the ground and stood on
shaky legs before her.
"Who are you?" he asked in a quite
voice.
She looked up into his eyes. So
tiny, he thought as her gazed back, so delicate, so…beautiful. "My
name…is Amara."
The name echoed through his head
like the ringing of a great bell. Beautiful…just like her. He found himself
suddenly very glad that, just this once, dreams really do come true.
What happens next? Read Part 2 "Into the Shadows" |
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