Island Resort: Round 1

[Kagerus]

{ and in my dreams i've kissed your lips a thousand times }

I wonder if they recognize me yet, by face if not by name; they are demigods, after all, and presumably capable of mind reading and all other kinds of superior cognitive processes. I've seen the magnitude of their power first hand, as the scar which disfigures the beauty of my Arabian face stands as proof thereof; and considering that the faeries before me once again are those working to cure Beqanna of the contagion, I can only imagine that the power they wield is greater than anything beyond my wildest imagination.

I want to step forward, to make a request on my own behalf for having dedicated myself to their cause when I have seen next to no duplicates throughout these quests - but I fear reprimand, and recognize that now is certainly not the appropriate time to do asking of any sort. Silencing myself, I listen instead to what the peace-radiating blue faerie has to say, making a mental note that my dream manipulation shall be useless unless I wish to drown in my attempt to cross the channel.

Monsters, this time, and not hypothermia; I decide not to decide which of the two is crueler.

The journey to the Island Resort is one of the longest yet, though it does not feel that way due to the warmth of late summer. Foregoing the inevitable dread which shall consume me upon arriving to the water I must cross, I take my time in looking about, appreciating the sight and smell of lands I have not seen in literal years since the release of the contagion, and since my subsequent quarantine to the safe lands. Considering the fatalistic nature of these quests, I could very well die; so, haste be damned, I shall enjoy my journey west.

Of course, it comes to an end eventually, and I am still the first to arrive to the shoreline.

Panthera stalks beside me, looks up; in her telepathic way, she asks if she shall accompany me. I tell her no; she will be no use in the water, and I won't risk her dying on my behalf. The leopard snarls, dissatisfied with this answer; caving, I compromise by softly closing my eyes and taking my leopard to sleep, before teleporting her over to the opposite shore. There, she will await my arrival, given that I make one at all.

Shaking the sleep from the length of my figure, I huff, not knowing how I will survive this. In I plunge.

Initially, it would seem as though no evil shall interfere with my passage; indeed, I can see Panthera's figure prowling back and forth across the shore before the waters move threateningly around me. Where calm had existed, panic suddenly takes hold, for I am blind to the threat which approaches me from below the surface of the tropical waves; trying to maintain a steady rhythm with my breath, I await the predator's first strike.

The breathing part is important, because for the next while, I won't be.

Crunch.

The sensation of the shark's rows of teeth attaching themselves to my right hind cannon bone is enough to make my adrenaline sky rocket, and to make the wind burst from my lungs; but I wrestle with the pain in the heartbeat I have to take a final breath in, and force myself to sleep as the silverline beast drags me beneath the waves.

It's eerily calm in my dreams; a part of me knows that the breathing I perform in my dream may elongate the true capabilities of my real body, but not forever. I force myself to pay attention, to locate the form of the shark as it drags me lower and lower, mouth firm around my leg.

It's easy to target the thing, for it is not metacognitive, and possesses less than no conscious ability to combat the onslaught of my dream manipulations.

I begin by dreaming its teeth into ash, ash which melts away into the ocean around us. Next, I dream it small, the size of a guppie; and as the strain of not breathing in real life begins to cause my dream to flutter and glitch, I take one last moment to dream myself back to the top of the water, for if I awaken now, there will be no hope of me resurfacing in time.

I do not have time to dream the wounds of my leg shut.

Swimming the final lengths to the shore of Island Resort are agonizing, and I can barely stand once I manage to crawl up the loose sand. Panthera's yowls echo through the jungle just beyond, her anger faint to me as blood stains the white sands which lay here. I try to soothe her, but my words make no sense; and, with my right hind leg dangling uselessly, I deliriously come to regret not making my demands of the faeries at the beginning of this all.

KAGERUS

Caretaker of The Sanctuary
Lover of Solace
Immortal, antlered Dreamweaver

""

Kag gets bit by a shark and then dreams him into a guppie, but she suffers a real bad wound.