“Do you hear that ringing in your ear? They must be trying to make contact,” said the male voice.
“I hear it,” the female agreed. “But it’s faint. They must still be within the ward.”
Making contact? Within the ward?
“Who are you?” Airess asked.
Suddenly, a black hole materialized to her right, the size of a shield. It started sucking in the black space around her. Her astral body started to stretch towards it. Airess’ heart stuttered as she felt her dreamformbeing sucked in.
“I’m losing them,” said the female. It looked like she stepped closer to the other side of the portal, right in front of the flames. “If you can hear me in there, get to Rune! Get to R–”
The female's words warped as Airess was sucked into the black hole. Airess screamed out into the void, disoriented. Was she falling, was she floating? Time didn’t exist here. Images, scenes of battle and storms flashed before her eyes.
Then, stars and light as she fell down that familiar black hole. The starry space shifted into a dreamscape revealing a vast ocean before her.
Looking down, she realized she stood at the edge of a cliff, the waves crashing violently against the rocks below. Across from her was a–was that a…wall?
A massive translucent wall made of turquoise aurora jutted out as far as she could see on either side.
Airess couldn’t see through it, the barrier was so thick with energy. A storm gathered overhead, the sky darkening quickly. A crack of lightning flashed.
“For Gods’ sake, not this again,” a familiar male voice complained.
If Airess could feel in the dreamworld, she would feel her eyes bulging out of their sockets. She turned around and saw Taryn standing, his head tilted up to view the sky, completely unaware of Airess’ presence.
She couldn’t believe her eyes.
His dark tan skin in the waking world was replaced with translucent, silver light in the dreamworld. His curly brown hair wasn’t brown here, but a metallic silver, the locks flowing in the air as if he was underwater. He was dressed formally with a fitted emerald tunic that reached his wrists and formal black pants rolled up to his calves.
Airess’ jaw dropped. “Taryn?”
His head snapped in her direction, his mouth parting open in surprise before he shook his head in denial.
“Just a dream,” he muttered. Taryn stared at her in astonishment, no doubt in shock to see her in her golden, glittering dreamform.
“Incredible,” he said, more to himself, as if he didn’t believe she was real. Did he not think she was actually here?
Thunder rumbled above them, the wind picking up and swaying the grass at their feet. Behind him was a vast field of dark-colored flowers she didn’t know the name of. Strange, she thought. This night’s dreamscape had changed and shifted into more unfamiliar settings than usual.
“How are you here?” she asked him in disbelief. Airess was utterly dumbfounded. Before her encounter with Ima, she had never made any contact with other astral beings. She mostly appeared as a ghost, only observing memories or other people in the waking world.
His silvery eyes met hers.“I don’t know.”
As if his curiosity got the better of him, Taryn stepped forward and reached out a hand to touch hers. His hand went through her own, but for the first time in her life, shefeltsomething in the dream world. It was faint, but as he made contact with her, a tingling traveled up her arm.
Taryn took a step back and yanked his hand away, as if he felt it too. He stared down at his hand, fingers splayed out for inspection. “Crazy fucking dream,” he muttered again.
She furrowed her brows. “You’re a dreamwalker?”
How is that possible?
“Awhat?” he said, an incredulous expression on his face, then he shifted his gaze beyond her. A crack splitting in the air had her whirling to see what he was looking at. Beyond the cliff and the ocean, lightning had struck the wall of aurora. It cracked like an egg and began to split into pieces. The ground beneath them began to shake. The shaking intensified so much that her vision blurred. It was then when she realized–she was about to wake up.
Funny, how time worked in the dreamworld. A night’s worth of sleep equated to about five minutes in a dream. She knew she was about to wake up to the morning sun.
As expected, the view before them melted away like quicksand. Except this time, she wasn’t alone as she fell through space. Taryn fell right beside her, his yelling out echoed into the void –
Airess sat up immediately upon waking, sweat at her brow as she heaved for air and glanced at Taryn. He was in the same state as her as he looked around in confusion until he found Airess’ face. He shook his head, as if was denying a simple truth that Airess, deep in her soul, knew to be true.
