Dream I

MARYN SATROS TOUCHED DARIUS’ BRUISED KNEE, as she spread his blood across his knee, marking an “X” on the injured area, the knee healing itself immediately, leaving a faint trace of the “X”, and the Phoenix King gave her a coquettish smirk, not worried at all over his life-death situation.

Maryn let out the breath she had been holding ever since he came over with the bite from the Djevelen slange, the venomous snake that could kill someone in a span of two minutes, but thanks to his flying powers, he came as fast as he could to the place that could take your breath away, the land of dreams, the only place away from the nightmare realm taking over the Dreams. Soon, they will take away her Åpningen til Dagdrømmer—The Opening to Daydreams.

“You ok, Rynzie? Did I take your breath away?” Darius asked, his eyes twinkling. How fit for a Phoenix King, she thought, his eye filled with flaming fire and gold dust. But she knew there was something else behind that crystalline eye. She knew that he covered up his other eye with a faux one, the same flame as his right eye, but the left was something else. Was it as dark as the night sky, spilled with stars, bright as the day, or just the plainness of the dead?

Maryn shoved his left arm and glared at him. “You're so lucky I'm a faerie and healed you quickly, shitface. No gratitude.”

“You took the Application: Life oath. You are supposed to save anyone at a time of need because we need you faeries. You're the ones that give Dreams tranquility. Ved døden står vi ved Applikasjonen: Livet fordi vi aldri vil dø i tid så lenge vi har Søknaden fra vår side—by death we stand by Application: Life because we will never die in time as long we have the Application by our side,” Darius said, with no enthusiasm at all. “I kind of think that’s bull, I mean I have healing abilities, but it can't be used unless a faerie, does it? What kind of rules are those?”

She laid down on the grass, the dew reflecting rainbows and a nebulous haze of careless daydreams. “Rynzie’s getting a bit old, isn't it?”

He poised himself up on his elbows and has a mischievous twinkle in his eye. “So are rules.”

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ALASTRINE SCREAMED IN AGONY, THE RED BLOOD POURING FROM THE PUNCTURE THE KNIFE CAUSED. Lord Xalvador recoiled from the blood, as it stained his white robes. Red. The blood of the pure. He brought the knife up to his lips and tasted the rust and delirious purity of the blood, the blood dripping down his fingers as he did so.

But it's not devilish. Where's the black bloodshed I've been waiting for? He thought and kicked the imposter over to face him. “Where. Is. She?”

The imposter laughed, and as she did so, he noticed how different from Alastrine she was. How could he have been so blind?

The dying imposter grabbed onto his robes and stared at Lord Xalvador with cold eyes. “If you chase her, let yourself die first when you meet her, or you'll die twice when she perishes. Set your boundaries when you meet her, and don't let her into the scattered pieces of your heart that's glacial. Don't let it melt— “the imposter lets go of his robes and fell to her death.

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PHOEBE CLOSED HER EYES SERENELY AND EXITED THE DESERT. The Dreamer arrived back to the supermarket, only to face the merman caught in a net, suffocating as the fisherman hauled him over to their stand.

Phoebe didn't want to help merman; she really didn't. But being the Dreamer makes you feel exhilarated by the sense of Dreaming purpose. And being Phoebe Lucero Rigel, the girl who barely survived, she wanted others to survive. So the Dreamer took a look at Xander’s pleading blue eyes, the eyes that crossed the lines between the oceans and glaciers, the eyes that were once filled with ardent, and came to the market stand.

“I would like to buy that…fish creature,” Phoebe said, tapping her nails nervously on the counter, as the scrawny old man rubbed his chin. “Why would you want to buy a disgusting creature like him? Do you want to eat him? Because we do offer that sorta treatment here, y’know.”

She remembered the man vaguely from her Dreams.

Phoebe shook her head. “I prefer to cook scum by myself, thank you very much,” hoping that she sounded much braver than she felt on the inside. Xander scowled at Phoebe’s demeanor, and she shrugged slightly before going back to the man. “So, do we got ourselves a deal?”

“Well, gimme the money, and sure we got ourselves a deal,” the man replied, extending his arm out for the money.

Phoebe didn't have any form of payment that she could offer to the man, so she just gave him her right sneaker. The man looked at the sneaker warily before sniffing the inside, and he recoiled from the shoe in disgust. “Is this all you have?” He asked, giving the shoe back to Phoebe. She knew it wouldn't work, but at least she tried.

Then, they heard a cry. “I WANNA BARGAIN!” The person exclaimed, dressed in rainbow shorts and a white shirt topped with fringe, sunglasses perched on his nose and a big sombrero covering his features.

The merchant sighed in exhaustion. “Just take the merman already— “

The mysterious man grabbed Xander faster than ever, for he was already turning blue, and his eyes were starting to shut. “Don't worry, idiot,” the man murmured, and Phoebe followed them to the sea. Phoebe thought that the man’s voice was oddly familiar.

The sea with startling. How could something so beautiful be so deathly? The sea could swallow you to the great depths, but it looked like a hallucination of devastating beauty. But the sea could also burst life because some cannot roam the great lands and have to settle of the coral reefs.

The man took off his ridiculous sombrero and sunglasses, and she saw the Phoenix King, his eyes filled with distress, his face filled with anxiety as he put the water in his mouth and locked his lips to Xander’s, trying to revive him back.

Phoebe coughed. “You could just throw him back into the water— “

Darius looked up at Phoebe. “Right. Whoops,” he replied, and dropped Xander into the sea.

“Seems to me somebody wanted to do that— “

“SHUT UP!”