The Fifth Season

CHAPTER ONE: GOLD BOWL, GOLD EYES

SNOH

           Once again, I found myself surrounded by clouds. All around me, the soft-white material circled and encapsulated the entire vicinity of the unknown place I stood in. It covered the surface area of the ground and the space beside my figure like a deep ocean. I could barely see a thing from where I stood, but I heavily enjoyed the feeling of comfort and safety that warmed my heart and beckoned me to continue walking closer and closer.

          "Hello? Is anyone there? Hello?" I called out into the sky.

           Every time I came here, there was never anyone around.

           My voice echoed in response, the sound vibrated through my core and tingled like a sensation of tiny kisses being placed along the folds of my skin. I focused my gaze upwards, almost breaking my neck to get a higher view of my location; the sky was a beautiful rose-pink that slowly cascaded into a heated orange the longer my gaze stretched uphill. I always marveled at a sky as bright as this, our skies were always dark, but I liked this.

           It was different.

          "Snoh."

         The rumble of a deep voice shook me from my lulling thoughts and caused me to quickly turn around from where I stood. Some of the clouds beside me, separated and vanished as quickly as boiling steam in a pot leaving a fresh set of clouds resting against my bare feet; the cooling sensation was like none other, but I couldn't bask in that for long due to the voice that I heard.

           "Hello?!" I called out again.

           There was no response.

           I continued turning around, in search of the voice but continuously came up empty.

          I've heard that voice before. That low rumbling of a baritone voice instantly captured my attention and caused my body to swoon in a familiar way... a safe way.

         "Where are you?" I whispered, but my voice seemed to carry for miles and miles, stretching across the plane of clouds effortlessly flowing like a light wind. I eventually gave up my search and continued walking across the space in search of something...anything. I wasn't sure what that anything might be, but I hoped that wherever it was, I would eventually gain answers.

          As I continued walking, I could sense my surroundings were beginning to change, the empty plane of clouds that I endlessly trudged through was begging to heighten, reaching the curve of my hips, almost as if I were being buried in the substance. But I wasn't scared, my hands waded around the light texture almost as if I were swimming in order to push my navigation further.

         In my near vision, I could see that I was beginning to approach what appeared to be a temple. It rested in the middle of the clouded area in its own glory, brightly shinning with tall marble columns made of black obsidian that sparkled like stars in the night sky. Upon closer approach, I reached out and grazed my fingertips along the grand structure and shivered lightly at how cool to the touch the stone was. It decorated the entire space effortlessly, but what seemed to have captured my attention the most was the item resting in the center of the temple.

          A bowl?

         I furrowed my brow and slowly abandoned the dark columns to advance further to what looked like an extremely large golden basin.