The Bard

Chapter 2: Ocean Of the Cosmos

Grayton stared at the endless sea of fog, and the literal endless sea under him. Was it even endless? Or was it only knee-deep? Grayton had no way to know. This cluelessness left Grayton feeling frustrated. Grayton could not help but think that the universe is toying with him pushing him into random anomalies he could not even begin to understand. 

"What's next, Is the water under me suddenly gonna act like real water and make me sink?" Grayton thought to himself, convinced that things could not get any worse.

Suddenly Grayton saw ripples under his feet. The water ripples grew and grew in size until, Grayton sank under the water. 

"Me and my big mouth" Grayton thought, too occupied in trying to resurface to remember that he never said those words and simply thought them in his head. 

After a few seconds of futile flailing, Grayton decided to open his eyes so he could see in the water, if it was even water. From his failed attempts he could feel that the water he was in was thicker than normal water. And so, he opened his eyes and looked around.

What he saw was something he could never expect. Grayton saw that the ocean he was in was like a star system in space. Grayton saw what looked like countless stars, deeper in the ocean. What he also noticed is that the ocean's water is coloured in a dark blue hue. He gasps... Wait what? He gasped? Grayton was pleasantly surprised by the fact that he could in fact, breathe under this water.

"Alright, enough looking around. I need to get out of here, screw this place and its nonsensical properties."  Grayton composed himself, and decided to swim around to try to get back to the surface. As he was swimming, his eyes kept wandering to the many stars that inhabit this ocean. Grayton could not help but admit that this scenery was beautiful. 

While he was swimming, Grayton realised something. His body is slowly disintegrating. Grayton did not notice it until now since it didn't hurt at all, but now he could clearly see the ends of his fingers evaporating into the water. "And here I thought I could take it slow" At this point, all Grayton could do is search for an exit faster and hope that whatever is happening to his body and his clothes would revert when he finds his way out of this place. It isn't that far from the realm of possibilities, after all, he's already seen weirder things happen so far. 

That's when he saw it. A huge monster-like creature bearing fins and a huge amount of tentacles. It looked like a transparent eel that has too many tentacles where it shouldn't have. Grayton was a biology enthusiast, so he knew that a creature like this would be too heavy and the tentacles would be too impractical for the creature to move well. But here it is, gliding through the water easily towards him.

Fear overtook Grayton and he started desperately swimming the other way, but the creature was too fast, it was gaining on Grayton. As the creature got closer Grayton could see its nerve endings due to its transparency, all of them emitting a golden light for each movement it makes. And as it gets closer, Grayton could also start to feel its... thoughts? It was hard to describe, a feeling so primal and basic, and overwhelming curiosity.

"So it's not here to kill me or eat me, it's just curious!" Grayton thought, but he couldn't sigh in relief just yet, there was a more pressing matter. It appears that the closer Grayton is to this creature, the faster he disintegrates, and this creature was currently charging towards Grayton. Its intentions did not matter, if the creature got close to Grayton, Grayton would still die.

So he swam. Grayton swam and swam and swam as fast as he could. But the creature was getting closer and closer. Grayton's lower body was almost completely gone when suddenly, he resurfaced in a small pond inside the park he originally entered. 

Grayton climbed out of the pond, treading carefully as to not disturb the ducks and goose that inhabit the pond. And when he finally climbed out he immediately checked his feet to see if they were still there. And they were, but Grayton could not feel anything from his legs, something was wrong. Grayton decided to kick a tree and his leg went right through the tree as if it was intangible. Grayton pulls his long pants up to see that his legs are completely transparent, but he could also see that parts of it is slowly turning back to normal so he sighed in relief knowing that this isn't permanent. 

"Well, it's about time I go home and rest, I've had enough adventure today."  Grayton thought. 

Walking back home, Grayton wondered how much time had passed. Grayton felt that he spent at least an hour in that foggy place so he opened his phone and saw that, only three minutes had passed in real time. How curious.

Grayton was still processing what happened when he reached his house. If you could even call it that. Grayton lived in an abandoned parking lot, that conveniently had an empty room, presumably for a guard station. All Grayton did was install an air conditioning system and place a mattress down and it was home. He also has a portable stove and other essentials. Luckily for Grayton, the place still had some running electricity for some reason. It's not like Grayton is poor or anything, he could definitely rent a small apartment if he wanted to. But Grayton wanted to save more money so he can afford better food and plus, if he managed to stay here for 5 years without getting caught, this plot of land will be his. Laws can be very convenient when it wants to be. 

Grayton threw himself onto the mattress immediately after changing his clothes and started to think about what he should do. On one hand it was dangerous to go back there, but he wanted to at least visit the place a few more times if only to see the scenery again. And the creature, when Grayton sensed its thoughts, it seemed sentient almost. Like it just needed one more little push to become a sapient being. Grayton turned and looked at his collection of books. 

"I'm going to teach it language" Grayton thought to himself. Grayton then drifted to sleep. 

A/N: Comments and suggestions are highly appreciated!