𝕴𝖓 𝕳𝖎𝖘 𝕯𝖗𝖊𝖆𝖒𝖘 | Xiao x Reader Sequel

5

A/n: Remember the visual representaions from book one? Yep, we're doing those again.

..........

When you opened your eyes, you found yourself somewhere very familiar; somewhere you had hoped never to see again.

You were on a mountain high in the sky, above even the clouds, and surrounded by flowers. You wore the same white clothing you remembered so vividly, and the breeze was as gentle as always.

You were in your dream.

Instantly, you began to panic. You must have fallen asleep back in Luhua Pool, surrounded by all those angry spirits. Was your unconscious body alright? You had been left so vulnerable that it was possible they could kill you, if any were strong enough.

Of course, right now you seemed to be alive, only sleeping. But that brought up the next question: what if you couldn't wake back up again? Before, Xiao had been the one to save you, bringing you out of your dreams after thousands of years of entrapment.

But now he himself was in danger, slowly dying of his own Karmic Debt. On top of that, you weren't sure he would want to save you again, even if he could. After all, that was what had gotten him into the situation he now suffered from in the first place.

You forced yourself to take a deep breath. There was no use spiraling into panic now. Looking around, you realized a few things were different now than how you remembered.

The sky above you was a bright white, reminding you of the blinding light of the ghosts from earlier. But as you came over to the edge of the mountain and looked down towards what should have been the clouds, you were surprised to see that they weren't there. Instead, they had been replaced by what looked like a black abyss, as far as the eye could see.

The abyss met the white sky somewhere in the middle, the transition being awkward and not at all blending. It was as if you were between two places in your dream.

Deciding against jumping into the abyss, you made your way back to the middle of the mountain, kneeling amongst the flowers. You remembered making flower crowns here sometimes, like how your aunt had taught you as a child.

The dream was always changing; sometimes you would relive memories of a better time. Those were always the best because you didn't realize you were dreaming. To you, it felt like reality, like everything being replayed in the memory was happening for the very first time. But then it would change again and you'd be met with the reality of your situation.

Sometimes you saw nothing, just darkness. When that happened, it was like you were dead. You couldn't think, couldn't move, and certainly didn't know what was going on. Coming out of that state was very disorienting.

There were times you would be transported into what felt more like actual dreams. That was when you would see the ocean of blood, the nightmarish version of modern Liyue, or other places. Once, you had even seen an area so similar to modern day Qingce Village that, upon visiting there in the waking world, you were hit with the strongest sense of Deja vu.

Those dreams weren't all horrifying. In fact, in one of them, you remembered attending an opera with Cloud Retainer. The performers had all been so wonderful that you even attended a second time in another dream.

Other times, you found yourself here on this mountain, fully aware of the fact that you were asleep. That was when the reality would hit you that, while you weren't dead, you weren't really alive either. You couldn't wake up. You couldn't see your old friends and companions, and you were completely powerless when it came to controlling the dream. Those were the hardest times.