Lost Kingdom of The Seven Seas

PIECES FROM REALITY

At first, I thought I was dead.
Shattered in pieces and falling apart in different dimensions of afterlife. Some smoke I feel are emerging into the holes of my nose. It smells like fire and then gone- it smells burns.

Just that I thought, it's all in the mind. Vivid and unreal.
Like heaven. It can provide extreme ecstacy and pain. Both are dangerous and sour, it can almost break skulls and bones.

It took almost a minute before I can see the whole world again.
A minute to realized that I was lost, again.

I conclude that someone had save me, someone who must had watched me fall from the towing tower of Ti.

I try to stretch my arms and bring back the sight of the striking sunlight.
Sunlight. Sun. Light.

As I wake, I feel like I was lying on the softest bed I ever know. Much that I discover my body is on the skin of the clouds. And they are smoking, burning.

But the clouds aren't floating, they stay beneath the woods sorrounding them. I can almost touch the cotton of gas touching my skin.

Everything is all made up of white and smoke. No windows, one door and close compartment.
What did happen after I fall? Did I break my neck?

No. I think, nothing bad had happened. I feel normal, alive and well.

I must figure out what I am doing here.

The door slightly opens, revealing a beautiful lady dressed in gold coated gown. Touched with dots of shimmering black gems. Her hair is pulled into a bun, her eyes are the color of my childhood, my innocence, my freedom. Her whole persona makes me younger and stronger.
Her face whispers no sin at all. No hurt or pain.

She looks very familiar.

She holds a tray with plates and goblets in it. Drawing it closer in my bed and staring at my starry eyes.

She blinks. She sighs. She smiles.
If only I knew her that much. She looks like someone I miss. A comfort and a shelter, whom someone will refer to as family.
The only thing I don't have and was still seeking for.

She tosses me the goblet like it's also made of smoke and fire. I take the cup from her and drink it, as she watches me brightly.

"Breathe dear, you are free." She says. The promise I want to hear.

I looked at her, as if finding the answers. Free from what?

"Where am I?" I ask, in fact, I shouldn't said that.

"You are in my dwelling. The everlasting beauty of my eternal glory." As she said those words, the heavens rain down splitters of snow and ashes in contrast. I couldn't believe what I was seeing, it's like I was in my dream for so long I haven't wake up. Not sure if I would consider to do it somehow.

"I am dead, am I not?" I ask.

"First, let me ask you, what is the difference between living and dying?" She asks very slowly, she wanted me to really understand the question.

"That is a very deep question." I enhaled. "Living, is playing. Dying is the price of that game."

Although, I said it flawlessly, she was out between the words. She knew I was joking a very old definition of life.

"Well, I'll take it there, Dustin, but what are you right now? Playing or enjoying the price?"

I remained silent. Not that a very quick time I was able to answer her question. I think of it, over more than once. Then, I find an answer.

"More like in between." I said.

The lady smiles.

"Then that answers your question. You are not dead, yet. You are in between. Think of it, dear, would you chose to play? Or get the reward in steadfast? Your choice."

I know she was being smart. But I was able to answer back.

"I don't want to live anymore. Maybe I would choose the reward already, can i have it?" She frowned and took my hand, hold it firm and lean over.

"What about her?" She asks in full sincerity.

Her. Cleansie was the her.

"I don't know. How can I save someone if I can't get to save myself first?"

"It can be either way, Dustin. Maybe, you'll find yourself while searching someone. In that way, you can save both of you together, and receive the price."

"Wait, how do you even know my name?" Krissforth. I should be called with that name, nobody knows me except Arcurry, nobody knows Cleansie except Arcurry, and Avah.

I look at her closely, the familiarity of her voice and her face has made a cloud of realization in my own void.

"I knew you since then. Why don't you remember me, Dustin?"
She asks and her voice is vanishing like a dust in the wind.
"I will never forget you. No matter how old you get. You are still the bravest voyager of my entire exploit. You will always remain in my life, as if my body in this place. In water, we get to lost ourself together. In water, you'll find me there."

The lady's tears fall into her cheeks, just how the whole place rumbled and a huge earthquake happened in the place. She folds her hands together to wipe her tears.

"Please. Choose. Now."

Her face was cracking all of the sudden. Her mouth throw up with no words coming out from her lips. She knew it was time to go, but she has something to tell me. Something her voice can never pay to say.

The clouds I was once sitting all shake and fall. I have to choose now.

Just before I could catch the lady's hands, she vanishes, and everything turns black in an instant.

That's when I knew,
It wasn't someone else.
It was Cleansie.