Aardriyah awoke in a hot sweat, breathing heavier than she knew she could - at least until two weeks ago when the dreams had started. They always began the same, a soft voice lulled her into a pitch-black world, she stumbled, calling out, trying to find the source of the voice, wandering aimlessly out of her body. Then a face would appear, or at least that's what she assumed it was, for it wasn't human, it wasn't animal, it wasn't anything that she could easily or accurately describe with all the words in her vast vocabulary. It would float in front of her for a long time, no longer echoing her name. Sometimes it would change shapes into long tailed women of the water, large scaled beasts of fire and flame, light balls of floating air or heavily rocked formations somewhat resembling large humans. While some nights she recognised the creatures and beings from her books, other nights the formations were of beings that had never even been conjured by the most creative of authors.
Tonight, it had morphed itself into an exquisitely petite woman with large wings similar to a dragonfly's stretching out from her back. She was naked but her modesty was covered by shimmering scales of translucent greens, purples and blues. The scales adorned her head and cascaded down her delicate, glistening frame. Aardriyah realised that a light was reflecting off the scales and began looking for the source of it. It didn't take long to realise that in the black abyss beside the winged woman there were no other life forms, nothing else could be generating the light in this void of black nothingness. It dawned on Aardriyah the light was coming from where she stood – she was the light.
The winged woman gave a small nod towards the dreamer, then fluttered away towards a world forming before her out of the blackness. Occasionally, the winged woman would look back confirming her guest was still in close proximity. Aardriyah wasn't walking to follow but rather floating through effortless channels of air. The sensation of telling her body to move in the right direction was lost and she numbly seemed to follow without a choice in the matter. The first night, this startled her but she had become used to the routine of her body floating towards the world the creature was creating. The newly formed world she entered into was never the same and were places so fantastic or menacing, that she doubted they existed beyond her dreams.
Tonight, she followed the winged woman into a world full of the most green and blue hues she had ever seen in her life. She glanced around in awe at the colours exploding from every direction, as she ducked beneath an arch of intricate vines and willow branches. She could swear she smelled a hint of jasmine and honey as they passed through forests while an array of dazzling tulips and daisies sprung from the ground. The winged creature danced and fluttered around the landscape, stopping to touch and embrace every flower and every new blade of grass. She guided the creeping vines over large fig trees, tall as the eye could see. Her smile beamed at each new formation of the forest she created, at the life springing forth from her hands.
Aardriyah tried to speak, but no words came from her mouth. Regardless the winged creature seemed to hear her all the same and paused to turn and smile at the guest in this magical world. The winged woman seemed to pull Aardriyah forward, to show her what she could only assume to be the height of her powers of creation. Before her stood a colossal waterfall that cascaded down a cliff side, reaching so high that Aardriyah could not see where it began. Rainbows reflected off the waterfall at differing heights, while a soft mist of cold water sprayed the flowers below. The winged woman dove into the seemingly bottomless turquoise bath created by the waterfall.
Aardriyah's smile reached the corners of her face, as she spent moments lost in the beauty of this world and forgot the usual path the dream would take after the pinnacle was reached. Right on cue and just as every other night, the world suddenly shifted. The once beautiful waterfall suddenly turned into a steaming flow of bright red lava. Heat burnt away the beautiful flowers and grasses, as they were scorched into charcoal carcasses.
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The Unblessed Child
FantasyThere are two types of people in The New Realm: those who are blessed by the gods of the four elements and those who aren't even worthy of their family name. They are unwanted, unloved and are simply known as The Unblessed. Eighteen year old Aardriy...
