Over time, he recognized the room.
He was in his house in his homeland.
And those standing before him... Could it be?
Indeed, his parents stood before him.
His family smiled at him happily.
He ran towards them and wanted to embrace them, but he only fell through a dark cloud of smoke.
On the floor, he began to cough and looked around again.
The walls, the furnishings... everything started to fall apart.
No!
It wasn't falling apart.
It was burning!
Piece by piece, he had to watch his home burn down.
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And he was lying right in the middle of it.
He tried to turn away, to run away... But he couldn't.
Shortly after, the crackling sounds of the flames stopped, and it became quiet and cool.
Slowly and carefully, he opened his eyes.
He sat in complete darkness.
His parents stood before him again.
They smiled at him and waved.
Slowly, a hesitant smile crept onto his lips.
But the next moment, a massive fire broke out behind them, and within fractions of a second, he had to watch them burn before his eyes.
He screamed in horror.
He wanted to run to them and save them, but he couldn't get any closer.
No matter how fast he ran.
A blink.
Behind them appeared the burning facade of his homeland.
Another blink.
All around them appeared the corpses of the villagers.
One final blink.
Directly behind them was the burning pile of corpses.
Above it, the grotesque body of the village chief was impaled.
And behind it all stood a massive dark figure, reaching out its fingers towards him and the village.
Kawao fell again.
But this time, he knew he no longer had the strength to get up.
With his last breath, he let out a cry of despair before the flames finally engulfed him.
----------------------------------------
He woke up drenched in sweat.
"KAWAO!" Koru called to him.
He breathed heavily.
It took a moment before he realized that it was all just a dream and that he was a prisoner on a ship.
"Are you okay? You were twitching and screaming in your sleep!"
Kawao slowly caught his breath.
"Yes! I'm fine! I just had... a nightmare."