As cold and alone as she had felt coming here, Kaara’s dreams were anything but lonely. Once again, she was immersed in the inky black of the void, disoriented in a constant state of change and chaos. The large body of a creature seemed to slither around her. Coiling meat shifted and dragged from all sides. It was closing in, and yet a dim warmth kept it at bay.
She stayed like that for an indefinite time. That was until she heard a strange noise. An oinking snort. Her eyes had already been open, but it felt like she opened them again. A small upside down pig stood eye to eye with her. That was not necessarily correct. The pig looked like it was standing on solid ground. She was the one floating upside down.
“Not everyday I get company here.” The pig said without moving its mouth.
Kaara tried to speak normally, but no sound came out, “I… I don’t think I was expecting to find a pig here.” Kaara thought, hearing her own voice resonate.
“A pig? I’m a king I’ll have you know. King of the pigs.”
She slowly shifted herself right side up, only to continue spinning until she was upside down again, “This place sucks.”
“That’s because you haven’t grounded yourself. You must not be very humble.” The pig said with the faintest irony as if it was trying not to laugh at its own joke.
“How do you ground yourself?”
Kaara felt like the pig was trying to shrug, “Think of something.”
Kaara reached out and grabbed the pig, using it to pull herself upright again.
“Hey!”
“Sorry! That’s what I thought of.” she said, pulling the pig into her arms, “You’re my anchor, your highness.”
“Hmph, at least you’ve got manners enough to address me properly!”
“You think if I tie a rope to you, I’d float like a kite?”
“Probably. That sounds fun, actually. I like you. What’s your name?”
“I’m [̷̹͎̠̑͌͠R̷̳̩̿e̴̬̔̅d̵͉́̈́͗ǎ̵̢̳͕̇͋c̸̙̺̀t̷͕͍̻͋͐e̷̱̮̋́d̶̹̓]̶͍̟͑what’s yours?”
The pig chuckled, “I had a feeling that would be your name. Mine is [̷̹͎̠̑͌͠R̷̳̩̿e̴̬̔̅d̵͉́̈́͗ǎ̵̢̳͕̇͋c̸̙̺̀t̷͕͍̻͋͐e̷̱̮̋́d̶̹̓]̶͍̟͑ too! This place doesn’t like names much, huh?”
“Why doesn’t this place like names?”
“Dunno. There’s a lot of power in those things and this is a place of complete powerlessness. Even walking around like I am takes a lot.”
“Well, milord, what are you doing here?” Kaara asked.
“I cast a pretty wicked spell. I might be dead. We’ll see. If not, I’ll wake up with depression and a lot more power.”
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
“More power?”
“Yup! The closer I get to breaking my soul, the more I can cast after I heal. It’s pretty risky, but my dad taught me the trick to making sure it never happens.”
“Really? How do you do that?”
The pig gestured with its snout, “Look up there. See ‘em?”
Kaara looked, spotting red symbols dimly glowing above her. They looked like eyes, “What are those?”
“Dunno, but you gotta entertain ‘em.”
“Entertain them?”
“Yeah, like make them laugh or tell them a story or something. Sometimes they like to be insulted.”
“They do?”
“Yeah, but it can backfire pretty bad. Stories are usually the best way.”
“I see,” Kaara hooked her tail around the pig’s belly and allowed herself to float like a balloon, “I’ve injured my soul plenty of times, but I don’t think it's ever been this bad before. I’ve definitely come to this place before, but it’s not always after I injure my soul,” Kaara said, allowing the pig to tow her along.
“Did you have someone nearby before you casted your spell?”
“I think so? Someone definitely came to help me, but I don’t know who.”
“I can tell, you’ve got a warmth about you, that must be why. They’re not as good as my dad, though!”
“Where are we going by the way? You just keep walking forward.”
“Well I’ve already entertained them, so I’m just waiting to wake up, but you gotta entertain them with something, or you might not wake up for a while. I’m moving us through time.”
“Moving through time?”
“Yeah I figured I’d stroll down to the past, pay a visit to memory lane.”
“You can’t just walk to the past.”
“In here you can! Cmon, what’s an entertaining memory of yours? Something you wanna relive? Have you bullied any orphans in your life? They seem to enjoy that.”
“I guess Rorik is an orphan,” Kaara said candidly, “but I haven't bullied him- no wait I guess I have.”
The pig snorted out a laugh.
“What? I didn’t bully him in a mean way! More like friends playing pranks and stuff!”
“How cruel. That poor orphan,” the pig said with an exaggerated sorrow in his voice.
“Wait, why can I say Rorik’s name?”
“Probably because they’re not here. I’m gonna forget the name when I wake up anyway, though. I have to say, when I said think of a memory of you bullying an orphan, I was joking. The fact you actually have a memory is both terrifying and hilarious.”
“Like I said, it wasn’t in a mean way! It was just to get him to look a little flustered is all!”
The black void gave way to grassy green fields and the brisk springtime breeze. It would have been cold were it not for the clear sky allowing the sun to bare its warmth. Islands floated in the skies above them, held aloft by hyper buoyant material called buoystone. Kaara recognized this place. She had been here four years ago. A red haired xia about half her height dashed past, “Cmon! This is where we’re gonna play the new game!” She shouted.
It was hard to believe how much she had grown in just four years. She looked so tiny.
“That’s you, huh?” The pig said.
“Yeah, it feels weird looking at myself like this.”
“I get what you mean, you think ‘do I really look like that?’”
Two boys followed close behind.
“And who are these two?”
Kaara pointed to Rorik, “That’s Rorik. And the one next to him is my good friend Arik. She was still a boy back then.”
“Oh? That sounds like a story in and of itself.”
“I gotta keep a couple in my back pocket in case I come back here, right?” Kaara giggled.
“Now you’re starting to get it.”