The sounds of soft rhythmic breathing filled my ears as my eyes opened and I stared at the plain dull coloured ceiling of my hotel room, frowning I tried to recall the dream I’d been having, sparse images of swamps, lizard people, dragons and centaurs fluttered through my head like butterflies barely staying still long enough for me to get the full picture.
It was a bit too fanciful for my normal dreams, those were mostly about work or other slight exaggerated antics in my life. This though… this was more, it was… it was-
“Marduk” A familiar female voice called, breaking my thoughts as I stared at the bright bluish-green eyes of Alex who was sitting upright.
“-I what?” my confusion spilled out at the name.
Where have I heard that before?
“I said: Mathew aren’t you excited!?!” She leapt to her feet standing over me on the bed with her right index finger pointed straight at me, millimetres from my nose.
A wide grin was pressed into her features.
I might have been slightly more inspired if she wasn’t wearing a white shirt with a seal wearing sunglasses on the front with the text ‘Keep it Cool!’ underneath, a black pair of pants with tens of cute Puffins on them and pink socks with cartoon sheep on them.
“Heh!” I burst into laughter at her and she pouted looking more adorable than I suspected she was attempting, only making me laugh more.
We’d picked the stuff up from a gift shop in town after she ruined her clothes while we were out watching the northern lights, she’d been trying her hardest not to stumble around like a drunken fool since we arrived in Iceland, but finally that came crashing down when she was actually in a drunken stupor and fell into a heap of mud and snow.
I wound down from laughing when Alex harrumphed and jumped off the bed spinning as she did and bowing her head as I clapped at the display.
“Thank you, thank you!” rolling her shoulders she changed moods and quickly stripped and dressed herself for the day's activities.
Following suit I quickly dressed myself in warm clothes as well and we headed for the hotel's restaurant, it was a pretty fancy place, then again we shilled out pretty big for this holiday seeing as it is our five year anniversary. She said before we left that she had a gift for me when we got back home, but I doubt she’d be able to hold the secret in that long, she’s never been good at it. That and her poker face is hilariously bad, makes winning easy at least.
Arriving in the restaurant we ordered shortly after a waitress gave us the menu, they didn’t do breakfast but they did do brunch- which was actually just their normal day menu but Hey- I’m not going to complain about having their very own named burger, caesar salad and fries am I?
My companion ordered their club sandwiches, fries and salad as well but she also never felt hangovers as bad as I got them and with that weird dream about dragons and whatever floating around my head I wanted to wash it off with a load of greasy food.
While we ate we chatted about the day's itinerary and what we wanted to do before tonight since we’d be taking the flight home in the morning. We'd been here for a week already and it had been awesome.
“Mm’sho ar’ u’ lookin’ forward tchu’ it?” Alex asked with a mouth full of food.
Shaking my head with a smile I replied “Yeah it’ll be great, I’ve always wanted to see whales up close, feels like one of those things you just gotta do.”
The strawberry blonde haired woman rolled her eyes “I know that, I’m the one who planned the trip ‘member?” She said, poking her fork at me in an accusatory manner.
“Course I do, I just…” I sighed. “I don’t know…” my voice trailed off and my eyes fell to the half eaten meal in front of me.
Images of magic arching, swords swinging, half snake people and mediaeval life in a city of marble.
“Are you okay Matt? You’ve been distracted since we got up.” Alex’s expression turned serious.
“Yea- no wait- uh no, I had this really weird dream where I was a crocodile person in some fantasy world, it was like a whole life time…”
Why did I think she was dead?
“You didn’t take drugs off a stranger while I was face down in the snow did you?” She laughed, breaking the tension in my heart over the ideas swimming around like swordfish attacking a school of fish.
“N-no I just… it was just so real you know? Like nothing about it seemed dreamlike while I was in it.” sighing again I took the chance to drink the orange juice I’d ordered with my food.
“Maybe you’re just stressed out about going back to teaching when we get back? I know that stuff always weighs on you.” Alex smiled and the palm of her right hand cupped my own. “Just try to forget it for one more day, yea? It's taken me years to get you to leave the country and go on an adventure with me- I don’t want it ruined by you getting stress nightmares.”
I couldn’t help but reciprocate the warm expression she shared and we soon got back to eating, taking our time to enjoy the soft piano music playing over speakers.
About two hours later we arrived at the port in Reykjavik and headed for where the boat that was taking us whale watching was, we’d talked to the captain for a while a few days ago and he’d convinced us to do it after Alex said I’d wanted to. Of course by we I mean she did all the talking, I was never all that good at chatting people up.
Hell that was how I ended up with her in the first place, she just said one day we were dating and we continued on as if it were the most clear course of action. She always dragged me around town telling me about what things she got up to and what we could do before we actually got together anyway so it's not like things have changed much.
Though ever since I agreed to this trip she’d stopped jumping onto tables at breakfast and loudly announcing that I needed to-
‘Stop moping about in stagnant life and start chasing the horizon otherwise it is going to stay dark and you’ll never feel fulfilled.’
Honestly if she didn’t find war abhorrent after learning all about The Great War, then I think she would have made a great military leader who could inspire anyone to follow her. Another Alexander the Great if you will, the kind of woman who could conquer the old world if she’d been born into it, her dedication was second to none as well. If she saw something she wanted then she would work harder than any person I’ve ever met to achieve it or at least feel as though the journey to it was worth it enough that she no longer wanted it.
It was hard not to love a person who so fully believed in themself and the world that they wanted you to see and of course I’d seen, glimpses at least, bits and pieces of the world she was so desperately in love with and wanted me to see at every twist and turn of life. The one where she marched into the unknown and came back with a mountain more love and appreciation for it, she’d never really told me what her actual dream was though.
What it was that she was trying to find.
Occasionally I’d heard her say when drunk that she was looking for her Avalon to settle in with her Oberon, but I didn’t know what those were so I’d never been able to figure it out.
Then again she was obsessed with the impossible so it was hard to say whether or not those were just stand-ins for a mythical something that she wanted.
Anyway it was until about midday that the ship set out packed full of people, the boat itself had three stories to it and we found ourselves on the top with a couple of parents that had their children with them. I found myself enchanted with the way the sea looked, it was so different from the dismal grey of my home.
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It wasn’t long after we got off the coast that we saw several dolphins and then soon after a couple of Humpbacks doing their thing.
While we watched them and the tour guide filled everyone in on a plethora of facts about the animals Alex and I moved to the main deck and were leaning over the side, I started smoking while she took photos of the marvels of nature. The genuine look of joy and happiness on her face was almost better than seeing whales up close-
A door closed behind us and a man came out with his son, he nodded at me and I nodded back, a silent acknowledgement as he joined me smoking. The son began asking Alex all sorts of questions in broken English and she tried her best to reply, eventually lifting him onto the railing to watch a whale go under the boat and pop out on the other side, we could hear yells as it splashed people and the boat rocked slightly.
Me and the father of the kid had one of those silent conversations where we shared a couple looks between glances at his kid while Alex entertained him, when I finished my cig I flicked it into the water subconsciously before realising what I’d done-
CRASH!!!
The boat rocked and my eyes went wide as the kid was bucked from the rail off the boat into the sea-
“AAHH!” He screamed
Sploosh!
The blur of strawberry blonde hair dived past going straight into the water-
Splash!
Before I knew what was happening I felt cold, wet and pain coursing through me as the murky bluish descending figure of Alex chasing another shadow.
A heavy current rushed past and everything faded to black.
----------------------------------------
Marduk’s eyes flew wide open as he screamed an incoherent noise arm reaching for the sky.
His golden eyes realised he was looking at a ceiling in a bedroom of some kind, turning to push off the bed he fell with a loud Thud as he hit the ground shaking the room.
“What the-” His eyes flashed with fear and confusion as they locked onto their left arm, or what was left of it.
There was only the shoulder and bicep left with nothing beyond that.
‘What was that dream about?! Did I die? What the hell is going on here?!’ He shouted into his mind.
“Terra’s breadth are you alright!?” A woman asked from his right, kneeling at his side.
“I- Medea?” He asked as his thoughts cleared and mind sorted through the information hounding it.
‘Right I died, I’m Marduk now.’
“Yes, are you alright? you suddenly freaked out” He heard her words but they didn’t quite reach him.
“Yeah- I- uh- my arm?” The Saurian just stared at his missing limb feeling nothing short of disbelief.
“I’m sorry about that, I didn’t realise Lautrec’s Curse would affect you when the Cockatrices blood seeped into your scales.” She apologised sincerely.
“Lawtracks curse?” He repeated unsure of what she was talking about.
As she opened her mouth to explain he felt a tug on his mind, like a piece of information suddenly clicked into place like a puzzle piece.
‘Alexandra died as well…’ Something told him it was the case at least, he couldn’t be sure of what yet.
[Those which haunt you cannot reach you, those which find you will not break you and those who shared you still desire you.] Ochre the dragon’s words spoke themselves into his mind.
‘Holy shit… I think I get what she was saying…? Or at least I feel like I get part of it.’
What he put together in that moment was that the first part was about his past life, or at least maybe his memory of it? Until now it had been fragmented parts and indecipherable nonsense with sparks showing through clearly when he needed oddly specific things from it.
But now he felt like it was all there.
He wasn’t sure about the second part, he might have attributed it to being strong now like he never was before, but with his missing arm that didn’t sound right.
And his best guess for the final part was… well it was what gave him hope his longtime girlfriend was still alive or specifically his theory was that-
‘I wasn’t reincarnated here intentionally, I was dragged along for following her- or maybe even that kid.’
“The shortest explanation is that the curse is a disgusting disease that corrupts those with poor or no magical ability.” Medea’s voice returned his attention to the bronze eyed, tan skinned witch.
“That… sounds like the curse of self.” He felt confident in concluding.
“I haven’t heard it called that, but yes, I could see how someone would come to the conclusion of naming it that.” her reply was slightly distant as she seemed to be struggling with an internal conversation of her own.
He wasn’t sure if he wanted to know what it was that was pulling her attention.
“Again, I would like to deeply apologise for my miscalculation that led to the loss of your arm, it is something that I can never truly atone for the damage my lack of forethought has caused.” She lowered herself into a complete bow, putting her head to the ground.
He wanted more than anything for her to stop, the whole desperate apology making him feel embarrassed for reasons he couldn’t quite place.
“Its- uh- you’re fine, I accepted helping you even after you explained the monster to me.” It was something of stupid response but he just wanted the woman to stop prostrating herself to him.
“I- I cannot accept that,” Standing up the witch looked the most remorseful he’d ever seen someone and he genuinely had no clue how to deal with the situation.
Finding the chance to finally stand, Marduk got to his feet and pushed the conversation aside.
“We can talk about it later-” He was cut off when there was a knock at the door and a guardsman entered the room moments later.
“My Lord has invited Lady Medea and Lord Marduk to eat with them, if you would follow me when you are ready.” With that the man left the room standing outside the door.
Sighing in relief he wasn’t sure what he would have done if she’d been adamant about apologising even more, it wasn’t like they could do anything about it and far as he could tell it wasn’t bothering him yet that he’d lost an arm.
It had just surprised him.
Taking the opportunity before the Witch could decide to refute it he walked out of the room to the guard.