Tonight is the first night I have relief from the nightmares involving an imaginary brother. At least, my parents claimed I haven’t ever had a brother. I can’t shake the feeling that he’s a real person, or at least that he was.
I’m having a wonderful dream in fact. As though I myself am I kinsi user, in my dream I fly through the clouds until the joy in my heart is about to burst and overflow. In the next instant, I find myself burning a pile of wood that I seem to have gathered myself, just like the people depicted in the book I was gifted.
In this dream, I realize that I am dreaming, unlike during my nightmares. It’s a whole different experience; not at all frightening as I go from one activity to another with my make-believe kinsi prowess.
After some time, I find myself back in the forest with the pile of firewood lit. For some reason, this setting is much more detailed than it was just a while ago. I feel as though I could go up and touch the trees. I feel strongly as though I could rub leaves against my hands and that I would result in me getting green stains on them. The sun in this place seems to have gone down a long time ago, as the only light is from the fire I know I’ve lit some time ago. On a whim, I look up at the canopy of leaves that form the upper echelons of the forest.
That which would normally block my view of the stars appears to undergo some sort of movement as I look at it, a very profound movement which I can identify but cannot detect through scrutiny. It’s as though the canopy of the forest has created a gateway specifically for me to observe the night sky, and that’s what I do.
“It’s beautiful…!” I can’t help but gasp as it’s revealed to my eyes. Of course, I haven’t forgotten what the night sky looks like because of my surgery. A few stars, the moon, maybe a planet or two on a good night for observing. With that in mind, it’s an understandable reaction for me to be surprised. Simply for the reason that the sky in this dream is different. It’s beyond beautiful,
I know as I observe further into the colourful lights that fill it.
First of all, this sky is much different because of its two moons. Whereas the Earth’s sky has a single moon, this dream world’s moon has a sister that is half eclipsed by it. One moon’s colour is a dull whitish-red, as opposed to the bone white of the obscuring one. The only visible blemishes are multiple craters, which add amazing character and texture to the otherwise pure colours of each.
The second astonishing feature of this sky is the nebulae which are spread before me, visible to the naked eye. I find myself having to be self-reminded that this is indeed a dream. Although there is a surreal quality pervasive throughout the majority of the features of this setting, it has such an attractive beauty that I’m more convinced that this is reality as opposed to that of my life on Earth. All I need now is someone to recognize me here, to talk with me here, and I’ll never want to leave.
Snapping me to attention, a sudden movement in the corner of my ethereal vision distracts me from my thoughts.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“A shooting star!” I mouth the words. It is indeed a shooting star, and a very bright one at that. The star speeds across the night sky, looking to be on a collision course with the image of the moons.
Just as it is about to cross over them however, a peculiar situation occurs. As though the moon was a black hole with endless pulling force, or perhaps like a vacuum that simply sucked up the shooting star, what crossed its light never made it to the other side. I watch the shooting star simply vanish.
I remain in my place in the middle of the forest, my mouth feeling as though it was hanging open as wide as a snake with an unhinged jaw.
“Where?” I couldn’t help but blurt out. Where did the star disappear to, as it streaked across the sky? At this moment, the immersion in the dream is gone, as the impossibility of the whole place begins to irk me. Perhaps it’s unreasonable, this feeling of mine. A dream is a dream, and this is a beautiful dream at that. But it still isn’t real. It can never approach the splendor of reality, despite me experiencing things that I can only imagine in my real life.
Suddenly, the sky lights up. I gasp as a number of shooting stars I can only guess at light up the sky. Looking up at it, it draws such a powerful emotion from me that I feel tears running down my face. It’s almost like the sky is crying golden-white tears, crying along with me. I can feel the stars, as they streak on through the night. I reach up my hand, trying to be just a little bit closer to the sky that cries along with me. All of the shooting stars are moving closer to the moons, which are still placed high above me. I try to call out to them, to tell them to stop. They don’t hear me, and continue.
They are about to reach the star-devouring moon; my eyes are glued on it in terror. At that moment however, instead of following their path into the gaping jaws of the moonlight, they begin to veer of course. Like a stream of water avoiding a mountain, they swirl around the moon. It’s a beautiful scene, and as I witness it, I feel a joy I cannot supress. I don’t even try to.
Even more stars begin moving, having appeared from all around the horizon at this time. They streak towards the center of the sky where the moon resides. Upon reaching the ring formed of the previous shooting stars flowing distantly around the moons, they bounce off of it. Seeming to gain a will of their own upon hitting the ring around the moons, they begin to swirl as well.
All I can do is watch the phenomenon occur, my mouth hanging open. It’s surreal. It’s otherworldly, unfit for a dream of a mortal such as myself. That’s all I can believe at this point.
The dancing of the stars lasts for a while, until all that I can see is something that stuns me, the stars having formed something in the sky. Words.
“MONTRA, THIS IS YOUR HOME.” It reads. And below that…
“MONTRA, THEY ARE LYING TO YOU.”