Dreamland Daze

“Wha… what happened?” Echoing like in the world largest cave, Vega’s voice traveled far and bounced back to her. This was an unknown circumstance to her, never having known what it was like to be asleep.

Her eyelids weighed a hundred million tons, and she felt comfy against what she was resting on. As if sunbathing, she felt a warmth over her. In fact, she felt she was surrounded, engulfed by a plushy matter. Like a pillow.

Or boobs.

Vega really likes boobs.

“Florato… you feel really nice… I hope ya are doing alright…” Turning over and cuddling further into the material, Vega got cozy and closer to it. Afterall, its not like she was in any danger. She could relax a little, she earned it. With the day she just had, she could relax for a million centuries.

She tried pushing her eyes open, but that was too hard to even attempt. Wherever she was, it was all too pleasant to awake from. Warmth, safety, all of it was surrounding her like a blanket. Why bother, Vega had no worries in this place.

This place was safer than the real world.

Go ahead. Rest. Sleep. Just… let go…

“Whoever is saying that-that… ya sound very trustworthy.” Yawning and stretching out, Vega took up as much space as she could, trying to absorb as much of this comfortable sensation as she could.

It’s time to rest. It’s not time to awake. Don’t be distressed. Now, now there is daybreak.

“...huh? …wha… what is…” Something in the back of Vega’s mind went cold, then another and then another. Like parts of her operations were being extinguished, one by one. As easy and as quickly as blowing out a candle.

Gripping onto what she was resting on, Vega forced her fingers to crush, attempting to wake herself up. Seconds went on, and it felt like half her head was fuzzy, dipped into a freezing pool.

No worries. No more pain. And no more… thoughts.

Groaning in mild distress, Vega could tell something was very wrong. All of the warmth, all the joy ceased as she realized if faintly what peril she was in. As if pushing a boulder up a hill, Vega fought and wrestled to have her eyelids open.

“N…no….no…” Whispering out, she dragged her arms to her side, jostling and pushing at her own body. Pinching and punching weakly, Vega made as much an effort to wake herself up.

But more and more, her resistance weakened and her movements became more sluggish. Slowly chained and bound, her mind couldn’t manifest any complex thoughts. Only vague feelings, comparable to tiny fireflies in a sea of dark. Then, even these flies ceased to exist.

Vega just wanted to stay asleep. Forever.

Vega. Get up.

“I’m up!” Shooting up like a firework, Vega groggily sat up and massaged all over her chest and legs. Her eyes weighed a ton, but she could actually keep them open. And within the first moments of having them open, Vega immediately regretted it and wanted to keep them open for eternity.

What she saw and where she was had nothing to do with comfort and pleasantries. And it certainly didn’t exist in the real world. Vega, realizing in horror and excitement, was dreaming.

Worlds both real and imagined flowed and meshed together like a beautiful vomit, clashing together like sulfur and flowers. Cold Cavern crashed and warped into the memories of Kaliber and Ena, their colors and histories battling. Tundras and icy forests interlocked with the mermaids’ underwater sanctuary, creating a disturbing and intriguing blend of blue and strange architecture.

Landmarks and what Vega could barely describe as cities floated on islands in the sky, the air was a violent red and maroon and it was awful.

Full of awe and awful.

“Holy…wow. I’m…” Unable to close her eyes for even a moment, she could hardly believe what she was seeing. Let alone that she had conjured this thing up.

“Speechless-less?” Another person was beside her. Turning to see it, Vega saw a shadow, rather, her own shadow with its own form. A more boyish figure, skeletal and slimy like but still a shadow that followed her.

Looking at her shadow, she realized what she had been resting on. The closest thing to being orderly, Vega was resting on her friends. Designed like toys made of wool and felt, they had stitched smiles and buttons for eyes. Floratos and Krimms, Skaldis next to Valiatos, and Sorbets atop Amirs and Bolatos. Plush and cuddly.

“This… is weird. Like even weirder than I’m used to. And I’ve killed people and-and kissed a nymph lady.” Scratching her head, Vega looked at the shadow and noticed it wasn’t following her movements. Like another person was in it.

“Yeah. I don’t blame ya.” The shadow spoke and didn’t continue. Not moving from its position, Vega knew that the shadow was admiring her. As if dazzled beyond speech.

“...who are ya? Are ya… me?” Laying her hand on her chest, Vega got to thinking on the voice that had told her to what up. She did have a voice speak to her before she defeated Runtaii. And Sorbet did say that Soul Gems might bond, bond to her very soul. Perhaps it was a facet of herself that she did not know yet.

“...uh…no? I’m… how-how do I say this… I’m the sort-sort of… son of Kaliber?” The shadow spoke honestly and less composed than Vega was. Of course, Vega’s personality was that of unyielding confidence, so the voice naturally seemed more timid. However, the voice seemed a little surprised, not knowing how to take this situation.

“Oh, so ya are definitely not me-me.”

“Definitely.” The shadow shrugged, not stumbling over his words as before. Hearing Vega’s voice seemed to relax him, and the same for Vega.

“Sorry-sorry, I just… haven’t talked to anyone-one in a while.” He spoke sadly, crossing his arms. Vega imagined her shadow to have closed his eyes, as if remembering a memory of a person, likely Kaliber.

Vega had to pause for a bit. Taken aback, not because the shadow was alien or foreign, but because it was so similar.

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The same speech pattern and impediment, the shared confusion. A key difference, Vega detected, was that this shadow spoke like he knew a lot but didn’t know how to communicate. Along with a lack of confidence, which she herself was just overflowing with now.

“Hey I get-get it. Look, thanks for getting me out of whatever that was. I appreciate it.” Vega laid on the ground, grabbing at the plushies of all her friends. If she was going to be here, she might as well get souvenirs.

“...what are ya doing?”

“Getting some gifts. Ya want-want one?” Vega held a Skaldi in her hand, showing it to the shadow and brushing its hair.

“I don’t think that’s gonna work, but fine.” He threw his hands in the air, not wanting to bother.

“So… who are ya spe-specifically?” Vega crouched down to her shadow, noticing that it was backing up, holding his hands up in peace.

“Hold on. Uhhh… I can’t really… tell you yet.”

“Ya are literally following me and woke me up. I’m tired of ya dodging the question.” Pressing her finger where his nose would be, Vega demanded answers. She realized that this was kinda inappropriate, but Vega still could feel the tension when she was asleep.

“Okay, okay. Calm down-down. I… can’t really explain here.” The shadow wove his hand around, not in a particular direction but more in the general vicinity.

“Why-why?”

“Because he’s here. And he’s listening.” His voice went quiet, as if not to elicit the one he was speaking of.

Then it clicked. Like a lost puzzle piece. Vega wasn’t sleeping and dreaming because she was so tired. She was dreaming because of Ani Arma.

“...oh…I see…” Vega flicked her forehead, disappointed that it took her that long to figure it out. For most of that, she was at Ani’s mercy, but it was the shadow’s voice that broke her out. And here she was giving him a hard time.

“No worries… I knew something was off. Something-thing in the air. Speaking of which, it was a lot warmer yesterday.” Scratching his face, the shadow thought aloud about the heat.

“Uhhhh, yeah. Ya could say that.” Vega turned around, not wanting to think about it. Images of city eating fires flashed in her head, but she suppressed them as if the shadow could see them.

“By the way, did anything happen in Uvi Jantok? It’s been a while since I left. Is it summer again?” He asked politely, more cheery that they were talking about something more pleasant.

“Define summer.” Vega stated, squinting at her shadow while trying to think of a good way to break the news.

“Oh, is it spring?”

“Totally not. Uvi Jantok was… kind of set on fire by a conqueror? More specifically, an asshole tried invading it and wanted to burn-burn and raid everything.” Vega decided complete and impulsive honest was better. Revealing now would spare future shock.

“...oh…that’s…not really good.” The shadow froze, horrified by what Vega had revealed to him.

“Tell me about! Here’s the kicker, the guy-guy Runtaii just wasn’t staying down! Had to take-take all my friends and me to take-take him down, and even then it was still hard. Geez, how inconsiderate.” Crossing her arms, Vega kicked a Bolato off the pile, and it fell into the bizarre land below.

Seeing it fade and fade as it went down, she knelt down to the edge of the island, and eventually saw it disappear. Whether it be because it actually disappeared or it went out of view, Vega didn’t want to find out.

What she did want to find out was a way out for this place.

“Ya said that guy, is listening? Right now?” Holding a hand to the side of her face, Vega bent to her shadow and talked as if Ani Arma was right beside them.

“Uh, yep. Seems he has quite the interest in your memories. Along with your body.” The shadow tapped his forehead and his chest.

“Sexually?”

“God no!” If she could see the shadow, Vega would see him blush. And probably make him blush.

“Good! Welp, an exit isn’t going to make itself. Let’s go-go!” Vega waved her shadow forward as she started to navigate the dreamscape.

Every step and movement she made was floaty, like she was a balloon full of air. The first island she climbed upon she had to swim through the air towards it.

“Hold on, Uvi Jantok was invaded?! Then-then how are ya-”

“Alive? Happy? Mentally sane?”

“Well… yes. Except for that last one.” The shadow floated alongside her, mimicking her swimming in a more frantic fashion.

“I told ya, I killed that guy. Plus, everything was alright. All those bad-bad guys ran away when they saw Runtaii was dead. Seeing his head carried by Kaliba was pretty funny.”

“But…everything was on fire?” The shadow tilted its faint dark head at her, not understanding how everything was alright.

“Ya see, people still died and stuff. BUT, I found this really cool Soul Gem that makes water in the tower! And with the help-help of an Assassin, she managed to put out all the fires in a matter of… two hours? I think the details are a little fuzzy.” Vega put a thumb on her chin, unsure of how exactly everything happened.

“...you took a Soul Gem from the tower? The one for the fountain?” The shadow seemed impressed, not having thought of that as a solution. “Wait, then how did ya even detect?”

“I dunno. I just sort of… listened really hard.” Shrugging, Vega found it hard to explain it. Afterall, all of it happened yesterday.

“...that’s kind of dumb.”

“Hey! Come back to me when you save a city from being on fire!”

Strangely, Vega had periods of weightlessness where she could fly in the air and others where she had a stronger sense of gravity of which she could walk regularly.

As she landed on the island, she struggled to recognize it. A mesh of cold corridors and facilities, where there was no light despite how bright the sky was. What she understood, each island must be in its own style, locked and unchangeable because of the memory.

But this memory, Vega did not remember.

What she imagined as a study hall bended and warped into a series of waves, collapsing against a wall of grass and flowers that seemed to be in sunlight. Books and papers formed magnificent decorations as they hung in the air of the hall. And in the center of the hall appeared a doorway out.

“...think I should go-go in it?”

“Ya ain’t got-got much choice.” The shadow stated, as Vega cautiously moved towards it. As she moved, she spun around in the air, not wanting to mess with the environment. But eventually her momentum stopped and she paused in the air.

“Come on! Gah… I think I’m stuck-stuck.” Vega swung her arms and legs to try and reach the waved ground but she was just barely too far enough to touch.

“Don’t worry. Give it some time.” The shadow put his hands on his hips, laying on the waves just below Vega. They both waited, silent and awkward. The environment not helping to ease the tension, the shadow looked into a distant corner.

She stared down at him, trying to picture the shadow’s real body. But what she came up with didn’t fit the voice and didn’t fit the movement. And for some reason, it upset her.

“...ya said ya are the son of Kaliber.”

“I can’t talk about here-here-”

“I know. I just… I never… I never will get to meet her.” Vega held her arm on her side, feeling melancholic about what happened in the Obstacles.

Sure, she wrote it down and realized her purpose. And she was damn proud of herself and how far she had come. But she’d be lying if she said there wasn’t a part of her that wanted to meet Kaliber. For real, not in some manufactured memory that failed.

“Why do ya say that?” The shadow raised his arms up, as if to show there was a real possibility. A rhythm in voice, Vega heard, a twinge or rise in pitch told her that the shadow was lying.

She knew he wasn’t trying to hurt her feelings and appreciated it. They were pretty similar, but the qualities they differed made them appear like the sun and the moon. The shadow was a liar, but he had some oddities and kind sensibilities as herself. For that, it made her feel less alone.

However, it did not quell her feelings.

“It's just… I have spent these past couple months hearing Kaliber and finding nothing-nothing. What have I found?”

“...Didn’t you find yourself?” The shadow questioned, giving Vega a moment to reflect. They stayed there, in the twisted and warped hall. Thinking about what he proposed, Vega nodded her head. Not in the way that you agree with something, although she did. Vega did it in the way where you come to an understanding, like you really get it.

“...that’s a good-good way of thinking about that…” Vega answered, giving a small smirk. And then that smirk glowed into a big smile. What he said helped to remind her of the little things. Of the pleasant and tiny victories she has made.

“...yeah-yeah?” The shadow asked, placing a hand on her shoulder. Clearly he hadn’t done much emotional support, seeing his hand jitter and shiver. While Vega didn’t feel the physical presence, but felt the emotional gesture.

“...Yeah. Thanks for that.” As she finished speaking, the floating ceased and she fell onto her shadow. Pushing herself up, she walked to the doorway, seeing it stand high over her.

Gripping on the doorknob, she closed her eyes and gave it a push. Although she was asleep, she had never been more awake.