Korin squinted as she stepped through the crack in the giant door. The world was no longer bathed in the dimming orange light of dusk, but was bright- alit by vast sky. She had never seen a sky so blue before. Giant clouds, similar to those on the other side of the doors, chugged across the air.
A deep wail echoed around her and she braced herself for the world to roll but it remained still. Eyes scanning her surroundings for the source of the sound when a pod of giant whale-like creatures sailed from behind a cloud. Her mouth made a faint 'o' in amazement. They dove in and out of the cotton swaths as if they swam through water. Their skin was marbled in light pinks and blues that shimmered, catching the light of the unseen sun. The pod stood out against the sky and clouds, beautiful and majestic. They echoed each other's wails in a language only they understood.
"Amazing aren't they?" A gentle and unfamiliar voice said.
And though the voice was one of a strangers, it had familiar qualities. Like how this place and the place beyond the doors were familiar. It was a voice she knew but didn't.
Korin's eyes trailed from the sky to the world beneath it and found it never ending. There was no land, only a marble walkway that led from the door to a pavilion that floated in an endless blue space. At the end of the walkway and underneath the pavilion she saw a man, surrounded by piles books and scrolls. He had soft brown hair that glittered and a kind and expressive face to match. He was clothed in robes of pale pinks and greens from a time and place she didn't know. Their fabric swam around him in thick pools. Small white flowers decorated his entire body, artfully placed in his hair and between the folds of his garments.
"Would you like to join me for some tea?" He smiled then and Korin forgot to breathe. He was lovely in a way she never thought another individual lovely. Talis and Mikhail were two of the most beautiful people she knew, but this man was ethereal. All soft features and colors mixing together, like a fairy from the old legends. The corner of his eyes crinkled and a set of dimples indented his cheeks.
Korin, dumbfounded by such a genuine smile, only nodded as her feet carried her to the marble pavilion.
Obscured by books written in languages with strange writing was a short legged table. Leaves were carved into the wood and large silky pillows lay strewn all about. The man flourished a hand towards the pillows and she bent down to sit cross legged on one. Infront of them various jars of herbs, flowers, and leaves circled a tea set made of pink milky glass. The man pinched and spooned bits of various substances into an empty pot. Korin watched in a comfortable silence as he crafted the tea and poured hot water into the teapot. His movements were gracefully practiced in the way he allotted the perfect amount of each ingredient, then gently poured hot water over them. Korin wondered how much rehearsal had gone into such refined movement. Soon enough a steaming cup, matching the teapot, was placed in front of her.
Gently taking the stained porcelain into her hands she took a small sip. It singed at her tongue, a brief shock followed by hints of floral sweetness and spices. A carefully balanced mixture cleared the airways and cooled her stomach despite its steaming heat.
"What is this place?" She asked. From the plain that rolled, the forest that moved, the giant door, the endless sky and it's singing whales, she was entirely perplexed by her surroundings and it was the first words that came to her mind.
The man mirrored her, taking a sip from his cup. "Oh yes," he said. "This is your first time here isn't it."
"Hmm." Korin thought about the familiarity of everything. "...I think so" She replied finally, uncertain.
"This is the Astral Plane. It is where beings go when they dream." The man explained.
"Oh, I don't know if I've ever had a dream before." The astral plane. Korin had heard of the word before but she found it a little hard to comprehend. Somehow the information just sat on the surface of her memory, her brain unwilling to scribe it into the archives. She took another sip of her tea. It was delicious and she felt eager to drink it before it cooled, enjoying the little singe every sip gave her tongue.
"No, strangely, you haven't." The man said, mirroring her sip once more.
"How do you know that?" Words floated from her mouth in the odd dream space, sounds almost becoming substance.
"Well, because I've been waiting for you."
"Waiting for me?" She questioned as she cupped her tea in both her hands. A more elegant and mannered tea drinker may have criticized her for holding her cup in such an unrefined manner. But she had never thought herself refined so it didn't matter much.
The man's face fell for a fraction of a second, his eyes became momentarily distant and swept across something unseen. "Yes, I've been waiting for a long time." The words spoken in his soothing voice carried a weight that Korin felt.
"..Why?"
The man set his cup down in its saucer before fidgeting his fingers in his lap. The nervous movement concealed by the silky sleeves of his robes. "To guide you I suppose"
An almost unnoticeable surrealness seemed to be unfolding around Korin. The saturation of a reality not quite right and the odd weight of the man's words. There was an ebb in her awareness that these things weren't…
"Are we going somewhere?"
"…in a way…" He looked around them, across books and scrolls that he wasn't sure held the knowledge he needed anymore. Though his face still seemed pleasant, Korins sensed a nervousness in the air around him.
"You don't seem very confident for a guide."
His eyes shot up then to look at the woman. The way she viewed him so directly and how it was as if she could see right through him. She reminded him of an old friend and his forthright way of speaking. He wanted to smile but the knot in his stomach wouldn't allow him. This isn't right. He thought. Something had gone wrong and he was suddenly at a loss of what he should do.
The thought occurred to Korin that perhaps she was making him uncomfortable.
And she didn't know if it was the way the dream seemed to hold so much more than air and bodies, but guilt of his discomfort bloomed inside of her. She had never held herself responsible for the resent or fear of her community members. She had refused to face such depressing responsibility. But the man in front of her nearly had her choking on her tea.
She stared at her reflection, hollow eyed and placid, contemplating what to do, recalling an arsenal of memories and interactions to reference as she did when trying to interact successfully with those around her.
Korin observed the table between them, littered with dishes and jars and then up to the glowing man in front of her. Her mind came to the tea, so artfully displayed and craftily mixed.
"This tea is lovely." She delivered a compliment making an effort to soften her voice. "I don't think I've ever had a brew that tasted so complete." It was a genuine compliment and something she thought the man may value about himself. A lesson in connecting. A lesson learnt attempting to appease a bully ten years prior. It seemed odd to use the unpleasant memories, all bloody kneed and scuffed up, to interact with the angelic man. The dichotomy she created twisted more in her gut but it was all she could pull from. Hard lessons and appeasing advice from her father.
His eyes widened slightly and then he blushed, lips tilting into another lovely smile. "Thank you. I've had a long time to perfect it."
His smile brought on a sense of relief that washed away the awkward and uncomfortable memories. Never before had she craved sincerity from an individual. No less a stranger at that.
Her next words were her name, "Korin, my name is Korin, by the way," said in a clumsily eager introduction.
"Dear me! I forgot to introduce myself!" He slapped at his knees, smile stretched into a full grin. Cheeks pink with embarrassment. He brought his hands up to his chest, pressed his fists together, bent his head forward pressing it to his joined fists and closed his eyes. It seemed to be a respectful gesture of greeting Korin had never seen before. "My name is Era. I am beyond pleased to finally meet you, Korin."
Era. Korin played the name in her mind. And he was pleased to meet her. Such revelation had her giddy with excitement and she wasn't entirely sure why. Why was she so thrilled to converse with him, the stranger named Era whom she hadn't even questioned an invite to share tea with? He could have poisoned her and she would have happily drank it down.
Era stared at the woman who now looked to be lost in thought. So far her face had remained statuesque but now a fever had taken over her eyes and the smallest of smiles twitched at the corner of her lips. It was odd and amusing. Amusing because it seemed so unnatural to her character. Odd because it was unnatural for a statue to smile. It was paradoxically adorable and terrifying to behold.
Finally words broke from her lips releasing him from her spell, "I feel like I know you...."
The end of her sentence trailed off into a whisper as her eyes focused on the sky behind Era.
In the distance a star burning ferocious and red was growing larger and it caught all of her attention. It stood alone in the sky, and like a lone performer desperate for the cheers of an audience, it shone drunk on ego. An ominous sound began to emanate from it, echoing through the dream world. "Eeeeeeee."
"Korin, you're bleeding." Thin rivulets of crimson began to snake their way down her face cascading over her cheeks to spatter on her folded legs. Era had gone pale and his words were barely a whisper to Korins ears. When she did not reply, Era looked over his shoulder, searching for what had taken her attention. "Oh, no," he breathed. Everything was wrong.
"eeeeeeeEEEEEEE." The sound was growing into a high pitched squeal.
The star approached burning through the atmosphere and became a mass of smoldering mist, violent in its color, violent in its race toward them.
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!" Its shriek was now a constant clash of lightning that assaulted Korins ears.
The head of the mist bulged and twisted, folding in on itself. Korin could make out bulbous glaring eyes and jagged teeth that never assembled into a jaw. They merely waved and collapsed into the head, continually devouring itself. A horror had filled her and the memory of screaming played behind her eyes. A desperate shrill scream and the feeling of her body on fire. Ragged pants dragging air into her lungs in her terrified howls. Fragments of memories that had lay in hibernation until now. They played on repeat, skipping and stuttering as she silently watched while the mist plowed its way towards her.
"Korin."
"Korin!"
Warm hands cupped her cheeks and her eyes finally focused on the man who had been calling her. Era.
"Hey." He cooed. Despite the worry that filled him, he fought the unconscious urges to share his panic. His expression was schooled into the warm and pleasant face he favored. He smiled, her blood dripping over the fingers that lightly cupped her cheeks. "You need to wake up, Korin."
"Wake up?" Her expression remained clouded. Snip-its of memories still fresh in her mind.
"Yes. This is a dream, remember? You have to wake up now."
"A dream?"
Behind him the mist neared, its horrendous face lost in its mass. A long string solidified, whipping back like an arm cocked for assault.
Era angled his body above hers so all she could see was him, his billowing robes and tiny white flowers raining down onto her.
Its vapor arm poised to strike from its gigantic body that stained and occupied the sky.
"Remember, Korin. It's only a dream." Wind started to wink up around them and the books began to flutter, pages escaping their binding, scroll carried away into the endless expanse. And then the wind stilled, a momentary pause pregnant with promise. Era's fingers tightened, her eyes finally seeing him, seeing his pleasant smile and the angelic and heroic way he shielded her. "None of this is real."
And then the pregnant pause broke giving birth to a wave of red that whipped at the two with a wretched scream and tremendous wrath.
The arm of mist smacked Era with such violent force that he blurred and disappeared. His body flew too fast to track before smashing into the giant door of which Korin had come from. Wood splintered, metal crumbled, and bolts and rivets shot forward as the door crumpled with a loud groan.
The porcelain of the china tea set cracked and shattered, herbs and leaves exploded like confetti while books and scrolls tore and flew about in a whirlwind of paper and ink. Then the walkway and the pavilion broke apart, crumbled under the weight of the amorphous mist perched on its ledge, and Korin was plummeting down through the sky screaming out for Era as she fell.