This is kinda a standalone chapter from the story I've tried to get everyone to read (since I need recognition, lest my ego collapses!) though it's a hassle. I'm considering making a part 2 (a.k.a. Dream 5), but it won't be for a while. Also, the characters won't be very well defined, since this is like technically the 8th chapter of a story. But yeah, I wanna share it (see previous note about my ego)! Also, a quick warning: it's weird, I guess. Maybe just a little, but enough to be considered weird. Here we go. Dream 4 Sia floated in the water and felt the waves lap against her skin. She arched her back; the feeling of duality intensified. The water wasn't a pressure; it was closer to a trickle, and she felt the path it took across her skin. It was impossibly clean; she felt her skin lighten where it passed. She turned over, and found the water didn't bother her eyes; it, if anything, seemed to sharpen her vision. Below her gaped a giant mouth. She could almost count its individual teeth, but she wasn't frightened. She felt only bliss as she sank into oblivion. ---------------------------------------- "Sia, wake up!" She opened her eyes and they were greeted by a man in a waistcoat and an opera hat. "Wha?" she groggily asked. Her vision began to clear up, and she realized that the man was, in fact, Christopher. "Oh. It's you. Why are you dressed like that?" He ignored her question, and, instead, beckoned to her. "Here, you must see this!" He grinned and left the room. Sia inspected the unnoticed (up to this point) room. The walls were a dark, heavy wood; she could hear creaks and groans emmanating from the thick timbers. There was sparse decoration: a few candles, a small painting on the wall, and a matted rug on the floor. She remembered herself suddenly, and hurriedly slid out of bed. She was bandaged, and not much else. She was pleased to see that whoever had tended to whatever ailment she required the bandages for had been decent enough to give her a pair of shorts to cover her more private areas. She continued into the hallway unabashedly. Christopher was waiting for her, and she followed him past open doorways with scary-looking men leaning out of them. A few leered at her, but most only glanced before turning back into their rooms. They came to a staircase and Sia cautiously followed him up the unstable-looking wooden steps. She was not expecting the thick, freezing fog on the deck. Crewmen roamed about, intent on tasks she couldn't guess at. The mainmast stretched away far above them, giving Sia not even the slightest glimpse of a sail. "You should count yourself lucky that we found you. You weren't in such good shape before Dr. Nero got to you, and you wouldn't be in such good shape now if we were any slower," Chris told her as they climbed up to the stern weather deck. "Ho, Miss Terranovus! Master Aducio!" A grinning Marcel greeted them from behind the wheel. Wind whipped their hair around, and Marcel's looked wild as it swam around his head. "How has this day found you?" "Well, Captain, sir!" Marcel laughed and Christopher turned to explain. "This is Captain Rareza. He's knowledgeable about the area, so he agreed to bring me out here." "The sir isn't necessary, Master Aducio! You're a paying customer!" "Ah, but it is your ship! I can show nothing but respect to such a fine captain!" "You flatter me!" He turned to Sia. "And you, Miss Terranovus? Have you recovered from your injuries?" "I... I believe I have. I must admit that I am confused concerning this entire situation. What happened?" "We happened upon you. In the middle of the Ocean. I must admit I first believed you to be dead, but you surprised the most of us. Nasty wounds though." Captain Rareza spoke haltingly, as though he was concentrated on some difficult task. "Sia, dear, what were you doing there? There was no sign of another vessel, and you were..." Christopher blushed, a mannerism to which Sia was much more accustomed. "You, Miss Terranovus, were as naked as the day you were born," Captain Rareza informed her with a lecherous smile. "Which would have been a much more welcome sight if you were not floating in your own blood." "I'm afraid I don't remember," Sia admitted only a little untruthfully. "I'm afraid I don't remember... anything." "Nothing?" Chistopher asked with a forlorn look and tremulant voice. "Nothing at all?" "Well, not nothing... You are Christopher..." Sia slowly said. "Yes! Yes I am!" Christopher exhaled happily. "What else, what else?" "I'm sorry. That's all I remember." "Well, that is something." Christopher still appeared upset, but not nearly as much as before. "We're friends, from college. We studied mythology together..." "Miss Terranovus..." Captain Rareza began with a widening smile. "Do you have any idea where we are?" She shook her head, and he laughed. "Lower the sails!" he bellowed, and, for a time, echoes of his order were shouted about on the foggy deck. Before long, they appeared to be exiting the fog. Captain Rareza turned a glass cylinder with a ball inside upside down. The marble dinged against the glass and he smiled. "Go ahead to the bow. You'll have an excellent view there." Sia followed Christopher back down the rickety poop deck staircase, across the half deck, and up the equally rickety bow weather deck staircase. There was much less happening here, and Sia could tell that the fog was growing lighter. She stood next to Christopher at the head of the ship and looked out over the ocean. She realized that they were exiting a cloud roughly when she noticed that the water was very, very far away. She was proud of herself, though; she didn't scream. She did, however, unknowingly squeeze closer to Christopher. ---------------------------------------- "You, sir, are an idiot!" Taylor upbraided Christopher with her sweet voice. The room they were in was hardly larger than the one she woke up in, and the space was taken up mostly by two beds. Sia was lieing on one while Christopher sat on the other. "You got her out of bed, took her scantily clad bottom onto the deck in the middle of a cloud, and scared her so badly her wounds opened! Look at the idiots I deal with!" She aggravatedly pulled a roll of gauze from the confines of the cabinet she was rummaging through. "I'm sorry, Dr. Nero! I should have alerted you when she stirred. I got so excited though!" Christopher wilted under her tirade. "I understand. But now I have to entirely rebandage her, and we can't do this every day!" "I promise, it won't happen again! And, um, when you say rebandage... I suppose I should excuse myself." Christopher blushed and stepped through the door, collapsed opera hat partially obscuring his face as though he believed her to already be naked. "So, Sia... I've never actually spoken to you, have I? I'm Dr. Nero, as you've heard, but you can call me Taylor. Please sit up." Sia did, and Taylor circled around the bed. "Um... Taylor... What happened to me? I mean, when you found me." Taylor began the bandage-changing procedure. "You had some vicious gashes. After I looked closer," she said while she freed her chest, "I noticed that they looked like bite marks. The strange thing is that I can't think of anything big enough to do that." A moment passed, heavy with tension. "I can't remember anything but the strangest things..." Sia shuddered. "Just... floating, in the ocean. Nothing before that." "Very strange. I'm no psychiatrist, but perhaps it was trauma from... well, from whatever left you naked and bleeding in the ocean. Hmm..." Taylor walked around the bed and looked at Sia's face, for no discernable medical reason. She turned away, apparently satisfied, and walked back to her previous position with a washcloth and a bowl. "So, you don't remember anything. Like, say, family, or friends, or a lover?" Sia shook her head. "So you couldn't be blamed for anything you did, having no knowledge of anything before your accident, correct?" Taylor began to clean Sia's wounds with a cold liquid. She shuddered as the cloth passed over her back and, to her embarrassment, her nipples reacted. "I suppose not, if you look at it that way... But why do you ask?" Taylor laughed. "Can't you guess?" Taylor reached under Sia's arm and began to run the washcloth across her front. She rested her chin on her shoulder and lightly bit Sia's ear. "You're a beautiful woman, Miss Terranovus," she said, relinquishing her ear for a moment. Sia didn't put up resistance. She was, she realized, grateful for the contact, for the closeness of another person. "I... so are you, Dr. Nero..." Taylor pulled her onto her back and crawled onto the bed, straddling her. "Try not to get too excited, sailor," she grinned. ---------------------------------------- "Christopher, what are we doing here, anyway?" Sia asked him as they ate in the sparse and nearly-empty messroom. Four long tables ran its length, each with dark benches running theirs. A chef stood in one corner, in front of a doorway blocked by a large, black pot. Nobody was forming a line, so he stood, stirring his food. They had been served a bowl of goop with carrots, celery, and a piece of bread sticking of the top. "We're on an expedition! Which is top secret, of course," he admitted with an apologetic smile. He dabbed at his lip with a napkin he had apparently brought with him. "You'll find out when we get there though." "Why not tell me now if I'm going to find out?" She sifted through the goop with a stick of celery. "Sia, dear, it's a surprise! Of course, you will be prepared for this one." He smiled at her. "Ok then." She smiled back as a finger wiped her lip. She jumped, but a hand caught her back. She looked up into Ambella's impassive face. "You had gruel on your lips," she explained as she wiped it, quite unsanitarily, on the bench she was seated at. She looked at Sia for another second, then kissed her forehead and walked away, leaving both of them very confused. "Who was that?" she asked Christopher as her eyes followed Ambella away. She walked with a suggestive swagger, and Sia's eyes were drawn inevitably downward. "First mate Ambella Florea... I've heard she was strange, but I haven't before seen any evidence of it..." Christopher followed her just as attentively. "She's pretty, isn't she?" she smiled at him. He, of course, blushed and looked down at the table. "Err... I suppose so, yes." He looked up, and Sia was struck by how cute his blush and smile looked together. ---------------------------------------- "Sia, come, quick!" Sia was woken once again by Christopher. She had slept in only her bandages and shorts, having found them quite comfortable. She didn't bother putting anything else on; Dr. Nero had told her that there was no real risk of reopening her wounds again. She followed him once more onto the half deck, and then onto the bow weather deck. Most of the crew was gathered there, and they opened a path from Christopher and Sia. They met Captain Rareza, Ambella, and Dr. Nero at the prow, and Sia slid between Christopher and Taylor. "Well, Master Aducio, it appears our gamble has paid off! Behold, Bahamut!" Captain Rareza laughed and the ship exited the cloud it was in. "What... what is that?" Sia asked, breathtaken. "Bahamut, the cloud maker! Jagannatha Oceanic, the legendary beast itself!" Bahamut soared through the air, barely lower than their ship. It was massive, unbelievably so; Sia guessed it must have been 2 miles long, at least. It glided, propelled along by 18 of the strangest wings she's ever seen; human hands, pale and smooth, barely moving, yet apparently providing enough lift to keep it afloat. Afloat, for it appeared to be moving through the air as easily as water. Its serpentine body snaked from side to side, and, with an ear-pounding cry, it lifted its head and spouted streams of cloud into the air. It had a human face, Sia uncomfortably noted. Bahamut, as though spent, sank down, closer and closer to the water. With an unbelievable grace, it slid in, making ripples in the ocean the size of, Sia estimated, their ship. "Amazing!" Christopher was the first to speak after it disappeared. "Absolutely, undeniably amazing!" "So, Master Aducio, how close did you want to get, again?" Before he could respond, an alarm began to blare. The crew looked around wildly for the source, but it appeared to come from all directions. Sia grabbed Christopher as the ship began to pitch and shake. "I'm not wearing my glasses," she thought, and she squeezed herself close to Christopher as she ---------------------------------------- fell out of bed.