Echoes

Go South

And so, the man went South. One might argue Ashe was not an intuitive man, seeing as he did things and found himself in situations most would be smart enough to avoid, but he had a knack for following his gut and trusting himself to come out the other side. So he up and left, heading south, without much preparation. He'd even left without Inyala, though unbeknownst to him in this dream state that was okay. Dreams have a weird way of making the abnormal normal. When was Ashe last alone? Alone alone. Without a Shijin mist following, without an Imp on his shoulder, without a monster prowling in front of him, or an Equillion snorting nearby. His journey was quiet, and he found that his mind, always a jumble of goals and plans and what to do nexts, was at peace. Slowly, he became aware of a bell, a gentle ring, but he couldn't focus on it. He knew he had to follow it and he walked South.

He walked for what seemed an eternity, trapped in time like a moment that seems to last forever, but is really only moments. Or was it fleeting, time passing quickly when it was really hours? Dawn was here, and with its light, Ashe could see rolling hills and green everywhere. He couldn't help but immediately picture roaming Equillion galloping across, and just like that the thought was gone, wiped as if it had never been thought.

This way

Ashe follows without hesitation. He glides, as one tends to do in dreams, after the voice. The source of the bell? Or something new? He becomes aware there are riches around him, glittering and tempting, begging to be touched. His hand floats away from his side, but only hovers, the desire for material treasures held at bay. And then, before him; a ghost. A dragon ghost.

You, most certainly, are a dream

Ashe was shaken. All of his goals, ambitions, aspirations - he was the product of another's mind, not his own? That bothered him. It felt like a burden. Then the ghost spoke again, and the idea crept into Ashe's mind. The ghostly Tat-lung asked who the dreamer was. Ashe wasn't sure, since he'd just realized he was the dream, but suddenly he was filled with only the desire to meet the dreamer. Slowly, bits and pieces of the dream came to him.

He was standing on a hill, looking out across a vast expanse of nature. Time passed in a swirl of sky and stars, sun and moon. Things died. Things faded away. He saw a creature - a Galabex, born and living, thriving, then collapsed almost as if asleep, curled in an elegant position. In the stillness, gasses and insects and animals moved the body, stripping it away, until a skeleton remained. Serene even in its gruesomeness, the fact of life: death.

"I see Death," Ashe said out loud. He wasn't sure how much time had passed since he'd been asked. "Something bigger, something inevitable. But... Not like I imagined..." No. The kind of death Ashe had always aspired to bring upon his opponents was swift, violent, powerful, and sometimes cruel. This was something else. "I feel... A calm. A peace. No struggle, just acceptance. Inevitable. Not quite kindness... It just is." A pause. Small details popped forth, slowly defining themselves. "I see thorns - no, spikes. Spines? Something along its back. Delicate, deadly. Is that bone, or... And its head-" Images were overlapping. He couldn't picture the dreamer, just the images from the dream. Antlers? He saw a shape, standing in a shallow pool of water, surrounded by willow trees, lifting its antlered head, moss trailing like spider webs from the prongs. It rose onto hind legs, its five-fingered clawed hands holding an orb... a node?

Ashe shook his head, frustrated he couldn't find words to pair with images. He was feeling confused, adrift.

"Who is the dreamer?" Ashe said at last. "I want to meet them!"


(Theme: Death; a feeling of eternal patience and tranquility. Sooty black and shades of greenish-gray. Scales, antlers and bones. 5 toes)