TotTSM – Part 1

   VIVID VISIONS

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The whispers began slowly at first. A muted discussion carried on  just beyond the point where one could not make out the words; although someone, or someones could clearly be heard. A lazy conversation swiftly became a flurry of excited chatter. So loud, yet so distant and unintelligible. To know there were others around, but to be unable to hear, let alone see them, was utterly maddening. It was cacophony set on the stage of what could be likened to a dreary cold cemetery in the middle of a dense fog..

Awoken into such a scene, Phena slowly sat up, rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand as she always did when first rising. And while she started to yawn, it was suddenly frozen in her throat. From the mist of sleep she stepped, and found herself in a dream that seemed too real to be so, and yet she had no other explanation for it. With a hand clamped over her mouth, Phena rose to her feet; those bright gold-hued orbs of hers searching vainly through this fog.  Nothing could be seen beyond her hand, and indeed even the ground she walked on- if that is what it was- felt as though to be lost beneath the fog as well.

And still the whisperings, the clamorous palaver continued, with no heed for the girl now aimlessly wandering; ever searching through the mist. As close as she drew to one source, it was nay close enough.  Always just further than could be discerned.. There was no sky, no moon, no lamps nor candles; anything to give this place illumination as far as Kaeda could discern, and yet she was far from groping through the pitch black.

Wild eyes, hungry for information peered restlessly around, much ignoring the whispers by now. It was clear to her that the conversation had been rather mundane until she ‘awoke’, and was now as an agitated beehive; and was largely directed at her. Or so she believed. Every now and then Phenaa swore she could hear her name being spoken, rather excitedly too. And then there were fragments of other names. Something ending in ‘oro’ or ‘ora’ and ‘lep’ or ‘laad’.. Then again, it could always be some kind of language perhaps. She had heard this kind of nonsense before however. The same messy whispering directed at her, but never once acknowledging her presence in the same.

“What..? Again?” breathed she. Arms crossed tightly over her chest; trying to protect herself from the cold she thought would be. But such as the Moon and Sun, there was no cold, nor heat. It just was. Such as everything else in this void of things; a nameless, soulless place..

These ‘dreams’ were becoming all too frequent and rather terrifying. The first instance had been when she turned all of eleven years and woke to find herself in the most beautiful, serene glen she’d ever seen.. Such a brief glimpse it was, only to be wretched back into the waking world where aught felt so plain in comparison. And now she was well past fifteen seasons. ‘Ripe’ for marriage, according to the Codas. In any matter,it didn’t make a difference how many times she’d seen this place- though this was by far the dreariest- she was always frightened. Would she wake up? Had she fallen and died somehow? Was this the Hither Lands? And if so, this was not the place she wanted to spend eternity. Bored as bloody hell and so scared she trembled.

There was nothing, no one but this fog and the soft whispering; every step was more useless than the last. Indeed were it not for watching her legs, Kaeda would hardly have guessed she’d moved at all. She ran, she walked, she twirled and danced, but Kaeda felt no closer nor further than she had been when she first ‘woke up’. Fleeting moments of broken fog rolling about her feet offered tantalizing glimpses of something beyond, but just like the whispers, were futile in searching for. She’d long stopped noticing those too.

Even in the waking world, Phena couldn’t help think of this place. Why be shown such things if there was no point in them other than to make her feel insane. What had once been written off as random few dreams, so striking and startling as could be reasoned the cause of a few more, could no longer be ignored. And yet no one else in her town gave her the slightest hint of credence. An ounce of recognition was a thing so dearly sought after indeed by all.

“That’s it.” Phena suddenly laughed. “That is what this must be.. I’m so … frustrated by those people and my station in life- THIS must be the manifestation of it. All those feelings of being ignored and unloved.. I understand now.. Makes so much sense..”

And yet the doubt lingered somewhere in the back of her mind. Nagging at her as the whispers now seemed to do.

“If that’s the case then, all I have to do is sit down and wait to wake up. Dix will be happy anyway..  He’s probably ‘ad more than enough of my dream prattle.” plopping down onto the ‘ground’ with a sigh, her legs crossed and her hands sitting lightly within her lap.

“Although now I think I have a new direction in my life- DO YOU HEAR THAT?!” Phena shouted to the voices. “I have a NEW fucking direction! Instead of marrying some ass from the nearest down, I will set up a shop and listen to peoples dreams and then tell them what I think they mean. It’s been done before right? Somewhere? Well, in any event that’s settled. I suppose all I ‘ave to do now is wait to wake up and go about my business..”

A heavy sigh followed, with the whispers beginning anew.

“You know.. Someday I’m going to assume that you’re talking about me.” giving her eyes a roll.

All the sudden there came an almost deafening boom of thunder from the distance.

DAUGHTER OF THE SUN, ARISE!

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. o O (Hope that was okay for the 1st.)

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