LOG IRA??012
Vale awoke, panting and soaked, his body suspended above the calm ocean floating like a fallen leaf.
"Was that her..."
"Dream?," Adam responded, hovering above the water off to Vale's side. "Of course. You couldn't have thought I'd only come prepared with one trick."
"But why does it feel like I should...remember all that for some reason?" Vale asked, distress in his voice.
It was apparent that he'd not yet realized they were atop the water. He sat up, and stared at his own reflection in the black pool between his legs. His mind and heart racing, trying to grab at memories long since locked out.
The sky had grown dark, as the Asgard eve set in while he was asleep. It was hard to see anything, and the air lay still.
"Was it here?" Vale asked in a whisper.
"No. It wasn't in this location per-se," Adam responded, and began moving inward toward the coast, "but, it was in Asgard yes."
"Then where? And who were those people she was dreaming about?"
Adam paused a moment, looked back at Vale and snipped, "you're very naive..."
Of course by now Vale had already presumed it was himself, but didn't want to accept that truth. Adam continued moving forward.
"...While you still can," Adam shouted at Vale without turning to face him, "you should really get back to the shore."
Vale jumped to his feet, only now realizing the dim reflections were from water. Leaning over just enough to look down at his feet, he began to ponder how and why he could stand on the water. As he did this, he realized that he could see his reflection more and more clearly. The area was getting brighter with an eerie red glow.
The clouds quickly opened to reveal the true for of the sky, and the source of the odd light. Vale saw his full reflection in the ocean, and beyond his mirror image, a sky set ablaze. In a panic, he slipped and fell back down landing on his back now facing the flames head on.
"What is that?" He hollered.
"It's the Midgard...your earthen world," Adam answered.
"Well, why the fuck is it on fire?" Vale said, still staring at the spectacle.
"In our world, which is set to watch over the mortal realm, Midgard is manifest in a number of visible ways," Vale continued from the safety of the shore. "In this case, the Midgard evening sky represents the hatred in the world evenly and openly. Every soul's hatred burns like a small candle, and the end result during warring state is a bevy of flames, forming a night fire..."
Vale was trapped, staring at the sky. He knew not what to make of the situation...but the sight had entranced him. He lay still, eyes wide.
"...the clouds rarely spread; only when a strong enough emotion pushes a new light past them. In this case, the moment before our daybreak shows the strongest points each day where hatred seethes in," Vale kept on, however pausing for a moment before stating, "speaking of which, you might want to get off the water. The oceans lose stability once evening dies out."
A loud rumble, similar to the mix of shattering glass and waves breaking started approaching from the vast ocean expanse behind Vale. Flustered and worried, he got to his feet and began running toward the shore. He looked over his shoulder to see a large placid wave rising from the seas, breaking the stillness of the waters as though they were frozen. The wave advanced quickly, and Vale ran faster but not quite enough.
The wave drew him up, and tossed him ashore before crashing down and returning the ocean to its previous norm state. He landed on his back in a dune of sand near Adam's feet, cold and drenched from head to toe. Adam set on one of many stones in the area, lining the sand before the flora began to stretch into the forest.
The area grew brighter, and the gray skies returned to replace the black.
"Our equivalent to sunrise, I suppose," Adam said.
A soft breeze blew by, and still quiet filled the air for a minute. Vale caught his breath, but wouldn't have long.
A sharp shrill siren filled the air, screaming through echoes off the rocks in the area, shot through the air like gunfire and continued to sound. Vale jumped in panic, and it even appeared to startle Adam a bit.
"What the hell is..." Vale screamed as he looked for the ringing, "...that."
Vale grabbed his phone off a nearby rock, and pushed the silence button. Still in continued to vibrate from the incoming call.
"You must have dropped it in our quarrel yesterday," Adam chuckled. "You should probably answer it."
He stared at the words on the screen. His phone routed messages to his account from his email, and other websites; his screen read:
"SkyGoddess has sent you a new message. Click [Open] to read it."
"I thought I couldn't get reception out here," Vale said aloud.
Adam stood up, and walked over, "you shouldn't. There's no tangible connection between Asgard and Midgard...at least none that any human technology could bridge."
Vale opened the message in the phone, and read it aloud:
"There's a message at the river, I need you to meet me there. I
have a package I need you to take for me. Once day breaks, in
the darkness of the night I will be there. You know I will...
-Eve"
"River?" Vale whispered confused.
"I know they have rivers in Midgard," Adam said. "They're just as easy to locate in Asgard. The message is probably referring to the one nearby."
Adam began to walk toward the vast forest. Vale stood still staring at the phone, weary of the message.
"There's a cabin nearby, beside the riverbed," Adam added. "Odds are, whoever sent you that message has housed themselves in the abandoned building. We're going to have to follow the river inward at some point no matter what in order to get to the gates. Might as well take a small detour. We should arrive just before dusk."
Vale looked up, paused for a moment. After he gathered himself, he began to follow Adam.
LOG IRA??013
Talking and commotion fill the office. The wind howls through a broken glass windows, and decrepit walls.
She wakes up from a daydream at her desk, one of her superiors barking orders at her. She hadn't realized he was there.
"...is that understood soldier? By 2200 tonight!," he yelled as he pointed at a stack of papers.
She was getting sick of it; being the lackey. A mutt for military control, doing her own duties along with the work that her superiors were too lazy to finish. She hadn't been there a day, visiting the rest of echo company in their new location and she was already knee deep in assignment.
"Yes sir, understood!" she saluted.
After he dismissed himself, she meandered slowly toward the nearby broken window. It was one of the few actually broken in the building; the area had seen much battle, but despite that this building remain oddly near untouched. A single gunshot escaped into the innards through this window at some point.
She moved her finger along the cracks in the glass, tracing it back to the bullet hole.
"I hate this fucking place," she muttered.
"But I have to be here for their sake," she thought to herself quietly.
Her attention shifted to the city below. From the height she was at in the skyscraper, she could see the entire town, and the barricades on the outskirts.
Large concrete and stone barriers and walls, set up to keep enemy forces from intruding. The area hadn't seen fighting since after echo company first arrived. she hadn't been there for most of it, but she was there for the calm after...and this small calm in the eye of it all.
A siren screamed through the air, and whistles to take cover shot past her ear. She moved away from the window fast, and got to the ground behind a chair. This was no test, but nobody else seemed all too fazed.
The sirens grew louder, as helicopters whizzed by the windows, knocking in the glass from the broken window with a gust as they passed. Explosions outside send smoke into the air, and shake the foundations. Soldiers from both sides exit choppers into the buildings from roofs nearby.
More aircrafts are coming by, as the city is bombarded from outside the walls by enemy footmen. She hears a stampede of footsteps from the stairwell nearby, and reaches for her 9mm at her side, but insurgent forces storm the office.
Panic no fills most of the previously calm people in the office. Now people are being led by gun barrel and force into a corner, herded like cattle.
She notices that the arms cage has remained shut and locked this whole time. She looks over at it, and readies herself to dart, but before she can a soldier comes up behind her and grabs her by the hair. He drags her along the ground, kicking, screaming and flailing. Her screams are downed out by the raging battle outside, bullets and explosions creating a symphony of horror.
Her arms and legs burn from struggling against the carpet, and the soldier turns and slaps her before throwing her into a corner near the rest of the people. Another comes by and aims a machine gun at her face, while the first one whispers into his ear.
The first grabs her hair again and rips her jacket off, while the second grabs her by the feet, and tears her legs apart tearing one of her pants legs, gesturing crudely to other insurgents. Another of them, clearly higher rank, looks over. This commander walks to her, moves close to her legs and runs his hand up the inside of her leg.
"FUCK YOU! get the fuck away from me!" she yells as tears fill her eyes.
He looks up, and grins with a sick desperation in his eyes, his teeth and smile disgusting to the eye. He leans in further, and she spits in his face, struggles out of the grip of the one at her feet enough to kick the commander in the head more than once.
He stands up, slams his foot down on her leg snapping her ankle with his foot and screams: "!یک مثال ازاوبسازید" (Make an example of her!)
The men cheer, and they begin to drag her by the hair and legs into one of the rooms in the office nearby. She grabs at her comrades nearby for help, but they are all filled with fear and panic. The pull their limbs back from her grasp, and huddle close into the corner.
Bang.
One shot flies in from the broken window, and tears the head off of the insurgent holding her hair. A sniper across from the other roof opened fire slowly, and a yelling from portable radios could be hear "stay down, stay down we're opening cover fire."
All in a brief moment, blood surges from his neck, and spews across the room covering everything in five meters. His body drops quickly to her left side, and when she realizes this she reaches for her nine, which they never removed. She shoots the one at her legs, and on her unbroken ankle hobbles toward her comrades that hadn't helped her before.
She turns away from them, placing herself between the remaining soldiers and echo company.
As she prepare to open fire, scared and shaking, she awakens.
Her eyes dart around the room, tendrils of sweat and tear drip from her face, and she screams, "SHIT! not again!"
It all felt real to her. Her dreams carried her around, toying with her head more and more. She could smell things in the office, and still felt the rug burns and pain in her ankle from the struggle.
"It felt so real," she whispered to herself, trying hard not to cry more.
She caught her breath sitting up, pulled her knees into her chest and sat quietly for a few minutes. Then, she opened her computer and got online.
"What the hell?" she said as she saw that her MySpace account had sent a message she's never seen. "I sent a message to HardLuck? I'd better call Vale and find out what this is all about."
LOG IRA??014
As they ventured into the forest of Asgard, they remained fairly quiet. The were sounds of wildlife, but nothing could be seen moving.
"What with this forest anyway?" Vale asked.
"Fauna hasn't visited lately," Adam replied contently.
"Fauna," Vale questioned curiously, "like animals and stuff?"
Adam smirked, "I suppose that's how humans refer to it. I was referring to the goddess Fauna. She's been ascertained much like the rest of them."
Confused as ever, Vale continued to piece together what was going on. He was having trouble coming to terms with the situation as it had played out, but he thought he was getting some lucidity on it all.
"She's...a goddess isn't she?" He asked.
Adam stopped walking, and looked over his shoulder, "You mean Fauna? Or..."
"Eve," Vale forced. "Eve is a goddess, and she's in trouble...just like this Fauna chick. Something more is going on here that you're not telling me and I want answers!"
"Yes," Adam said, "at one time she was a goddess. But I can't tell you any more than that which I have been ordered."
A distant rumble, muffled by the trees a shook the air. The skies started to dim slowly.
"We're almost there," Adam said. "We should press on until we arrive at the hovel. That sound is that of the seas calming again. Being caught in the forest at night isn't exactly pleasant anymore."
Even though Vale was still concerned, he agreed to continue onward. He nodded at Vale, and they hastened their movement forward. As they moved, the sounds of crickets got louder, in front of them. Behind them, distant howls resounded through the branches while all else was quiet save for their panting and footsteps.
As the forest broke, a faint glow could be seen from ahead. The cricket sound wavered and hung softly in the air, like a distant orchestra. The glow was supplied by fireflies glowing green and light blue. The cabin was dark, and unlit, and the river nearby was not very wide.
What Vale found odd was that the river water was also completely still at night, but the reflections from the fireflies wear different colors or reds and faint pink-violets. He almost forgot his worries for a moment, as he gazed over the beautiful sight.
Adam went around to the front of the small building, facing the river's edge.
Vale went around to the back, and knocked on the door he found. He jiggled the knob, but it was locked so he continued to try to get the attention of anyone inside.
"Hello? Anybody there?," he shouted. "We're looking for someone, and we were wondering if you could let us in and help us find them."
"Be careful what you ask for..." a faint whisper whipped through the air and met his ears.
Vale jumped back from the door and stared. Adam came back around from the opposite side, and told him, "It's abandoned. I told you already. We just need to find a way in."
Adam could see that Vale hadn't heard the whisper, so he ignored it. Both their eyes met a window nearby, slightly open and unlocked. Without exchanging a word, they both moved in toward the window.
Adam held it open while Vale slipped through. His feet landed inside to be greeted by a sand covered floor. The room was dark, and nothing could be seen. While Adam got himself in, Vale began to wander around the pitch black room leaving footprints in the sand below him.
"This place is bigger than it looks from the outside," he said.
Now inside, Adam cupped his hands and began speaking in the same indecipherable language as before. A quick flash came from within the cup his hands made, and illuminated the room for a short time. It was large and mostly empty with the exception of some oddly expensive furniture and decorations.
Vale was standing near the entrance of a hallway, and as the light extended slowly into the hall, voices could be heard from coming from various rooms mixed with the familiar sound of waves crashing down. As the light dimmed and dismissed itself, so did the voices.
"Why are you standing so still Vili," Adam asked as he moved closer, "trying to frighten off a crow perhaps?" He smirked.
"Didn't you hear that talking?" Vale questioned him. "It was coming from the rooms down this hall."
Adam looked at him puzzled. "I didn't hear anything, but we should be very careful of this place. if you're hearing things. There might be a dreamer present."
Vale was confused, but before he could question Vale further, he saw a hint of light escaping from under a door at the end of the hall. It flickered around like candlelight, and so Vale thought someone might have lit it.
"Come on!" he shouted, and dashed for the door.
"Wait," Adam shouted back, "don't wake the..." Vale knocked open the door, and rushed inside "..dreamer."
Vale was gazing into the room, a pale moonlight coming in through the window, and a tall candle burning near a bed to the left. He was entranced by the moon, because it had been completely cloudy when they entered the cabin only minutes before.
The sound of whimpering broke his focus, and he turned to the bed to notice a girl laying there asleep. She was huddled with her knees in her chest, covered with blankets on the bare bed frame and mattress. A large mirror was suspended on the ceiling above her bed, but he hadn't looked into it.
Adam nudged Vale out of the way, and came into the room.
"Just as I thought, it was her the whole time," Adam proclaimed.
Vale walked carefully toward the bed, and to his amazement he saw a beautiful girl that bore a striking resemblance to...
"Eve!" he shouted, as he ran to the opposite side of the bed and knelt down.
"Not quite," Adam stopped him. "That's not 'Eve', it's her sister."
"Sister?"
"Yes. Her name is Skuld...she goes by Scarlet in her current incarnation."
"But she doesn't have any sisters."
"Not since she left," Adam explained. "But when you both were occupants of Asgard, she had two sisters. That's not important right now, but what is is to not wake her."
Vale's mind was racing again, but he struggled to ignore his confusions and ask, "What happens if we wake her?"
"Well," Adam tried to explain, "she's in a dream state, the area around this cabin including this room are being governed by that dream. And by the looks of it, she's having a nightmare..."
They both looked over, noticing her face veiled in sorrow. She was breathing heavily, and sweating while her hands were clenched tight.
"...waking her suddenly from that could result in utterly chaotic escape of the dream's manifestations."
"So what can we do?" Vale worriedly asked.
"Remember what I did for you at the beach..." Adam hinted, and looked up at Vale, and saw him nod, "...we could try a different form of that. If we can talk to her, then maybe we could convince her to wake up."
Adam walked over to Scarlet's bedside, place his hand on her chest. And close his eyes.
"If we do this, I can't go," Adam said sternly. "I can only send two individuals into the same dream realm at once. That means you have to wake her yourself Vili. can you handle that?"
Vale gulped down his fear, and answered, "Yeah. I can do it."
"Good. I need you to do something...did you see the mirror when we entered? I need you to look in it," Adam said.
As Vale turned his head upward, Adam outstretched his other arms and impacted Vale's chest. He started the hymn again, and once again, he blacked out.
LOG IRA??015
Scarlet's Dream State:He was sitting in a dark room, with a bright pillar of light on him and nothing else. A large metal table was in front of him, and the metal chair he sat in was too heavy for him to push away from the table.
A loud female voice came resounded, and began to ask him questions.
"Who are you, and why are you here?" the voice said.
"My name is Vale, and I came looking for...umm," he paused trying to remember her name. "...Scarlet."
"What business could you have with her?"
"I'm trying to find someone very important to me, and...someone told me that Scarlet is her sister. I wanted to know if she knew anything."
The room grew quiet for a minute. After a bit, a bright light came into the room from what seemed like an opened doorway. A silhouette centered itself in the doorway, and began walking into the room toward the table. The sound of footsteps made by high heels echoed through the room.
The silhouette sat down in a chair across the table from Vale, still shadowed in the darkness. She let out a quick condescending giggle, and said, "You must be scared of me...I can hear you breathing from here."
"I could hear you breathing heavily in your sleep before I came here," Vale snipped.
Another bright pillar of light clicked on over her. There sat a seductively dressed semblance of eve, with blood red hair and extravagant body artwork. "So you know who I am then?"
"Yeah," he said. "You're sleeping right now. A dream state, or something like that."
He paused a moment, gave her a twice over, and then continued, "You look a lot like her you know?"
"I don't even know who you're talking about kid," she responded condescendingly. She pulled out a cigarette, snapped her fingers to create a small flame in the palm if her hand and lit it; then she snapped her hand out to put out the flame.
"Eve, your sister," he added.
"I don't know anyone named Eve, so you've got the wrong..."
"...Adam calls her Verdandi," He interrupted. She got quiet and still. Her eyes locked onto his, and smoked drifted out of the corner of her lips.
After a short amount of time she continued, "Like I said kid, you've got the wrong person. Tell that wash out Adam it's not my business anymore."
He shouted, "Just wake up and help us! She's in trouble, and we need your..."
She slammed her hand on the table, and stopped him, "I get it, they're all in deep shit! I can't help the state of things right now. Neither can you or him, and nothing you can do to help Verdandi will solve anything either."
With one hand, she threw aside the large metal table that he couldn't even budge, left her seat walked over to him. She stood above him, looking down on him, "Besides, don't you think if I could have woken up from this nightmare, I would have already? I can't even speak my mind anymore! The sound of my own heartbeat shakes the walls of this infernal prison!"
He stood up, looked at her, and started walking away into the darkness.
"Where the fuck do you think you're going kid?" she yelled at him.
"You know, at first I thought you looked a lot like her," he said as he turned around to face her again. "But I saw it in your eyes...you're nothing like her. I used to love to watch her sleep, and think about her all the time. But you won't even lift a finger for your own sister...and I feel all the pain for my first love. How could you let that go?"
He turned again, and kept walking.
"Wait," she yelled. He stopped. She asked, "Did you really come from Midgard just to save her?"
"I didn't even mean to. I just kind of appeared here," he said.
"You're all kinds of stupid," she giggled. "Fine, I'll help you. But if I'm going to get out of this nightmare, I'm going to need your help."
