Rose Blumen ~ Exogignesthai

(Rose)

My lungs hurt when I breathe. I cough out lumps of goo that swell in my throat.

Rarely have I been that sick.

Night is getting over it. I’m a little slower to recover.

We’re far from healthy, but we’re able to move again.

Nightmare crafted herself a new weapon for underwater hunts. Not exactly fishing.

I remember my time when I was fishing with a bow and magically altered arrows and strings. Under a bright sun that made the contrasts of light and shadow very sharp.

I let the nostalgia flow through me, and then dive after Night.

~

Underwater, down to fifty metres perhaps, the jungle appears to our eyes. Clouds of bubbles flow through, along with invisible bacterial swarms. Colourful insects swim through between the trees.

All is dim compared to the surface. It makes everything look as when there are heavy clouds in a leaden sky. Meaning on the spots where light pierces temporarily, it’s sharp.

It’s a landscape of twilight, eternal twilight.

Woods where time has slowed, and gravity been reduced.

As we swim down into that quiet land, we see its inhabitant thriving and spreading. Plants of all kind grow along each other. The trees become bodies for far more than just themselves. It’s a new form of coral reef that now covers this land. And it grows.

Very few birds underwater, but many sorts of insects, and an infinite supply of viruses and microbes to plague the times to come.

Shrubs and various floras sprout along the branches and bedrock. There’s nothing big for this hunter to prey upon as she used to. I gather the fruits I find meanwhile.

I even find a hornets’ nest that seems to still hold something we could eat. Meanwhile Nightmare throws her spear toward a small group of fishes. Real, normal fishes. Nightmare does something I can’t see with my eyes, but can guess from its effect.

As the spear slowed down in the water, everything alive around its path stopped moving suddenly. And slowly, the group of scattered fishes now dead began to rise and float. She swam after them to collect them, while I went swimming deeper.

Blume tweaks again something inside my ears, and this numbness I was beginning to feel goes away.

I move some rocks. I saw something in between. It’s a piece of coated metal. It still shines, without hints of corrosion. That’s unusual enough to keep. We might be able to craft some tools out of it.

I feel tired and weak quickly. Age isn’t kind to me lately.

Something shifts in the water as I’m resurfacing. I look around, as if I was in mid air, in this cosy landscape. The water makes everything somewhat cosy. I can’t see anything unusual. Was it my imagination? I felt something.

I can feel Blume, between me and her wings up there, looking around as well, trying to see what somehow made me look around.

All is quiet. A worry remains.

~

I resurfaced. I let out the water inside of me and go under the gooey blanket of Nightmare’s wings. They’ll dry me slowly and keep me warm. But they’re still gooey from cleaning her just before.

Night is just aside, cooking her spoil with ardour. I think she’s hungry too. We eat everything, even the fish bones. The fruits are various but I don’t know many of them.

Nightmare is puzzled by the piece of metal with an ageing coat of red paint.

Blume’s wings return to us at Nightfall with more news.

B – There’s a storm about a day away. I think you noticed a shift in the water temperature.

R – Just a storm? Or a kind we should worry about?

B – A kind we should find a shelter from for at least a few hours when it will be at its worst. There will be thunder I think.

I turn to Nightmare, in thoughts as well.

R – Can you survive being struck by lightning?

N – Hm... Let’s just say I would prefer to avoid checking whether I do or not.

R – A wise choice... Blume?

B – Yes?

R – There isn’t a being-like-you leading that storm toward us, right?

B – I don’t think so.

Good. We’ll sleep through the night, and at dawn, find a way to withstand the upcoming natural storm.

I swallow what’s left of the soup and snuggle inside the fleshy monster that is our ship. I’m used to it now. Its smell and warmth almost soothe me as I slowly fall into slumber.

The sounds of the sea carry me over to another land.

~

I had strange dreams that night.

I remember my past nightmares of paintings with vivid scarlet blood and icy blue eyes. Nothing like that this time thankfully. No, it reminds me more of the childhood fear of the dark.

The house basement when I was an infant.

The dusty attic at night, while I was alone at home, still a young child.

That kind of mood wraps itself around me during that night. While as a child scared of the shades in the dark, you hear a rustle in these rooms only spiders should live in.

And despite your fear, you go to investigate. And despite your reasonable knowledge that there’s nothing to fear in there, your instincts have the last word over what you feel.

The dark corridor you slowly go through as a little child.

Knowing full well you won’t find anything at the end, and still shivering as if you might.

I feel that, walking a flooded corridor, toward nothing, and yet... Afraid.

~