21 Winter 521
The morning after a ten day, Moritz slumbered in his bed. His dreams were colorful, reds and blues and pinks mixing into a cloud of confusion. Then that cloud of confusion turned into a literal cloud... He was in the air and falling from the colorful cloud, that seemed to be where he had been floating among the colors... After falling he landed with a splash in water and then he was under the sea looking at colorful fish that glowed in the inky depth. Then a bottle swum past with tiny flippers, looking like a mix between a fish and a frog merged with the bottle. The bottle seemed empty but flashed in the light from the glowing fish, and he saw some colorful liquid at the mouth of the bottle.
For a moment or what seemed it he remembered the night before, someone passing him a bottle... And then... More colors, and his mind drifted away into the scintillation.
Bobbing up from the water he found himself washed against a shore, a small island of sand with a single tree in the middle.
"Oh", Moritz thought to himself, half awake and half asleep... "I am dreaming..." Not quite able to wake up but not quite asleep Moritz looked around the island, trying to find anything of use...
Quickly enough he found a large black metal Cauldron. Thick, hard, he moved over and patted the side of the container. He looked inside, but he could not see the bottom. Did it have a bottom? Did bottoms exist? Had the ocean earlier had a bottom?
Looking below the Cauldron he saw a bed of wood, ready to be set aflame. And he was wet, having washed ashore... Pulling out some flint and steel from a pack, which oddly disappeared after he pulled the items from it, he struck a few times and lit the wood burning.
As he waited for the fire to warm up he felt something touch his shoulder, and turned down to see a tiny lizard with flippers acting as wings. Looking more closely he found it was a tiny Ixam, swimming through the air like it was water by means of its back flippers. Slowly it turned to him, meeting his eyes, and let out a cooing sound like a bird.
"You should put it in!" The tiny Ixam spoke with a deep voice, a harsh rasp of a large man rather than the sound he expected from a tiny form...
Confused Moritz looked from the Cauldron to the tiny Ixam, unsure what was going on. "What? Put what in what?"
"Put it in! Put it in!"
This time the words were spoken in cadence, and he looked up to see an entire flock of the flying tiny Ixam perched on the tree above.
"Okay, Okay!"
Unsure what was going on but wanting to appease the animals Moritz looked around for something to put in. When he next turned around he found he was on a Sykan beach, covered in soft sand... He grabbed up a handful and tossed it in the Cauldron, which began to bubble and froth for a few moments.
Then he took a handful of sea water from the Suvan, and tossed it in as well. The contents bubbled again, now emitting a brown light.
Turning to his room he saw a lump of Okomo hair, either something he had shedded in his Okomo form or perhaps leftover from a shearing... He tossed this in as well, the Cauldron now emitting a yellow light...
The deep rasp voiced Ixam were now chanting faster, with more urgency, pushing the Kelvic onward. "Put it in, put it in!"
He turned again to find something else to put in, something that would sate the small lizards... Then he saw his scabbard and his Tiger Hook Swords. A big metal blade... He drew one and tossed it into the Cauldron, which turned the light red and sent it frothing and spitting out tiny bits of colored liquid light for a few moments before it settled. He looked in the pot again but still could not see the bottom, just the swirling and frothing colored liquid within.
One last time he turned, seeing his pack on the ground again. Looking inside he found only one thing... His twilight star... He looked around the island, but did not see anything else... Nothing else to put in... And the Ixam beasts were still angrily chanting... With a moment of hesitation Moritz dropped it in softly as well. At this the light shifted, turning purple, pink, black, and then pure white, before exploding with a gout of vapors upward. In the melting mixing light and colors and liquid all of the items mixed one by one... The sand, water, sword, hair, and star... And what was left was a residue at the bottom of the Cauldron, a swirl of tiny bluish-green bits... Grains... Particles...
Confused Moritz looked closely, unsure what had happened, but knowing all of his things were gone... Had the liquid melted or torn apart all of the things, leaving nothing but... Sand like tiny bits?
But then amongst the sand he saw one thing, his star, though smaller than before... Thumb sized, where before it was hand sized.
As if by compulsion Moritz reached in with his left hand, moving to touch the sand... The star... The... Stuff... As if waiting for this the star shone for a moment and the seemed to sink and melt into Moritz flesh like it was liquid. As the star embedded itself into the back of Moritz left hand the sand also moved, like a snake crawling up his arm, layering over his skin... Like a second layer or a layer of skin ready for molting... Merging as well with his body in a manner... After a few moments it disappeared as well, melting into his flesh.
Turning his hand he saw the star still there, a light within his hand on the back, pressed within. Thinking of the sand it suddenly expanded outward from the Star, moving to cover his hand... Rather than sand as it had appeared before, it took shape now into a gauntlet covering the limb. Startled he pulled back, the star turning yellow, wishing it gone, and the sand moved back down his arm into the star... A once more white clear star... Pausing Moritz willed the sand out, and it swarmed out to cover his limb again... This time it did not change color, but then he was not startled like the last time...
Remembering his sword which had also vanished Moritz considered where it was, when suddenly a twin pair of blades or claws extended out from the gauntlet... He looked at the star but it once more remained clear...
Willing the blades back in he watched as they vanished, and then a moment later the gauntlet as well melting into the back of his hand were the star lay... The Moritz lost focus, and his mind faded out....
With a kick Moritz woke, unsure where he was for a moment before realizing he was in bed. Oddly enough he could remember his dream quite vividly, taking a moment to catch his breath before getting up.
As he did his left hand rested on the edge of his bed to pull himself up, and he saw... A light, a star, within, just as it had been in his dream...
With a jerk and the light turning yellow again Moritz pulled away, and then shook his hand for a few moments. Realizing it was not coming off or out Moritz calmed down once more, but stood puzzled while looking at the gem... With a thought the gauntlet formed again expanding out from the star, before receding with another thought...
"Wait, was that a dream or... What?"
OOC note: Acquisition of this item here.
WC: 1,311
