Completed Thirst

[Amolina]

~ Amolina Moletta ~ Timestamp: 9th of Summer 513 AV, at night Amolina Moletta, citizen of Ravok, had been poisoned in the beginning of Spring 513 AV. She had recovered, but it was unclear what this recovery meant. Was she still the same, would her life just go back to normal ? During the period of time that had passed since the poisoning, she was under the impression that she had slowly started dreaming more than she had done before. This was perhaps only something she imagined ? It was evening. She was alone in her cubicle, an actress without audience. Outside the building the night of Ravok was alive, dark and glittering, dangerous, beautiful and sweet. She could have gone out to mingle with the crowds seeking entertainment out there. She could have done as others did, put on her mask and left all restrictions behind, laughed and danced, bought drinks, been tipsy and done things to remember and perhaps to regret. But she did not. Instead she went to bed and soon enough she fell asleep. And in her mind another reality awoke, and a dream came alive … She sat at the bank of a meandering stream. It was calm and quiet in the green forest that surrounded her. The air was fresh and the foliage of threes and bushes whispered in the wind. Amolina looked at the sky, visible like light blue patches through the powerful crowns of huge old trees. Wilderness. Amolina was terribly thirsty. She tried to drink water from the stream but it ran between her fingers and left only a few drips. She licked the drips from her fingers, but it didn’t help any. Over and over again she repeated her futile tries to drink, to no avail.The water was there, clear and fresh, right in front of her, yet out of reach. Suddenly the stream transformed into a roaring dark river that seemed to want to seize her and pull her down into it’s depths when she looked at it. Amolina tried hard to resist this pull, but the river seemed to slowly be on it’s way to win. A feeling of panic grew and grew and grew and grew, until it finally exploded and overshadowed everything, like the only thing that existed was panic, terror, utter fear. The water closed above her head. She was now beneath the surface, and on her way further down. All she knew was that she needed to swim to save her life, but she could not swim.

[Uleru]

A hand descends through the water and grasps Amolina's wrist with a pressure that might have snapped the bones, had this been real. The water around her is chaotic, darker than black and ravenous in nature. Tossing both her and this new creature about in the madness of it. Another horrible jolt and the human and the other presence smash into each other with a pull of the current, allowing an opportunity for an arm to snake around the woman's ribs for more leverage. And this new creature begins to haul the woman back to the surface.

But the river wont let go of its prize without a fight, and a strange kind of tug o' war ensues. But she pulls and pulls, desperate to bring them both back to the point of light thats just too far above them. A desperate, bubbling roar cuts through he water behind Amolina's ear as the creature tries to shake off the clutches of the river.

Until, finally, that light gets bigger and bigger and with a rush of air the woman is pushed back onto the mossy banks. The creature pulls herself ashore after the her, naked and shimmering in the strange half-light that all dreams seem to have. She's human in shape, but that means nothing. Her body as clear as the brook had been and just as free flowing. But strange patches of this dark water seem to be blooming like flowers on her legs and torso, like ink dropped into a pond.

Uleru contemplates the woman she just pulled from the river like she might an interesting piece of coral or jewel, but she stays kneeling on the bank near the swirling waters. Completely at ease next to it, despite its strange, corrupted nature. The dark spots continue to seep through her body.

"I don't know whats happening", she states, almost offhandedly, "This water is wrong. You are wrong too... You don't belong here, do you?"

[Amolina]

~ Amolina Moletta ~ A fight against the pull of the river had followed, an unknown force tearing Amolina out of the water’s grip. Tossed here and there like driftwood at the mercy of malevolently playful undercurrents, she clung to the presence of something else, someone else, unknown, yet feeling like a last straw to cling to in the middle of the maelstrom. Up and out she went, oh, up and out, up from the water and out into the air. Up and out … Out of the maddening dark turbulence of the river a new scene appeared. Amolina was back on the green banks. No matter she had been completely submerged in the dark water that had tried to swallow her, there had been nothing for her to drink. The thirst remained. The wilderness whispered. A creature was looking at her. A naked creature, shimmering and enigmatic. And the creature spoke, her voice nonchalant. The words were clear at first, then transformed into an echo, bouncing around in the air like music, its themes repeated over and over and over again, bleeding into each others, giving birth to a new song. "I don't know whats happening ....don’t … happen … won’t … happen …won’t …” “This water is wrong … water … wrong … water … wrong … water …” “You are wrong too …you are .. wrong to … you are …wrong to …” “You don’t belong here, do you … don’t be long … don’t be long… don’t be long …” Don’t. It won’t happen. This water is wrong. You are wrong to be long. Don’t. It won’t happen. This water is wrong. You are wrong to be long. Don’t …You are wrong, to be long. when the water is wrong …water is, water is wrong … The brew of words went in through her hair, through the skin of her scalp, through the bone of her skull. They imprinted themselves on her mind, etched themselves on her memory, carved themselves into the tissue of her brain, burned themselves into depths beyond. This, she seemed to tell herself, albeit no sound could be heard, is what happened, what’s happening still, what will happen when the water is wrong … Amolina watched the shimmering creature, human in form, yet not human. Drips of dark water trickled down it’s clear body and fell on the ground. The being had asked her something but Amolina was listening to the strange music and could hardly recall what the question had been. She searched inside herself and a word came to her, the only that counted. She said : “Water …” Her throat was dry. Her voice came out dry as old parchment, ashes and sand.

[Uleru]

The creature sighs regrettably. "Oh my dear. What makes you think you deserve something so pure as water?"

The landscape rolls away like a curtain and somewhere an audience screams for more. The scene changes and the two of them are on a stage, lit by flood lanterns and mirrors. A shadowy audience whistles and cheers for the two on stage, this pretty young actress and the monster. The moulding does a pirouette and bows for these unknown people, and turns back to the woman. The black water seeping through her body has almost engulfed her completely.

"Here, I have something for you. But treat it gently, ok?"

Without warning she plunges both hands in the valley between her breasts and begins to pull herself apart. Her body naturally tries to repair itself, as it has always done, leaving her to dig harder and harder at her core. Black water seeps from between her fingers and down her wrists, but she keeps hacking away at her chest untill she can fit a hand inside. There is a terrible twisting and tugging motion, and she is almost doubled over as if in pain, though she has made no sound.

Finally there is a long, drawn out gasp as something comes free. The Otani straightens up and holds a perfect, clear, water-like sphere high above her head, bowing with a sweep for the audience. There is uproarious applause.

She turns and presents it to the human woman with a smile just as the last of her clear body turns black.

"Here we are, my love. I give you my heart. Drink it if you have to, if your thirst is that great. But I'll die if you do."

[Amolina]

~ Amolina Moletta ~ The globe of clear water shone like a giant pearl in the flood of light from the lanterns. The mirrors started to reflect the pictures of it and created a never ending row of luminous pearls. Pearls, everywhere pearls, glittering like lanterns against the shadows in front of the scene. Never had she seen a performance like this one, never had she heard applause this loud. The sound of it intensified by the chime and turned into a steady complex beat, like music from an ever growing set of various percussions, kettle-drums and silver bells, the clang of gongs, and rattling tambourines of wood and bone. Amolina took the luminous spherical heart of living water in her hand and held it. Unlike the water in the stream it didn’t run between her fingers but rested on her palm. Her hand turned into a shell, open, it’t inside a pale rose like the hand it had once been. The pearl pulsated with the music. It was the beat of a living heart that had been painfully, monstrously torn out of the core of the translucent being. I give you my heart My love I give you my heart Drink it if you have to. But I´ll die if you do. Drink it if you have to. But I´ll die if you do. The music of applause played on. The pearl of living water pulsated, it’s many mirror images danced in the light.of the lanterns. Amolina watched her brilliant and horrific co-actor and admired the costume and the make up. It was a sensational creation, fascinating, flowing and surreal. It occurred to her that this was the peak of tragedy and it required tears on the scene in order to give the audience a reason to cry. Out of duty she produced a few theatre tears to please the them. But they wanted more. She forgot that she was playacting and faking and started to cry. A flood of real tears formed a river between mossy green banks and with a feeling of surprise she realized this river of tears was hers. She leaned forward and drank it, she swallowed it all and felt it spread inside her like rain on torrid, thirsting lands. It was done. The heart of water still rested in her hand like a secret and shimmering pearl in it’s shell. Amolina watched it for a few chimes. Slowly she handed it to the translucent being it belonged to. “I’ll die if you do” she said in the dream. “I give you your heart, my love.”

[Uleru]

They clapped and screamed, this shadowy audience. They clapped and screamed until their noise was nothing but a throbbing eco, then a rush, then they are washed away with the river of tears. You can still hear them if you listen closely, lending themselves to the soft roar of the river.

The stage, the lights, its all washed away and the two women are back where they were before. Kneeling on the mossy bank of a forest river.

Uleru watches as the human leans forward and drinks and drinks for her thirst. The moulding reaches in tentatively and tastes the water herself. Its salty.

Like the sea.

She turns to the woman, and finds herself faced with those clear blue eyes. Such blue eyes. Ocean blue. Maybe she has an ocean inside of her. Maybe they all do, these strange beings that walk across the back of the world. They carry it inside themselves, and thats how they walk in the punishing sun. Could she have one too? Could she learn to wrap this inside herself and walk in a shell? She could walk with them. These people she mimics. She could be one of them.

She wonders this as she looks at her. But suddenly her heart is offered back with a sentance that sounds like a song.

And she takes back this shard of herself, and puzzles over it. Where does this go? It doesn't belong in her anymore. Standing, with this piece tucked into one hand, with the other she reaches up and plucks the stars out of the sky. She collects them in her hand and strings them together, and they make a perfect row of pearls. Black fingers place the heart at the centre and her gift is complete.

"I have a river in my eyes too" she tells her companion, admiring the work she has created and its reflection in the river, "it forces me to be strong cause the river doesn't want to flow. The river doesn't want to show weakness. The river just wants to forget. But you know what?" She gently lifts the other woman's hair and places the necklace around her throat, pressing the pearls into her collar. "The river stays still for happiness."

She smiles then and the smile is reflected in the mirror of Amolina's eyes.
"Does the human dance? I bet she does. Dance with me!"

She grabs both her hands and the two of them start to spin in a crazy dance. The crickets and the trees provide the music and even the rocks shift in their beds to watch. The clouds are jealous of their fun and swirl above their heads in a crazy dance of their own. And its all just so much and so good, that Uleru starts to laugh. And she is happy.

[Amolina]

~ Amolina Moletta ~ There is another sea… I don’t know it but I feel it vaguely, there is another ocean, there is another sea, where another part of me is travelling on a completely different route… They were dancing on the waves, as far as the ocean reached. Amolina had the gift around her neck, a heart of a translucent being, stars from the sky, and something else, invisible and precious that she knew but had no name for. This made a difference. “I will wear it always” she said. “Always.” There is another sea … so far, far away … Said the translucent one I have a river in my eyes Come dance with me Come dance with me For happiness, Come dance with me Come, dance Crickets and trees rocks clouds and waves, and waves, and waves, and waves … spinning around like this seemed to be the true meaning of life. What more could you wish for ? The moment was perfect and complete. The echo of applause in the background had faded and only the sound of the ocean remained. In the depths were other beings, other lives, she cold feel their presence down below. All the colours had gone brigher, clearer, and the air was vibrant. The world was alive ... Far away, oh so far, far away ... At this point a feeling emerged that something was fulfilled, and the dream started to fade and drift away towards an unknown horizon of it's ocean of dreams,far away. Amolina Moletta woke up with a jolt.She was in her small cubicle in the NHC buildings in Ravok. The memories of the dream clear but endlessly enigmatic. Her heart was beating hard in her chest like dancing to soundless percussion music. Hesitating, hesitating her hand went to her neck, like in silent search for something invisible and rare ... OOCMany thanks to Uleru I felt things fall in place now and this felt like an excellent place to end the dream. Absolutely perfect