Awakening into Dreams: Part II of the Fabula Fereganae Cycle

Chapter IV: Where All Eternity Lies

  The ferrets had no idea how long Aegentus and his little boat carried them across Crepusculum’s sea. With no sun or wheeling stars to mark the passing of time, it could have been two days or two years for all they knew. The only thing that moved across the dark sky was a strange belt of rocks which, according to the silver boat-ferret, was once a moon. It had broken apart long before his time. All they knew was they needed neither sleep nor food and water, a realization both exciting and terribly frightening.

  Once an interminable time had slipped by their small boat, a low, dark mass began to materialize upon the horizon. Before they could see it, a sweet, perfumed scent reached their noses.

  Flowers? Uespera asked and poked at the air with her nose.

  Yeah, Aegentus said. His silver fur seemed almost to glow in the low light. Mister Pishti, he likes flowers.

  Is it just me, Gemmie said, or do you look younger? Indeed, Aegentus’s previously dull fur now shone with a healthy aura, and he held his head high and proud.

  The nice smell always makes me feel younger, he said brightly. It’s the magic of Mister Pishti’s island.

  Magic? Gemmie asked.

  Yeah, a very, very old magic, one from before, and outside, time itself.

  That’s… very old then, Gemmie said, not really comprehending how old that must be.

  Very, my girl.

  Just then Maya spoke up. So what do we do once we get there? We wind up in your world as dreams with no damn scent, and then we find out we have to go see this guy over the sea.

  Aegentus laughed. That I don’t know, in all honesty. All I know is that he told me some day four ferrets would turn up looking for him, and two wouldn’t smell.

  Do you know him well? Gemmie asked.

  Ya could say that. But it’s been so long since I last saw him.

  How long?

  Many lifetimes.

  The other ferrets started.

  Surprising, I know. I suppose some small part of Mister Pishti’s island rubbed off on me long ago.

  The old magic? Gemmie said.

  Yeah.

  What exactly is it?

  Life out of time. Near-eternal life.

  A flurry of questions from three of the ferrets. Some choice curses from the fourth.

  Settle down, you lot, he said.

  You can’t die? Utnali said in a hushed voice.

  I will. One day. And hopefully soon at that. He sighed.

  But who wouldn’t want to live forever?

  It was Gemmie who answered. Me, she said meekly. Just think. A hundred lifetimes from now, Stefi and the others will be long dead. And I’d still be here. Imagine how lonely that would be, everyone you love and meet dying while you continue on forever.

  The others found they had to agree after the ensuing silence had cleared.

  Salient point, little sable, Aegentus said. Stefi, the Final Fieretsi, was lucky to have ya as a friend.

  Hey, how do you know Stefi?

  I could never forget her. You shall see.

  Eventually the distant island grew bigger and bigger, until at last the little wooden boat ran aground with a scrape upon a lonely beach of dark, volcanic sand.

  I believe this is your stop, Aegentus said, and the other ferrets tumbled over the side and into the shallow foam borne from the waves.

  Aren’t you coming too? Gemmie asked.

  The silver ferret, by now looking only a year out of kit-hood, shook his head. This is where we part ways. It’s been interesting.

  You’ll wait here for us?

  He laughed bitterly. For all eternity.

  The four ferrets thanked him and skittered up the beach. Gemmie hesitated and turned back. Even she didn’t know why, and for the rest of her days she remained unsure. Her cry stilled the others in the soft sand. What… happened? she squeaked and padded to where the boat and Aegentus had been a moment before.

  I don’t like this, Uespera said as the sea sighed mournfully. I don’t like this at all. Or this place.

  All that remained of his boat were some rotting timbers jutting out from the sand. And all that remained of the boat-ferret were several sun-bleached bones. A tiny skull, half-buried and huge-fanged, stared at the unchanging sky with an empty eye socket.

  It’s like a dozen lifetimes have passed, Maya said. But that’s impossible. Impossible!

  So is us being in a world that isn’t ours, Gemmie added.

  Utnali looked over the remains with a wary eye. Something strange is at work on this island. Eternal life, didn’t he say?

  Yes, Gemmie said. Remember, he said only a little bit rubbed off on him.

  So it just… wore off?

  Maybe. Or perhaps he was only meant to last long enough to get us to this island.

  Or maybe, Maya said, attempting a joke, the years just caught up with him.

  Gemmie shot him a dark look. Insensitive, but right, I guess. Let’s just go. I hope he rests easy here.

  The ferrets continued inland, leaving the stark beach and the long-dead Aegentus behind them. Cresting a dark dune capped with hardy tussocks, they came across the land of flowers so promised by the silver ferret.

  Before them spread a low field, carpeted with countless thousands of flowers of every color as if many ferrets had wandered through an artist’s paints and meandered across the countryside with little care for direction or time. The heady scent was almost overpowering, and with every gentle gust of wind loose petals sought the sky like butterflies, riding the breeze wherever it took them. But here the perpetual dimness of Crepusculum seemed to lighten. Every flower, they noticed, gave forth a faint, barely noticeable glow. And beyond that glow a faint vibration seemed to linger, the light given sound, like the dying echoes of a chime stuck in time and just beyond the range of hearing.

  They wandered through the field, though it was more like a forest to the small creatures. Any contact with the flowers unleashed more scent than they ever thought possible. It didn’t harm them. Rather, each ferret felt more alive with every breath, as if the fragrance dissolved their cares and ills. And their steps grew lighter so that they barely noticed the rising ground until they left the flowers and came to the top of a hill. It leveled out onto a round plateau, like the top of an island adrift in a sea of flowers had been shorn off to leave a table-like surface.

  So, the final two are here at last, a voice said, calm and yet somewhat dry. They turned to see a large ferret, his faded fur the color of sand, materialize from the flowers. He wore no mask. And you have guests. Fereganans, judging by the smell. Or lack thereof.

  Final two? Utnali echoed. He sniffed the new arrival suspiciously. Hey, you have no scent either!

  A common trait of Fereganans who find themselves in this world, Utnali, the sandy ferret said. You know that.

  How do you know my name?

  The other ferret let loose a laugh as dry as the nor’ west wind that had often parched the plains of his home of Nerjana in Acharn long ago. I know you all. Utnali, Uespera, and the two Fereganans, Gemmie and Maya. To make things fair, let me introduce myself. I am Pishti.

  Pishti, Utnali said. Of course! Aegentus brought us to you.

  Ah, Aegentus. How is the old bugger doing these days?

  Dead, Gemmie piped in with a somber voice.

  Oh. I suppose his time expired. He was a close friend. It was thanks to him I crossed the sea and found eternal life, and with it freedom from the fear of death.

  How about telling us why we’re here, Maya said. So we can live forever? Sorry, but you can take eternal life and shove it right up your-

  Pishti laughed again. If only I had your wisdom, young ferret, so very long ago. I would not have had to endure more loss and sadness than a normal life grants. And I would not have set out on a foolish errand to find a way to live forever. But come, there is something you must see.

  He walked with the slow, deliberate gait of an old ferret and led the new arrivals along a paved road towards the c
enter of the plateau. Weathered columns that gave off a faint blue glow, and taller than even a human or Furosan, loomed on either side at regular intervals. In places the five ferrets had to skirt around the shattered stone where some had lost their balance and collapsed across the paved road.

  Who built this road and those stone trees? Maya asked. Did you?

  No, they had been here a very long time when I arrived on these shores, and long abandoned into disrepair.

  So who built them? Maya pressed.

  Someone long dead from this world and all memory. That’s all I know.

  Pishti stopped leading them once the road ended and expanded into a vast, circular courtyard at the center of the hilltop.

  Look about.

  On the left and right sat two buildings the ferrets took to be small human or Furosan stone temples. The structures’ broad, peaked roofs were supported by seven columns along their length, three on their depth, and masses of twining ivy all around.

  Utnali, Uespera, Maya, and Gemmie wandered as if drawn to the structures, the Fereganans to the left, the Crepusculans to the right. A strange sight within greeted them as they ambled about the colonnades. Housed within either building were two ponds. Their shallow waters were unnaturally blue, almost the same shade as the midday sky of Feregana but as still as midnight. And, strangely, misshapen grassy islands rose from the waters. If the ferrets had ever chanced to look upon their respective worlds from a distance they would have recognized the shapes immediately. As it was, Pishti soon enlightened them.

  Your worlds, he said. Beautiful. Ornamental, even. Allow them to put things in perspective.

  For what seemed like the longest time they looked at the green islands set in a shallow sea. Some were large islands, others little more than grassy tufts.

  Now look, everybody. Gemmie and Maya, see a small island far to the right? And Utnali and Uespera, do you notice a like island on the western borders of your world?

  Yes, everyone agreed in unison.

  A strange island, that. The overlap of two very different worlds, one of dreams, one of awakening, but neither of true reality or unreality. It lies beyond the borders of time, adrift on the sea of impossibility and beneath the sky of in-between. Iferona. Also known as Arolha Se-Baht.

  Where we are? Gemmie asked.

  Exactly.

  Why did you show us these? Uespera asked.

  To show you the world. Uespera and Gemmie, Utnali and Maya, you already know you share dreams. But you also share some existence, partaking in the overlap of two worlds, one a dream of the other but just as “real”, just as tangible. In other words, you are one and the same, and yet not at all. Two distinct consciousnesses and souls, yet one chain of fate. And so it is with every ferret, Furosan, and human of Feregana and Crepusculum: a bond across worlds and time.

  Confusing… Gemmie murmured.

  Yes. But now is the time to break those bonds.

  The ferrets stepped down from the respective representations of their worlds and followed Pishti as he led them to another site atop the hill. There, out in the open and so exposed they wondered how they could have possibly missed them before, stood a line of life-sized marble statues stretching from left to right. There were humans, Furosans, and, even where there appeared to be a gap, the occasional ferret. And in one instance a group of three ferrets.

  Pishti led them to the left-most statue. It was a male ferret even smaller than Gemmie. Every detail stood out from the marble, from his ruffled fur to his bold, shining eyes.

  This is- Pishti started. Maya interrupted.

  We know who that is. Every ferret knows who that is. Keet. The First.

  Well identified, young one. The first in a long line. The First Fieretsi. And you already know the Final Fieretsi.

  Stefi?

  Yes.

  But… Maya trailed off, quite confused before picking up his thoughts, there were so many of them. As they progressed through the ages they looked to each statue, one a very young human girl, another a curious ferret even smaller than Keet had been and just a kit, and many in between. They came at last to the one they knew was waiting at the end. There stood a familiar sight, a rough staff in one hand and a bandanna wrapped like a blindfold about the eyes. And on either shoulder Gemmie and Maya saw… themselves?

  Yes, Pishti said. That is how I recognized you.

  Look at them all, Gemmie said in awe. What did they all do? I mean, what was their purpose. And where have they all gone now?

  Their purpose, the sandy ferret said, was all the same: to guide lost souls across the Rainbow Bridge and maintain the span between the lands of Here and Hereafter.

  What about Stefi? If she’s the last, does that mean we won’t have to worry about death anymore after her?

  Yes. But listen carefully to my words, young ferret. I said that was their purpose. Hers is very different.

  What’s that? Gemmie asked, eyes shining. Something exciting?

  No. She will Awaken every ferret in Feregana. At her hands the Dream will end. Unless she is stopped. Though even then there may be no hope.

  A collective gasp rose from the ferrets, while Maya swore. They knew what could happen if even one or two ferrets awoke from that world: the force was enough to wipe an airship and its crew from existence. But if every ferret did it?

  That would destroy everything! Maya shouted. We won’t let that happen, you… you… bastard! Send us back. Now! He leapt back and forth, tail puffed and teeth bared in a genuine dance of war.

  Pishti just laughed. You think I want it too? So bold and ready for action, you are.

  Hey, you can send us too, Utnali said. We don’t want to see this happen any more than they do!

  Oh, you and Uespera will leave shortly. But, looking back at this long line, I hope you have learnt something.

  Yeah. Stefi needs our help, Maya muttered.

  Not that. All flowers must wilt and die. All things must end. Even our dreams. She is the last in the long line who kept Feregana alive. But now it seems it’s simply that world’s time to end.

  We won’t let that happen, Gemmie said, her soft voice giving way to righteous anger. We love her! We’ll go back. We’ll stop her from doing whatever it is. She thinks she’s there to save the world. Think how bad she’ll feel when she destroys it!

  Pishti said no more and walked away from the lifelike statues, the line of which began with a wide-eyed Keet and ended in an unseeing Stefi. Gemmie and Maya hesitated to follow.

  We can’t do anything, Gemmie said and lay down flat, her head between her paws, drained after her little tirade. I just want to go home now.

  So do I. Maya licked Gemmie comfortingly, just behind the ear where she liked it. She relaxed, even if only a little.

  Even if we… stop… her, Maya continued, reluctant to say “kill”, what about the souls? After her there’ll be no more Fieretsi to help them across the bridge. Either way, we lose.

  Let them find their own way, she said bitterly. I don’t care about them! I only care about my Stefi.

  They caught up with Pishti further along the road that lead across the hilltop. He, Uespera, and Utnali sat before a series of seven wooden shrines arranged in a circle, five of which contained a sleeping ferret coiled tightly upon itself.

  As I was telling the Crepusculans, Pishti said, here sleep the only other ferrets to have made it to Iferona. You might be familiar with them.

  Although each shrine was the same, a small structure with a simple peaked roof, they had some very strange differences. Flames danced upon one, while a second sat serenely in a small pond as ice crystals sparkled like frozen stars on its roof. Another was overgrown with all manner of flowers and vegetation, and its neighbor crackled with blue and gold sparks that looked like fireworks. The remaining occupied one sat in lonely silence as a weak breeze stirred the grass about it. The final two were empty.

  Raphanos, Shizai, Makora, Guratzu, Fairun, Pishti said. Feregana’s elementals of Fire, Water, Earth, Li
ghtning, and Wind.

  And who are the missing ones? Gemmie asked.

  Utnali and Uespera.

  Upon hearing their names, the two started, looked about, and fell into silent shock.

  Yes, you are the final two. These five all found this place a long time ago, before I came here, and now lie in eternal sleep to watch over the Dream, to give it form. Yet two have been missing. I don’t know where you two got to, but you certainly took your time. The last elementals: Dawn and Twilight.

  B-b-but… Uespera stammered, does that mean we have to go to sleep forever?

  Yes, as far as I know. But maybe, just maybe, with Feregana balanced by all seven there is a small hope. I just do not know. The others have been here for an eternity; myself for far too long. Even then I know next to nothing. If you could find whoever built this place then maybe you’ll find your answers. All I know for sure is that Uespera and Utnali are needed.

  Needed why, exactly? Utnali said.

  That is impossible to say. Strange forces are at work. One wishes to preserve the Dream, the other to end it. Follow what seems most right, even if the destination is difficult to face.

  All right, Uespera and Utnali said simultaneously. They looked at each other. Really looked for what seemed like the longest time. No words were needed. They knew. They were needed in a world where all the stars in the sky wheeled in perpetual motion, where the humans, Furosans, and Otsukuné walked.

  Hey, you two, Utnali said to Gemmie and Maya. We’ll see you in the Dream.

  And just like that, the two each sought an empty shrine side by side, curled up, and entered a sleep from which they knew they’d never awaken.

  No, Maya said, we’ll see you in our Dream.

  Then a soft glow emanated from Utnali’s shrine, a gentle light like the first rays of the sun. A deep light, a mixture of sunshine and starlight, radiated from Uespera’s.

  Now we wait and see, Pishti said quietly. It is all we can do.