Dreaming of Dragons

Dreaming of Dragons
Date of Scene:	28 March 2014
Location:	Golmore Jungle
Synopsis:	Avira dreams of...
Thanks to:	Oathkeeper (Aka: Shinryu)
Cast of Characters:	Avira, Shinryu

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Shinryu has posed:
As Avira opens her eyes after her ordeals in Gummispace, amidst the Golmore jungle, she's welcomed by the sounds of an active jungle. Birds making their bird-calls in the spring of World of Ruin, and beasts hissing and growling somewhere far off.

It seems like any ol' morning here. Except for one thing.

Those are the only sounds she's hearing. There's no sounds of people working around her. No gummiships taking off. No hammers pounding or saws at work. No nothing. There's not even anyone who is checking in on her. It's just her and the animals around her.

Avira has posed:
The last thing Avira remembered before hearing that voice in her head was the cold. The horrible, oppressive, unrelenting cold held her in its grip for what felt like forever.

She awakes gradually, the memory of what had happened to her coming through slowly. When she comprehends what had happened, she doesn't move for a spell, a sad frown on her face. Well she was alive, cold, but alive. But...in the middle of the jungle?

Now she sits up. Did she fall to the earth from gummispace!?

Shinryu has posed:
Seeing as she isn't... dead... it's a good assumption that she either came here through a portal, or by ship. But there's still nobody around. And the sounds in the jungle are starting to dim. Did her hearing get affected?

Avira has posed:
"Hello?" Avira calls out, standing shakily. Funny, she expected to be hurting more after all of that. More importantly, she expected someone from the safety team to pick her up out of space and at least take her back to camp.

"WHERE IS EVERYONE?" she calls out, noticing the sounds around her fading. She sticks a finger in one of her ears.

Shinryu has posed:
When her finger dips into her ear, the hearing on that side fades as she'd expect. And removing it obviously brings it back. But the noise out there continues to fade. Slowly but surely. As if someone was turning down the volume on the world. That's when she'll notice something. Two enormous red moons in the skies. Moons with enormous yellow slits down their bodies. 'Looking' down upon her.

Avira has posed:
Strange. Avira shakes her head, as if to remove water, but still nothing. Her hearing was fading.

Over the next few seconds, she receives the distinct impression of being watched. She looks frantically around her before eventually turning her head skywards. Her eyes widen. THOSE WERE NO MOONS!

Gigantic eyes like those were also familiar to her in a way she did not enjoy. Right away, Avira looks for cover. It's a jungle, she should find it, right?

Shinryu has posed:
Oh, there's cover alright. But those moons are still gazing down upon her. She can distinctly tell that they're following her. Within a dream, vision doesn't stop things from seeing you. Somehow... those 'moons' can still see her. Glowering with anger; the beast from outside of the world's faint barrier between it and the Gummispace.

"You can run... but you can't hide." The voice that had caused Maira to shake in fear last day galms throughout the world. Birds fly up, but they don't make any sound as they do.

Avira has posed:
Avira finds cover and waits. The feeling of being watched does not recede and Shinryu speaks to her. Unable to help herself, she shudders.

"What do you want?" she calls out to the sky. "My Heart? You can't have it!" Why wasn't it coming closer? Maybe it couldn't? It would have gotten her by now if it could, Avira realizes.

Shinryu has posed:
What follows is laughter. The moons back off, indeed revealing to be ShinRyu's eyes. The beast opens its maw, showing its enormous teeth. "I don't want your pitiful tiny heart! I wish but for one thing. To restore the nature of this realm! To let this pitiful world slip to darkness where it belongs." But she'd stood in his way.

What's more. She'd hurt him now.

"All things that stand in the way... will be devoured." As his maw opens entirely, she starts hearing it. Another track. The wailing souls of the people she knows. The cries of people like Maira and Mercade, Skoll and Angantyr - people she'd never thought she'd ever hear crying out like that.

Avira has posed:
"Well I cannot and will not give that to you either!" Avira calls out defiantly, unsure why she's being harassed by the giant dragon. She wasn't conscious during the aftermath of the ice comet. This could very well be for standing up to the dragon earlier, right?

Her words trail off as that enormous maw gapes at her and she starts hearing people she knows. Cringing, she clamps her hands over her ears, snarling at herself to not believe the voices. It wasn't them. They couldn't have been eaten by this thing!

"That's all? You want to eat everything!?"

Shinryu has posed:
"Everything began in darkness. So I will return everything to darkness!" Shinryu answers her. "Such is the natural order!" Though - what would a creature of Chaos know of the 'natural order'. This beast is a force of nature. It isn't like Garland.

"But I will give you this. You are the first mortal to ever truly wound me. So you have my attention now..."

"I hope you are prepared for what that means." The cries of anguish continue, but Shinryu has begun to just talk into her mind. She can't stop herself from hearing him. Not within this dream.

Avira has posed:
That was curious indeed. This a piece of Chaos? It was nothing at all like Garland. Completely different behavior-more direct, more...animalistic? Perhaps that is a function of the shell he chooses to portray himself?

These questions are driven deep into the back of her mind as Shinryu's voice booms through her. "Wound you? How did I-" she trails off, the implications of his words suddenly falling into place. The magic she used...the water crystal. It /hurt/ him.

Avira takes the moment to smile, though that smile quickly disappears as nothing seems to block out the screams of her friends and loved ones. "Depends on what that means? Does this mean you'll hunt me at every turn and try to eat me?"

Shinryu has posed:
The beast beyond the world's edge shows an enormous toothy grin, silencing the souls' cries. "You'll find out." Is all the beast answers her, as darkness begins to approach form all around her. Like deep water that starts to lap at Avira's feet - slowly trying to swallow her. "If you can even survive on that doomed world."

The dark sea that is just pouring up from beneath her feet. Threatening to devour her before Shinryu even can.

And then the dream comes to an end, as the massive form of Shinryu opens its maw one last time and literally devours the world in one slow swallowing chomp, drawing her to the dead souls' screams... and a rough awakening.

Avira has posed:
"Then...then be prepared to be amazed! Forces of nature have been shaping and tormenting me for well over a year now!" Avira calls back defiantly, her hands still uselessly clamped over her ears, as if it would somehow stop the screaming. Then the darkness starts to rise about her and her heart catches in her throat.

Not again!

She cries out as the world is swallowed and her with it, a sensation she's actually experienced multiple times before. Then, much to her surprise and relief..

...she awakens. She awakens to a world of freezing and pain but it is so much better than being swallowed by Shinryu.