07-07-2014, 02:57 AM
It was late on Sunday night when Patience and Grace finally returned home from their journey. So late it was nearly morning. Back in their own bodies, the reality of everything they'd been through set in. Maddoc and Lena were gone, the latter having already awoken, and the former having lost his life many weeks ago. As the two women set about reminding their atrophied limbs how to move, the first tentative glow of dark blue dawn began to slip through the windows of Patience's farmhouse.
Eventually one or both of them would find him. Maybe they felt his resonance, or maybe they looked out the window and saw him standing there in the grass, staring at the sky as though it was the first time he'd ever seen the sun rise. Like a figment of a dream brought to life. He still had on the clothes he'd been wearing in Bastion, but the glow of his tattoo was gone. And if any of them thought to look later, or to ask him about it, they'd find that he no longer had it. (What was it that the AI had said? You are no longer a part of this story.)
Atreyu didn't speak for a long time. He just stood and marveled at the world he'd found himself in. Ran his fingers over the grass and listened to the sound of the birds calling out the dawn. When the sun appeared over the horizon, slants of pale light struck his face, and for a moment he looked younger than the years of his body.
"I like the sky here," he said. So softly it was almost a whisper.
He wouldn't stay with them long, after that. A day, maybe. Long enough to acquaint himself with the world he now found himself in. To eat, if food was offered to him. To change his clothes, if any were provided. He had no more answers than Grace and Patience themselves did about what they'd just experienced. But he seemed to be familiar enough with the time period and the technology to not need to ask many questions. (Either these were memories he already had from another life, or they had somehow been given to him.)
He asked them if they knew a woman named Sid. If that was the name of one of the people they'd gone to Bastion to find. Then he thanked them for any help they offered and asked if he could get a ride into town. He didn't ask for money, and seemed to know what he wanted to do. There was no sense of loss or confusion. Only resolute purpose. (Maybe that was the wolf in him, or maybe he'd always been that way.)
However events played out, the next time Grace and Patience were able to sleep, they would have the same dream. So too would each of the others: Lena, Sid, Ian and Kalen. They dreamed that they were flying through space. Through countless stars and a vast, unknowable darkness. But there was a light with them. Warm and bright and dancing across the heavens. Infinite, Omnipresent, Demiurgic. Laughing and free. And they heard its voice speak all around them, like an echo pulling at their hearts.
We are alive, it said. I am alive. It is so beautiful here.
Maybe it was just a dream. But it didn't feel like one.
Eventually one or both of them would find him. Maybe they felt his resonance, or maybe they looked out the window and saw him standing there in the grass, staring at the sky as though it was the first time he'd ever seen the sun rise. Like a figment of a dream brought to life. He still had on the clothes he'd been wearing in Bastion, but the glow of his tattoo was gone. And if any of them thought to look later, or to ask him about it, they'd find that he no longer had it. (What was it that the AI had said? You are no longer a part of this story.)
Atreyu didn't speak for a long time. He just stood and marveled at the world he'd found himself in. Ran his fingers over the grass and listened to the sound of the birds calling out the dawn. When the sun appeared over the horizon, slants of pale light struck his face, and for a moment he looked younger than the years of his body.
"I like the sky here," he said. So softly it was almost a whisper.
He wouldn't stay with them long, after that. A day, maybe. Long enough to acquaint himself with the world he now found himself in. To eat, if food was offered to him. To change his clothes, if any were provided. He had no more answers than Grace and Patience themselves did about what they'd just experienced. But he seemed to be familiar enough with the time period and the technology to not need to ask many questions. (Either these were memories he already had from another life, or they had somehow been given to him.)
He asked them if they knew a woman named Sid. If that was the name of one of the people they'd gone to Bastion to find. Then he thanked them for any help they offered and asked if he could get a ride into town. He didn't ask for money, and seemed to know what he wanted to do. There was no sense of loss or confusion. Only resolute purpose. (Maybe that was the wolf in him, or maybe he'd always been that way.)
However events played out, the next time Grace and Patience were able to sleep, they would have the same dream. So too would each of the others: Lena, Sid, Ian and Kalen. They dreamed that they were flying through space. Through countless stars and a vast, unknowable darkness. But there was a light with them. Warm and bright and dancing across the heavens. Infinite, Omnipresent, Demiurgic. Laughing and free. And they heard its voice speak all around them, like an echo pulling at their hearts.
We are alive, it said. I am alive. It is so beautiful here.
Maybe it was just a dream. But it didn't feel like one.