Setting sail 9- In Your Dreams Wilkes

The nap did indeed carry them into the late evening. He hadn’t meant for them to wear each other out so much. In hindsight after a full spar it made sense that they’d be all tuckered out. Wilkes woke up with Beatrice still snoring on his chest. For once he had a nice, peaceful, dreamless sleep. He could feel the call of nature on the horizon, but with her still sleeping it’d prove tricky to get up without waking her. Added to the fact that she was a light sleeper. Since it wasn’t an immediately pressing situation, he just let her rest there with his arm around her. Daisy had pushed the bedroom door open at some point and was curled up at the foot of the bed. A soft smile on his face as he nudged her with his big toe. The hound woke and trotted up to his face. Careful steps had her avoid waking Beatrice. She lapped at his face a few times before curling up beneath Wilkes’s other arm. He exhaled, enjoying the warmth and company during a relatively lazy day. His ever active mind finally relaxed in full.

There was no telling how long the trio really laid there. His mind had wandered completely. Beyond all things in his immediate life, but not quite to scheming. It was enough to lull himself back into dreaming. Once again, he stood in the field of grain. It wasn’t where he had accidentally run into that sailor god. No, it was where the cloud haired god that called him son had thrown him from. Where he saw a glimpse of his mother on a distant field. This time, it would be different. He knew it would. He walked slowly, barely more than a shuffle as his feet tread across the warm earth. It felt sunbaked almost, but was still rich and moist in the way good soil always was. Similar enough to the last time he had been to the Mainland. The same hills loomed over him like giants in the strange starry night he found himself in. No music hung in the air this time. He pressed onward, wading through the grains. Passing the hill that had been his own, the broken down Viola he had learned to play by intuition alone. He sat atop it now, the instrument on the wayside and his back to the tree.

The distant horizon seemed to stare back. The hill with the piano was alone now. The one that had the singer… his mother, was gone. Leveled and turned into more land to grow the wheat. The pit of anger deep in his stomach stirred at that. That what was apparently the memory of his mother, in whatever this place was at least, was now gone. Reduced to match the ever present sameness. His fists clenched, a wind whipped across the serene setting. It was entirely silent except for the whistle of the gust. That was what bothered him this time. The silence was deafening.

“Well Father, I’m here again but it seems I missed you. What a cheap trick. Kicking me out the first time and stranding me here the second.” He spoke to the empty field. A long low note came from the direction he believed to be south. Some kind of reed instrument. Wilkes rose slowly, facing the origin of the lone instrument. The wheat field shook and the stalks of grain rattled intensely. A small hill rose up above the unreaped harvest. Wilkes leaned against his tree and observed while holding his breath.

The new hill was larger than his own, but still dwarfed by the one his father had played on. The reed continued in its solo, the tune held some kind of remorse. The hill had no tree, only its performer. A woman from what he could tell, hair as deep a blue as the sea. It fell to a medium length, stopping an inch or two above her shoulders. Her skin shimmered faintly like bubbling sea foam. A real aquatic look. Wilkes had to squint to make out more of her. While still playing she turned to stare at him directly. A crooked smile on her face, off center just as he had seen his own in his reflection before. A pang of familiarity struck him. She resumed playing her instrument, some kind of long pipe with a metal mouthpiece that curved towards her mouth. Her fingers danced over multiple buttons made of the same metal to create different notes.

“It’s called a bassoon Wilkes.” Her voice carried across the gap. It was something between raspy and gurgling. Like she had salt water filling her lungs. “You’ll come to love it when you return to Osan… er the mainlands as you know them.”

“Do I know ye?” He called back across the gap, she chuckled slightly at that shaking her head.

“Well, not traditionally. Not by name or face. But you know me well enough.” Whatever she was clearly loved to give riddles. He stroked his whiskers and nodded firmly. She giggled as he grumbled to himself about it. “Your accent is funnier than I remember it being, little sailor.”

“Well if yer gonna play, mind if I make it a duet?”

“I only began to play so you would, Wilkes.”

He picked up the viola and its bow. A languid stroke found it still tuned properly from the last time he played it. The bassoon let out a melody that was easy enough for him to follow after a few repetitions. The stars shone down here, as if observing them with baited breath. The grain stood still like an audience enraptured. Flashes of memory came across his mind as they performed to the empty fields. Chasing small crabs across the beach while his mother cooked dinner. Being brave enough to wander into the forest when he only stood knee tall because some of the older kids dared him that he and Erik couldn’t do it. When he was just twelve and caught a fish for the first time casting his rod off the dock. The beauty of Thellin unfurled before him in his mind. Something shimmered at the edge of his vision and he looked up. His memories were being depicted like moving paintings in the night sky. Swirls of color created by star dust shaped the scenes as his memories played on.

The music took a melancholy swing, and there he was in the central square of Thellin again. Kneeling and cradling his mother. The bow dropped from his hand, thumping against the grass of his lonely hill. The woman stopped playing and stared at him now. His eyes were glued to the recreation of his mother. The memory was recreated perfectly there, on a scale too large to be ignored. Exactly how he had blocked it out.

Her black hair had always been wavy and well kept, but now it was slick with blood and clumped against her head in some places. The delicate features of her face smeared with grime from his hands and the street. A deep gash on her neck had been her undoing. He smacked himself and tried to force a happier memory of her to come up. Of any of the times she had cared for him with all the love a mother could give. To remember any of the times she sang to him. To remember when she still drew breath. All that came was the stardust scattering. Like bits of ash after a large bonfire it rained down onto the field. Nothing burst into flames, nothing ignited with all the heat of his anger. No, those burning coals remained entirely within now.

“I would like to dream peacefully again.” Wilkes admitted to the stranger. “Ever since I became a sailor, I haven’t had a singular dream worth repeating. No offense to you, but would you please just leave me be? All of you, whatever you are, gods or otherwise. Just leave me alone.”

“Wilkes… I’m sorry. I can leave you in peace. I cannot promise for the others. I know Rael will want to speak with you sooner rather than later, and he can be difficult.” Her voice was soft now, losing the gurgling quality. It was more like the gentle streaming of water through the creek.

“I don’t know who that is. I don’t know who you are. I don’t know many gods and I don’t want to know many gods. Why is that so difficult?” He asked her, leaning against his tree for support as his knees grew weak. She looked back at him with pity.

“You will come to know more gods than mortals. Your life is simply burdened that way.” She seemed genuinely sad to see him this way. The gap between the hills began to shrink slowly but surely. He sank to the base of his tree. Curling up into a ball. “Would you mind if I hug you?”

He stared up at her confused. This random goddess in his dream had to deliver the message that he was uniquely burdened to be in their proximity and then asked to hug him? Why would she want to hug him? By and large he only heard cautionary tales from angering the gods, or how to best avoid displeasing them. To have one of that ilk offer to console him like this was ultimately too strange to be without ulterior motives. He scooted around the base of his tree, putting an extra bit of distance. She sighed and sat at the base of the tree too. She was entirely nude he could tell now, but where any sort of genitalia was supposed to be it was entirely smooth. Breast-like shapes without nipples defined her chest. She twiddled her thumbs now, staring at the sky while he stared at the ground after inspecting her.

“You know, I used to be like you. Mortal I mean. Before there was a sea. Just a bunch of rivers and small lakes. It was my big job to get the waters to merge, but I ended up drowning in the process. That’s when dad scooped up my soul and merged it with the concept of water. Well I call him dad, but he wasn’t my original father, just the one who made me a goddess.” She spoke fondly of it. “I’m telling you that because my second dad is your dad.”

Wilkes turned to face her now. The crooked grin on her face growing wider. Now it made sense why it was familiar. He had an older sister it seemed. One with an aquatic leaning too.

“... So you healed me in the creek?” He asked quietly. She shook her head in response.

“You did that all on your own. Should you choose to, you’ll be one power house of a god one day.”

“Is that supposed to make me feel better about how heavy it all feels?”

“No, but I at least wanted you to know you’re strong, and you’re not alone.”

“Can I at least know your name?” He asked her

“You already know one of them.” She said with a hint of teasing before clearing her throat. In what seemed to be an intentionally overdramatic display she rose and then did a small curtsy. “I am the sea. I am the tide. I am your sister. I am Sayila, where do you think the term Sailor came from?”

“Why don’t you have any churches on the islands then?” He tried to pry more information from her, but before she could speak, their father’s hill seemed to loom even higher. The stars were blotted out in a sweeping wave of inky darkness.

“Sayila… leave.” A lone voice boomed. It rattled the entire world around them, and the dirt began to swallow his sister. She looked at him and gave a shrug. By the time the dirt had come up to her knees he was already lunging for her. He wrapped his arms around her as tightly as he could. However with a body made of water he ended up moving clean through her and she laughed at that. It was a loud sound somewhere between throwing water from a bucket and an actual laugh. She ruffled his hair playfully, and it seemed that physical touch only went one way.

Standing alone there now, he stared at the empty abyss that yawned above him. The black clouds rolled away, coalescing into a humanoid form on the other hill. No, now it seemed to be a mountain in comparison. Stretching until the sky barely had to stretch to reach it. His father peered down at him from the side. The golden bands in his hair glinting faintly.

“If you keep coming here while you’re dreaming you’ll learn more than you need to know. Must you be troublesome through and through son?” The god asked him.

“Trust me, if I knew how to dream without someone pulling me here I would. Guessing it’s better for me to wake up without trampling any of your precious grain fields father?” Wilkes ultimately answered a question with a question and folded his arms across his chest.

“Just wake up already.” His father responded coldly, a snap of the god’s fingers had Wilkes’s eyes open to his thatched roof shack. Beatrice was still snoring on his chest. The light of the setting sun streamed in. He’d barely even slept, yet he had another overwhelming weight of knowledge thrust on him. It seemed that now there really was no chance to run from it. Not even when dreaming.

With a yawn, followed by a smacking of her lips, Beatrice announced she was now awake. Seemingly refreshed from having taken her little nap. She let her fingers dance across his chest, playing with the hair that grew there. Slowly the huntress slinked up his body and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. He almost kissed her in full, but the memory of his cum in her mouth ruined the idea where it started. Instead he stroked her back, letting his finger glide along the ridge of her spine. The divot was one of his favorite places to trace on her body in a non sexual manner anyway.

“Ye still owe me boar stew for dinner.” Wilkes teased her, she groaned and slowly rose above him. Her hair fell like a curtain around him, obscuring his room from sight.

“And here I thought we’d have a good bit of cuddling first.” Beatrice pouted for a moment

“ Ye slept through the cuddles, see even Daisy came for cuddles.” He tilted his head in a quick nod towards the dog that was now snoring near his ribcage.

“I demand more cuddles.”

“After dinner.”

“Fine, fine.”