Journey [Quick Story]

[Dogberry]

The tea tasted like nothing Dogberry had ever tasted before. Medicinal. Sickening. It was all he could do to keep it all down. He had been advised to drink it on an empty stomach. That anything he ate would come back up. Now he knew why. Sitting, eyes closed, he sat on the beach of the Bloodshore meditating. Focus on breathing. Empty your mind. Ignore even the sound of the waves, and for once in your life, do not fear the silence. An hour passes, and he took another cup of the horrible tea. He could feel something now. A presence building up like water behind a dam. Another hour of meditation, another cup of tea, and the dam broke.

 

The night itself grew darker, but the lights, the lights made themselves so much brighter. A song resonated from the stars, the bioluminescent coral, even the lighthouse in the distance sang its own morose song. The song they made played out in harmony, endless and beautiful. Tears welled up in Dogberry's eyes. Had they always done this? He felt compelled to sing as well, and light came from his mouth. His song was different from the rest, but it fit in naturally with the others. The kind of polyphony you get when several bands play different songs in the same key.

 

The sea seemed so inviting. He stood, tucked his surf board under his shoulder, and waded into the tide. Every movement he made changed the music in some small, almost imperceptible way. He swam deeper, found a wave, and stood on his board. There was no need to keep balance. He was gliding, slowly and steadily as a galleon into Moraby Bay, to destinations unknown and wonderful. Llymlaen will guide you, trust the ocean. Let it take you where it may. Dogberry looked down, and noticed the water was full of sharks. Their fins encircled him, lurking. So many sharks, for a moment he was convinced he was, in fact riding a wave of writhing, snapping sharks. He panicked. Lost his balance. Fell in. The sharks dispersed.

 

Dogberry laughed as his head breached the water, and the laughter, too, made a light and a song of its own.. The sharks were cowards. They had no light or song of their own. They were inconsequential. He collected his board and rode again for hours with the same gliding sensation and the same trust for the ocean. Days later it would occur to Dogberry that he had the bruises and scrapes to prove that he had in fact wiped out many times over the course of several hours, but he experienced none of that now. Only one long ride.

 

Finally he heard a song in the sky. Dalamud. He looked up and tried to sing to it, but his voice went silent. It was being drowned out by Dalamud's song. Soon the stars, the campfire, the coral, even the lighthouse and ocean itself, had no song left. Only Dalamud, its low bass tone nothing like anyone had ever heard before. It grew. It grew more. It exploded. Dogberry felt a wave overtake him. Silence. Water. And there he saw the bodies of serpents surrounding him. Several giant monsters, or maybe one? Long bodied, blue, and scaly constricted around him, and he couldn't breath. He struggled, but the bodies thrashed him around and wouldn't let go. Then he saw the face, and was fixed on it. Leviathan.

 

Leviathan sang a song to him, and seemed to wait for a reply. He didn't want to sing. He knew he would drown. Leviathan sang again, and waited for a response. He refused, and felt the coils around his body grow tighter. He instinctively shouted in pain, but the song came out instead of his cries. Leviathan sang in harmony, every note feeling like an age. He let go, and Dogberry found himself crawling toward the shore, the songs were there, but fading out now. His nose was running, he was coughing and heaving, and weeping openly until finally he vomited on the sands. The music stopped, but Leviathan remained, staring at Dogberry. He looked up to meet the serpent's gaze.

 

"Why did you not want to sing?" Leviathan asked.

 

"I thought I would drown if I did," Dogberry replied.

 

"Stupid man," Leviathan said. "You cannot drown because you are already dead."

 

Dogberry felt something within him open.