Book 1 – Prologue

Prologue

“The Dreamer”

 

 

He was lying upon the sand, the waves of the ocean lightly brushing his side, looking straight up at the bright blue sky. Here, the light seemed strange; colours seemed to blur together at the edge of his vision, as if the sky was melting into the sea, into the shore.
He was alone here, he knew it, this was his world, a world where the wet sand upon his body didn’t irritate him as it would have otherwise, where the scent of the sea was pleasant, clean, and the cool breeze felt somehow comforting.
As he stared up at the sky, the light began to grow dimmer, ever so slightly, and clouds appeared in his vision, the bright blue fading into soft grey. The wind picked up a little, and with it, a soft sound was carried into his ears.
He raised his head now, looking out to sea. Softly, barely audible on the waves of the wind, there was a voice, calling sweetly. Scanning the horizon, he saw nothing other than calm water and cloudy sky, but something was out there, calling to him, lifting him out of his reverie.
There was someone there, across the water, calling out to him. There was a familiarity to the sound of the voice, as if he’d heard it before, as if he knew to whom it belonged. Yet now he couldn’t bring them to mind. He needed to get across somehow, to find the owner of this voice. But this sea, though calm, was impassable, a great unbridgeable chasm between his temporary paradise and the infinite beyond, from which this voice had surely travelled, seeking him out.
Looking out, he felt he could just glimpse a figure on the horizon, skating about at the peripheries of his vision, evading his focus.
A memory faded in…
He was a young boy again, dressed all in black, standing in the midst of a group of similarly dressed children in the centre of a cavernous hall, dimly lit with flickering candle light, starlight trickling down from above. Names were being called, and he was waiting, waiting for his turn. His heart was beating a little faster now, though he knew he wasn’t frightened. He was merely very aware of the importance of this moment.
A name was called, still not his, but the child right next to him began to walk forward, away from the group, towards the gaping mouth of a large, black pointed hat. Turning around to face the group, he saw a girl with long, reddish, brown hair, pale skin, and the brightest green eyes he’d ever beheld. As she disappeared into the hat, he noted the fear on her face, she was frightened, she was lonely, she was sad. The hat, swelling to ridiculous size, simply swallowed her, taking her away from him for good…
Back on the shoreline, the elusive figure slowly faded away, her voice ringing in his ears, till he no longer knew if he was still hearing it, or merely remembering it. He stepped forward. The water was warmer than it should have been, and the sand seemed to melt beneath his feet. He took another step, further into the sea, his feet were now beneath the surface entirely. This wouldn’t do, he’d never make it swimming. He’d have to learn how to walk on the surface of the water, that way he could traverse the surface of the ocean until he found her again, and find her he must. She was where he needed to be, she needed him with her and he needed to be with her. She had the answers, the answers to everything, she could tell him where he’d been and why, what the world was and why, who he was and why.
Confusion was swirling around in his head now, he was losing his focus, the present moment was sinking into his frustration like his feet into the sand. He dropped to his knees, the water splashing up at him. The tide was coming in now, the wind had picked up some more and the waves were getting larger, each one washing over his knees and bringing with it a cascade of sand, thicker and denser each time, sliding over his thighs, becoming thicker still, coarser, scaly. He looked down in alarm as snakes of sand slithered over him, coiling about his knees and behind him, wrapping him up and pulling him down and just as he began to flail his arms in panic a loud, powerful screech split his ears.
His head snapped up towards the sky right above him and his eyes widened in reverent awe at the sight they beheld. A large, majestic golden eagle swooped down above his head. The waves of the ocean seemed to ebb away at the arrival of this new messenger, the sand snakes melted away, the sun came out from behind the clouds, bathing him in light, and he fell back down onto the soft sand as the eagle flew in towards the land.
Clambering to his feet he turned away from the sea and looked back, up at where the bird had flown. Before him now was dense, thick forest and rising above it, at the centre of whatever island he was on, a large rocky mountain, to the peak of which the eagle had flown. He heard it screech again, as if calling to him, beckoning him onwards and upwards.

 

The sand beneath his feet was now dry and hot. The sun was out in full force, all the clouds had disappeared and he felt the back of his neck beginning to burn. Necessity drove him on, up the beach and into the shade of the trees.
He now found himself in a tropical forest, the tall trees creating a canopy far above him, through which the light of the sun became a soft, greenish glow that seemed to permeate everywhere. A path lay before him, leading onward towards the centre of the island. On either side of him, the forest concealed all manner of mysterious, mythical creatures, the source of the myriad sounds he could now hear.
As he looked about him, a loud hiss drew his attention to the pathway ahead, where he beheld a large serpent slithering away from him up the path. Remembering the eagle up the mountain, and fearing the burning heat of the sun on the beach, he took his first step forwards, along the path, in pursuit of the long, green serpent.
While he kept to the centre of the path, the serpent ahead of him took a more erratic route, darting quickly from one side of the path to the other, sometimes disappearing briefly into the trees before emerging again later at varying heights, its long body coiled around branches and tree trunks. Sometimes it seemed as though the serpent knew he was following, knew that he had chosen it to be his guide through this exotic wood, for every now and then, when some new sound from the depths of the trees would draw his attention away from the path, a loud hiss from the serpent would recall his focus, and on he went.
Deeper and deeper he went into the forest, and darker and darker it became, the green light seemed almost to be condensing around him, thickening and deepening, enclosing him in a humid embrace. He looked up at the canopy above him and beheld the sunlight filtering through, little pinpricks of light, as if he was looking at the stars in the night sky.
As he looked ahead once again he noticed, with alarm, that the serpent had vanished from his sight. He looked about him in both directions, scrutinising the darkness between the trees for any flash of green, but to no avail. He had reached a fork in the path and had no idea which way the serpent had gone. The darkness seemed to have intensified, the sounds of the forest had died away to almost nothing and then, from out of the depths, he heard a soft low rumble up ahead of him. Rooted to the spot, he looked ahead to see two little points of light coming towards him from the right hand path.
Paralysed with fear, he could only watch as the beast came towards him, purring as it went. Its black shape slowly came into the dim light of the pathway, the light revealing the spotted patterns of its skin. The leopard stopped right in front of him, gazing at him intently, as if daring him to fight or to fly. But he could do neither, fear having taken away his ability to move. The leopard’s purring was now intensifying, rising up almost to a growl, and just as the beast began to bear its fangs, dripping in anticipation, the atmosphere was slashed by a loud hiss from above.
Both he and the leopard snapped up their heads towards the noise. His body sagged with relief as he saw the serpent, lowering itself from some upper branches, hissing loudly at the beast, its tongue flicking in and out. With one swift movement, the leopard turned and fled back up the right hand path from which it had come. The serpent lowered itself to the ground and continued on, down the left path.
Uneasiness soon returned however as the darkness of the left hand path seemed to bring with it another low rumbling sound bringing both him and the serpent to a standstill to listen. But the rumble had stopped and suddenly, quick as a flash, the serpent dashed off at great speed. As his guide disappeared he tried to cry out in alarm, but his voice caught in his throat. The rumble had returned, louder and much closer than before, now accompanied by hot, moist breath hitting his back.
Slowly, he turned around and came face to face with an enormous lion, as tall as he was, teeth bared and purr slowly becoming a growl. He tried to run, but tripped over his feet as he spun around, crashing to the ground at the base of a large tree. Thinking he was done for, the lion baring down upon him, he braced himself for violent death, only to have the moment once again shattered, this time by a loud howl from his right.
He looked up to see a huge wolf launch out of the trees into the clearing, heading straight for the lion. The lion was ready, turning quickly to face the wolf, roaring loudly. They met head on with an almighty clash and began to tear at each other with teeth and claws. He could only watch with a mixture of terror and fascination.
As the beasts continued to attack one another, he thought he heard a loud screech in the distance, far above him, though it was hard to hear over the roaring and the howling of the lion and the wolf. What he certainly did hear, however, was a sudden hiss in his ear as the serpent reappeared by his side.
Satisfied that the two beasts were preoccupied with each other, he clambered to his feet and quietly left the clearing through a passage to the left which he certainly wouldn’t have seen had it not been for the serpent darting off in that direction.
He realised now that he must be in the thickest, densest part of the forest. This latest passage was the darkest yet, he could barely see anything at all and was relying solely on the sound of the serpent slithering along the ground to guide him onwards. Eventually he was forced to slow down to a very slow pace, holding his arms out in front of him to feel for low branches and other obstacles. The darkness only intensified.

 

 

His hands made contact with something cold and hard. Stopping, he began to touch more of the object in front of him, discovering it to be some kind of stone wall. As he continued to grope at the wall, his hands found a large entry way in the wall, large enough for him to pass through.
Stepping through the entry way he found himself in a cavernous stone hall with a huge pool of water in the centre. Night had fallen, evidenced by the bright moonlight that filled the hall from above. There was no ceiling, just the very high stone wall encircling the pool. As he looked up at the moon, a cold breeze seemed to surround him and he began to shiver.
Looking ahead at the pool, he saw his serpent guide slithering onwards towards it. As he wandered how the serpent intended to cross the water, his eyes widened as the serpent simply dived right in with a soft splash, disappearing from view.
He rushed forward to the edge of the pool. Kneeling down, he gazed into the water, hoping to see the serpent somehow swimming across. Instead all he saw was black, the night sky reflected off the surface of the water, the moon now hidden by clouds.
The ripples made by the serpent’s dive had now died away, yet he continued to stare down into the pool, hoping to see something. As the clouds began to pass by the moon, its light slowly began to illuminate the pool. As he looked down, he thought for a moment that he could see a glint of green at the bottom of the pool. Hoping to see the serpent, he gazed intently downwards as the light began to rise.
As the pool became bathed in moonlight, at the point where he had seen the flash of green, he suddenly saw, rather than the serpent, his own reflection gazing back up at him from the bottom of the pool. Or so he thought. The reflection was pointing up at him, yet he had both arms by his side. Who was this pool dweller who looked so much like himself? He reached down, making contact with the water and causing the reflection to ripple. The water was ice cold, numbing his hand, yet still he reached down into the pool as far as he could, hoping to make contact with this reflection which had now come back into focus as the ripples died away.
Yet as he looked back, the reflection had changed and was now pointing towards the far side of the pool, to the other side of the circular, stone wall. He reached down further into the water until his whole arm was submerged, his face beginning to brush the surface. The reflection continued to point to the far side of the pool, more intently now, as if urging him on to something.
Curious, he slowly turned his head to look in that direction, but as he did so he lost his balance and plunged head first into the icy depths of the water. The sudden shock of the cold was paralysing, sending his rigid body straight downwards towards the bottom of the pool. As he sank further down, he could see his reflection getting nearer, and as he looked, unable to move, the reflection at once became the green serpent, but now of monstrous size, yellow eyes wide, sharp fangs bared and jaws opening wide to admit him whole into the belly of the beast.

 

 

How could his guide have betrayed him so? How could he have been lured into such a trap? How could such a promising journey have terminated in such icy death? How could he be asking himself these questions if he was indeed dead? Was he dead?
He could feel nothing, he had no eyes, no ears, no hands, no mouth, no nose. He was not breathing, he had no body, there was no air around him. Yet he was there. Or he was somewhere. He had to be. He was having thoughts and those thoughts had to have someone to be thinking them. He didn’t know where he was, wasn’t even sure what he was anymore, yet his entrance into the mouth of the beastly serpent had not stopped his flow of consciousness. His thoughts were spinning wildly, rushing about the thoughtscape crashing into each other, yet they still existed. They must do, as he was thinking them and thoughts can not think themselves.
He wasn’t in any pain, he couldn’t feel anything. This thought seemed to take control and calm him down a little, allowing him to focus. He knew that he couldn’t be dead, as he was still having a conscious experience. He existed, a thinking being that was thinking thoughts. Was that the most basic form of existence? He tried to focus on his thoughts as they continued to rush around, but with he fear having slightly abated, he noticed that the movement of his thoughts was less random than he had thought. They all seemed to be oscillating as they moved, up and down like little radio waves. Where before they had seemed to be smashing into one another at random, now they seemed to be intentionally connecting, joining together to create new oscillations. He knew that he no longer had eyes and could therefore see nothing, yet as he focused on these oscillating thoughts, he seemed to be able to see them, wave upon wave of oscillating motion, each wave colliding with the others to produce new waves, new patterns. What had at first appeared to be a chaotic mess of fear and panic, had now settled into a beautiful ballet of oscillating thought waves.
The thoughts were growing in number now, spreading out around him and each time one wave hit another to generate a new wave, there seemed to be some kind of addition of colour and an addition of sound. What once had been dark and silent was now becoming a sensible world of colours and sounds, beauty and music derived entirely from his swirling mass of thoughts.
His wonder grew, and as it did, so did the world it was creating, the thoughts spreading out further and further from the centre, the music growing louder and louder, filling every gap in what now could be discerned as the space around him. The thoughts were now taking recognisable shape. He felt he could see again, could hear again. He could see stars up above, he could see water below, he felt air around him, cool and fresh. He could hear the music escalating, rising up in a great crescendo, causing the water below to ripple and rumble.
He felt himself, at the centre of this thought world, becoming corporeal. He could see now, could feel himself as a physical being standing on the quivering water, waves lapping at his feet, the air rushing past him as the wind picked up. Everything was intensifying, and he felt something beneath his feet pushing up.
Suddenly the ground he was stood on beneath the water began to raise itself upwards. A large land mass was rising out of the water at great speed. He was stood on top of it as it carried him upwards into the air, towards the stars, a huge mountain rising higher and higher out of the water, propelled by nothing other than his thoughts.
As he rose higher, everything began to settle into focus. He looked down, he could see the forest far below at the foot of the mountain, surrounding it on all sides. Looking further out he could see the beach and beyond that the sea, stretching out to the horizon in every direction. The wind rushed through his hair at this great height and he raised his arms up towards the sky.
He raised his head to look straight up. A screech split the night sky and he looked to see the mighty eagle soaring onwards and upwards with a glint of green beneath it’s body, it was carrying a serpent in its talons, and together the beasts of knowledge traversed the heavens, to the stars.