Hyu's Adventures

Crow and I find ourselves in some sort of temple.
It seems like the room we're in was entirely carved out of some kind of bright stone.
Even though everything looks very clean, it has a neglected feel to it.
Nobody has stepped foot here for a very long time.
Some plants appear to have made the rather futile attempt of growing on the walls.
They were doomed from the beginning though. There is no soil here, no himidity...
Makes you wonder how they got here in the first place.

"Nobody home."



I walk around a little to get a better feel for the place we've found ourselves in.
It seems like this is a single room without any doors or windows.
It is huge though. The ceiling must be at least 20 meters high.
The walls and the floor are engraved with all sorts of things, reaching from long forgotten animals to oddly shaped symbols that I don't recognize.
Even though everything is made from the same material, there's a lot of variation to the place.
It's kind of beautiful in it's own way.

"No way in, no way out, what is this place? Who would build something like this, this place makes no sense."
"What's the purpose of a room without an entrance?"

I think I get it. Sort of. A little bit.

"I don't think this is a room Crow."
"A truly fantastic obvservation Hyu. Your sense of deduction never fails to amaze me."
"So tell me friend. This... ROOM here, you know... if it is not a room, than what is it?"
"... It's... like a doorway."
"A doorway... Listen Hyu, you're not making any sense."
"You said it yourself, there is no purpose to a room without an entrance."
"So naturally, if the room has no entrance it must be a doorway? Whaaaat?"

"Well, there's a little more to it than that."
"Look, we're pretty much at the exact location that you found, right? But it still feels like we're off somehow."
"Yet there is no way to get any closer..."
"Not because there is something preventing us from physically getting closer, but because there is no point in space closer to the location than where we stand."
"But clearly, we're still at some distance."

"Whaaaaaat? That is a clear contradiction."
"It's... shifted."
"Shifted?"
"I don't know what to call it. We're in the correct location, but not quite in the right... dimension?"
"Right... what?"
"There's more to this realm than what is physical. Your spirit for example, it interacts with the physical world, but it is not located in it."
"Oh. Yeah. That kind of makes sense actually."
"How do you go to another dimension?"

Yeah... about that...
Oh hold on a second. I have done this before haven't I?
To go to a non-physical place you have to leave behind the physical.

"Crow, can you mind my body?"
"Mind the... Hyu what the fuck?"
"What? Phoenix abilities and stuff."
"But why would you voluntarily leave your own body? Isn't that dangerous???"
"Hmm..."
"HMM??? YOU DON'T KNOW???"
"Oh calm down, It probably isn't. I've done it before."
"Probably he says..."

I sit down in the middle of the room and concentrate on my own aura.
I then begin to gently separate it from my body and let it drift towards the location Crow found.
And just like that, I find myself in the same room, except... well... it's kind of different.
Everything is much brighter and desaturated. I also feel an odd out of place sensation.
I also have no body, and more importantly, I'm not alone.



There's another person sitting right in front of me.
I say person, but it's kind of difficult to tell.
It's more like a body of light in the shape of a human but genderless being.
Whoever he or she (I'll go with she because of the feminine hair) is, she has her eyes closed, like she's meditating.
I feel like I'm intruding. It seems kind of rude just to enter this place without asking for permission first.
Then again, I wouldn't have known how to do that. I should at least say something though.
But what do I say? I'm not even sure what I'm here for exactly...

"Hi!"

Smooth Hyu. Very smooth.
She looks at me, revealing eyes of pure light.
She answers with a soothing yet assertive voice.

"Here you are."
"Erm... yes?"

Awkward... now what? Oh well, might as well just say it.

"I... I'm not entire sure why I came here."
"You are here because twelve men are after your life, and you are uncertain as to how to deal with that situation."

12 men. The templars. She knows.
I get the feeling that I am yet again dealing with someone who knows more about my life than I do.
But I suppose this is a good thing. If she knows about my situation she might be able to help me.
Suddenly there is hope again...
but... I don't feel it?
Shouldn't I be excited? Shouldn't I feel hopeful right now?
All I feel is eerieness. Everything feels off.
I have no time to deal with those feelings though.
There are more important things at hand.

"I need help."

She takes some time to reply. I can see that she has a difficult time processing the things I say and formulating her thoughts into words.

"Yes. You have come here for help. Your path has stopped in this very location..."
"... There is a decision you have to make."

Usually I'd ask a thousand questions right now. But today is different.
I just go with the flow, not minding that I do not understand.

"I will offer you an item. An item of great importance..."
"You will take it. And then your path will inevitably lead to death."
"Death?"
"Yes."

She doesn't seem concerned about this at all.

"But... you said I had to make a decision."
"Yes. You will take the item."

For some reason I jump to a conclusion expaining why she expresses herself the way she does.
It seems perfectly obvious to me.

"You... you aren't experiencing time the way I do."
"Yes, I see what can be. I see the paths connecting the present to the future."
"But time is always in motion. There are so many possibilities. And every action taken, every decision made has the capability to reorganize the web that is time."
"Yet you already know which decision I will make. You already know that I will take an item from you."
"Yes. Some paths are more likely than others."
"The men that are after you. That is why they hunt you..."

I had a feeling the templars weren't after me purely because I was a dragon. What does that even mean? Being a dragon.

"There are special points in time. Fixed points in time. Points that will always occur."
"So many paths lead to them that some of them will inevitably cross at this very point."
"The men after you must have seen that your path intersects a point that is of great importance to them."
"While it is impossible to foresee the future, one can remove all paths that are not beneficial to oneself, thus increasing the chance of a favorable outcome."

So that is why they are after me. It makes sense. They are going to do something of great importance.
And they have seen that my timeline crosses that event, so they are killing me ahead of time, ensuring that I cannot influence the event.
You cannot forsee the future. But you can influence it in your favor.
But this doesn't matter right now. Nothing matters besides them. I have to deal with them as soon as possible.
I have a few days at most. Maybe only a few hours.

The being summons a small orb of light in her hand and makes a gesture suggesting that I should take it.

"So this is the item that I will take. A decision that will lead me to death."
"Yes. As promised."
"But... will I win?"
"All I can tell you is that it will influence your path greatly."
"And... as promised?"
"You do not remember."

I've heard that a few times too often. "You do not remember". But this time it doesn't matter.
This time I don't care about all the unanswered questions.
She is right. My decision is already made, even if I do not know why.
My right hand is already grabbing towards the orb.
I only hold onto it for a brief moment before it is absorbed by myself.

"Thank you."

I say... in a rather faint voice.
Everything is clear now. At least everything of importance. There is no need for further questions.

I know what this orb is... and I know why I am going to die...

Too much conversation.
Some things are going to be phrased incorrectly etc, I tried to patch it up as well as I could.
Usually I use pink and brown to color code female and male DC voices, but there's 2 women this time,
so I'll use pink and green, pink being Yuya.


There's no more messing around.
Going anywhere but Haven feels dangerous.
Whenever I'm on the plane I can feel the Templars scanning for my aura.
It is inevitable that they will find me if I linger for too long.
Haven is one of the only places I feel safe. The barrier prevents them from locating my aura when I'm here.

But I cannot remain here forever.
Not only am I imprisoning myself here until I tackle the Templar issue, I'm doing the same to Yuya.
The Templars are after her as well.
In fact they're probably after everyone, the whole team from back then... back when lucids still came naturally to me.

There is only one solution.
I will fight them.
But not alone; that would be utter suicide.
I will gather the old team, the team with whom I fought the evils of this world back in the days.

I feel like a hero, about to embark on a long and difficult journey.
First I will gather a team capable of surpassing the strength of the Templars.
And then I will have to come up with a plan to beat them.
Because this is what I do. This is what I have always done.
Regardless of how much more powerful my enemy is, regardless of what it takes, I will beat them.
Because I am dragon.

"So... who will we find first?"

It is scary being in company of a serious Yuya.
I'm used to her playful and innocent self.
Not the one capable of carrying the weight of a world.
The whole atmosphere has changed.

"Silver?"
"... No. We will find Silver last. I'm not sure how to convince him to join us yet."
"Will he not want to join us?"
"I'm not sure. Back then he fought with us to pay for his sins. But he has already given back so much to this world."
"True..."
"I will convince him. You know I have my ways with words."
"Yes. If there's anyone who can motivate him it is you. You're the only one he listens to."
"So, if not Silver..."
"Shinave"
"..."
*sigh*
"You're making me meet her again huh?"
"Yes. We will meet with the goddess of ice."
"Alright then... I know where she is. I sure hope you know what you're doing."
"Probably."

I most certainly do not. Why is Yuya somewhat reluctant to meet with her again?
Did we part on bad terms?
Meh, it will come to me eventually.
These memories have a habit of popping up whenever I need them lately.

Yuya opens a rather odd looking portal and it seems to take her quite a considerable amount of energy to do so.
Right... we'll mask our auras. It should buy us enough time for a meeting and to get back before the Templars find us.
We hop through the portal and end in a rather odd looking place.


It's an old temple of sorts. Parts of it are covered with rather beautiful ice crystals, but most of them are broken.
Right. The goddess of ice. Or rather the person who used to be the goddess of ice.
Back then two gods fought together with us.
The goddess of ice: Shinave; and the god of fire: Ifrit
Yeah... there was 6 of us I think.
The 3 gods Shinave, Ifrit, Yuya, and Silver, Selene and myself.
I will reunite all of us... somehow...

We walk through the old temple, searching for Shinave.
I have a feeling that she's here somewhere, even though I cannot sense any aura besides Yuyas and my own at all.
I can feel the Templars scanning the entire plane though.
Their searching pattern reminds me of that of a computer rather than that of a sentient being.
They are perfectly coordinated.
But it will take them hours to track me down with my aura masked.

"You have some guts to show up here after what you've done."
"Indeed..."

The voice coming from behind caught me by surprise, but I'm not showing that I was off guard.
I turn around slowly and full of confidence.
Shinave.


Her eyes look young, but she's clearly older than Yuya or myself.
She has long white hair, deep blue eyes, very similar to Yuya's, and a rather pale skin.
A wise woman, once one of the most well known gods.
But now she lives in a seemingly abandoned temple.
And somehow I get the feeling that it is my fault.

"How are you?"

She answers me with a small hand gesture that's not really saying much.
Is she mad at me? Is she mad at us?
I feel that she is in some way, yet it also feels like the complete opposite.

"And how are you... Yuya?"
"I'm alright... mother."

mo... Mo... I... wait what?
Nonono.
Oh shit.
Fuck my life.
Goddess of ice, goddess of water... yeah. Am I fucking retarded? How did I not remember that.
And I have... with Yuya... oh my god...
Yeah, I might be screwed.

"You haven't talked to me in a long time."
"I have not. Not after you suggested that I shouldn't try to bring Hyu back."
"It was a bad idea."
"Yet here I am."
"Yet here you are."
"I guess I should be impressed that you managed to find your way back after what happened."
"I should also kill you for what you have done."

She approaches me without changing her facial expression.
I'm at a complete loss. I can't tell if she's serious.
Well. She is. But there's something more. Something she isn't telling.
She stands right in front of me and stares into my eyes.
I don't blink.

She hugs me tightly.
What?

"I hate you Hyu. I hate you so much."

She starts crying and grabs more tightly onto me.
I'm getting mixed signals here.
But somehow I understand. She wants to hate me, but she can't. She cannot help but love me for whom I am.
She looks deeply into my eyes again.

"You've sent my daughter towards certain death you know."
"Stop! It's too early."
"No."
"Yes it is! It is too early for him to remember!"
"Maybe. But there's no choice. He must remember."
"And then what? What if he does remember?"
"What if he realizes that he has cheated? Then what? What if he dies if he remembers that?"
"If he abides by the rules then yes, he will die."

... yeah.
I don't like everything I'm hearing, but I do want to know.
And I am so close. I can remember parts on my own. The puzzle is fitting itself together as we speak.
A tiny nudge in the right direction and I'll remember everything.
I look at Yuya and say reassuringly:

"Am I the type who abides by the rules?"

She can't help but smile for an instant, but then quickly puts on a serious face again.

"It's too soon."
"Yes. And bringing him back is impossible, yet here he stands. And yet here you stand."
"..."

I'm beginning to remember on my own.
Because I need to remember.
Because now is the time to remember, even though Yuya suggests otherwise.

"We all fought together. We fought many evils. But there was one we simply could not beat."
"... the Templars."
"13 of them there were, and only 6 of us, but that was not the issue."
"The issue was that one of them was a true immortal, and the 12 others had their lives linked to him."
"All 12 of them were unkillable as long as the 13th was alive. And he had perfected the art of combat."
"He was supposedly unbeatable. And even if he would be killed, due to his immortality he would just resurrect."
"Yes..."
"So I came up with a plan."

"You did come up with a plan."
"You always did, regardless of how hopeless the situation was."
"But this plan I did not like."
"This plan I did not like."
"But it was yours."
"It was mine."
"I didn't choose it because it was a good plan, I chose it because it was the only plan."
"Indeed..."

... what a horrible plan it was.
I have trouble saying the words, but they must be said.

"... Yuya would give her life to allow Silver to cast the ultimate spell."
"I would hold the Templar in place."
"And Silver would kill him with this spell, and the both of us in the process."

...

"This would send the Templars soul to hell. Because that's where immortals go."
"But immortality means you only have to spend a single minute, and then you are reborn."
"And I have the phoenix wings. I can move through the realms. I can go to hell once I am dead."
"Even after dying, my soul should have an afterglow of energy, enough to go there and challenge him."
"One minute to do the impossible. One minute to kill the soul of the only one who ever perfected the art of combat."
"And all of that without any energy left."
"But if I would kill his soul, he would truly die. You cannot be reborn without a soul."

"The plan was ludicrous. All of you would die for certain, for a glimpse of a chance to do the impossible."
"But it would cripple the Templars for years."
"It would... And it has."
"But things did not turn out according to your plan."

"Fortunately they did not. If they did we would be dead."
"So how did you kill him? And how is my daughter still alive. And how are you?"

...

"How I won the fight in hell... I truly do not know."
"I do not believe in miracles. But if they do exist, then this was one."
"We were joined in hell by our swords, and fought for a full minute without any energy."
"A true old-fashioned sword fight."
"I didn't stand a chance of course. He had figured out the perfect technique."
"But for some reason beyond me, as we danced in the fires of hell with our swords clashing..."
"..."
"I stabbed him in his chest."
"He never made a mistake, there was never any opening. I never figured out the perfect technique."
"Yet it happened. Neither one of us did understand. And I released the last bit of energy I had left in me into my blade..."
"And his soul evaporated. He died the true death."

"And then...?"
"And then I died."

...

"But how?"
"If you die you have to pay the price. Unless you are immortal you have to pay your soul."
"That is what dying is."
"But I never had a chance to give my soul."

Shinave's expression changes. She understands.

"The dragon within me. The dragon soul I shared my body with."
"He gave his soul before I had a chance to give mine."
"And with the price paid, I was no longer bound to the world of the dead... so I left... so I came back."
"And then I approached Yuya's lifeless body. And I summoned the true phoenix wings, and I brought back her soul from the dead and resurrected her."

"So you did use your one resurrection."

She sighs.

"So not only is the dragon soul, the one who taught you the ways of the dragon, no longer with you; but you also sacrificed your near infinite source of energy. The phoenix catalyst."
"That is the price the phoenix must pay to perform a resurrection, and the reason why he can perform only one."
"But these were the reasons why you were so strong. The dragon soul and the phoenix catalyst. And now you have none of them."
"A small price to pay."
"A truly huge price to pay."
"Perhaps, but the choice was an obvious one."
"It was not. You could have used the catalyst to destroy the remaining templars."
"And let Yuya be dead?"
"..."
"It would have been the logical choice."

"Pff... logic. Yes, I might have noble goals, some people may even have called me a hero."
"But I truly am a fool and you know it. I do not regret having made that choice."
"And I love you for having made that choice. You saved my daughter."

"We all paid a huge price back then. Selene died. Silver managed to get back for some reason which is beyond me."
"The council of gods was destroyed."
"But the Templar died. And now they are mortal."
"And they are after you."

I shrug.

"And I am after them."
"You're mad."
"I am Hyu."

Yuya has been awfully silent.

"I understand how you were able to come back and revive me."
"Your soul is taken when you die. But for you, 'a' soul was taken, but not yours."
"But still. After that you should never have been able to come back to this world."
"You are supposed to be dead."
"You have tried quite intensely to bring me back though. Surely you must have believed that it would work."
"Maybe... but what now that you know that you are supposed to be dead?"
"Nothing."

"But... what if death comes for you."
"There is only one thing you do if death comes for you."
"... give up... ?"

I give her a disapproving stare and raise my voice.

"You look death straight into its eyes and you say: 'not today'"

Shinave smiles for the first time.

"It is good to know that you are still Hyu. It is good to know that you are still the fool I remember."
"Can he do that... just like that?"
"How would I know? Do I know anyone who has tricked death itself?"
"What I do know is that he is Hyu."
"He is..."

Shinave inspects me from top to bottom.

"You have aged."
"You are weak."
"And you come to me now, which means..."
"I will ask you the impossible."
"After all that has happened, you really dare ask me?"
"Yes."
"And what do you suggest we do if I agree?"
"We will be a dead man walking and 2 gods that are no longer gods up against the Templars."
"How is that going to work?"
"You're forgetting about Silver and Ifrit."
"Ifrit? You are more insane than I thought."
"But even then. That's 2 dead men walking and 3 gods that are no longer gods. My question remains."
"I will come up with a plan of course."
"Because you are Hyu."
"Because I am Hyu."

For the first time in what feels like an eternity I put on a certain smile.
It is a somewhat dark smile. A smile looking forward to a battle that seemingly cannot be won.
A smile that challenges all beliefs. A smile that says that we can do the impossible.

"Will you come with me, oh goddess, and fight with me again?"
"..."
"Of course I will."

She looks at Yuya, then at me, back at Yuya, and back at me, clearly understanding what is going on.
Then she faces me and says:

"Back in the days the gods would have killed your for this."

But she doesn't say it in a serious way. I'm not sure if she approves, but I do know that she does not mind.

"I wonder what Ifrit is going to think about this."

I turn around and start walking towards the portal and shrug.

"I'd rather not."

We laugh, even though it isn't really that funny. He's one of the very old gods. He can never know. He would indeed kill me.
I stop.

"As long as we can still laugh like this, the world isn't lost."

That puts a reassuring smile on Shinave and Yuya's face.
Ha. I still have it in me.
I am still a leader.
And I will do this.
I will end what I have started 15 years ago. I will end the tyranny that is the existence of the Templars.
I just have to figure out how.
Preferably without killing half of us in the process this time.

After waking up from the last dream and failing to DEILD, I notice that it is still not time to get up.
I decide to go back to sleep in the hopes of landing back in my old dream.

I'm walking on a beach.
Except... it is not really a beach.

I am in fact in one of the classrooms at my uni, and the ground is covered in sand,
and the walls are painted with ocean an palms.
Many led's on the ceiling make it appear as if there was a night sky.
It looks as if someone tried to reconstruct a scene that occasionally appears in my dreams:
http://www.dreamviews.com/blogs/hyu/girl-beach-12340/

Realizing that I am dreaming, I check how stable it is.
I grab a hand full of sand and let it slowly pour down back onto the ground.
It feels very real, and even though it is dark inside, the contrast of my vision is so strong that I can see everything clearly with ease.
Great!

My thoughts on where to go are interrupted by a female voice behind me.

"Hi..."

I turn around and see a familiar face.

"Krista!"

She holds out a hand to me.

"Come with me?"

Which is similar to how I invited her a long time ago:
Taking KristaNicole to Teraluna - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

I grab her hand and follow her out of the room.
There's a portal on one of the walls which I assume she has created.
We go trough it and are sucked through a tunnel, full of odd lighting effects.
There appear to be insect-like creatures on the outer walls, but they don't seem to take notice of us.

We come out on the other end, and fortunately for once I don't land on my face like an idiot.
I don't know what it is with portals, but I have a tendency of coming out upside down on the other end.


We are on what appears to be a set of floating islands.
It's beautiful, and there is some type of temple not far away which looks very interesting.

"I've been thinking about you yesterday, I haven't heard from you in a long time."

She doesn't look like she heard what I said.

"Aww, I wanted the portal to lead to the temple."

I pick Krista up, which clearly confuses her.

"... What are you doing?"

I concentrate on the temple and blink both of us towards it.
I put Krista back down.

"What was that?"
"I call it blinking, it's a short range teleport kind of thing."
"You call that short?"
"Yeah, I can basically blink as far as I can see."

"How does it work?"
"Uuh, it's kinda weird. You concentrate on the spot where you want to blink to."
"Then take a single step towards the location, but at the same time land a second step in the location where you want to end up."
"That... that doesn't make any sense."
"I told you it's weird, you basically take a single step but end up taking two."

I see Krista concentrating on a location not too far away. She is trying to blink.

"Hey, be careful, it's easy to loose your orientation and end up in a..."

I hear a loud noise as Krista crashes into a thick decorative pillar.

"... wall ..."
"OUCH"

Small bits of the pillar are falling off as she peels herself loose.
I can't help myself and I start laughing.
Krista does not seem to be amused.

"It's not funny!"
"Actually it kind of is."

On a second thought, she's finding it amusing after all, but she doesn't want to show it.

"Let's go to the center of the temple."
"Sure."

She starts walking towards what appears to be the main building.
I feel like fooling around and start hovering over the ground, and enter her field of vision, floating on my back just a few centimeters above the ground.
I wave at her as I slowly pass her.

She starts laughing.

"What the hell are you doing? You are insane!"
"Quite."

She grabs me and turns me upside down and sits down on my back.

"Much better."
"Hey!"
"To the temple!"
"I ain't no taxi service!"
"To the temple!"

Fine, I fly us both to the center of the temple.
This would look absolutely ridiculous to an outsider.

We end up in a really amazing location.
There's a pool in the middle of a platform, with a few holes in the ground, creating waterfalls that go all the way down to the surface of the planet.
The water source appears to be infinite.

"Did you make this?"
"... Yes."
"It's beautiful!"

I start walking on the pool.

"Hey! How do you do that?"
"What? Walk on water?"
"Yes!"
"What do you mean? I just do it."
"But... you're supposed to go under."
"No I'm not."
"Tell me how it works, I want to learn how to walk on water."

"You don't need to learn how to walk on water, you need to forget how to fall through water."
"What? That doesn't make any sense."
"Sure it does, think about it."

She's saying something that I cannot quite comprehend.
I turn around to look at her, but I cannot find her anymore.

"Hey, where did you go?"

No answer...
I notice my vision is very blurry, the dream is falling apart.
I wake up.

A month of near zero recall and then two cool lucids in a row.
Sometimes I wonder what goes on in my brain.