DREAMS AND HOPES

The water below the gloomy black pool was clean and serene, but the current was too strong.

I found that no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't escape the pull. No way up and no way down, so I began to panic, I feared I would never get out of the pool. I feared for my life.

I tried hard not to gulp the water to death, but I wasn't strong enough. I needed to breath air, but I was underwater.

When I got to the point of despair, I decided to take one last deep sigh before dying. I didn't care about the water anymore.

When I opened wide my mouth to sigh, I was shocked to found that oxygen gushed into my lungs. I realized that I could actually breath in oxygen in the water.

Perhaps being lonely for quite sometime made me forgot that I was in the dream world, and that anything could be possible, even breathing underwater without gills.

Remembering that it's a dream world and that anything could be possible, I tried to other things like talk and move swiftly in the water, and it was all possible. My despair turned to joy.

But, my joy quickly vanished when a group of water creatures sped up to me from nowhere, they surrounded me without any hope of escape.

They were Six in number, half fish, half human, ugly but strong and powerful. They had striking resemblance to what we had known in the waking world as 'Mermaids'.

They all held some kind of ancient magical spears. Pointing the spears at me, one of them asked;

"What are you doing in our realm mortal man?"

"I come in peace." I answered while trying to gesture them to lower their weapons.

One of them, seemingly their leader laughed and said:

"None of the lost souls would come here in peace. You know what we do to you here"

Her words amazed me. "What do you mean by what you just said?" I asked.

The leader replied: "You freaking nightmare creatures would come here pretending like you all are for business, but deep inside, I always knew you want what we have… Power!"

"I am not like them." I said, "I am not even a nightmare creature."

But they obviously didn't care. Their leader ordered them to chain me.

"Keep him where you kept the others." She said, "In the dungeon!"

They dragged me down the deepest parts of the pool. It was a whole world down there, a realm of it own, full of life and energy.

The size of the underwater realm made me questioned the name 'Black Pool', I thought it should be called, 'Black Ocean'. What looked like a pool at the surface, was actually an ocean in the inside. A realm full of under water creatures, beautiful and ugly all together, living what seem a harmonious life.

The place I was to be taken could only be found in the deepest part of the underwater realm.

I saw dungeons and prison cells heavily secured with mighty chains and locks.

Huge sea orcs were stationed to protect the cells and dungeons from any intruder or any prisoner escaping. It was a horrible sight.

The dungeon I was taken was full of other living creatures which resemble human. They looked humanoid but terribly ugly.

The mermaids that took me there, swam out of the dungeon, banged the door behind them and locked it with a heavy lock. I was left in there with those humanoid creatures, to suffer and rot.

I was glad Pytra didn't come along, I wouldn't be able to handle seeing her locked to suffer and rot in a dungeon full of some human-like creatures that resemble pieces of meat.

Still, I wished she came alone, perhaps nothing that bad would have happened to me. Perhaps we would have fought our way out. I wouldn't have jumped into the black pool. It was a mixed feeling I had.

In the dungeon, I only whispered a simple prayer… "Lord have mercy on my Soul."

Few moments later, the door to the dungeon flung open. Two of the warrior mermaids who brought me to the dungeon, came in.

The moment they entered, the prisoners in the dungeon started screaming for help. They could actually talk and cry like normal humans.

Ignoring the prisoners cry for help, the two mermaids took three of the prisoners and left with them. The moment the warrior mermaids left, the prisoners inside the dungeon ceased their screaming and only shivered in fear.

I was astonished at the whole event. I moved closer to one of the shivering prisoners and asked him; "What just happened?"

The prisoner replied while still shivering. "Those prisoners were taken to be sacrificed to the god of the underwater realm."

I was stunned. "underwater god?" I asked.

The prisoner replied: "Yes! Branshe, the god of the underwater realm. It is the great serpent, which feeds on creatures like us."

The prisoner's answer triggered my curiosity even more. I asked: "You look like humans, talk like humans, yet, you look like some overused rags, devoid of the human structure and essence. What are you?"

The prisoner sighed and replied: "We are not really human, but we are their dreams and hopes. We take a little bit of human form because we came from them. But, the moment we are formed in the lands of dreams, we are stolen and sold to the creatures of the black pool, only to be used as sacrifices to their god, the great Sea Serpent.

The moment we die, the dreams and hopes of billions of humans in the waking world, dies away."

Hearing the prisoner's answer, I got all emotional. I didn't know what to say or even think. I was speechless.

I stared at all the prisoners in the dungeon for a while, I could only imagine whose dreams and hopes they were.

Again, I asked the prisoner. "Who were the thieves who stole and sold you off to the black pool realm?"

The prisoner replied: "They are Spooks. Born from the evil intentions and aspirations of other humans from the waking world. They are powerful, fueled by dark energy."

Hearing the prisoner's explanation, I kept my peace. I immediately knew what I must do. I waited for when the warrior mermaids returned to fetch more food for their god, then I acted on my plan.

The moment I saw them, I screamed at the top of my voice. I pretended that I was sick and could die. The mermaids became curious about me.

One of them swam closer and examined me, believing that something was wrong with me, the mermaid suggested to the other, that they should hurriedly take me to be sacrificed before I become a waste.

When they took me out of the dungeon, my heart began to race at the thought of danger. I knew what I had to face, the great serpent of the underwater realm.

After swimming even deeper for sometime, we came near a vortex, strong and powerful. All the mermaids had to do was just take their hands off me and disappeared immediately.

I was helplessly sucked into the vortex to be sacrificed to the underwater serpent.

The impact of the vortex was too strong for me to handle, so much that I went unconscious. When I opened my eyes moments later, I saw myself laying on a cliff.

Struggling to get myself up, I felt a chilling but a familiar aura oozing with evil.

I quickly began to scan the environment to see what was emitting that aura.

My instinct kicked in and my body began to glow with my purple energy, my fist involuntarily clenched, ready to punch whatever shows up.

A voice suddenly vibrated from the darkness below the cliff.

"We met again… Sol!"

My eyes constricted in amazement, and I replied: "Ah! Meet again?"

"Yes!" The voice vibrated.

The moment the voice faded, a figure emerged from the darkness below the cliff. When I saw the figure, My eyes widened, my heart sank and my intestine almost gushed out of my belly in a mixture of shock and fear.

I shouted:

"VO'AK?"