Venus: "Who is this guest of yours?"
Ozzy: "This is a lost desire called 'A.'"
Venus: "Are your attempts at studying desires still continuing?"
A: "Wait! What attempts?"
Ozzy: "I told you not to rush you'll understand soon enough."
Venus: "Yes, Ozzy has always been mysterious and still is, but he's the best at guidance, so don't worry."
A: "Alright, but isn't it demeaning for a king like you to work as a train?"
Venus: "I don't work as a train my descendants do that. I'm here following orders too, and doing a favor for my old friend. But if I wanted to strike terror into you, I would. Remember your place, desire. I am a king here."
Venus had been crawling on his belly like any snake I'd seen before, but it seemed I had stirred his anger slightly. He raised his body with pride, and I heard the cracking of his neck bones. Sharp, clear vertebrae appeared along his body, piercing through his flesh and skin as they emerged. More vertebrae appeared on both sides of his body, around his head area and slightly below, transforming his appearance. His size became many times larger, and steam began pouring from his body's pores. The water around us started to boil! Steam rose everywhere, and the wounds covering his skin bled a blood-like liquid that appeared acidic, dissolving everything it touched.
Ozzy: "I know this desire is very curious he doesn't mean to insult Your Majesty, Snake King, but please calm yourself. Apologize, desire!"
I heard King Snail addressing me to seek forgiveness from the Snake King, but I... I couldn't even speak from the intensity of my fear.
Ozzy: "He's the angriest animal in this place, and you easily provoked his rage."
Ozzy: "Snail wisdom: 'Lavender oil.'"
Purple smoke with a pleasant scent, resembling lavender, issued from King Snail's shell very gentle and filling the place until the entire area became purple, spreading like a smoke bomb that even cleared away all the steam that had been emanating from the Snake King. As soon as the purple cloud reached my breathing passages, I felt something strange, as if I were weightless, but I wasn't floating or anything like that. I was simply calm, as was the Snake King, and even the beasts around us everyone wanted to relax and sleep, as if an overwhelming drowsiness had visited us all. Everyone fell sitting on the ground due to the effect of the lavender cloud, which happened and spread quickly.
The purple cloud didn't last long, being very light and almost weightless for a gas, but powerfully effective. Soon the wind began pushing it away, and it vanished as if it had never existed in the first place.
A: "King Venus, I am more than sorry. I overstepped my bounds."
Venus paid me no attention, just ignored me, but he showed calm and composure as he crawled toward the train tracks, though he displayed his annoyance with me and my earlier behavior.
Venus: "King Snail, it's time to depart."
Ozzy: "Come on, desire, we're going to the swamp."
A: "Alright!"
A compartment opened from the right side of Venus's belly, just like the trains we'd seen earlier in the Copper City, but this was just a compartment for two people. We entered the compartment, which closed immediately after we got in. Two windows formed on both sides of Venus's stomach wall yes, the room was fleshy like its predecessor, but it soon began to transform and was covered with dark black skin that was more than smooth.
Beautiful and more than comfortable to sit in, we felt the Snake King's movement, which became clear to us as we moved away from the station through the window. But we didn't travel on the tracks instead, he began diving deep into the earth's layers, where there was internal lighting in the compartment inside Venus's belly.
Through the windows, we couldn't see much except rocky walls and earth layers we were penetrating, with hanging lamps left and right for illumination, since surface light couldn't reach these tunnels.
Ozzy: "These are the kings' pathways, where we travel quickly in this world. We don't have much contact with the other kings' descendants all the time, and we're busy carrying out missions. I'm telling you this so you know how the journey proceeds. We'll head to the 'Snail Swamp.' This doesn't really matter now. Desire, tell me everything you can remember before coming to this place."
A: "Honestly, I can't remember anything about what I was, even if I wanted to concentrate. I have no memories, but there's an inner feeling that drives me to try."
Ozzy: "Let's say that what your mind wants to remember will later prove terrible, and your mind deliberately forgot it to protect you. What would your reaction be?"
A: "Ozzy, I'd like to confide something in you may I?"
Ozzy: "Of course!"
A: "I don't remember anything, but the first feeling I had when I arrived here was that I had gotten rid of a lot of pain. At first, I didn't mind that feeling. I can guarantee you it's the first time in a long while I've felt at peace, and I'm more than happy that I don't remember. I also feel like I'm someone who exaggerates everything, and that I magnified everything in the cave of my thoughts until their echo repeated over and over inside my mind until I forgot who I was. But on the other hand, I want you to know that I feel like I don't exist in the present moment. I feel lost, and I'm more than afraid, and inside me is a strong feeling that drives me to the necessity of remembering."
Ozzy: "This is what we were looking for!"
A: "Looking for what?"
Ozzy: "Take off your shirt, desire!"
A: "What!!! O-okay."
I removed my shirt, complying with Ozzy's words. I looked closely at my body to see a small tattoo on my chest, on the left side a small crescent that looked like a smile.
A: "Ozzy, what is this?"
Ozzy: "Virgo, Inkigo, Yamato, Hamato, Nirago, and Sinato desires are different types according to the desire's life before getting lost in this place."
A: "Types?"
Ozzy: "Yes. Nirago desire draws the shape of a dragonfly. It's passing dreams in a person's life. If the person was deprived in the early stages of life when they didn't possess mental and psychological hardness, without fulfillment, the desire will transform into Nirago, led by Hamato in other words, an evil desire seeking satisfaction until it disappears once it's provided. But according to my knowledge, as soon as desires touch each other, they inevitably become more ferocious and agitated. But alas, I remember once seeing someone led by a Nirago desire that was fulfilled from childhood I can't describe to you how gentle and fragile he was, caring about everything and nothing, until Hamato took control of him."
A: "Who was he?"
Ozzy: "He was... someone from the human desire lineage, also dear to my heart and intensely so." He spoke these words with deep sadness.
Silence prevailed between us for moments while Ozzy drifted in his thoughts. I was embarrassed to break the serenity of his thoughts until he regained his focus.
Ozzy: "Well, it doesn't matter. Let's continue. I personally, as one of the wisdom creatures here, haven't met all the types of desires I mentioned. I have superficial knowledge of Yamato desire the deer desire is a completely different type from its predecessor. It's a strong desire with overwhelming power over the person, a product of the enormous amount of repeated bad events in their life. It can lead their soul to endless torment, consuming the person's essence. It's like an escaping deer mocking its predator who has grown too old to chase, leaving its owner thirsty and always starving.
My dear desire, the smiling crescent desire I know nothing about it, and I'm seeing it for the first time."