[identity profile] tekia.livejournal.com posting in [community profile] tamingthemuse
Title: Reclaiming the Past
Fandom: Original
Prompt: #87 Dreams
Warnings: none
Rating: G
Summary: Reve’s dreams lead him through his quest to find the lost city.


I was standing in shadows, not because I was something evil, or hiding from something evil, unless one would call the harsh desert sun evil, but because the heat was overpowering. I could see the waves of heat raising from the sandy ground that had been packed solid by thousands and thousands of feet treading over it throughout the years. Around me, people drifted from shady spot to shady spot. The air was spiced and heavy with freshly baked goods. I breathed it in and suddenly realized that I was dreaming.
Acute disappointment filled me as I strolled along under canopies of brightly dyed cotton. I had no control over my body as I made my way through the market, eyes scanning everything they landed upon. It was all familiar, as if I had walked this path many times before, seeing the same sights day after day. Everything was so precious to me, as if I had learned to belong, and in that learning, taken everything for myself.
A longing filled me as I briefly remembered the life I lived, and how different that one was from this dream. How I yearned for a life lived in this dreamland. I raised a hand in greeting as people called out to me, although I could hear no words spoken, only the impression of conversations. Young and old alike greeted me with smiles and I was filled with happiness at their welcome.
It felt like home, so unlike my real home. It was bittersweet, knowing that this was only a dream and having to dream it still. Filled with emotion, I dearly wanted to wake up.
Quickly, my mind turned to the buildings around me, tall and whitewashed, glittering in the sun with violently bright cottons hanging from roofs. People peeked over the roofs where they lounged in the sun, fans lightly lifting the hairs from around their faces. Every face I saw was darkly tanned, but as I moved deeper into the market there were more and more lighter skinned people, foreigners. I saw more demons in the market than I had seen in the last year alone awake. Too, were there spirits mingling among the people, buying and selling.
My body stopped before a stall of figs and dates dipped in honey and I reached out to make a selection when, suddenly, the dream was gone.


The slamming of the door in the apartment under him, woke Reve abruptly. He sat up, rubbing at his eyes. For only a moment the dream stayed with him, but when shouting reached him through the thin floor, he groaned and rolled out of bed to start his day.
It figured the neighbors would be at it again and draw him from such a wonderful dream. As he brushed his teeth, he wondered about the dream, but his phone ringing drew his attention and he was quickly off to the work that would take up all his thoughts for the rest of the day.
As he sat at his desk later, he wondered if it were possible that the thick jungle could have ever been something else, long ago. He’d spoken with a demon not too long ago that had said something of that ilk, but he’d pushed that idea away when it wasn’t what he was looking for. Now, though, if the jungle had been something else, perhaps his dream would come true and he could find the lost city of that ancient empire.
Perhaps the city had held the jungle at bay for thousands of years and, when the people left, the jungle had encroached upon it, taking over the remains, hiding them away. He pulled the maps toward him once again and plotted where he guessed the city of legend would sit.

I was standing at a window, my arm braced on the wall, as I gazed out at the blue, blue ocean. The sun was bright, and birds filled the docks more than sailors. White clouds were floating in the sky and on the waters in the form of ships. Not all the sails were white, some bright vermilions, others vivid violets, oranges, and yellows. Patterns were sewn into the sails, indicating their place of origin. I couldn’t name any of the kingdoms, but knew that I knew them. Their names were just out of my mind’s reach, but there nonetheless. I grew frustrated until I realized that this was only a dream.
In real life the ships were made of metals and ran under fuel power, not sails. Nor was the ocean so clear and clean. It made me ache with longing for my dreamworld to be real. Again was the air filled with exotic spices and scents. Below my window people walked or rode carriages, but there were no cars, no smoke from engines. I wanted this life so bad I could taste it.
The view was the same as it was from my hotel’s window, the docks verily unchanged. Life seemed duller in the real world, where usually dreams were the duller ones. I breathed in the scents of the city, struck by homesickness and the feeling of being home all at once.
A knock drew my attention to the room where a steward opened the door and held out a pamphlet. I walked into the room, away from the window and greeted the other man with a smile, not knowing how I knew him, only that I did. The pamphlet opened to reveal a letter folded inside and another sealed with brilliant crimson wax. The seal was of a woman touching a finger to a star, a crown hovering above them both. I opened the unsealed letter and made no sense of the lines of strange words.
My dream self knew what it was, though and quickly refolded the letter and stuffed the sealed one in saddle bags resting at the foot of the bed. I spoke with the steward in a foreign tongue, laughing and joking as we talked. In no short time, I was headed down thin, dark stairs, and out to the bright sunlight, blinking as my eyes adjusted.
I walked a short distance, feeling the sea air kiss my face, cooling the sun’s heat. There was a stable yard, the horses grazing in a field just beyond. I knocked on a door and greeted the man that appeared. He waved me down an aisle and I followed the packed dirt path to a massive black gelding. Having never been around horses when awake, I quaked inwardly, but my dream self was calm as he greeted the horse with a friendly pat to the nose. The horse showed its teeth and made the strangest noise I’ve ever heard come from an animal.
It was annoying and high pitched. I frowned at the beast, covering my ears before I realized that it was my alarm.


Reve slammed his hand down on the clock buzzing in his ear.
He buried his face in the oh so soft pillow, pulling the edges around his head to block out the soft morning light. Just a few more moments wouldn’t hurt, would it?
But he was here. He couldn’t hold back a grin. He was in a foreign country. He lifted his head and looked out the hotel window and was struck by how much it reminded him of his dream. Sitting up, he wondered about the dream. Was it nothing more than fantasy? Probably.
After dressing for the day his ordered room service arrived and he ate out on the balcony, staring out at the ocean as the breeze played with his hair.
He knew that this city was demon built. Thus very, very ancient. In fact, this was the oldest city in the world. It has history dating back before The Rift passed down in songs and legends. Historians dismissed the legends as myth, but he felt that there was truth there. And he would find it. If this city was half as old as he suspected, then there was no doubt in his mind that he would find a link to his lost city. His lost empire. Then his dream would become a reality.
He just had to find that missing link.

I was holding someone in my arms. Someone that belonged there, the deepest part of my soul was telling me. Someone that I held with such tender love that it frightened me. I felt that no matter how hard I held the body next to me, it would be torn from me.
It scared me, this dream.
I wanted to pull away, I wanted to pull the body closer, but I couldn’t move, paralyzed by fear as I was.
There was darkness surrounding me, so I couldn’t tell if I had my eyes closed, or if the room was just that dark. I shivered, feeling lost and very, very scared. Beside the terror, there was happiness overflowing from my heart. It rose to my throat, choking me, bringing tears to my eyes as I fought these emotions within me.
Suddenly, a hand was cupping my jaw. My eyes opened and I was awake.


He sat up in bed, gasping. His heat beat a rapid tattoo against his chest as Reve’s eyes searched the empty room, lit only by the predawn. Unconsciously his hand reached out along the bed, searching for something, someone, that wasn’t there.
He swallowed heavily, his through tight as cold sweat beaded against his skin. He felt as if there had been something ripped from him, from within him.
Calming, he wiped at his brow, laughing a little at his reaction to a dream that was fading with the morning sun.

I was riding a horse. That’s how I knew I was dreaming. I’ve never ridden a horse in all my life, but here I was, in my dream, galloping along the beach, wind whipping through my hair and laughing. A harem of mares followed me, led by their stallion, a beauty of pure white with wild blue eyes.
Suddenly, I veered away from the herd, bisecting the beach and passing into the forest that had grown out to meet the soft sandy dunes. For a moment, my wakeful self worried about hitting branches, but as I entered I found myself following a wide path, carved into the forest floor by millions of people walking it for thousands of years.
The horse slowed as we approached a smallish temple, people milling about. I leaped from the horse’s back more graceful than I’d ever be awake and made my way up the stone stairs to the altar, kneeling before it and bowing my head.
I didn’t pray, but instead spoke a verse that struck me as musical in nature. I didn’t understand the words coming from my lips, but knew that this was not a prayer to a god, but a song intended for nature.
The scientist in me took over. I knew that people of old didn’t have religions, not like we do today. Instead they put their faith in their souls, trusting that everything they needed would be provided within themselves. This temple was merely a connection between human spirits and the spirit of nature. Never had a temple been found, though.
My dream self stood and reached out to touch a hand to the far wall of the temple, which turned out to be a slab of limestone. Even in my dream I could feel the shock of power that coursed through me. I felt rejuvenated. I felt a somnolent smile turn my lips as I backed out of the temple and gazed out at the trees, and the ocean beyond.
Suddenly everything seemed to freeze as my eyes settled upon a formation just outside the ocean’s reach. An outcropping of stone that towered over the trees, not readily visible from the beach, but overwhelming once in its presence.
I’d seen that before, while awake.


He shook awake, his eyes blurring as he gazed at the books spread out under his cheek. Yawning, he realized that he must have fallen asleep at his desk once again. Reve pushed away from the table and stretched.
That dream.
The stone!
He rushed to his window and leaned out, letting the early morning breeze make a riot of his hair. And there, to his left, without the trees of ancient times, was the stony structure. Feeling a thrill that started at the base of his spine, he reached for the hotel phone to call his fellow researchers. This was too good to be true!
If he found the remains of an ancient temple, he’d gain the respect he’d been longing for from his fellow scientists. He’d find the link he’d been searching for. Albeit, he was going to have much work before that day. What, in his dream, had been forest, was now city. If his memory served, that was the old town, new before the old town burnt down many, many centuries ago.
He was going to have to dig through a lot of time to find what he desired.
If he could trust a dream.
Somehow he felt that his dreams were leading him true. There was something that his dreams were leading him to, and he felt that this temple was only the first step.

I dreamed of a desert. Sand was blowing wildly in the wind as I pulled my horse along behind me. I knew that I was out of water, parched and desperate. Wildly, I had the thought that there should have been water here, just there, a river flowing south, surrounded by dense tree coverage, but there was nothing but desert.
Mountain high dunes created a landscape unlike any I had ever seen before. I had reached the peek of one only to be confronted with yet another. In dream time, I passed these hurdles without effort, only the memory of passed trials to give any indication to the sweat put into it. Soon the dunes settled into flat plains, then into ground so dry that it was caked, cracked and solid.
Still, in the distance, I could see nothing but desert. And still I felt that there should have been more. I felt water drip from my brow and blinked awake.


I found myself seated at a table, drinking a cool beverage that was sweet on my tongue. There was a cold breeze from an open window, and a fire under a cauldron. I was surrounded with people who where laughing and drinking heavily.
I knew myself to be drunk as well, but my thoughts were clear and I wondered where I was this time. Where had my dreams brought me?
After a moment, I slammed a hand down on the wooden table and made my exit. I found myself outside, snow drifting on the wind and a heavy cloak over my shoulders. The buildings around me were dark, the moon high. As I walked down the street, humming a bit to myself, I bumped into another body.
We both clutched each other, both steadying my drunken self. I greeted him, language unknown to my ears, but words slurred. I laughed at my state and looked up into the stranger’s eyes, and gasped, shock coursing through me.


Reve jerked awake, his jaw dropped open. He sat up, letting his sheets pool around his waist as he ran a hand through his tousled hair.
Demons were hard to come by in this day and age. When the Rift happened and the three worlds were separated the demons found it more to their suiting to return with their realm. Very few stayed behind. Those that did found it prudent to hide their presence, delving deep into the earth to hide, or else taking on human guises. Some did not hide. Those with power stayed in power, bowing to nobody, not new governments, nor time.
One such demon was the head of the museum’s magic vs. technology unit. He’d worked with the man many times, usually as the butt of his pranks he calls experiments. There was no uncertainty in his mind that he was the same demon he’d seen in his dream. He glanced at his watch laying on the floor next to his pallet and quickly calculated the time in his homeland. About four in the afternoon would be a good time to call.
He fished out the phone and quickly dialed. Within moments he was on hold, waiting for the demon to be paged.
The demon answered, sounding very tired, and Reve remembered that demons were nocturnal by nature. He quickly apologized.
“Think nothing of it, Reve, I’ve been sleeping all day, it was about time I got up and got some work done before the place closes. So, what’d you have in mind?”
“Oh, um, I-I know that you don’t usually talk about your past, not many demons are willing to speak about the past, but I was kinda hoping that you could shed a light on a few things for me?”
As the silence on the other end of the line dragged on, Reve could all but see the demon leaning back in his chair and rubbing a hand over his face. Finally, “You can ask your questions. I’ll answer what I will.”
Well, that was more than what he had thought he’d get. Best make the best of it. “Did you live on the human realm before the Rift?”
He laughed. “That’s a foolish question. I thought they taught you that in primary school. All demons, all spirits, all humans all lived in the same realm, the human realm, where it was all connected.”
Reve gritted his teeth. The demon was right, that had been stupid. “Was there an empire that encompassed much of the world?”
“Depends on what you mean, much of the world. Before the Rift, the world was much different. Lands that are here now were never here before. Lands that were here are now long gone, or broken beyond recognition. That aside, there were two, the recently fallen Monglu Empire and the Quaren Empire from ancient history.”
“Before the Quaren Empire, was there an empire, or culture that reached the furthest distances of that time?”
Again silence rang out across the phone line. Reve bit his lip as he realized that he’d never spoken with the demon about his hunches. Before his dreams, he had always been so unsure of his findings, so unsure of his belief, never quite knowing how he had known that there had been something before.
“What makes you ask this? Have you found something while you’ve been jaunting down south?”
“Eh. Well, I’ve always believe there had been something else.” Then he told the demon all of his suspicions, his findings, his belief. He told him of his dream to find this mystic city.
When he finished, the demon sighed and gave a soft laugh. “It did exist. But humans had forgotten it. Many demons refused to speak of it, for the falling of that empire was brought on by a demon. It was our shame, for in that empire did our three races find peace.”
Reve jumped to his feet, hitting his head on the tent’s ceiling before he remembered. He ducked his head and grinned at his belongings. “So it did exist. I was right. Was it in a desert?”
Again with the silence. The shock reached him across the line and Reve sat again. What was the demon thinking? What did he know?
“No, well, yes. The empire was vast, but the world was different then. Now there are nine continents, then there was only one. That empire came into existence nearly sixty thousand years ago. It died out less than thirty-five thousand years ago. By that time the world was already on its way to change. There were four continents, and the empire was stretched beyond its limits. When it started out, yes, it was in a desert country, but it expanded to include all of the world, all of that vast continent, from the wet lands of the east and west, to the intense desert in the center of the land.”
“What was that land like? One continent?”
“Intense,” he said with another chuckle. “There were no polar lands like now. Nor were there anything like the midlands, tundras. The people of that time knew ice and snow only as sailors that venture north or south, or on the peaks of the mountains that reached to the heavens. One either lived in the tropics, or the desert. If you were lucky, you could have lived in the south where there was a peninsula that allowed for seasons other than wet and dry.”
Reve bit his lip. “It was real.”
“It was.”
“Can I find it?”
There was silence again, and Reve could picture the demon shaking his head. “It’s been too long. The world’s changed so much.”
“Help me.”
Exasperation filled the demon’s voice. “I already have. For what reason, I don’t know. You know more than any human alive, before you even asked me about it. How did you learn this?”
“Dreams.” He heard the demon hiss. “What?”
“What have your dreams told you, human?”
“Lots. Like where to find a temple that proved to me that Lakevie really is the oldest city in all the world. Perhaps even sixty thousand years old.” He knew he was fishing, but felt it was worth the effort. And the demon didn’t disappoint.
“Try higher. You shouldn’t go digging up the past.”
“It’s my job. I’m an archaeologist.”
The demon made a frustrated noise before he gave in. “Fine. Try Cloura, that continent was the center of the original continent. Fire’s Reach is as close as you’re going to get to the city that was once the eastern most city before the mountains. The city you want was called the Shining City, the heart of the empire. It was seven weeks’ journey west from Fire’s Reach, by horse over arid desert.”
Reve closed his eyes and pictured a map of Cloura, the largest continent of the nine now on the surface. Suddenly his eyes popped open. “That would put the city somewhere in the center of the Takeluro Jungle. I’ll never find anything in there!”
The demon laughed. “You asked for it.” Reve thanked the demon before he cut the connection, pondering this new dilemma. It they sailed south to the Cloura’s largest river, then sailed up that, they could start their trek within a month. Moving from the west would be far more practical than the other way. Of course, to give the demon credit, the reason he didn’t tell him to start in the west was probably because what was once the west of the empire is now the north of a whole new continent.
But, at least he now had a starting point. His dreams were all about to come true. He could taste it.

Profile

tamingthemuse: (Default)
Taming The Muse

Authors

Navigation

Prompt Tags and Lists

Word Prompt Entry

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 15th, 2025 04:52 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios