A Land Of Sea

An Ocean of Stone Turned Water

Dream mentally cursed himself.

"He said what? I just uh.. well, maybe I forgot." He averted his gaze, suddenly finding a loose board on the floor particularly interesting.

Thankfully, the merman seemed to take the hint, and he didn't press on.

"Why you do want to clear your head?" He asked soon after.

Dream sighed, laughing out of tiredness, or maybe something else. "Oh I don't know. It's just this stupid riddle I need to solve. I've got part of it, but I have no idea about the other half." He shook his head with another painful smile, looking up and closing his eyes as he leaned back against the beam.

"What is the riddle?"

The pirate raised a brow at that, torn between indulging the merman and keeping what could possibly be valuable information to himself. Deciding the chances the other man could do harm with it were slim, he went with the first option.

"To findeth yond which points n'rth thee might not but seeketh the opposite."

He couldn't help but laugh at the scrunched up face the mer came up with. He doubled over wheezing, high pitched tea kettle noises serving to be his form of a chuckle. "What- what was that- tha- that face! Why did y- pffFFT! That face is hi- hilarious!"

It took him a bit to calm down, but once he had, Dream realized the other had been silently laughing along with him. A smile planted on his face, Dream explained himself. "Why did you make such a weird face? I mean it was hilarious, but why?"

"Well I do not know what the means! You spoke much too many words I not do know." He said in a joking frown.

"Fair, fair." Still smiling, he continued. "It basically means 'To find what points north, you have to seek the opposite.' We know it means we have to travel south, but I don't know what we're looking for." He shrugged, feigning disinterest, but the grin was slowly dissipating.

The other man considered this. "Points north, like the conchpass thing you humans have? Con..com..compast..?" He squinted at the water in his tank, as if it would give him the answer to the word he was looking for.

"A compass!" Dream exclaimed. "That's it! Oh my gods, thank you so much! How did you know that?"

Startled by this suddenness, it took him a moment to compose himself and put on a small smile. "It just sounded like what that rude boy told me about a while ago."

"Tommy? Hah, figures."

Ignoring the mer, who was now processing this new name, Dream smiled to himself and laughed lightly again. This was super helpful; who knows how long it would have taken him by himself.

A comfortable silence blanketed them, and Dream had sat down by now, looking out the window and gazing at the far away meeting of the sky and the sea.

Suddenly he was broken out of this trance by an unexpected query. "Why you wear the mask?"

Green eyes snapped up, meeting the unfamiliar blue and brown ones. "What?"

"The mask. It is white and round and you wear it on your, uh.. what it called? Face, that it. Face."

Dream stared at him, unblinkingly, hesitating on his next words.

"Did my mix up the words? Apologies. I try to think of the r-"

Dream stood up abruptly, cutting the merman off. "You don't need to know that." Dream brushed off his pants, seemingly gathering himself to leave.

"Wait, I-"

"Here. I got this for you. It's a puzzle." Dream shoved something into his hands angrily, half tempted to not even give him the gift at all.

"What-"

"I've got to go."

Dream walked past the tank and towards the stairs, entirely done with the conversation.

"Wait!" The mer got out sharply, causing Dream to stop, but not turn, and huff out a breath of air. "What?"

"..."

"Well?" He looked over his shoulder, impatient and frustrated.

"...George. My- my name is George."

Dream's eyes softened, and he was grateful to the ceramic covering his face for hiding the expression.

He left the room without another word.

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Word Count: 1233
Date: 08/13/21

:O

I've had this conversation in my mind for like the past 4 chapters

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