Gemini
Hvergelmir, Norse Regions, North Atlantis
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It is said that outside humanity speaks of our existence through legends tracing back to the Great Frays. But they see Norse and Greek aspects as separate. When in fact, we've been quite close since antiquity. Remnants of both cultures exist in harmony on Atlantis. In fact, the Norse had the resources needed to cross the Northern Atlantic Ocean without being seen.
Every liner had to rendezvous over Hvergelmir; the vast sea in the middle of Asgard's region of Atlantis. I stayed awake on the ships deck until 2 o'clock; when all 20 liners were in sight. They all lined up over the water. I watched in awe as every ship behind us lined up in near perfect alignment. The Dreamscape was always second in line behind The Sapphire.
From there, we followed the pride of the Sky fleet towards Asgard; The Floating city. Asgard was just as big as Feigmonton. It's buildings were platted with precious metals. Three massive 5,000 feet tall and 100 feet wide columns held the city in the air. The old tree of Yggdrasil was visible from the top deck from far out. It sat 15 miles north of the city yet was still visible from such a long distance. I've seen pictures of it, but never in real life. I could only imagine how it looked up close.
Fireworks from the city's residents littered the skies and dimmed the stars. There were 20 yellow circles in the sky next to the floating city. They were meant to provide counterveils throughout the journey across the ocean. That meant that the sights were about to be over. I stayed up for 3 hours after leaving on the top deck of the ship. I hadn't even bothered to see my cabin yet, and I was getting pretty exhausted.
I was handed a room designation card on my way in: Deck 12, Aft section, 1268. The journey there made me quickly learn how crowded skyliners would be on journeys. I was lucky it was only one night.
The door to my cabin automatically opened for me; revealing a small group of other students talking across the room. "Finally," I heard. The only bed left was the one in the middle. No window view, and all the other beds were facing me.
A brown haired girl jumped off her top bunk, and glanced at a paper on the wall next to me.
"You must be.....Gemini?" She asked.
"Yup, that's me." My mouth felt dry from all the wind blowing in my face.
"Well, there's our last roommate," another voice said behind me.
The source was a burly looking Elve boy sitting on his bottom bunk.
"Hi, I'm Derik," he said with a yawn.
"I'm Rachel," came a tired, feminine voice from the top bunk. The only thing she showed was a raised hand.
"And I'm Grace," the brown haired girl said with an open palm. I shook it.
"Nice to meet you guys."
Grace grabbed the paper off the wall and began studying it.
"So, you get the middle bed. Is that ok?"
"Yes, ya, I'm good with wherever." My voice was really clogged. "Sorry." I coughed a few times to clear my throat.
"It's all good," Grace responded in a monotone voice. "Anyway, here's the schedule and rule form."
I was handed the paper and a pen. Basically, the rules were to not use magic while on board. Then again, no expedition leaves Atlantis with people who know magic. That only applies to the return journey, so I guess the rule book was practically negligible.
I signed my name. "Where do I put this now?" I asked. But Grace was already in bed. Yawning, she just told me to put it outside the room. When I came back in, the lights were out.
"Wait, do we need any pjs?" I asked in a whisper.
"No, it's a Four hour journey until we land," Derek's voice responded. "Its best just to sleep as much as we can. They tell me a 7 hour sleep is important before your first day, and we're hours short enough as it is....so......*yawn*......just go to sleep."
"Okay then."
Without another word, I lied down on the mattress, pulled the covers over, and fell right asleep.
..........
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"Gemini, GEMINI! Help me! I can't breathe!"
"Wha-Mum? Why? Where are we? Mum are you okay?"
There was nobody around. I could see a debris ridden street in front of me, and an alleyway behind me.
"MUM?" I yelled again.
"I'm here!" Came a muffled voice. There was a hand reaching out of one of the heaps of debris.
"Oh god! Mum!"
I ran over to the pile and tried to individually move the pieces of wood, brick, and metal by hand. The hand grabbed me and wouldn't stop fidgeting. "Mum, stop! You'll make it worse! Please stop!" I pleaded with a sore throat. Suddenly there was smoke everywhere. I never heard the voice anymore. I kept reaching for debris but the hand suddenly lightened its grip on my wrist, then went limp.
"Mum? MUM!! Don't do *cough* this!
Pl-plea-*cough*."
I lost my grip trying to shoo away the smoke. It burned my eyes and prevented my breathing. "No!"
I was blasted out of the inferno by an explosion. My body was blasted 20 feet away from the debris pile. When I looked up, the smoke parted to reveal a dead body, one that didn't belong to my mum, but my father.
"Kid, run!" A voice sounded behind me. I was immensely confused and unsure where to go or what to do, so I ignored the voice. At the same time, a roaring blue beam passed over my head, and blasted a brick wall next to another alley. It came adjacent from my position on the street. Before I could react, a red beam from that direction hit me square in the chest, and everything went black.
"Hmm, so another comes."
I couldn't move anything, see anything, or do anything. I felt non-existential. It took time for me to realize I had just heard a voice. It was garbled, hard, and interested. In me.
"Is anyone there?" I asked nervously.
A small giggle resonated from all directions. It wasn't a friendly giggle at all.
"You are the second person I have conversed with in matter of what feels like hours. But you don't have a Shard, why is that?" The voice asked me.
I stayed silent.
"If this wasn't your astral form young man, I would be able to hear you shaking. Not out of utter fear, but confusion, and....loss."
"How do you know?" I seethed menacingly.
"You have a very loud mind young one. It reeks of knowledge, and reveals a simple truth: that you are very special."
I tried to cover my ears, but I couldn't touch anything.
"SHUT UP! You must be behind my dreams! Why do you cause me so much confusion and anger?" I wailed accusingly at the voice.
"You think me responsible?" The voice said patronizingly. "I have no reason to torment you, it appears we are...both very special."
"How do you know what my problems are?" I hissed.
Suddenly, there was fire all around me, a menacing rumble pierced my ears.
A large silhouette appeared above and around me. It had a dark red glow from the embers on the edges. A thick, horned tail surrounded me on all sides like the embers. The creature had a long neck. It's was sitting on its haunches, facing off to the side. It pointed a slit-shaped pupil at me from a lizard-shaped face.
If I had to guess, I'd say this thing was at least over 50 feet tall just sitting down. It had behemoth wings too: both unbelievably large, and spiked. They made a whooshing sound as they flapped above the creatures back. It wasn't a Wyvern. They had two legs and wings for arms. Now this....this thing had four legs. A Dragon.
It turned its head in my direction and and studied me. I realized I was suddenly in a physical form again.
"Who are you?" I whimpered.
"Your puny problems are irrelevant to me. I think you know very well who I am, young magus. Is this some ploy of Zeus, or of Kronos? Surely the Romans can't use the Nether realm to speak across dimensions."
"I don't understand." I backed away, trembling.
In a lightning fast movement, the Dragon's claw grabbed me tightly and bought me up to its enraged face.
"TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED YOU SNIVELING IMPOSTER!" He roared at me. I gasped for air as the claw tightened its grip around me. The talons dug into my skin like a knife in butter. One of my arms was caught in the clutch. I began slamming a fist on the pointer claw out of panic.
The Dragon snarled, and began opening his maw. Was he going to burn me to a crisp or consume me? I locked eyes with the monster. Its pupils were almost invisible, eyes burning with anger. The gaze gradually softened, reconsideration visible in the crimson irises. I could describe so many other things about the Dragon's appearance. But in the heat of the moment, all I could think about were those eyes.
The grip around my waist softened. With a growl, the Dragon threw me across the jagged hot surface. It wasn't a lethal or seriously damaging impact, but it wasn't gentle either.
"You're the second person I have come across in the nether." The voice repeated. "You must be a clairvoyant."
Still gasping, I couldn't bring myself to look up. When I did, I didn't see the Dragon. Instead, I saw a caped man. He had long jet black hair, a short beard, dark skin, crimson eyes, and an expression that resembled a hunter admiring its prey. He wore a champagne tunic and a black robe.
The most prominent feature of the man were the glowing red eyes and a similar glow on his throat.
As he walked toward me calmly, he spoke in the same voice of the Dragon.
"It seems to me that you aren't a liar, but I also wish for my arrival back to Atlantis to occur the way I see fit. In fact, forget everything you saw here. It's only a bad dream."
Something in those menacing eyes flashed as bright as the sun. I felt a split second of scalding heat before I lost consciousness........and felt nothing more.
AUTHOR'S UPDATE: Greetings fellow readers! (Yes I read my own stuff).
JUNE 10th: This chapter was shorter than usual, but extremely important!
I'm eager to hear your questions, thoughts, and theories about the story up to this point right here!
What do you think about the geography of Atlantis so far? Any questions about it?
Why is Gemini suddenly dreaming about warfare again? Did you read in between the lines to find out?
Who is that Dragon, and what was he talking about?