Soul: Tales of the Sleeping Beauty

Chapter Five: Cloud Cuckoo Land

"It felt real...", I described the nightmare to the old man, who nodded his head. "Because it was real.", he replied. "The dream you experienced...", he implied while he held his right hand over my head. "It is a curse upon your soul.", this made me question what he meant by that.

"Every world that you traverse and come across beyond the stars is but a mere fragment, but a mere fraction, that once belonged to a singular entity, a body, called Lemuria and the world that you come from was the heart of Lemuria once.", Jackob explained and Goldilocks nodded. "The Hearthlands.", she revealed that even she knew the name of my planet that I originated from.

"It is the world of the elves for a reason.", said Jackob. "For those who live or just linger there have their souls tied to nature more than they could ever know. The world reaches out to them, begins to whisper, and once it grabs hold of you it does not stop. What it seeks is the energies of one's soul and to root itself into it, both mentally and physically. It becomes a part of your every dream and every nightmare, often showing you things that transcends reality itself. The elf that you saw in your vision is but of many that were consumed by it, a soul that has willingly become a part of it that has reached out to you to give you a warning. For what the nature of this warning is? I do not know...", he paused before lowering his hand down over my cheek.

"But what I do know, child, is that it is right. The nature of all life is eternal and never changing, and we are ephemeral.", Goldilocks nodded her head with agreement. "Now let me brew you some fresh tea.", he got up and then waved his hand towards the fountain with one of the jugs reaching inside by itself to fill itself with water and one of the cabinets opening from which a tea bag emerged that made its way to the jug on its own.

He held the jug in the air with the help of one hand and placed it down on the table along with the bag before it started to heat itself up. Goldilocks stared at him for a moment before looking back to me. She looked down hopelessly and then raised her left claw over my shoulder.

"So, how do we get you home?", asked Goldilocks and I looked up to the ceiling with such a headache, not believing she could be asking me that right now. "Who says I am going home?", I said in frustration and the old man turned to face me with disbelief.

"Young child, have you already forgotten Talia's warning?", he questioned me. "No, and by the record Talia can bite me!", I raised my voice, making sure he heard me say it loud and clear.

This made Goldilocks smile and clapped her claws excitedly like a little child several times before smacking my shoulder that hurt like hell considering what I was through.

"That's what I am talking about!", she seemed to be in on the idea though, which made me happy. "Goldi!", the old man called. "You are in on this too?!", the old man looked surprised.

"Yeah?", she replied. "But why?", the old man asked. "Because fuck them!", she said it loud and clear as well that made me laugh. "You two are both insane and have no idea what you're getting yourselves into! Goldi, think about the bears!", the old man raised his voice and looked at her bears that each began to bark in order from left to right: Papa, Mother, and Baby Bear.

"You guys are in on this too?!", the old man was surprised. "God damn it!", he cursed to the heavens. "Sounds like they got more balls then you.", Goldilocks then looked at Mama Bear who looked back at her in turn. "Well, I meant that metaphorically, of course.", she stated.