Wings of Fire: Dragons, Steel, and Pom-Poms

XIX - Pioneer or Madness?

Argonaut opened his eyes, and found himself surrounded by blue.

Wait, that can't be right.

A featureless blue hung above. A featureless blue rested below. The two blues separated by a perfect line in every direction. A horizon.

The deeper blue resembled the sea. But it was utterly still and smooth. No rolling waves as far as he could see, and no discernable smell.

The blue above looked like the sky. A cloudless, windless sky. The brightness and warmth he could feel around him suggested it was mid-day.

His scales felt dry. Looking down, he discovered he was sitting atop this strange... floating thing. It looked like a bunch of straight wood pieces tied together in a square shape. He was out of the water only high enough that he didn't touch it.

He also realized, when he lifted a talon, that he wasn't casting a shadow.

He looked straight up, there was no sun. Despite everything being bright and warm, the light wasn't coming from anywhere in particular.

What?

For some reason, he didn't like that light. It made him uncomfortable.

He decided there was a pretty good chance he was dreaming. Which in of itself was a little weird, given one usually didn't realize he was experiencing a dream until he woke up. Or he may realize he's existing in a dream, at which point he would immediately wake up.

He closed his eyes, and opened them again. He was still floating within a featureless sea.

Weird.

Argonaut sighed through his nose. Just his luck he'd get stuck in a dream world with nothing in it.

It all felt pretty real, though. Maybe he could go for a swim. It had been a while since he'd been able to do that.

He looked over the side of the floating-thing. His own face in the dark-blue stared back. It definitely looked like water, although it was completely still.

When he thought about jumping in though, he was overwhelmed with an inclination that he really shouldn't get off the floating thing.

So much so that he couldn't push himself forward.

He leaned back, and the inclination faded. He tried again, once again unable to make himself jump off. He repeated the process a couple of times. To no success.

Frustrated, he sat back, sighing again.

This is incredibly strange. Even for a dream. Figures I would get a lucid dream and still not be able to do anything.

It was at that point he realized he wasn't alone on the floating-thing. He wasn't sure how, but something tipped him off.

He turned around, and behold, there was a scavenger on one corner of the floating-thing. The corner opposite the direction he'd been looking this whole time.

Somehow, he simultaneously was and was not surprised.

The scavenger didn't acknowledge his attention, or move at all. It just stared out at the horizon, seemingly at peace.

Even more confused, Argonaut squinted at the creature. He can't remember what it looks like, whether like a normal scavenger or one of the weird new ones.

The SeaWing blinked. He cannot remember what the scavenger looks like. Was that even a good way to describe it? It wasn't as though he couldn't see the scavenger, or suddenly forgot what scavengers looked like, it was right in front of him! He can't remember what it looks like, despite looking right at it. As if it were not registering within his mind.