Mareas Mist

There weren't always dragons in the village..in fact there were quite a few more odd things than that. Either it be a dark black magic pixies hopscotchen down the dark green mossy grottos.

Maybe a century old vengeful ogre looking to goorge ur eyes out with your own intestines to make a decadent cornea cream melt, however their rump has stuck to the swampy ooze that surrounds them forcing them to remain stuck. Lucky you. Or perhaps you may encounter a young eccentric traveling bard, charging 5 shillings for a tune. If ye tip him 2 shillings he will out to sing you perhaps a more naughty sonet to brighten your day.

Sacred gods inscript that dragons only come when the evil mistress of Lucifer herself, Marea, becomes filled with rage and decides to enact her temper on the innocent through their dreams.

Dragons are said to be the “carriers of bad dreams' ' only very few have been able to experience such an encounter with these flying shadows. They are said to descend upon a sleeping village and breath a dust that entraps the children under mareas mist. Once a child is trapped in mareas mist they will be confronted and forced to fight through their worst fear in order to return to our world and leave mareas purgatory. The most terrifying creature or event that any child or adult could ever think of. Not many children wake up from these nightmares, most Perishing due to their heart bursting. Or starvation and dehydration.

I've only ever read about it in the story books and through tell tale stories. The most memorable tale came along with my time spent in the frosted isles of yukamo. I was dehibilated from a lengthy encounter with a selkie who had come upon shore and seeking me to be their mate. After a lengthy chat and trying to explain to the poor lass that i could not seek her needs that she desired. She clicked her tail and continued to waddle back into the icy sea where she took a piece of my heart out and trotted along. I came across a studying winter sorcerer practicing his illusion magic by heating up what smelled like fresh pine root beans. I knew this wizard was not from yukamo. For no outlander would know how to properly cook pine root beans.

He didn’t say much.Only telling his haunting story that has stayed with me to this very day. . He Blankly stared into his pot he was occasionally stirring. The rigid wind pierced like tiny daggers in my back. I approached the sorcerer and planted my worn body across from him. Close enough to feel the fire. The subtle embers kissed my face as I closed my eyes to enjoy the warmth, until the wizard spoke his tale...

“ when I was but a wee lad, coming up on my 6th frost.Me and my mother lived in the neck crevice of the mount horrigan in the far west of the Aokigahara peninsula.”

No wonder that's where he learned to make pine root beans.

“ As a child i was quite eccentric. My mother and I would follow the stream down to where the fire toads would come to rest. They would rest on mossy rocks close to the waterfall releasing a burnt aroma into the air. Although the touch of water would burn their skin. They were still called to the water. We would collect their embers and use them to cook our meals. On the 5th of marando, my mother tucked me into my sleep where I didn't awake for 2 seasons.

He grew silent for a moment,as he turned away from the bowl, as the long wooden spoon with teal engraved carvings making swirls into each other,. Kept spinning. The nameless sorcerer turned to his satchel that was slowly accumulating medium sized patches of white snow. He brushed it off and reached inside and grabbed some sealkie cheese. How ironic. The sorcerer's magic lifted two worn wooden bowls into the air. The faint teal mist trailed from the sorcerer's body through the bowls and spoon. The magic effortlessly moved through the mist. Delicately. Like the balance of nature. The spoon poured the beans into the bowls, and then he gently placed the selkie cheese inside the bowls. He then put his hand under the bowls and they flew into his palms. He reached his hand over the fire to meet mine.I bowed my head to him and the smell wafted itself into my nose. The smell was divine. I dipped the bright yellow cheese with ice spiked salt into the batter of the beans and took a large chunk out of it. Extraordinary, the most decadent of flavors from home, but also a wondrous taste of the isles.

“ i awoke, in a sea of trees high enough to tickle the gods. The burnt sun bathed the atmosphere in amber skies and crimson clouds . I could feel my mothers caressing arms holding me. Until her grasp began to suffocate me. Her caring caressing arms had turned into jagged bones and morphed into a figure that was not of my mothers flesh, but a creature that was half the appearance of my mother and the other half being her ripped off,Like if she had become in the cross hairs of a monster much bigger and with much bigger claws than her. Her skeleton that made up her other portion of her body, was jagged and rough. As I ripped away from her grasp. Her bones cut me like razor blades as I burst through. She screamed for me. A scream like no other i had ever heard. Worse than any siren or banshee. Something more terrifying. Something more evil. It penetrated my ears bringing me to my knees. I held my ears as I could feel them bleeding through the palms of my hands. I didn't know where fate had landed me. I was absolutely petrified. I missed my mother. I didn't know why I was in this nightmare, but I knew I couldn't stay. A way out. There had to be a way. I then realized what had happened to the innocent child I once was. It was being consumed By marea. I was entrapped in mareas mist. My innocence ripped away. Forced to fight my way out of mareas nightmare inferno. I explored along the Caliginous waters. I sat in a pile of dead leaves and old bones and began to softly cry. Although I could not sleep. I was becoming weaker. I didn't have much time left until marea would have me for eternity.. I heard the ungodly scream again as my ears bleed.. I peaked over the shrub to see a glowing purple light that looked as if it was beating.Caged in the bones of the spirit walker.I didn’t have many options. I picked up the sharpest object I could find,being a bone of one of the creatures that was hunting me. All the rage filled my body at once and without hesitation i firmly grasped the bone in my hand and sprinted. The spiritwalker heard me and turned and opened its mouth to touch the ground that exposed the screeching. Its raced towards me. I jumped onto its back kicking, screaming…crying, and jabbed the bone has far and as deep as I could into its purple beating vessel. It dissipated and i awoke in my bed. Gasping for air. My hand clutching my heart…”

The mans story was riveting. I couldn't stop listening while munching on the most delectable pine root beans i've ever had. I spoke back to the man

“ not many can say they have survived mareas mist. Your mother must have thanked the gods.”

The air grew silent. The only sound being that piercing wind.

“ i awoke, but my nightmare was just beginning. Clutching my leg was my mothers rotten corpse and by her side a small bottle of nightshade elixir from the apothecary in town”

The wind picked up.

“ i had been asleep for 2 seasons. My mother, leading to believe i had died, sat next to my side. As she wished for death and was soon granted. Her hand broke as I had to remove it off of me.My mother wasn’t the only one who died that day. The child I once was died too. My body was feeble and weak if i had stayed in mareas nightmare any longer i would have starved to death and wouldn't be able to sit and tell you this tale.”

The man stirred the beans in his bowl silently and entranced. As if he was back in mareas nightmare. Stuck in her purgatory.

The man spoke once more and he spoke in a rhyme

“Remember this traveler, pass this rhyme unto any village, mother,father, or anyone who has a child.

“For when you fall asleep under mareas mist

You will fight your battles and must resist

For once she takes you into her arms

You are bounded by her charms

Her sons and daughters walk as dragons

As the sky around blackens

You find yourself in an inescapable nightmare”

After he uttered his final words the wind blew out the fire and took the sorcerer with it, and just like he vanished and the only thing left of him was the haunting tales he left me with.

His story struck at me. I pity the innocent souls of the children who are trapped in mareas mist. My memory of his story will never escape my mind. I swore to myself that day. I would find marea and i would banish her and her bastard children they call dragons…

I've been planning my venture to seek out my old companion from my previous adventures, the lord of crepuscule. My travels would take me through the valley of juniper Cypress. My map of this part of the world was dusty.I haven't been in these parts of the green wonderland since a drunken stumble and lost my special magic berry beads i was gifted by a wonderfully fulomptius milk maid who gave them to me after i rescued her beloved cow “cornelius” from a frost sprit. Took a marrow to defrost the poor heifer. She had blessed the berry beads with a protection spell against nature nymphs. Who love to pickpocket you if you find yourself taking a wee rest in the forest. They can be quite the mischievous foe.

After leaving a clearing of frivolous pine trees my eyes bestowed upon a small village at the bed of the valley. Restless and hungry, I headed towards this small village. It only consisted of a small tavern. A breadmaker's hut and about 5 little houses. The town was as quant as it was quite. Not a sound. Not a word.

How peculiar.

A woman bursted out of the larger building towards the east side of the village.

“PLEASE, SOMEONE, A SOUL. I BEG SOMEONE”

She met my eyes and then fell onto her knees and grabbed along the cloth of my trousers. Sobbing uncontrollably.

“Marea, mareas mist. She has cursed our village with her evil mist. All of our children have fallen under her trance, and none have awoken since. My sweet dear Alice has fallen under her trance as well. She is such an innocent girl. She cant survive whatever nightmare marea has placed her under. We all have children here, and none of us have the heart to leave their side.”

She pulled me into the large building where the village children were laying on hay cots. Their mother and fathers beside them some sobbing, some sitting in silence. I sat beside the woman and her daughter alice.she held her hand. The little one still breathing and her eyes moving rapidly behind her eyelids. A scream filled the room.

“NOO!!!! Silas NO!!”

Everyone looked toward the father holding his sons convulsing body that was foaming at the mouth.He shook like a bag of marbles. He convulsed until his body became lifeless.

The father held his sons body in silence until he placed his body down and pushed me into the wall grabbing my worn dusted coller.

“My son. What would his mother think of me…. I pray of thee, follow the mist. Find marea and free our children from this curse. please.”

I felt an immense amount of responsibility to help these people. I know if i dont stop marea and banish her and her mist from this valley, then nobody would.

“By my troth, by the stars in the night sky, i will free your children of this nightmare.”

The people of the village held their children's hands tightly and bowed their heads to me in send off. The father of the boy looked at me with tears filling his eyes and bowed his head and went back to holding his son's cold corpse…

I walked outside of the hut and planted my eyes to the farthest mountain to see the faint color of purple leak out the side of the mountain. I knew my destination. Now to slay marea.

Cascading colors of amethyst with the faint smell of nightshade, Mareas mist lingered in the air around the entrance of the mountain. The ground clanked. I looked below to see bones of all sizes and shapes. Childrens bones mostly. Some of the bones were very large in the shape of a creature i couldn't quite make out. I I unsheathed my blade “Yume No Seirei” gently holding a grip on the tsuka. The cave was well lit from the mist. Ancient Scratch marks depicting drawings of a blackened sun with a wave like figure drowning the people running chaotically away from the wave coming to consume them. The mist did not diminish as I went deeper into the hollowed cave carved into the mountain, A voice echoed through the walls calling out to me

“Not many dare to enter my mist willingly.”

Marea…

I grasped my blade tightly to my chest and proceeded forward into the purple abyss. Little sobs reverberated their ways through the walls and into my ear canal. Dancing their way inside my cranium.

“ Mother? Is that you?It's so dark… I miss you Mother..”

“The spirit walkers are coming again. No no no no not again please please. I just want to wake up. I miss my horse Sebastian…”

Others were followed by just loud screeches as described by the sorcerer. Screams of people who have been trapped inside their nightmare for an eternity. Their innocent souls sacrificed to mareas power.

Stones of amethyst and Smokey quartz lit up the path into a concave crevice with water as high up as my shoulders. I entered the frostbit water. Grappling from the rocks from the ceiling to maintain my balance and keep my head above the water. The deeper I ventured into the small opening the lights ahead lit. The path took me to a large room. With crystallized dragon bones illuminating the room. The room filled with echoed screams,causing my ears to bleed. A voice called out to me

“The deeper you dwell beware for you will come under my spell”

Marea.. she is close…

I steadily walked into the center of the room. Examining the crystallized bones. The center of the room hung a large dragon with its mouth agape. The amethyst mist creeped out of its mouth revealing a woman’s curvaceous figure. She wore a black thorny dress that was ever so delicately laid amongst her skin. Her dress slit down the side of her right leg and down the center of her chest creating a V shape, Revealing her alabaster skin.. The black thorns pulsed highlighting shades of mulberry. Her throat was covered in a lace choker that wrapped around her neck and caved down her shoulders enscripted in purple diamonds that matched her piercing eyes. Her hair was jet black and trailed behind her into the dragons mouth. A purple flame acted as her crown. Her lips favored the color of purple agate and her cheeks did the same. Her looks herself had me in a nightmare. Entranced in her lustrous beauty. If she was a mistress. It made sense it was for the devil himself.

“ So I suppose you have come to lay these foolish ambitions to rest. Let me speak to you once and only once. “Adventurer” the dark lord himself has been very pleased with my work and has only strengthened my nightmare powers.”

Before I could rebuttal,marea casted her arms out, flowing the Amethyst to entrap me inside it.

“Have a nice dream”

I closed my eyes and awoke. To a crimson sky and a 500 foot long dragon…out of my worst nightmare…