The Dream Sanctum: Beyond The End (8 page)

“A dictionary? What are you making the poor girl read that for? She needs
adventure, not meaningless nonsense!”

After a moment’s hesitation, he took the book lightly from the table and
thrust it into Kwin’s arms. Kwin looked surprised for a few moments, then a
joyous smile crossed her face, and she took Elkid into a tight hug.

“Oh thank you! Thank you so much! I’ll take good care of it and we’ll be
back before anyone even notices it’s gone.”

Elkid laughed awkwardly, but struggled to hide a smile.

“Good! Now, uhm, I’m not exactly supposed to do this, so do us a favor
and hide it in your coat as you leave. Let me go make sure the way is clear for
you.”

Elkid hurried from the room, and all was silent for a few moments until
Alastor chuckled.

“Say, Kwin…”

“Say a word, say a single word, I dare you, and you will get hurt.”

“I was just going to compliment you, that’s all!” Alastor protested.
“You’ve done us a valuable service. That and the way you pulled it off, you
were just…”

“Alastor…”

“I can’t help it. You were completely, one hundred and twenty percent
absolutely
adorable
.”

Kwin leapt at Alastor and attempted to smack his face, but Alastor held
her away with one hand placed upon her forehead.

“Now, this isn’t how good little girls are supposed to act! Mind your
manners.”

Kwin grumbled in frustration, looking at Alastor with a murderous
expression, but Alastor seemed pleasantly oblivious. It was all Kai could do to
keep himself from bursting into laughter at the sight.

Elkid re-entered the tent a few minutes later, motioning for them to
follow him. Kwin instantly regained her composure, clutching the book to her
chest like she would never let go.

“Your friend is still far away, though our guides are running out of
things to show him. I’ve sent someone to fetch him,” Elkid reported.

At this point, Lindsay was the one to step forward, and in contrast to
Kwin’s feigned innocence, her expression of desperation was very much
legitimate.

“I have a favor to ask,” she said quickly, and Elkid looked slightly
taken aback. “Well… to be honest, he’s not really our friend so much as a guy
we all know, but he’s really annoying and he drives us crazy, and…” She looked
slightly nervous, but put a hand on Kwin’s shoulder and added, “And he really
upsets Kwin. He picks on her a lot. Could you possibly fool him into staying
here or going back home while we escape?”

Elkid looked slightly overwhelmed having two girls make such heartfelt
requests of him. He was silent for a few moments, clearly thinking over the
options in his head, and then spoke.

“Well… this is a rather exclusive community. We don’t really allow just
anyone to come spend so much time with us,” he began slowly, but at the
expressions on Kwin and Lindsay’s faces, hastily continued, “but we can
definitely do something about him. We have a few extra small boats… maybe we
can say that you headed back to the mainland and that he should try to catch
up.”

Looking positively ecstatic, it was Lindsay’s turn to give Elkid a hug,
and by now Elkid looked quite happy with himself.

“All right then. However, like I said, we’re running out of ways to keep
his attention… apparently it changes by the minute.”

“You have no idea,” Alastor replied darkly.

“In order for us to fool him properly, you should be out of sight before
he arrives. Let’s hurry.”

The others obliged, eager at their chance to escape Hercules so soon.
They walked quickly through the settlement, waving at the various blue people
that passed them by. As they did so, a few more excited cries of ‘Woop!’ went
up, causing the group to walk faster, and they reached the ship within a few
minutes.

“Best of luck on your voyage,” Elkid said, shaking Alastor’s hand
tightly. “If it’s true that no one has returned from beyond those borders, then
I want you to be extra careful. And take care of Kwinny there, won’t you? She’s
just a kid, she shouldn’t be put into danger.”

“I’ll see to it that Kwinny is taken excellent care of,” Alastor affirmed
with a smile as he looked at Kwin, whose left eyelid twitched.

“You enjoy that book, and I look forward to hearing your stories when you
get back!” Elkid told Kwin warmly. “Now, off you get, before the day gets too
late. Exploring the unknown can get scary in the dark.”

With a final wave, Kai and the others flew back over to the ship, and
within minutes the anchor had been pulled up and the sails deployed, carrying
them with increasing speed away from the island. As they departed, they heard
yet another chorus of wooping chants from the island as at least four dozen of
its residents gathered on the shore. Kai watched nervously as they departed,
expecting Hercules to come flying after them from the now-distant island. But
as the islands vanished behind the horizon into the endless wall of water and
sky, there was still no sign of him.

“Right. I’m just going to put this on the map,” Alastor said, taking out
a pen and scribbling onto the map itself. “Island… of the Blue Woopers… avoid…
at all… costs. There, that should take care of our exploration for the day.”
His expression changed to one of contentment and he sat back in the seat in
front of the control panel. “Now then, I’d say that was a success. Let’s make
the most of the rest of our… you’re angry at me, aren’t you?”

He glanced down at Kwin who, in direct contrast to her innocent and sweet
demeanor just minutes before, now appeared very irritated.

“
Kwinny
?” she asked in a quiet
voice.

“Oh, he said it first, I had to reply with something,” Alastor said
nonchalantly. “Plus, that really was good of you. Without that show, as painful
as it must have been to pull off, we might not have gotten this little clue.”

He took the book gently from Kwin, flipping carefully through the pages.

“Water damage seems to have messed with a lot of this, but we’ll see what
we can decipher later,” Alastor said, closing the book and handing it back to
Kwin. “That’s a job for tomorrow. For now, let’s focus on some distance.”

They stared ahead, looking at the blank sea before them, and Kai couldn’t
help but wonder what secrets were written in the journal. Whatever they were,
they belonged to a group of travelers that never returned – and with any luck,
would help save Kai and the others from that same fate.

W
hen Kai arrived on the ship
the next night, the first thing he noticed was that it was dark. It wasn’t the
type of darkness that came in the absence of sunlight; and as he looked up, he
realized that the entire sky was covered with threatening black clouds.

The sea wasn’t as calm as it had been the previous night, either. The
water swelled and dipped, causing the ship to rock uncomfortably with it. It
wasn’t unbearable now, but it would be if it got much worse.

Thunder rolled in the distance as the others arrived shortly after, one
by one. They too looked around in surprise before walking over to Kai.

“This should get interesting,” Alastor commented. “With any luck, this
means the wind will be more powerful.”

“It looks like that may be the case,” Kwin said as she gazed at the sky.
“However, our journey will not be a comfortable one.”

“If any of you get seasick, you can always wake up and join us another
time,” Alastor told everyone.

“I may have to take you up on that,” Lindsay said nervously. “I love
storms; I just don’t like being
in
them.”

“You can always stay inside,” Kai suggested. “We’ll probably be looking
over that journal Kwin picked up yesterday.”

“I can do that!”

Kwin beckoned them to follow her. Elvia joined them, and they walked
through the glass doors to the kitchen. The room was comfortably lit, and now
that they weren’t looking at the rolling ocean, it was easier to bear the
movement. The table was covered with maps, papers and books. The journal they
received from Elkid sat apart from everything else.

“No one has to stay if they don’t wish to. I expect this to be a boring
process,” Kwin stated as she sat down at the head of the table. Elvia sat
nearby, but she turned in her seat to stare at the storm outside.

Kai and Lindsay took a seat on either side of Kwin, peering over to see
the journal. Kwin opened it gently, turning the delicate pages and attempting
to make out any of the words scrawled upon them.

As they continued, Kai eventually came to the conclusion that the journal
wasn’t going to help them very much. Nearly all of the writing near the
beginning of the journal was faded, and a few pages even seemed to be missing.

However, the closer they came to the middle of the journal, the clearer
and darker the writing became. Finally, after half an hour of searching, they
found an entry that they could read.

Kwin scanned the page, her eyes darting back and forth under her furrowed
brow as she struggled to make out the words. She read faster than they did, but
her expression told Kai they weren’t missing much.

“It appears this group of travelers passed the Shuski as well,” Kwin said
absently. “They were apparently the second group to pass the island. The first
did so decades before.”

“Weird,” Lindsay said. “So there’s a chance people have been doing this
for a long time?”

“Perhaps centuries,” Kwin replied. “Voyages out to sea were never heavily
documented. There’s no real way to tell how long people have been exploring.”

“Or attempting to,” Kai replied. “This is getting a bit creepy, don’t you
think? If even
one
person made it
back from beyond these borders there would have been books full of what they found,
but I’ve never even heard of the Shuski. And don’t you think it’s weird that in
a dream with supposedly endless possibilities, no one has ever thought to go
out more than this distance from shore?”

“Perhaps, but also consider what we said before,” Kwin continued calmly.
“Once you’re out at sea for days and days and all you see is more empty ocean,
there’s not much motivation to keep searching. This isn’t like the real world;
in here, people are impatient and want to spend their time enjoying themselves,
not searching for what might not even exist.”

At this point, Elvia turned her attention back to the table. So rare was
it for her to give input that the others stopped talking immediately to look at
her.

“There are theories that the Sanctum is neither a globe, nor without
end,” Elvia said. “It is thought that, at a certain point, you are simply
unable to travel any farther. For example, we could sail for months and think
we were going somewhere, but after awe reached a certain point we simply would
not move at all.”

“Ah… what a cruel illusion,” Kwin mused. “People would be out here until
their supplies dwindled then perished, believing that they were so far from
civilization when in fact they were only days from home.”

“Even if that were true, that doesn’t explain the Shuski,” Kai continued.
“Wouldn’t there be a record of them somewhere, even in an obscure history
book?”

“Possibly, but look here.” Kwin pulled the journal closer to her and
pointed to one of the pages in the entry. “It says here that the Shuski are not
a part of the Sanctum itself, just a group of ordinary dreamers. It is very
rare that any dreamer makes history unless they do something of merit, and this
group is just a number of strange people who like to appear blue.”

“I suppose…”

Kai knew that she was right, but the fact that the island was outside the
boundaries of the map still nagged at him.

“You do not look convinced,” Kwin said, looking straight at him.

“I just can’t help but think that something is a bit off,” Kai replied,
and though he didn’t want to frighten Lindsay, he knew it would bother him
until he got it off his chest. “People have been making expeditions for decades
according to this, perhaps even longer. But no one has ever written about
those, not even the attempts. You’d think that even failure would be mentioned,
right? That maybe the Shuski would be mentioned for living so far out there, or
even the island they lived on, but there’s nothing.”

“It may be something we need to ask of the Librarians when we return,”
Kwin suggested.

If we return
said an eerie voice in the
back of Kai’s head.

“What if there’s nothing written because people found all these neat
things, but never got back to write about them?” Lindsay asked, taking the
others by surprise.

“If that is true, then we will simply have to break the mold,” Kwin
replied matter-of-factly.

“Does anything ever bother you?” Lindsay laughed, looking relieved at
Kwin’s nonchalance.

“The only things that have ever bothered me in this world are Arc, Wing and
Hercules. I would rather spend my time with a sea monster than those brats.”

“Let us hope we do not have to,” Elvia said quietly.

It took the others a moment to realize she was serious. As if on cue,
thunder rolled overhead and fat drops of rain splattered against the window.
The storm had finally caught up with them. The wind started to howl, and the
waves began to rise higher and higher.

“Is it okay for us to be sailing in this?” Lindsay asked worriedly.

“It will be fine,” Kwin replied dismissively. “Carpenter has built us a
lovely craft, as functional as it is luxurious. If nothing else, Alastor, Elvia
and I can remain here to make sure it stays afloat, and you two can leave. You
are under no obligation to stay if you are uncomfortable.”

“Storms and monsters or not, this is a dream. I wouldn’t miss this for
anything,” Kai said with a grin, though he couldn’t help but feel slightly
unsettled as he glances outside. Being in a dream meant that everything felt
very, very real.

“Now, if all of our concerns have been put to rest, I will continue
reading,” Kwin said, looking slightly impatient. The others conceded
immediately, not wanting to irritate her further.

Silence hung over the room as Kwin read through each page, looking at
them with a mixture of hopeful interest and boredom. Every so often she would
lean forward to decipher a passage that was difficult to read, but she offered
the others no comments.

“This is just a detailed recollection of absolutely nothing,” Kwin
sighed, finally sitting back and rubbing her eyes. “Nothing but entries about
sailing and seeing nothing, every single day.”

“What about skipping to the last one?” Lindsay suggested.

“I suppose we could do that,” Kwin relented. “I just didn’t want to miss
any important details along the way, such as anything that might be out here.”

Another well-timed roll of thunder passed overhead, but this time it was
accompanied by an eerie moan that seemed to echo all around them – and below
them. As the moan faded away, the ship started to rumble as though caught in an
earthquake, and everyone in the cabin held on tightly to their chairs. Kai
looked out the windows, but he could see nothing except for the fact that the
sky had grown considerably darker.

The rumbling faded away, and all was silent again. Elvia, who had stood
up suddenly, took her hand slowly off the hilt of her sword.

“I will be above with Alastor to keep watch,” she said, then walked
swiftly from the room. “You may want to close the window reinforcements just in
case.”

Believing that to be an excellent idea, Kai got up immediately and
flipped the switch on the wall. The panels of solid wood outside slid closed
over the windows, blocking their view. Still standing by the wall, Kai stared
out at the dark, ominous ocean beyond.

“Waves make weird noises sometimes, don’t they?” Lindsay uttered quietly,
smiling half-heartedly.

“You really should consider waking up,” Kai told her, seeing the fear on
her face and hoping his own wasn’t as visible. Lindsay shook her head.

“I’m not going to be much use if I keep running away whenever anything
slightly scary comes up, am I?” she said determinedly. “Besides, this is all
part of the experience, and I want to make sure I’m here for as much of it as I
can.”

Kwin looked slightly surprised, but gave her an approving nod.

“I am glad you are with us. Fear is quite normal, and not many dreamers
would put themselves through this simply for the sake of it. Do not doubt
yourself. You have your strengths just like the rest of us.”

“Maybe,” Lindsay said thoughtfully, then turned to gaze out the door. “I
wonder if I’ll ever get to find out what they are.”

“Here’s your chance to try,” Kwin said suddenly, and before they could
ask what she meant, a massive
something
erupted from the dark waters.

It was a serpent, or very much like one, but its powerful body was thick,
nearly twice as wide as the ship. A number of sharp, triangular fins protruded
from its sides, and hundreds of small lines crossing down its body glowed on
and off. Its wide displayed four large fangs, as long as the ship’s masts were
tall, curving around its powerful jaw.

It stared at the ship hungrily, then leapt high into the air and came
crashing down into the sea closer to their ship. The resulting waves caught Kai
and the others off guard, and before they could hold on to something, they were
sent them crashing against the wall. For a moment the ship tilted dangerously,
and Kai was afraid it would tip over, but it soon stabilized itself, and they
were able to stand up.

“Wonderful,” Kwin growled as she got unsteadily to her feet. “I would not
suggest you join me. If anything happens to you I cannot guarantee we will be
able to find you. Whatever you do, be very careful.”

She left the room hurriedly, and after a moment of hesitation, Kai
followed her. To his surprise, Lindsay came with him.

“I can help!” she exclaimed, despite her obvious fright. “I know I can do
something.”

Kai thought back to when they had all been on the airship just before the
Nightmares attacked, and how Lindsay had refused to retreat then as well. She
was brave, but he worried about her ever since she had been taken by the
Nightmares. However, didn’t have any time to try to convince her otherwise;
another eerie moan came from beneath the waves, and he tried to prepare himself
for a fight.

“Call for help if you need it, all right?” Kai said quickly, and Lindsay
nodded.

Alastor and Elvia stood beside them now, and Kai was grateful to see
them, but did a double take as he looked up at the now-empty control deck.

“Who’s going to steer?” Kai asked.

“This ship has autopilot, can you believe it?” Alastor answered happily.
“Carpenter thought of everything!”

Their exchange was interrupted as the creature broke through the waves
again. It stretched high into the sky, but this time looking it pointed itself
directly at the ship.

Elvia was already on the move. In an instant she appeared directly in
front of the creature’s face. Forgoing visual tricks for brute strength, she
slammed her shoulder directly between the creature’s eyes, causing it to rear
back and miss the ship. As it did so, it took a quick snap at Elvia with its
strong jaws; Elvia darted away, unhurt, though her balance was thrown off.

Kwin was next, and she too chose to strike directly. Scythe in hand, she
took repeated, powerful swings at the creature, and with every swing, sparks
flew from her white-hot blade.