Dreamscape: An Endless Dream and Water InBetween

Zora literally crawled onto the bed and collapsed face down, exhausted both mentally and physically, having just kicked off her high heels, not caring tonight if she wrinkled or not the expensive designer she was wearing. She just wanted to lie down and go to sleep, forget about what had happened earlier that evening. She didn't even hear or sense when or if Broen had come to bed. Grabbing her pillow, she curled up and quickly fell dead asleep.

…. Second, or minutes later, she found herself immersed in water. She was in the middle of a swimming hole somewhere. It actually looked like she was in the middle of a jungle. However, there was also a thick blanket of snow on the ground and icicles were hanging off the palm-like trees while huge, and very beautiful red, purple, and orange flowers, which were near the watering hole, were strangely enough in perfect condition, seemingly unaffected by the cold.

And as Zora turned in the water, she noticed that it was a vivid azure and there seemed to be a half-frozen waterfall emptying into the swimming hole, which was surprising since the water was as warm and comforting as a hot bath. There was even a light steam coming up from the water as she treaded water yet the air did not feel or seem cold at all.

Sighing happily, Zora then dove under the warm water and swam for a bit, enjoying everything and noticing now that the swimming hole was actually enormous and very deep, deeper than it seemed, with beautiful tropical-like fish everywhere. And as she swam, the fish swam next to her, even forming a school around her that twisted and moved around her in unison, making her feel like she was somehow being protected and comforted by them.

Emerging with a splash from the warm water, Zora failed to notice that she wasn't out of breath at all. Even though, she had been underwater longer than she might have normally been in a real non-dreamlike situation.

Laughing happily, Zora felt and saw a large fish come up to her and brush her leg. Suddenly, the fish emerged, swam around her twice, stopped suddenly, and removed what seemed like a mask... Under the mask was an otter.

"Balder!" Zora cried out happily and scooped up the animal in her arms. The otter was an old friend - at least in her dreamworld, it was. And what was more, she was not at all surprised that the fish was actually an otter, who was also an old and very dear friend. She just accepted the conditions of the dreamworld as if what had just happened was normal.

And when she scooped the otter up, it scampered to her shoulders where it made excited but contented otter noises which made Zora laugh. Glancing upward when she heard the cawing of some bird somewhere, Zora thought that she noticed a movement in the trees, but before she could question it, she felt otter paws gently pulling her hair, directing her attention to some lilypads that had appeared.

"Let's go, Balder..." Zora said with a smile as she reached up to pet the animal, truly happy now that he had found his way back to her. She had thought she had lost him forever. That she'd never see her first love ever again.

"Shall we go sit on the lilypads?" she asked him as she swam with the animal on her shoulders and climbed up on the pads, sitting on one cross leged now as she picked the nearest lily which immediately turned from white to pink and rose like.

"I'm so glad your here," she said warmly as the otter climbed down off her shoulders and curled up in her lap and swatted playfully at the flower.

"I've missed you so much, you know," she confessed with a sad sigh, "I wish you could have stayed with me..." she said as she stroked the otter's fur lovingly as she gazed up again at the trees, noticing something blue but not registering what it was yet.

Hearing the call of a bird, the cry of like a baby, Zora turned slightly on the lilypad and saw it was a peacock. A beautiful peacock with shimmering feathers, the colours more beautiful, more vibrant that peacocks in real life.

"Look at that Balder," Zora said as she scratched the otter behind its ear. "A peacock..." she said as she pointed out the lovely bird. And with that, the otter crawled back onto Zora's shoulders to look at the bird curiously, nattering happily as it checked out the bird.

Feeling a gentle tugging at her hair, she laughed as she grabbed the otter, took it in her arms and gave it a big hug, "Stop that Baldar, you little devil" she said as she nuzzled the otter, the peacock forgotten for the moment.

Tapping her nose playfully, Balder suddenly made a funny screeching otter noise and jumped into the water, disappearing under the surface. Deciding to follow, Zora jumped back into the water, only to find it ice cold now.

Letting out a surprised gasp at finding the water freezing cold, she tried to climb back onto the lilypad, but to only have it sink slowly into the frigid water. Only half panicking now, Zora hurried to the edge and pulled herself out of the water, now confused at what was happening as the pool started to freeze over.

Confused at what was happening Zora tried to pull herself to the middle as the water froze around her. Panicking slightly, she got to her knees, saw the pad held her weight and stood up. Now, through some dream magic she wasn't wearing a swimsuit anymore. Instead, she had on a dress, it was a long flowy silver dress with red trimming and high heels.

Feeling her heels now sinking into the frozen water, Zora jumped onto the land, desperate to get free of the watering hole. Once on land, she began to quickly notice the deep freeze starting to enclose itself around her and that there was only one direction that seemed to be ice free still.

Taking off in that direction, Zora began to wish she was a fire mage and not a water mage. Walking through what seemed like a dense jungle with vines hanging from trees and strangle looking plants, Zora was beginning to feel scared and threatened. Like she was running from something, but she didn't know what.

Hearing a loud growling somewhere, Zora picked up the pace and ran blindly through the jungle, glancing behind her and not seeing anything but still hearing growling somewhere and it seemed to be all around her now.