Waiting Shapeless

Chapter 19. Two years ago

(Bonus chapter for you guys! This chapter wasn't originally part of the book, but I decided to give you something special. I hope you all like it! I dedicate this chapter to Bailey 😊)

Two years ago.
Heva: Terilli

It was just like what I had seen from my dream.

What I had recorded after I had the dream, maybe three years or so back, was a surrounding of jagged black rocks, a grey emotionless sky above, and a frightening looking mouth in front of me gaping from the ground. A literal monstrous mouth. The curled lips seemed to melt into the rocks around them, and the slippery gums were a sickening pinkish grey color. It had yellowed fang-like teeth and hot breath poured out of it as a steam. It was as if the rocky ground as a monstrous being was finally gasping for air after years of holding its breath.

In my dream, I kicked a rock down into the mouth, and watched as the mouth sputtered and choked. That was all I could recall.

I knew from the moment I woke up that it was going to come true. It had that feeling to it—I called them my secret dreams—they didn't feel like normal dreams.

And... there I stood.

I didn't think this would be where the dream became real, but I usually didn't.

The jagged black rocks were porous and serrated, almost as if they were begging to puncture and tear into living flesh. The sky was overcast and bleak, matching the freezing temperatures of the day.

And in front of me was the mouth.

Of course it wasn't a real mouth; not like it had been in my dream. But it certainly looked like one. The two corners of the gaping slit were pinched together, and it opened up more on the far side. Along both sides of the maw, the black volcanic rocks pointed inwards like sharp teeth, almost surreally.

Out of the mouth came a fine steam, only just faintly visible. There was the sound of breathing too. It must have been a blowhole of sorts because I could hear air rush in and out methodically.

I don't know why this happened to me, why I could dream about events that I was going to experience. But that wasn't all. I could sense things too.

"It looks like a mouth." He said with a grin next to me.

I turned to look at Ked, wishing that he knew the significance of those few simple words. I hadn't told him about the dream. I never told anyone about my secret dreams.

Ked was not much bigger than me, same shade of dark blue, more lumpy than spherical, and the large tendriled feather emerging from his head was a deep dark brown with faint white stripes along the tips that only became noticeable further up.

That was his most handsome feature in my opinion, his feather. It always made me think of the skin of an island Karecevat; wild and boundless, yet gentle and soft. I never told him that though.

"...What?" He said with a confused smile, catching me staring at him.

I shrugged my small shoulders and looked away, blushing slightly. I hope he didn't notice. Then, fulfilling the dream, I kicked a small loose rock that was nearby into the mouth.

It knocked against other rocks several times as it fell, but eventually I heard the distinct plop of it hitting water. The small opening gurgled slightly as air rushed out of it.

"So... is this it, Hevapi?" Ked asked reservedly, glancing around. 'Hevapi' was the little nickname he had given me when we started dating. I thought it was cute.

We were out on a frozen lake, a little ways off the shore. The ice from the lake encased the demonic rocks surrounding us, reaching its frozen fingers around the small outcropping we now stood on.