The codex glimmered in the darkness, a purple hue that pulsed with rhythmic and steady tones of blue, almost audible and tangible. Like it was alive.
Yuyu couldn't stop staring at it. He couldn't fathom what he was staring at, and yet it didn't feel strange to him. He wasn't frightened, just confused and fascinated as he watched the purple-blue hue suddenly pulse a deep green, nearly blinding him.
"What is this?" he muttered, finally thinking to look around him. "Where am I?"
Yuyu was no stranger to being in places he had no idea how he got to, or situations for that matter. But this one was different. The last thing he remembered was getting home after a long day at the PC and then going out for a workout which was followed by a quick meal and then his bed.
Yet here was, staring at the glowing, everchanging presence… Was it a sigil? Hard to recognize it for what it was. No, this thing before him was no sigil. It had depth—layers folding into layers—symbols drifting beneath its surface like thoughts half-formed. Its glow was breathing–if that was okay to use to describe it, but he knew no other way to– rather than shining, swelling and receding as though synced to a heartbeat. One that Yuyu was not sure wasn't entirely different from his own. When the colors shifted, the air around it seemed to tense, humming faintly, as if it was reading him in return. Lines rearranged themselves with quiet intention, glyphs dissolving and reforming, responding not to mere observance, but to attention. It felt like this thing was not waiting to be opened. It was waiting to be understood.
"I've got to check if I'm really here though," He said, pinching his outer thigh. The pain cleared the last of the fog from his mind and then he was finally awake.
"Fucking hell." He scowled under the glow of the pulsing light. "What the fuck is this?"
Shit, he was cursing again. He thought he'd gotten a handle on that.
Hesitant, he reached out and touched it, wondering if he wouldn't vaporize into thin dust. Not that it mattered anyway. He valued his extremities, that was granted but these days there wasn't much to enjoy or look forward to other than the weights and maybe the promise of a 2-4 SOL payout on any of his bets.
That edgy feeling where he'd been having several bad days in a row was enough to make him dauntless enough to try and so he did.
The instant his fingers touched it, he felt a jolt surge through his body, It was painful and yet comforting at the same time, oddly resting in his being as his sight and hearing disappeared and were overwhelmed. It seemed he was in that stream of light and sound for hours that were just seconds, and then he was spat out immediately, flailing in the air.
Surprised to feel the wind and hear sound again–actual human sounds–, Yuyu opened his eyes to see himself hurtling down toward the ground at high speed. Luckily, it wasn't at a fast pace and when his body landed on the floor, it only cut his wind off and brought him gut wrench pain. But he was fine.
Fuck. What did i do to deserve this?
Why was he dropping from the floor, and why could he hear animals and loud singing and the clinking of glasses.
He was just about to stand up when he heard a door open to his right. Turning, he managed to catch a glimpse of legs… long legs in some sort of old fashioned slippers before his entire face and body was drenched in liquid, leaving him sopping wet.
"Fuck! For Chrissakes!" Yuyu roared, unable to keep it in this time.
Just as he stood, about to lay into whoever it was, their sexy legs be damned, he was stopped short by a gasp as he came face to face with the face that haunted his dreams for the last one week.
How was this possible. But he was here! In real life! The fall had hurt him and she-SHE HAD JUST SPLASHED WATER ON HIM.
"Traveler, you, you are back?"
"W-what?" He said dumbly.
Yes he was back here. At that strange tavern but it had been a dream, right? But here she was!
"You know magic?" the tavern wench looked at him, face slowly morphing from shock and disbelief to hesitance, fear and then finally anger.
Figures, Yuyu thought. Even if it was a monster standing in front of her, as long as a woman knew the monster like her–had exchanged bodily fluids with her–then there was no way they would abide getting flustered.
"hmph, serves you right for scaring me and disappearing off just like that!" She said with her nose turned up. "Come inside and i'll find a rag and some soup for you. Must be cold and you look like you're half as scared out of your wits as you did me."
With that, she turned with a sashay of the hips and walked back into the inn, basin balanced on the very curves that were walking away from him.