Pamuya - Home

So now here I was, laying in a giant puddle, wallowing in my own pity.

Pathetic.

All I wanted was to go home. Back to the tall, clay mountains that encompassed the wide open plains; the little vegetable garden behind my house, my neighbor’s horses, my stucco brick house with the wooden fence. My room with its cream colored walls, my soft, quilt covered bed, my stuffed dog (since Dad wouldn’t let me have a real one), my safe space. Back to Dad and Theron and all the elders, despite their incessant nagging about my powers, the life I used to know.

Then it hit me. If my dreams could manifest on their own the things I think up, maybe I could force myself to dream of home and somehow go home.

I closed my eyes and tried to imagine myself at home. Easily enough, I saw my house and me standing in the living room. Now that the easy part was over, the hard part was getting my powers to take me there.

So far, nothing was happening. I was beginning to think I was doomed to lay here soaked and miserable, then out of nowhere, the water began to rise and I sank below.

For a moment I thought my powers were on the frits, though if that were true, I wouldn’t have fallen in. Yet where was I? I saw nothing but vast open water and there was indication of anything for miles around. This was not home and I didn’t create this space. So if I didn't, who did?

Think Pamuya think! Wait what?

Suddenly long, gray columns rose up all around me, porcelain tiles appearing beneath my feet, rows upon rows of gardens surrounded me, a cascading waterfall forming in the distance, and in the center of it all, a glistening pond. But instead of water in the pond, there were clouds.

Clouds? Strange . . .

This place felt familiar. As if I had been here before. Then it dawned on me. This was exactly like my dream. The columns I once snuck through . . . through to the gardens where I had once strolled . . . strolled to the Looking Pot! The pond that wasn’t a pond but the gateway to the mortal realm.

My dreams, they were visions of my past life. My life as Pamuya. When I was a water spirit, daughter of the Spirit King who was also the moon spirit. Daughter of an ocean spirit I couldn’t envision.

This was her/my home. I was here because I had called myself by my past name instead of Annalee. Thus, my powers did work. Only they took me home. To the home of my previous life.

I walked around for a bit, running my hands over the flora, dipping my fingertips into the ponds. They felt warm and inviting. I remembered playing in them in my youth. Little clay feet jumping about. My father, Amek, standing by, watching me.

It seemed like only yesterday I was here. Living an eternity of freedom and no worries. And yet, I could see the tears falling from my eyes, the screams of Amek, my body flinging over the edge of the Looking Pot before plunging into the ocean and rescuing that boy.

That boy! The one who was staring at me in the cafe. He is--

“What are you doing here?!” A voice shouted from behind me.

I quickly whipped around and was met with large, round,  statue-esque figures with faces as copper colored as mine. Upon further inspection, they weren’t round, but wearing huge cloaks that covered their whole body. Suddenly they pulled back their capes to reveal long, sharp, silver spears and took aim.

“Oh shit!” I high tailed it out there, running as fast as I could while trying to dodge shooting spears. I guessed they had called for backup because soon, the weapons went from glittery and metallic, to wooden and just as pointy. I assumed arrows. Much easier to kill me when you had a bow making the projectile faster.

I didn’t usually find myself fleeing for my life in my dreams, just going through the motions. I could tell my body was still at home, safe and sound but my mind was doing all the action. Right now, I very much felt in danger and if I stopped, they would hurt me, possibly kill me. And if I died here, I would cease to exist.

“Argh! Damit!” An arrow whizzed by and nicked my side. I pressed my hand there trying to apply pressure. I needed to stop the bleeding, but I couldn’t stop running.

Slowly the world faded away and I was back in open water, squirming around trying to find an exit. The spears and arrows had disappeared and it seemed my nightmare was over. But that was too good to be true. Giant arms sprang out of nowhere as its hands tried to grab.

I wasn’t getting anywhere with this wound bleeding. Maneuvering as best I could from the death palms, I peeled off my school jacket and tied it around my waist. Hoping that would seal the cut and keep pressure on it. Then I merged legs together into a mermaid’s tale and propelled myself as fast as I could through the water.

Everything was hazier than it had been before, making it hard to see but I figured if I kept swimming up, I’d soon find the surface. But that was short lived as one of the huge hands grabbed me, oversized fingers, squeezing tightly around me, straining against my torn torso, making it painfully worse. I writhed and thrashed about, summoning every ounce of strength in me to break free. Alas, no use.

Fearing the end, I prayed to the spirits above, willing them to let my family know what had happened.

Just as another appendage came towards me, something flew past, severing the hand down the middle, splitting it in two. The grip around me loosened and I escaped.

There it was. A hole at the top of this vast emptiness, showing the brick buildings of campus, pouring in the rain from the real world.

Just as I was about to return, I heard a horrible--it wasn’t quite a scream--a growl or snarl below me. I turned back and saw him, the boy from the dining hall, the boy from my dreams.

Had he been reincarnated? I thought only spirits could reincarnate and he was definitely human last time we met. How did he know where I was?

With no time to ponder these things, I rushed back and flung my tail at one arm, knocking it back. Then I grabbed the sword from his hand and transformed it into a staff, before swiping it in front of me, creating a cyclone to battle the army of arms. That should keep it busy why we got away.

I enveloped my savior and carried him to the surface. Once back on solid ground, my fins returned to feet and stabbed the staff into the concrete, closing this world off from whatever that was. Then I handed him back his sword.

“Ayden.” I breathed before my world went dark.