It was dark.
Completely.
Totally.
Dark.
It was the type of darkness that seemed to consume everything that surrounded you and threatened to swallow you whole.
Azaire was not afraid of the dark....but even the bravest soul would find this type of dark unsettling.
"Hello. Is anyone there?" His voice echoed in the empty space for a while before even those were consumed by the eerie silence.
Azaire started to walk forward hesitantly. He couldn't see where he was going. Nor could he see what may or may not have been around him.
For all he Knew he could be walking into some huge pit and there was nothing he could do about it.
Time seemed to stretch into an eternity until all of a sudden there was a faint light up ahead.
With a mixture of relief, to finally get away from this oppressive darkness, and suspicion, at what may lay ahead in the light, Azaire picked up the pace and hurried forward.
When he finally arrived in the light his surroundings suddenly changed. I was still somewhat dark only now there was a faint light surrounding the place like in some low-budget detective movie.
An apt comparison considering Azaire realized quickly what he now stood in was a cell.
It was a spacious cell as far as cells go and there was only one figure chained to the walls in the cell.
Azaire tried to look closer but the light always seemed to twist in such a way that almost anything distinguishing was shrouded in shadows.
Azaire suddenly realized he couldn't move! He was frozen to the spot.
Then the figure moved. It's head lifted and Azaire was shocked to see a pair of alarmingly familiar eye's staring back at him.
The sight seemed so shockingly familiar that Azaire could not make out the actual detail of them and his mind was overwhelmed, then suddenly a voice spoke out.
The voice was deep and scratchy like it had gone unused for a long time.
"You're.....not...supposed to...be here..." The figure sounded as if it was struggling to speak when it suddenly brought it's arms down banishing the chains that held it as if it was an illusion and allowing it's body to softly fall onto the ground easily.
The easy way of freeing itself and standing so leisurely seemed at odds with the wretched appearance and bearing the man gave off.
Wretched and smooth. Whoever heard of such a combination.
"GET OUT!"
The figure suddenly bellowed in that scratchy and pitying voice as it raised its hands as if in banishment and suddenly Azaire was surrounded in that unfathomable darkness again but this time he was falling, falling, and falling.....
*********
Azaire still had his eye's shut tight when suddenly he noticed a warmth encompass him and a moment later a voice spoke out.
"Woah, there. You're here!?! While I'm glad, and not really surprised that you joined my dream, you sure chose a spontaneous entrance."
Azaire opened his eye's but instead of the encompassing darkness from before there was a bright soothing light to the world now and it seemed to surround the face peering down at him like a full body halo as Azaire realized once again he was in Jared's arms.
Not just Jared, Azaire realized with a start, there was also someone else here who was behind Jared with an arm slung comfortably around the giant and with two very unique eye's. He was peering down at Azaire in delight.
One eye was like liquid gold swirling and radiant, while the other was a dark mystifying black that seemed to twinkle here and there like the night sky the pupils of each eye was slit-like resembling a feline or lizard and resembled the color of magma.
His skin was pearlescent white and almost seemed like it was chiseled from marble. Just looking at the man's arm that was holding onto Jared's shoulder Azaire could guess the whole beautifully sculpted marble like skin was the same for the man's entire body.
At that moment the man spoke, or at least he opened his mouth and sound came out. But instead of a voice the noise that came out was chiming bell-like noises.
But surprisingly Azaire could still understand him or at least he could mostly understand and the rough gist he got was: ("Nice of you to drop in beautiful!").
If there was any doubt at Azaire's understanding, the smug and teasing smile the man sprung made it clear.
And with the flaming scarlet hair made in a quiff style, the piercing unique eye's, and the provocative smile coupled with his deep laugh lines the man could make anyone's temperature raise as if his very presence set them on fire, but this type of fire was a sweet and sensual burn.
Hypnotizing and alluring.
To Azaire however this warmth was a safe space. A comfortable warmth that chased away the cold darkness from before little by little and Jared was like a cool and secure blanket enveloping him in an astounding sense of security.
When Azaire had first opened his eye's the strange man had made him nervous but now that he felt so safe and comfortable with the two he felt his whole body begin to shake and his eyes became watery.
"What's the matter!"
("What's wrong!")
The two men immediately sensed Azaire's change in mood and honed in like two protective guard dog's reacting to their master's distress.
Jared carried him to an odd looking tree and the three entangled themselves together with the strange man half holding Jared and half being held by him and Azaire was sandwiched in between somehow being held in both of their arms.
They whispered (well the other man tinged) softly to him coaxingly and slowly the shaking began to subside and the watery eye's had let loose a good amount of silent tears.
"What's the matter Azzy?"
Jared had learned his mother's nickname for him last night during their late night gab session.
("Come on tell us what's wrong butterfly? If you *ring* then we *ding* can't help you otherwise!")
Each man chose a side of his face to gently wipe away his sadness as if wishing they could brush away whatever pained him.
Putting himself together Azaire finally stabilized himself and slowly begun to explain the earlier part of his dream.
The horror and fear and extreme melancholy the dream invoked had not immediately overcome him and it wasn't until he had been released and brought here that the feelings overwhelmed him all at once.
"I see, then I guess that means you yourself are really in my dream and I'm not dreaming about you."
"Even better!"
"If pulling you into my dream can protect you from having to experience something like that again I swear I'll figure out how this happened and reproduce it every night!"
Jared who had finally gotten a good understanding of the situation was pleasantly surprised to find that Azaire was the real deal and he felt it was a good type of intimacy to share a dream with him like a mental cuddle.
Azaire turned to the strange man who spoke in bells.
"Who is he?"
Jared didn't need to turn to see who Azaire was asking about after all the three of them were the only ones here.
("I am *ring-a-ding-dang*"). At the same time as the chime voiced man "spoke" Jared explained.
"I call him Chime, on account of his voice and since every time he tries to say his name all you can hear is his bell sounds with no understanding. He can say a lot with bells and be understood but there are certain things, subjects, and areas that he can't approach or speak without sounding like just bell and randomly the regular stuff he says just get bell sounds too although he can say them at other times so I believe it's just a vocal tic type of thing, like his version of stuttering."
Jared who had been prepared for a while to answer this question gave a thorough and complete answer, and smiled pleasantly toward Azaire after he's finished speaking.
Azaire turned toward Chime with intigue and spoke directly to the man. "Hello Chime. It's a pleasure to meet you!"
Chime gave that same smug smile like a satiated cat and crinkled his eye's in approval.
("The pleasure's all mine butterfly! And we've *ring-ding-ding-ring*")
Chime frowned as if he knew the last part of his speech was incomprehensible but there was a flash of resignation in his eye's as if he expected it to happen but had gotten his hopes up anyway.
"Thanks guys. I'm sorry you had to see that," Azaire lowered his head with a mixture of embarrassment and shame.
But the other two weren't having that at all.
Azaire felt Chime's hand on his chin as he gently but forcefully pushed his head back up to show him their fierce expression.
"Don't ever be sorry to show your emotions to us Azzy," Jared voice was like an absolute command.
("That's right! We're always here for you and will never look down on you.You *ring* Trust *ring*!")
With a roll of his eyes Jared clarified,"What he means is You can Trust Us!"
Azaire was at first startled by their fierce response but was soon smiling contently as he nodded and laid back against them.
"For now just lay back and enjoy our beautiful surroundings. We've already had our late night talk so we'll let Chime do all the talking this time. From now on we can do those sessions together in here."
Azaire nodded as for the first time he looked out at his surroundings. Everything was rainbow colored!
They were in a grassy plains type area with the only hill being the one they sat on the rest was flat plains for miles and there were shrubs, small trees, streams, and wildlife far as the eye could see but everything was colored some mixture of the colors of the rainbow.
Even the tree they sat against which was five times bigger then any other tree there. It had a blue trunk, violet leaves, and fruit of every color of the rainbow. It was a beautiful albeit colorful place.
("Real pretty huh? You know this reminds me of a story I was once told...")
With that they spent the rest of the dream listening to Chime's stories. He might not have been able to tell them much about himself or his past but he certainly seemed to have an endless amount of stories.
They sat together like that laughing, crying, and rallying along to Chime's tales until the day turned to night and the dream faded away before they knew it.
Azaire and Jared awoke feeling fresh as daisies and ready for whatever the day might bring!