'It looks really beautiful…'
That was the only thing I could think about at the moment.
Wait.
No.
This can't possibly be on my mind right now.
BEEP! BEEP!! BEEP!!!
The blaring sound of the alarm system suddenly knocked me back to reality. My half-closed eyes stared apathetically at the blinking red light surrounding the craft, warning me of my imminent demise.
"Hah…."
I let out a slow sigh as I felt my craft careening through space at speeds I couldn't comprehend.
As the craft turned at an angle, I could see fireworks in the distance that were evidence of the vicious battle happening far away.
A battle happening in the deep reaches of space to defend a place not even worth protecting.
"Bzzt! Officer A- Bzzt!! Get a ho-! Bzzt!!! I won't forgive you if you d-!"
Tak!
A battle for survival we were destined to lose.
I took my hands off the communication terminal in front of me as I watched the scene spiral away.
The craft was too damaged and I didn't have half the mind to do anything about it.
"Haha-"
I didn't even have half the mind to live, I haven't had that for a long time.
"But it really is beautiful though"
I muttered to myself as the scene that enraptured me came to view again.
In the quiet reaches of space, a distance away from the decisive battle. The most beautiful scene I had ever seen.
A crack in the very fabric of space itself.
BEEP! BEEP!!
The sound of the warning system seemed to get louder all of a sudden causing me to frown slightly, but no matter.
Nothing would matter in a bit.
The beautiful scene of the fractured-like space with countless stars spilling out of it filled my vision over and over as the craft spun around at great speeds.
There was some sort of pull dragging the craft towards the center of the crack that spanned thousands of kilometers into space, I could barely see the edges of it.
Although knowing how space was, it was probably countless light years away, too far for my destroyed craft to reach even with the speed at which it was getting dragged off.
"Ah…. I really should have died back then."
Those were the last words I could say to myself before my mind suddenly shuddered!
'An eye?'
The last thoughts I could think before a primal sense of fear dug into my very soul.
As if it was terrified of sensing anything further, my body suddenly shut off in response and I blacked out instantly.
…
An intense pain ran through my head and assaulted my mind the moment I tasted the boundaries of consciousness again.
A silent scream erupted from the depths of my soul but my body didn't respond. My eyes shot open, roaming about desperately to perceive something, anything.
Blurry colors in the different shades of a rainbow and shapes I couldn't explain geometrically filled my vision.
A scream that was built up from deep within me came up again but my body refused to respond. I couldn't feel anything except the searing pain deep in my mind and couldn't focus on any thought except about how painful it was.
I really wanted to scream.
I wanted to scream so desperately.
My mouth finally responded as it opened up slowly, the sound building up from my lungs and thundering through my throat before coming out of my mouth, a terrifying scream.
"..."
I couldn't hear anything.
Before I descended into more panic, my vision suddenly cleared and was filled up with a large face.
Long white hair framed a face covered in bronze-colored skin. The nose was long and pointed and the thin lips were curled into an amused, seemingly satisfied smile.
And the eyes, there were no eyes. They were covered with a black blindfold.
"A little birdy this time?"
A soft-voiced drawled on in a singsong voice. It was very weird, I couldn't see the lips moving.
"Sleep little birdy, sleep will make it all better…."
'Who are y….'
Before I realized I had regained my ability to think, I was suddenly assaulted by deep drowsiness and immediately blacked out once again.
…
"…!"
I opened my eyes suddenly as soon as I regained consciousness. My mind was surprisingly clear and my thoughts flowed smoothly, more smoothly than they ever had in fact.
And the first thing my mind registered was how surprisingly soft whatever it was I was laying on felt. It wrapped my body comfortably and seemed to suck away whatever semblance of discomfort I could possibly feel.
I looked down the length of my body and discovered I was covered with a thick white blanket that was as soft as a cat's fur. I rubbed it absentmindedly as I looked around my surroundings.
I was in a cave.
A brightly lit, well-decorated cave. Although I would consider their choice of furniture a bit archaic, I couldn't deny the thought and detail that was put into it.
The floor was covered with soft fur carpets, a large bookshelf was in a corner with a table and chair right beside it that should have served as a study. A wardrobe was hewn into the rock walls and covered with thick wooden doors of amazing quality and finely carved detail.
A pair of sturdy wooden doors seemed to lead out of the room and beside them were two rectangular glass containers emitting light so bright it seemed to fill up the entire room.
Three oil paintings were placed on the walls around the cave at different locations.
The first was of a series of tall spires made of rocks stacked up together with a full moon in the background.
The second was of a beautiful lake with a small island sitting in the middle. A large slab of stone could be seen in the middle of the island which was carved in a perfect circle and kept laying face up.
The third painting was of a.…
'A goat?'
The third painting was a close-up portrait of a pure white goat with rectangular golden irises, two short shiny black horns were placed on his head just above the ears. The golden chain of a monocle hanged from his left ear leaving the monocle dangling around his neck and he had what seemed to be a proud smirk on his lips, if goats could smirk.
I stood up properly on the bed and looked at the portrait that seemed to have been captured at a specific moment. I found myself more intrigued by the circumstances around the painting of the portrait to ignore the bafflement I felt from discovering a portrait of a goat with a monocle.
'Do people even still paint portraits anymore?'
I thought to myself.
With the level of technology the world was at present, and the crisis we were facing, no one would deign to practice such a skill. And even if they did, not to such amazing standards.
I was still thinking about it when I saw the goat's gaze seemingly turn in my direction. The smirk widened a bit and it winked at me before going back to its original position.
"What!?"
I couldn't help exclaiming out loud and my eyes widened in disbelief. What sort of technology was this!? Wasn't this an oil painting?
I stared at the painting for a few more minutes waiting to see if I would notice something different but nothing happened. The goat was still the same.
Not willing to let it go, I gazed at it for a few more minutes, looking at the painting without blinking until my eyes started to water and I was forced to close them.
'I must be hallucinating'
I muttered to myself as I rubbed my eyes wearily.
Fighting my curiosity, I took my attention off the portrait with much difficulty, I pushed the thick blanket off my body and landed my feet on the soft carpet below. My feet seemed to sink into its comfortable embrace and I noticed that I was clothed in a loose white nightgown.
It was a bit too short and stopped at my knees but I didn't bother. Although I was just 26, a woman my age did not need to be so delicate about such things.
I walked towards the thick wooden doors and grabbed at the brass handles attached to them and pushed. The doors swung open quite easily.
I found myself facing a fairly long brightly lit corridor filled with similar rectangular glass light sources that were present in the room. The end of the corridor seemed to lead outside as I could see faint moonlight in the distance.
I walked down the corridor with the confidence of a housemaster and just as I reached half the length, I started hearing the voices of other people.
"Old man! What do you mean by that? The mind is obviously a representation of the soul! Aren't your deepest desires from the core of your being? Isn't it the mind that allows a person to know what it is he or she wants!?"
A voice with a somewhat cultured accent blasted out in fury.
"Haha! Old white, cool your temper! You know that it's not that I don't understand your words but answer me honestly, isn't the mind used to control the body? No matter what it is you can't even prove the existence of the soul. But as for the mind and the body interfering with one another, that is something even a child can prove to you!"
This voice was relatively calm and steady but the speaker was just as passionate.
"Hmph! Absolute balderdash!"
The first voice replied in a huff.
"If you don't have anything meaningful to contribute to the debate then curb your foul tongue you furred fiend!"
A female voice sounded this time around with a hint of mocking anger.
"Shut up you feathered fleabag!"
The first voice snapped back.
"How rude of you to talk to a lady that way!"
The female voice gasped in shock.
"I've had it with your double standards! I can no longer be a gentleman to you!"
The cultured voice said angrily and a series of yelps and grunts followed afterward.
"Calm down you two, that is not the way a gentleman and lady should behave."
The second voice which was relatively calm intervened.
"Well then tell this webbed-feet bandit to take her beak off my ears this instant!"
The cultured voice yelped out in pain.
A short burst of laughter erupted before the calm voice spoke once more.
"Please my lady, our guest is here. We can't show such an unsightly scene to a guest, can we?"
I snapped back to my senses as I realized I had already reached the end of the corridor. I turned back and saw that the door to the room was only a few steps away and was not as long as I initially thought.
A slight frown appeared on my face.
"Dear guest, please come over and take a seat. You must be starving I'm sure."
The female voice suddenly said charmingly and I turned back to the exit and slowly walked out.
I couldn't notice anything outside previously as I was absorbed by their conversation but now that I was here, I realized that I was in a beautiful circular garden that was surrounded by rocks all around in a conical shape that ended in a narrow circular mouth at the top where a full moon was visible.
The rock walls around were covered in wall flowers, vines, and creepers which looked beautiful under the moonlight. The garden on the floor itself was filled with numerous flowers that seemed to be well trimmed and taken care of.
Similar exits were found around the circumference of the round garden and were separated by hedges of different flowers. A small spring that poured into a pond was at a corner of the garden. The spring and pond seemed to emit slight steam from time to time but I could also see various colorful fishes swimming within.
But all this was secondary.
In the middle of the garden was a small white wooden table with four delicate white chairs around it. My eyes were immediately drawn to one of the occupants of the chairs.
'A goat?'
Indeed, it was a goat. The very same goat whose painting had been in the room!
The creature who was previously occupied with glaring at the person beside it turned to look at me with a slight huff.
It coughed, adjusted the golden monocle on its left eye with a shiny black hoof, and beamed a gentle smile in my direction.
"How are you feeling my dear? I trust you got a much-deserved rest, didn't you?"
He said in a voice that seemed to display his presumed elegance.
I nodded absentmindedly and looked at the occupant of the seat beside him. A beautiful white feathered swan with a bright orange beak was looking at me with interest.
"Oh my! She is so beautiful!"
A female voice came out of her beak with delight.
A slight chuckle came from the seat opposite her and I saw it was occupied by an old man with long silver hair and a short beard of matching color dressed in a large white lab coat. He looked at me with a kindly gaze with eyes half closed from age. I could see bright red irises peeking through the folds of his eyelids.
"Here distinguished guest, have a seat."
He waved his left hand and another white chair flew out of one of the tunnels around the garden and landed in front of me just beside the last occupant of the table.
I ignored the seemingly magical display and took a seat gingerly beside the man in the last seat.
He was huge, a bit over 6ft I was sure. Even though I was quite tall myself I knew he would be nearly two heads taller than I was.
His head was covered in long white hair that draped down to his shoulders and his bronze-colored skin glimmered in the moonlight. His features were sharp and well-chiseled and he was dressed in a loose white shirt with stiff collars and black trousers.
He was sitting quietly with his arms on the table and I couldn't tell if he was asleep or not because he had his eyes covered with a black blindfold.
'Have I seen him somewhere before?'
He seemed vaguely familiar but I couldn't remember.
The old man beside him coughed a bit and my attention snapped back to him. He looked at me with a gentle smile before he spoke.
"I am sorry to disturb you right after you just woke up but we have been in the middle of a debate for countless years now. Maybe a fresh perspective would help us come to a conclusion?"
He spoke to me while stroking his beard with a thoughtful look on his face.
"Before we start, I think it is necessary to know your opinion about something first."
He stopped stroking his beard and faced me with a beaming smile.
"What do you think the mind is?"