The glowing serpent rushed towards him. With little time to react, Morn raised his prosthetic hand, attempting to push the creature aside. The serpent impacted him with enough force that he flipped through the water end over end. Before he could wright himself, he heard a muffled hissing sound as the serpent appeared behind him, biting into his supply of Vairmol.
Morn let out a startled shout in panic, the noise supressed by his mask and the ocean. The leaking gas pushed Morn through the water, spinning him in circles further and further from the tree. Morn heard the hissing start to slow down and his spinning slowed. Knowing his supply of vairmol was about to run out, Morn took a deep breath. When the gas ran dry, the ocean's curse would affect him, effectively sentencing him to death.
The lights of the serpent rapidly grew closer as it attacked him in the otherwise dark depths of the ocean. Morn again blocked with his prosthetic. This time he grasped as hard as he could when he felt the creature touch his arm. Morn suddenly found himself being dragged through the darkness.
The serpent began to swim, flailing violently to shake Morn off. As Morn watched the tree begin to grow further, he desperately grabbed the serpent's neck and mouth, attempting to twist it towards the tree. Morn felt his lungs straining as he struggled violently with the creature. Knowing he would soon be forced to exhale the last of the Vairmol, Morn made a last desperate decision.
He twisted with all his strength, causing the serpent to change directions, pulling him back towards the tree. The two approached the tree rapidly, entangled in a desperate struggle to kill the other. Morn lost his grip as the serpent slammed itself into the ground. Morn flew from its back, the breath nearly knocked from his lungs.
Morn struggled against his own instincts, holding in the urge to exhale, knowing that as soon as he did, he would lose all control of his body to Fairjott's curse. Morn stuck out his arms, flailing haphazardly as he stopped himself from tumbling wildly through the water. He planted his legs to the ground as a desperate plan appeared in his mind. Some distance away, the serpent recovered, once again rushing towards Morn.
With the desperate plan as his last option, Morn finally breathed out, unable to resist another lungful of Daydream. As his body turned Numb, Morn made one final movement, angling his body backwards towards the tree like a torpedo. He thrust out his left arm as his final action before going numb, pointing it in the direction of the serpent.
As it approached him, mouth wide open, about to eat him alive, Morn clamped his prosthetic shut. With a dull, muffled click, the lever on his hand depressed. The folia lance activated, shooting an intense jet of Folia through the serpent's long body, tearing it apart from one end to the other.
Morn was unable to see the results of his attack as the kickback of the device sent him reeling through the water, directly towards the tree.
Unable to move his body aside from his prosthetic, Morn flailed his wooden hand, barely angling himself towards the tree with another burst of Folia. After a moment of nervously and uncontrollably tumbling, Morn reached the tree at top speed. His head hit the ground right before the tree hard enough to make him faint, but he struggled a moment longer. In the last possible moment before losing consciousness, his prosthetic hand clamped shut around one of the tree's many hands.
***
Morn began to dream, feeling himself flying through a dark space with the vague notion of ascending. Various hallucinations danced across his vision.
Azur sat on a giant clock on an endless, sunny horizon. The hands ticked away, indicating the passing of many hours.
A golden pirate ship sailed across his vision, a tall man waving to him from the ship.
A monstrous giant floated in a black bubble, burning alive as it screamed silently, seemingly begging for help.
Morn flew forward towards the sun. Fog floated forward from the horizon, turning into a wall of stormy clouds.
Morn penetrated through the lightning storm, arriving in a vast darkness.
***
Morn groggily sat up, his head ached, a dull and constant pain.
Morn looked around, seeing that he was lying alone on a beach. To his left and far in the distance, a large stone tower stood tall, framed against the cold blue sky. Ahead of him, the island formed a small bay. Memories flashed through Morn's mind of the first time he'd had the strange dream.
After being pulled into the tree of hands, Morn had emerged from the water, raised from the ocean in the palm of a giant hand. The hand had gently set him down on the beach of an island… an island exactly like the one on which he currently lay.
Morn felt a strange sensation, as if he had just woken up from a long and turbulent dream. Additionally, he felt a strong hunger in his stomach, and his mouth felt extremely dry. Morn looked around once again, rubbing his head as he did so, hoping to relieve his headache.
As he looked around he noticed the strange hallucinations were still ongoing, various figures danced across his vision, the trees bowed and twisted randomly, the sand seemed to ripple as if sinking into itself.
Morn reached to his face, feeling the inhalant mask. He quickly tore the mask from his face, yet the hallucinations remained. Panicked, Morn desperately rushed to the small bay and began splashing water on his face.
He quickly noticed that it was freshwater, rather than salt. Momentarily overcome by his dehydration, Morn forgot about the hallucinations and devoured mouthfuls of the water until he couldn't drink any more.
Morn sighed, satisfied, then turned around once again, only to grow worried when the hallucinations remained. Exhaling the gas should have been enough to end the hallucinations within several seconds...
Morn soon calmed himself down, sitting by the water and eating food he had stored in the watertight box. He hoped that the hallucinations would disappear after an hour or two, and so he waited.
…
Morn desperately inhaled the many gases he had brought, trying any one that had even the mildest anti-hallucinatory properties. As he finished a vial of the strongest and most promising gas, Verset, he began to despair. The hallucinations remained.
It seemed that the time he had spent unconscious, breathing in the daydream, had lasted several days- causing the hallucinatory gas to integrate with his body, becoming a part of him.
Morn began to laugh madly as hallucinations continued to swarm his vision. The sun rays shone different colours as if reflected through a prism. The sky seemed to turn black, though it remained day. Eyes appeared in the water, watching him from beyond the shoreline.
Morn began to wander across the island, mad with laughter. His hallucinations taking many forms:
Old friends, the dead, tempting arrays of food, various malformed animals, dazzling colours and swirling textures, sound becoming tangible, smells filled his sight, the world became a musical score, a discordant cacophony of sounds and sights.
Morn soon found himself stumbling out of the treeline, arriving at the base of a giant stone castle. A large stone tower stood firmly, reaching high above the treeline. This was what he had seen from the shore earlier.
Morn warily entered the building, the door creaking on rusty hinges as he pushed his way in. The interior seemed to glow with candle light. Morn grew uneasy at the sight of the candles- if there were lit candles, didn't that mean there was someone living here? Perhaps it was another hallucination...
Morn continued wandering the small castle, he entered a grand dining hall, a well-stocked kitchen, a library, and various other rooms common to all castles. As he entered the second floor, a clock bell rang out.
As he began to wander the hallways of the second floor, he soon spotted a figure staring at him with a smile. The figure wore a clean pirate's outfit, lavish with jewellery and frill. He had well groomed black hair and a matching moustache.
His head was capped with a fine leather hat, a single brilliant feather sticking out of its brim. His bearing was more akin to that of a noble gentleman than a common pirate. The man's wide smile displayed a row of shark-like jagged teeth.
Morn panicked momentarily, but wrote it off as another hallucination. Having calmed down slightly, he ignored the hallucination, walking further into the second floor of the castle.
However, Morn soon grew annoyed as the pirate appeared time after time, after every few turns he took, in every few rooms he entered. Eventually, as the hallucination accompanied him into a small study, Morn's patience for the figure wore out and he shouted at the pirate.
"Stop following me, you smiling persistent prick!"
The Pirate's face took on a confused look, though it quickly returned to his former brilliant smile.
"You can see me?!! Ah, well- I suppose that makes sense with your current state... pleased to make your acquaintance! I am Oscairo, the former Lord of Pirates, and the owner of this illustrious manor. I think it is quite right for me to supervise my guest, do you not?"
Morn reeled back, his mouth agape. He began to stutter.
"Y-y… You're- real? Wait… did you say Oscairo?! Pirate Lord Oscairo!?"
The Pirate bowed, keeping his eyes on Morn as he did so.
"At your service."