No. 5 The Chromatic Compendium of the Rainbow Ringmaster - The Dream
Her consciousness floated restlessly from her, a tiny blue soul in a sea of dreams, gliding towards the frame was she.
As Elara drifted off humming herself to sleep, while she watched the rolling hills sway, she sang in her tiny voice "oh misery sweet misery, don't you come to play with me, I'm just a girl, I'm just a girl floating far far way"
Elara arrived at the precipice of a new place, she knew this world well, and a beautiful world it was. It sat like a promise, it lent against the wall of her room a picture of heaven. Its where she would send off her toy soldiers upon their deaths. She would spend hours staring at it, at the rolling green grass and the endless blue sky, feeling the pull of the silent, magical universe she knew existed within. Often she sat on that couch chattering to jester in her quick bird like manner of all the rolling they could do along the hills. She stared and stared at that canvas day after day.
Each day passed monotonously, but Elara never could seem to forget that magical world she had glimpsed. After days of perfecting the art of being alone, Elara finally reached the quiet sanctuary of her room again. The silence, no longer a weight, was a blanket. She found her way to the elegant couch, a relic from her father's time, one of the few things in the mansion that still felt like home. She could remember how he would read to her and make silly voices and sing silly songs.
She drifted onto the familiar soft cushions and was soon enveloped by a deep, peaceful slumber. As she slept, her consciousness slipped from her body, a tiny blue soul in search of the sensation she so became accustomed to, a girl floating in the midst of it all. The room around her transformed, shedding its dull reality for the fluid logic of a dream once more. Her body lay motionless, but her spirit was stirring.
Beside her, a lamp, elegant and ornate, floated above its table, a reminder of her state, its light no longer a simple illumination but a guiding star in a deep blue room. It was a beacon, shining for a soul on the brink of a new journey. And above it all floating amidst her, a cloud formed gentle and peaceful so as not to wake her, a single eye watched intently like a curious being peeking through a keyhole. It was the eye of the Ringmaster, a gaze that had pierced through the veil of her world and seen the quiet, yearning soul beneath. It was the watchful eye of the one who would send the stars of invitation, the one who now waited for her patiently through the final passage.
As the eye watched a voice through the cloud spoke like a gentle caress,
"I felt her Zypher, she was like me, alone, and waiting. She belongs here, i know it"
The eye blinked and hushed the voice into silence with a calm that resonated like the hum of hymnal. He watched silently, not as an act of intrusion, but of quiet guardianship.
The eager voice behind him spoke again
"How long must she wait Zephyr?"
He answered in an echo "We have to wait until she is ready to come here my sweet Iris."
"Why can you not go to her?" She proposed.
Gently he explained " my dear because her world is full of movement, filled with life and color and noise and chaos. I can see it with even just a glimpse."
"Chaos?" Iris echoed not understanding.
"Yes, chaos." He answered "your world was very different, this world was home only to you and now to me and the oddities but her world is busy, so much life. I fear should they sense our presence here they might take extreme measures for fear, so we must be patient and wait until she finds the door herself. I have left the star seeds, I know she will come, i can feel her heartbeat fluttering with recognition, i think again today she recogized this world on the walls, i think she is so connected that she hears us even now"
Excitement beamed from the voice behind him "Oh then we must let her know where to find us, inside of the frame with the rolling hills we can meet, sleep well sweet child and float into a dream"
Then she awoke, the walls became dull around the canvas that was so very alive, but something was different. She looked outside of her window, observing the moon, her oldest friend, and it beamed at her. For a moment she knew that something was different because that crescent she had seen time and time again, smiled at her and she couldn't help but smile back.
In the back of Elara's mind she heard those words repeatedly and found peace in what she heard, she awoke from her slumber dazed not being able to shake what her subconscious knew.
It was a promise: she was no longer alone. Whatever spoke above her saw the silent pain she had carried and the courage it took for her to finally acknowledge the invitation that existed in the doorway before her. This was the moment of her true escape, the final transition from the world of floating to a world of real peace. The eye was waiting, and it was watching. Soon, the two worlds would be one, and Elara's journey would truly begin.
