Inwardly, Kre was kicking himself.
Cursing his ill luck.
Swearing at the higher power that inflicted him with the strangest of companions at every turn.
Scarcely believing that he thought it would be better to be sitting in a prison than it was to be on this crazy, strange ride.
‘How my mind is full of gaps, yet your mind is full of… nonsense, is completely unfair.’ Kre was pretty sure he could audibly hear the disapproving sniff coming from his mental neighbor. ‘At least some memories are drifting in. That’s small comfort.’
‘You’re a bit of an ass,’ Kre thought as loudly as he could. How one could think loudly, he wasn’t quite sure, but he tried the best semblance of it that he could.
There was silence for a great while… an odd feeling after one has been having an engrossing mental conversation. As he waited for a response, he tried to think about the different corners of his mind to see if he could “find” his companion lurking in the dark recesses of his imagination. Just as with the exercise in thinking loudly, he had no idea how or if it actually worked at all, but he had nothing else to do while he waited.
Kre wasn’t sure when he fell asleep, but asleep he fell. The dreams he had were strange and glorious all at the same time. None of them seemed to stay retained in his memory save for a few stray images here and there.
White stone buildings topped with green domes as far as could be seen.
A wide lake, its distant shore barely visible, and its waters angry, frothy, and tinged red as if filled with blood.
The hand of a loved one, blacked and charred, falling away from his smaller hand, limp and lifeless.
The other images were just as strange and wondrous. Each one feeling as if it were part memory, part fantasy, and entirely fleeting.
Even in his dream state, Kre knew that he was simply an observer to the dreams and memories of his cerebral partner. Even if he wanted, there was nothing he could do to react in any of the scenarios. He could only watch the rapid scenes unfold through a stranger’s eyes.
There wasn’t exactly a point where the dream scenes ended, at least not a moment that Kre could discern. It was possible that the images continued, but Kre could simply not recall them after he woke. Whatever the case, there was only the barest idea that his dreams were anything more than the aftereffects of his earlier herb-based intoxication.
“If you’re quite finished.” The voice was familiar yet had a tinge of authority to it that he didn’t recall it having before.
Kre looked down at his own hands and then around at the black void surrounded him. “Who? Where?” he called out blindly in confusion.
He felt the sigh more than heard it. It seemed that the entire world around him heaved in tune with the feeling of exasperation. “You have to imagine me,” the voice advised. “This is your mind, after all. I am merely a visitor and have no form save for what you give me.”