Black Ocean

Diamonds on a bed of black satin? Fireflies flickering through a dark room? Pearls floating on a stained sea of ink?

I laid back pondering my numerous comparisons of the starry sky, puffing out a cloud of some suspicious psychedelic substance given to me by one of my colleagues. Everything in the ocean of stars suggests a certain serenity, all while boasting an infinite myriad of adventures and possibilities for danger. Quoroweth Sands… A remote place far from any cities, far from any pollution that might assault the sky with its interfering light, excluding the nearby campsite. My reverie is however interrupted as I notice the stars start to descend. I started to panic, but remembered such things are to be expected when smoking unknown psychedelics. I chuckled and attempted to catch one, and to my surprise the falling star was plucked from the sky by my hand. I glanced to the other tourists who accompanied me to the beach.

"Hey, I don't know what you gave me but you shou-" I stopped mid-sentence.

I was of course intoxicated, but I had enough sense to deduce that taking drugs does not cause others to hallucinate. Everyone seemed to have their eyes fixed on the same falling stars, but in the place of amazement I found surprise, disbelief, horror…

So the stars are falling?

Quickly dismissing such an improbability, I concentrated despite my current haziness. I noticed the colour of the falling stars were not of a vibrant white, but were instead of an ashy grey. Remembering the 'star' I had caught earlier, I opened my hand to examine it. At this point, all amusement from the current situation had vanished, and I fell to my knees on the hard sand as a rebel-owned rifle was pointed at my head. I held my hands up in submission and let the ash in my grasp fall to the sand. The rebel officer shouted an order in an unknown language after having examined me himself, and the back of the private's rifle impacted my skull soon after.


* * *


Time goes by unnoticed. With no knowledge of how long it's been, I lift my groggy head to the sound of footsteps. Time for some routine torture maybe? A bout of interrogation on matters I know nothing about? I raise my defiant head, forgetting my lack of bravery in such situations, and gaze across the expanse of water in front of me. An ocean? I confirm after a few minutes of checking my current mental status that it was in fact a water-filled ocean. Lifting myself from the burning sand, I am further taken aback by the fact that I appear to be standing on a stereo-typically tropical island in the middle of a vast expanse of blue that stretches out to the horizon. Behind me was a forest of what looked like palm trees with eerily crimson leaves. The piece de resistance was however the number of moons in the sky, which currently added up to three.

The one sitting on the pink horizon was either massive or in close proximity to the planet. Judging by the fact that I could make out numerous fiery explosions on its volcanic red surface I assumed it was quite close. There was another moon adjacent to it in the sky, but clearly much farther than the volcanic moon. It appeared to be covered in some green substance, possibly flora? The last moon was the least interesting of them all, as it was extremely but strangely familiar.

After a long wait wondering in vain about what caused me to appear on such an island, I suddenly realize that beyond the Quoroweth Sands I have no recollection of my memories… I start to panic, pacing in the sand desperately trying to remember my name until I clumsily trip on a rock and hit the forgiving sand. I see a rocky crab-like creature stop in its path as if to mock my clumsiness before forgetting me and continuing on its path into the vast ocean.

"OK… Calm down… My name is… my name, it's… gah!" I shout in despair, failing my attempt to calm myself.

After what seemed like half an hour of frenetic pacing I stopped in front of what appeared to be a tree branch. Upon seeing the branch, I decided that however improbable someone seeing it may be, a smoke signal is my current best option for survival. However, halfway through gathering branches I noticed a column of white smoke in the distance, possibly over a kilometer away. I reflect on the column's origin, and sigh in relief as I deduct that I may not be shipwrecked alone after all.