Leo opened his eyes. He found himself laying on the side of the road where he and Solomon had pa.s.sed the deceased girl. He didn"t see the girl. In fact he didn"t see the corpse he expected to see. The road was busy. He got up and saw carts. He saw large caravans traveling to and from the city he remembered falling asleep in."Raynark..." Leo said.
He didn""t know what the old man wanted to do by putting him to sleep, but he realized that a whole day would be wasted asleep. Even worse was the fact that his body would be completely defenseless while he remained asleep.
Leo looked down the hill that led to the prairie city.
"If this is a dream, is Ahab the still the King?"
Leo didn"t know, so he asked. He asked a short man sitting in the front seat of a small wagon. Metal ores, most likely copper, were stored in the wagon. The man was a part of a long line of people waiting to enter the city. The city seemed to shine, like a city on a hill. The city had people entering and exiting at a much greater rate than when Leo and Solomon entered Ahab"s city of sin.
The wagon moved three meters then stopped while the person at the gate of the city was inspected by the guards. The line stretched for a good quarter-kilometer. Leo saw the city look smaller than it really was from a wall through the city.
Leo said, "Who rules this city? Ahab?"
The man scrunched his face in disdain. His rough green face and blue beard moved slightly while the wind blew his blue locks of hair above his head ever so slightly.
They man laughed, "Aha, AhahahHa. Prince Ahab, that welp. I doubt he could lead a camel to water, much less rule a city. That"s good. That"s real good! I needed a laugh like that. What"s your name Blackcoat?"
"Leo."
"I meant your Blackcoat name, but that don"t matter. I was never one to heed the barking of the upper cla.s.s."
Leo stared for a while, then said, "Then who does rule this city?"
"Why Solomon of course! The wisest man in the world. Legend has it that the Supreme Fairy descended from a wind pillar, and Solomon wished for wisdom! Wisdom I tell you. He could"ve asked for anything in the world, yet he asks for wisdom. Anyway, you must not be from around here. I can see from the tint of your skin. It"s a dark green, much like a mountain dweller."
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"Yes, I"m from the mountains..." Leo said with a look of longing on his face.
"Well don"t let an old man like me get you down. Tell you what, since you amused me so much, how about I take you into the city with me. I could use the company."
"Really?" Leo said.
"Really," the man said, "I doubt a Blackcoat like you has any money to enter the city with anyway."
"Thank you!" Leo bowed his head slightly.
"Don"t worry about it. Also, you can call me Ralph."
"Ralph?"
"Ralph," Ralph said, "Born and raised on the plains!"
Leo climbed into the wagon"s front seat, and he was flushed with a wave of nostalgia. He remembered when old elderly Solomon invited him to journey with him.
Leo turned his head and said, "Thank you."
Ralph sighed and said, "You need to loosen up. This is a joyous city—one you don"t come across anywhere else except for in the plains."
Leo nodded his head in agreement.
"Certainly," he thought to himself, "This city is much different from Brimstone"s city..."
"Have you ever seen a wind pillar?" Leo asked.
"Can"t say I have. Over here in the plains, legend has it that wind pillars occur wherever there is great sin.... That just means I don"t go to those places."
"Why?"
"Who wants to be near a wind pillar?" Ralph said, "they"re death incarnate wherever they descend. Don"t test your luck by going to one of those regions, where demons make their home."
"Wouldn"t think of it," Leo laughed nervously.
He thought about the amount of demons he encountered in Ahab"s city of sin. He realized that old Solomon didn"t tell him everything about the plains, not nearly enough.
Leo considérés Solomon"s statement about destroying the city and realized, "He intends to use the wind pillar doesn"t he..." this thought horrified Leo, but then he recalled the scene beneath Ahab"s palace.
He had many questions. One of them was why life energy could be absorbed from a corpse. The other was whether the people he saw in the city were really alive, or if they were just projections. "Are they alive, or dead?" Leo thought.
He also wondered if he was in a dream within a dream right now. He couldn"t rule out this possibility. He might be in coma at the mouth of the river where it opens into the sea on the sandy beach, sleeping, nearly about to die... Or, what Raynark said was true. He was only in one dream, the dream where he enters the city of Solomon, not the city of Ahab.
The dream could be referring to what happened in the past, and he was merely placed inside. Everything seemed to be happening too smoothly. Why would someone just randomly help Leo enter the city. The dream was maneuvering him. "I can"t let my guard down," Leo thought.
So, Leo stopped conversing with Ralph as the conversation had died down. And he entered the city without a problem.
The clouds were white, a pure white, and to Leo they were more unsettling than dark tumbling clouds. After all, these were fake clouds—that represented a false peace.