Dream:
Two water demons had been wreaking havoc upon cities worldwide. For unknown reasons, they had engulfed a Japanese coastal city in a giant bubble of water, thousands of meters deep. The city itself had been mostly evacuated, but the bubble loomed into the atmosphere, a motionless dome, unaffected by tides or gravity.
Scientists had, without any repercussions thus far, managed to float a plastic dome the size of a soccer field onto the apex of the water bubble, suspended there and anchored in place by an orbiting satellite. It was climate-controlled so that the scientists could study the phenomenon.
Caspian and I were famous spies and ambassadors, and we were hired by the government of Japan to rescue one of its living national treasures, a chef, who had been abducted and placed in an air pocket deep in the submerged city. The plan was for us to descend in the quiet of the night down through the water bubble and rescue him without attracting the notice of the water demons, who, while not especially cruel, were known to be notoriously volatile and unpredictable.
We were transported to the dome that the scientists had erected. It was an eerie and beautiful place. The air was cool but not chill, and the only sounds in this huge, echoing chamber were the slight whisper of ventilation fans and the tiniest ripple of the water against the chamber's outer edge. There was a multi-storied base on one end and two platforms on either side at the water level, with scaffolding crisscrossing above. The center was an open expanse of water, and breathtakingly beautiful and terrifying.
For the water here was crystal clear down to the very depths, and one had the feeling of being suspended in space over an illuminated metropolis far below, for the city lights continued to shine through the transparent waters. And since we arrived at night, the effect was overwhelmingly disorienting. The abandoned skyscrapers loomed up at us like colossal stalagmites. To get accustomed to this dizzying perspective, Caspian and I practiced swimming in the open expanse in the center of the dome. At the very top of the dome was a clear window through which one could see, in detail, the frosty stars.
There was a thick cable running from platform to platform, and holding on to it, we tried not to be overcome by vertigo, because pretty soon we would be descending through the water in scuba gear to rescue a Japanese chef. The surface of the water rippled slightly in random patterns, like the water in the pool below a dam; treacherously riddled with little currents. It was ice cold.
I used the cable to pull my way to the opposite side of the dome and had just emerged from the water when a strange chiming sound echoed through the chamber. The scientists at the base shouted at us incoherently, and we knew the water demons were on their way. The sound was very high, almost out of hearing, with a deep, deep undertone that vibrated in my lungs.
We had been briefed to remain absolutely motionless, to show no emotion, and to ignore anything that may happen to us in the presence of the demons. We were supposed to remain as still as possible and as unreachable, even if one were to grab us and shout in our face, or worse. Eventually, like children, they would theoretically become bored and go do something else.
I curled up in a little ball as far up onto the platform as I could quickly get and hid my face. The chiming stopped suddenly and the chamber became completely still and deeply quiet. I sat and waited. I waited for what felt like an hour. Nothing happened. I waited more. Still nothing. Slowly, I lifted my face from my arms.
She was there, the female water demon, crouching on the far end of my platform. She was nude and exquisite; a nymph from a rainbow forest. Cloaked in the deep shadow of the scaffolding, her skin was streaked in colors ranging from midnight blue to deep magenta, her lips were as orange as a clownfish and her tilted eyes as silvery as moonbeams. She gazed at me without moving a muscle, without saying a thing, without even changing expressions. She slipped into the water without making a ripple. I hid my face again, and waited.
Without opening my eyes or hearing a sound, I knew that somebody was beside me. I couldn't help myself, I lifted my head and was immediately seized around the waist by a towering, shadowed figure. It was at least 7 feet tall, and I tried not to make a sound. I could see the deep black planes of powerful face, and as the figure gently laid me on my back, it resolved into a more familiar shape. I didn't even see it change; one minute it was huge and dark and terrifying, and suddenly it was a beautiful young man, probably almost as short as I, with inky hair and glacier eyes. In the same second, the hood of my wetsuit was pulled back and my goggles removed. He cradled my head and whispered in a strange accent, telling me to come with him. I didn't move, didn't respond, just looked at him mutely. The male water demon.
He changed from person to person, trying to find a form that would affect me the most, continuing to whisper strange things to me, stroking my hair and my face, examining my fingers. One minute he was savage, the next minute hesitant and charming. He pleaded and threatened, but I didn't say a word, I just lay quietly, pliantly in his grasp.
He looked one final time into my face, expressionlessly, and was gone, disappeared into the thick shadows. I lay there for several minutes, completely overwhelmed by the experience of resisting his seduction, until I heard some movement at the base. The scientists gave the all-clear signal with a blue light. I slowly eased back into the water and tried to ignore the disorienting feeling of crossing back across that bizarre expanse. Caspian was on the platform at the opposite side, and I could tell by his apologetic, sheepish face that he had not been able to resist the female water demon! I didn't particularly care though, I'd seen her myself. The scientists came back down to the platform to help us get ready for our dive, and Caspian jumped into the water.
When he surfaced, he gave a huge laugh. We all stared at him, wondering what was going on, when suddenly he performed an amazing sinuous leap and shot through the water as if he had some sort of jet propulsion system. He could suddenly swim like a dolphin!
I was so amazed at this gift that the water demon had given him that I started splashing around; the scientists joked around about how much he must have pleased her, but I tried to ignore that.
It was so incredible swimming in that 3D panorama of sky and city and stars! Caspian kept shooting past me underwater and I tried my best to keep up, but I was a floundering mess compared with him. He kept spiraling around, plunging deep and then shooting up and arcing through the air while the scientists all clapped. He pushed me deeper underwater, until I panicked and thought that I wouldn't be quick enough to get to the surface, and suddenly he came from behind me and held me around the waist with one arm.
Together, we went shooting up toward the surface and as my face broke through the water I could see all of the tiny droplets of water sparkling around my face, his breath was in my ear and the stars spun slowly beyond the window in the dome ceiling and I took a huge, deep breath ---
And I was lying in bed. I breathed out.
