Page 17 of Stars in Aura

A hallucinatory dream descended upon him like a rolling storm, folding over him, pulling him into its depths with a prescient, relentless insistence.

He was walking along a mountain precipice that overlooked a mighty rainforest.

The atmosphere was redolent with the scent of earth after rain, dark loam, and deep green canopies swaying with the breath of unseen winds.

Its vastness stretched into infinity, a primeval realm untouched by time.

Before him, the land sloped into a sea of towering trees, their gargantuan trunks wrapped in thick vines, their leaves shimmering.

The calls of concealed creatures echoed in the branches.

Beyond the endless emerald expanse, a sacred mountain rose like a titan, its jagged peaks crowned in mist, its sheer crags reverberating with power.

He soon realized he was not alone.

Three shadowed silhouettes strode beside him, matching his gait.

Their forms shifted like elusive wraiths wrapped in a diaphanous fabric, their shapes flickering between solidity and smoke.

They bore no faces or distinct features, only the substance of a monolithic, timeless, and familiar force.

For years, their presence lurked at the edges of his consciousness, whispering their riddles into the marrow of his bones.

They appeared to be leading him towards a glade at the cliff’s edge, bathed in silver moonlight.

As they approached, he realized a person draped in wild flora lay asleep in the grass.

His soul lurched in recognition.

Issa.

She curled within the embrace of the land itself, flowers bending toward her like devoted acolytes.

Lush vines wove delicate tendrils around her bare limbs as if nature sought to cradle her. The rise and fall of her breath was rhythmic; her distinct hair, a river of gold-dusted curls, spilled over the ground, catching the moon’s silvered glow.

Her skin gleamed like burnished bronze, kissed by starlight.

She appeared ethereal. Untouchable.

His chest clenched with a visceral pull to her, like a tether he couldn’t sever.

He slowed, and the three figures halted, eyes on him as he gazed at her.

One spoke in a rumble as deep as the shifting of tectonic plates.

‘We are your past, your present, your future.’

Another voice, wind through ancient ruins, and laughter beneath a blood moon followed.

‘She is also your destiny.’

Ki’Remi growled, fists clenching.

His patience snapped like a rusted chain.

‘I’ve had enough of your riddles over the years,’ he snarled, turning on them, his body coiled with frustration.

They’d traveled with him from Earth decades ago and never left his side, always urging, stirring, and pressing him.

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