A Fever Dream

It was a beautiful day.
The white sandy beach sprawled before me
The wind in my face, stroking, caressing, and playing with the coconut trees
Beyond, a vast expanse of the ocean stretching as far as the eye can see
The blue sky and the blue-green sea met in the far horizon, two lovers united by distance.
And the sun was shining high in the sky, hiding its face among the white clouds.
It was indeed a beautiful day.

I was not alone at the beach
People were milling around, enjoying the breeze and the ocean view.
Seagulls diving into the ocean, preying on the fish of the sea
I walked around, at last finding a place to rest
I sat on the warm sand, hugging my knee, looking at the ocean beyond
The sun tanning my skin
The chorus of waves crashing against the white sand
Hypnotizing, a lullaby to the mind
I closed my eyes, lied down, and finally sleep overtook me.

It was indeed a strange dream.
I dreamt that I was still at the beach
Hugging my knees, looking at the ocean beyond
But there were no people
No seagulls.
There were only the sand, the ocean, the sky, the clouds, the sun.
And me.

As I stood up, the ocean parted.
In the distance, I saw a figure
Gliding, riding the waves, coming towards me
She was beautiful
Her figure was as if made by water,
greenish blue, with air rising in bubbles inside her slim body
She came towards me
We looked into each other's eyes, hers as blue as the deep ocean
Her lips dark blue, not moving as she whispered these words into my mind:
'I have a request to ask of you, son of the mountain.'
And I said to her that I was just another man, that I was only human.
'But you love the Mountain, and the Mountain loves you. Please, grant me this one wish.'
Her deep-blue eyes looked into me as her hand reached into her chest
pulling out a shiny pendant from her body of water.
'Please go to the Mountain, give him this for me.'
The pendant was in the shape of a water drop.
'It will remind him, that once, we were together. And that one day, we will be together once more.'

I woke up, startled.
The sun was setting, the sky was turning into orange-red.
It seemed that sleep overtook me for quite sometime.
Slowly, the memories of the dream came back to me.
And as I was standing up, my hand caught an object.
It was the water pendant.
I looked into it, and I could see bubbles rising inside the pendant.
As I stood there, a voice spoke inside my mind,
'It is the Soul of the Ocean. Take good care of it. And please deliver it to the Mountain. By the coming end of the week.'

It was a coincidence, for this coming weekend
I was going to the Mountain
To enjoy the tranquilty
Together with friends
As I stared into the pendant once more
I thought that this weekend would turn out to be out of the ordinary