Sorry again for not posting for some time. Adult life is complicated. It's too bad the cons are all canceled. Would love to cosplay with my significant other some of these characters. Maybe I could play Raine or Hunter; my wife could probably play Eda with me as Raine, but I think if she played Luz or Amity with me being Hunter, there might be some outrage. Also been keeping up with season 2. Did…did they read my fanfic? That library episode was very similar. Going to try and keep things roughly spoiler free or vague enough. Enjoy.
Indeed, Luz did dream even while in the Dreamlands. She found herself floating once more and descending to the marble surface of a walkway amidst a lush variety of dark green foliage. The air was hot, and there were large sandstone obelisks lining the walkway, but she found that this was a large garden of hanging plants and bushes. In the center of this garden was a large square pond with a large onyx bust of a humanoid female body with that of a cat's head.
She proceeded around the great structure, the various floral scents enrapturing her as took each step against the marble tile. She eventually came to the other side of the garden where she could see the statue's head a bit more. It did indeed have the features of a domestic house cat, with short pointed ears, a snout that terminated in a triangular nose, but the main difference were the golden decorations around her head.
Suddenly, the sky grew dark, and she heard this high pitched nasally laughter, immediately reminding her of some of the dreams she and Amity and been experiencing. In the center of the now darkened sky, a colossal eye opened and stared directly at Luz.
Luz then awoke in a cold sweat, her mind now having returned to where she was. She remembered now that she was in some place called Ulthar that was surrounded by cats, which made her wonder if that's not why she saw the statue in her dream. It was interesting to think for a moment about how the mind correlates its contents into something as complex as dreams. Still, she looked down at her feet, and noticed that her kitten visitor had now gone.
"Aww, she's gone," Luz pouted, "And she was so cute! But no, no more distractions from soft kitty. Need to go find Amity." She then dressed, gathered her things, and headed downstairs where there was the pleasant familiar smell of breakfast waiting for her.
"Ah, hello there, tiny girl," the large innkeeper greeted her as her feet caused each step to creek, "Don't leave on an empty stomach! We have bacon and eggs freshly made."
"Thanks!" Luz took a big sigh of relief, "I didn't know I was starving until now." So her server brought out a big plate of eggs, bacon, and toast. While she ate with avidity, she looked out the window at the town. And still, the streets were overrun with cats. All of them either roosting themselves on cedar wood barrels or window sills or rolling around in the streets playing with one another. She looked up and noticed the sky was actually cloudy, albeit the light gray color to indicate it was day. There was something off about the clouds, though…they didn't move right for some reason, twitching this way and that, almost as if the sky itself were alive. It was just subtle enough that had Luz not been directly looking at it, she wouldn't have noticed.
"The Feline Legion awaits you outside, dear girl," the innkeeper said, "They agreed to lead you down to the docks."
"Good to know," Luz nodded, "Can you actually understand them?"
"In a sense, yes," the innkeeper laughed, "It's just a matter of how they want you to listen."
"Uh huh," Luz raised an eyebrow at the strange response before finishing her breakfast and getting up to go, "Well, thank you for everything; all of it was great."
"Best of luck on your adventure," the innkeeper nodded, "This land…it can get pretty crazy for non-dreamers. I myself am dreaming right now…"
Luz left the strange man to find a row of cats, all lined up and staring at her from the sidewalk. Each one appeared to be a different breed, no two cat looking alike. Well, Luz thought, at least they understand the importance of diversity in their ranks.
"Soooo, you guys are the ones taking me to the port?" Luz asked.
There was no reply from the cats, who all continued to stare at her; one decided to break rank and begin licking himself. But that was brief, as another cat hissed at him, causing him to sit back into rank.
"Okay, so which way?" Luz continued to question. With that, the right most cat appeared to bob its head up and down and raise its paw off to the right most path down the street. The cats began to head in that direction, all in a uniform line, and Luz followed. It was almost surreal to her to see cats behave like this, but then again, the entire town full of cats was surreal enough.
Eventually, she came to a small port in the vast river that for some reason evoked images of the docks in Venice she had seen online. The sweet smell of brine filled the air and gave her a sense of euphoria. There was a figure sitting on the pier, a dark skinned woman in a long form fitting white dress with various gold jewelry. It looked as though she had some sort of white cloth headdress with a large gold crest to capitalize it. Luz took a few steps towards her to see that she was petting one of the many cats that had come near to rub against her.
"You know what I like about this town?" the woman asked rhetorically in a low alto that still sounded sultry and demure, "It's how respectful they are towards my many subjects."
"And that would be all these cats?" Luz decided to respond, assuming the woman was talking to her.
"That would be correct," the woman responded before turning to face her. Just then, Luz was taken aback at first to discover the woman had the head of a black domestic house cat. But really, she should have been used to strange things by now, so she tried to not let it show. "Oh, do forgive me, traveller. Forgot that I may shock those not used to deep dreaming. I am Bast, and I keep the hearth warm and safe, while providing great fertility to all creatures."
"Like from ancient Egypt?" Luz laughed, "I've been seeing a lot of Egyptian patterns here and there as of late."
"It's one of the oldest civilizations in your human realm," Bast smiled, as much as one can really notice a cat smiling, "Shouldn't be a surprise that this is how we might have first appeared to your world. Anyways, I came here to help you on your way. You are journeying to Kadath, are you not? To find your missing Amity?"
"I guess I don't have to ask how you already knew that," Luz replied.
"A wise assumption," Bast nodded, "And from there, we can meet with my husband, Nodens."
"You mean the guy who looks like Aquaman?" Luz asked with enthusiasm.
"…The guy who looks like Aquaman, yes," Bast answered and appeared to cringe a little.
Within a short time, the two were boarding a small vessel that had pulled in to the harbor. The crew seemed to consist of sailors that at least looked human, but of course Luz was wary of that; if there's one thing that both the Boiling Isles and the Dreamlands taught her, it was to expect the unexpected. Bast seemed to command them in each of their duties, all of them seeming fully compliant and respectful towards her. It could have been also that several of the Ulthar cats had come aboard and watched each of them with much intent and that the sailors knew of what what each cat was capable.
Eventually, the sails were raised, the ship pulled away from the land across the vast sea. There wasn't much for Luz to do, however, but to take in the ever spanning waves that sparkled beneath the bright sun above in a now only lightly cloudy sky. After awhile, she went below deck to continue practicing her glyph drawings. She was determined to get this right, especially if what the wise men on the mountain said was true and that it had to be exact to the specific design. It took hour after grueling hour (and a lot of wadded up paper), but at length she made one she believed to be fully correct. She cheered and startled several of the onlooking cats before apologizing to them.
As the sun set, there seemed to be a huge change in atmosphere. Many stars littered the beautiful night sky, and Luz felt herself becoming hypnotized as she watched them seemingly swirl through the inky expanse. The other sailors didn't seem to notice, as each seemed quieter than usual. Even Bast was silent as she watched the waters continue to ripple, her ears up and eyes unblinking, as a cat in the wild might while on alert from either stalking its prey or, as Luz thought might be the case here, watching out for a larger predator.
"What's going on?" Luz asked her after walking up to her at the stern of the ship as she stared off the starboard bow.
"Something may be coming," Bast answered in a soft tone, "The men know these waters, and they're standing by for trouble."
"What could it be?" Luz tried to keep her tone down to match Bast's, as it seemed more natural for the situation.
"Deep Ones," Bast replied, "Fish men who serve Father Dagon and Mother Hydra. We're a mere lone ship in a vast sea; we could be easy pickings for them."
"And I'm guessing they're not exactly the friendly type?"
"That would be correct," Bast nodded before handing her a slip of paper, "Here. You don't know this one yet, but it should come in handy. Perhaps you can make more of these eventually. Take a picture of it with that phone of yours." Luz opened the paper and saw another glyph she didn't recognize. Something about it looked more jagged and forked than her others. She pulled out her phone (thankfully, it still worked here and didn't seem to be running out of battery) and took a picture. She would be sure to make more of them later.
Not sooner had she done that then there was a loud thump and a scream from the crew.
Luz ran to the bow to find what looked like large human-sized things hopping out of the water and onto the deck. They appeared to be what looked like large fish like people with the needle sharp teeth of an angler, eyes bulging and going off in different directions. They were holding spears and tridents, which Luz supposed was stereotypical of most sentient water dwellers. Eventually, one of the larger ones came forward and spoke.
"Now," he (Luz assumed it was male based on its voice) growled with a bubbling, wavering voice, "it seems we have some more sacrifices, my friends. Please, regard it as an honor. Ia, Dagon! Ia, Hydra!" And soon he and his fellow fish people chanted in unison. "Ia, Ia, Cthulhu fhtagn!" And with that, they charged the crew.
The ship's crew drew their sabers and pistols to defend themselves, and a loud battle ensued. Luz felt that she couldn't stand by and do nothing, so the fight or flight response kicked in, and she chose 'fight.' She drew some of her fire spells and launched a barrage of flaming spheres at them. It caused a few to stagger a bit but didn't quite bring them down.
One of the fish men jumped a good distance into the air and attempted to bring its spear down on Luz. By a hair, Luz spun out of the way and landed on her back on the wooden planks of the deck. She then decided to use one of the Dreamland glyphs Bast had given her. It was worth a shot anyway.
She drew one, rolled over in the direction of the fish man whose spear and now lodged itself into the boat, and tapped the paper. Luz had to quickly move her hand as a massive bolt of lightning shot forth from the small page, striking the 'Deep One' as Bast had referred to it and sending it flying back into the dark waters off the port side. Then, standing to her feet, she drew several more of these parchments and shouted for the crew to get back. Each one of them followed suit and gave Luz a clear line of vision. She then launched three lightning bolts in a cone-shaped arc that struck each of the remaining Deep Ones, driving them back into the sea from whence they came.
Just then, something large began hammering against the front of the boat, something much more massive than what the Deep Ones could have produced. Luz didn't know what it was but had time enough to react. She drew a large blank paper from her pack and began drawing, determined to use the circular formula to combine both the Boiling Isles fire glyph with this new lightning glyph from the dreamlands. No sooner had she started, though, than the slobbering tentacled monstrosities began slumping their immensities over the side of the boat and likewise onto the deck. They appeared to be somewhat bipedal, but their heads and arms were made out of long, thick, ropey tendrils that were covered in eyes and various mouths. One of them roared, and Luz saw that in the center of its head, between the tendrils was a large three-lobed burning eye.
She attempted to continue the rune but had to run before one of them shot its arm across the deck in her direction. Some of the rest of the crew remained on their feet, ready to fight, while others fell to their knees and started yammering nonsense or weeping hysterically at these monstrosities. Of course, none of them were any match for these creatures as they were either knocked aside or overboard by their their attacking tendrils.
Luz had to stop drawing as she avoided one of the monsters attacks. She then ran up to the stern of the ship where it looked like Bast had finished preparing a barrier spell. This gave Luz the opportunity she needed to finish her drawing as the monstrosities began surrounding the translucent light bubble Bast had generated from her now glowing hands. And just as it looked like they were now about to make a crack in the barrier, Bast extinguished it to let Luz touch the glyph circle and send a massive lightning storm flying in every direction, launching the monsters into the air and disintegrating them before they even hit the waters.
"Well, that was…" Luz paused to catch her breath, "…harrowing."
"I'll tend to the wounded," Bast said, "We should have enough to man the boat and get us to Celephais safely."
"Shouldn't we take time to mourn the fallen?" Luz asked apprehensively.
"I wouldn't in this case," Bast smirked, "They were dreamers like yourself. They'll return to the waking world safe and sound and ready to return to this world after one of their days, hopefully still at least somewhat sane."
"Unfortunately," Luz continued, "I'm not in the same boat as them, no pun intended. I kinda came here through a portal, so I think I'm perma-dead if that happens to me."
"Well, then," Bast raised an eyebrow, as much as one could see an anthropomorphous cat doing, "We'll need to take extra caution with you. And I'm assuming your Amity is in the same situation, which means the stakes are a bit higher."
Luz headed below to her quarters and slept peacefully on some fine red silk sheets. The bed was so soft, she instantly went to sleep only seconds after wrapping herself in the blankets like a cocoon.
Eventually, morning came, the sun streaming in through the port hole directly into Luz's eye, forcing her to wake up. She then dressed and headed top side to find that the ship was approaching a glorious white and gold city nestled in what looked like the end of a mountainous valley. Tall ivory spires in various sizes jutted in random positions, with marble walkways between them, the largest having a wide golden dome. below them were various town homes and bazaars, where even at this distance, Luz could smell the spices wafting from various morning dishes its residence were cooking. at the distant edge of one area, Luz could make out a large turquoise structure with its own bizarrely twisted architecture, which atop its front spire there was the marble statue of some robed figure. Beyond the coastal city was a vast forest full of ginkgo trees that ended at the bottom of a colossal, snow-capped mountain that Luz wondered if it were taller than Everest in her world.
"We're almost there," Bast said to her as she approached the port side of the ship.
"This place is gorgeous," Luz sighed in amazement, "I gather this is an old city, but everything looks so pristine."
"The place exists outside of time," Bast explained, "No matter how often you visit, it will regenerate from when it was last visited."
"Unrelated, but out of curiosity," Luz began, "If you're an Elder God, are you all-knowing by chance?"
"I'm not omnipotent," Bast answered, "but yes, I know quite a bit."
"Do you know anything about an Eda Clawthorne by chance?" Luz asked sheepishly.
"An yes, Eda the Owl Lady!" Bast chimed, "She was a frequent dreamer for awhile, until some infernal owl beast began chasing her through the Dreamlands. What do you want to know?"
"Weeeeell," Luz had a sing-song tone in her voice, "I was just wondering if she might be hiding any romantic secrets from me about her past?"
"Which one?" Bast gave almost a Cheshire cat-like grin, revealing her canines, "Her time with the Pines brothers or her time with Raine Whispers?"
"…Both?" Luz chirped sheepishly.
"It will have to wait, I'm afraid," Bast sighed, "We're almost in." As soon as she said this, the boat docked, and the redwood plank off the side fell down to the cedar pier below. The crew, along with Luz and Bast, began exiting the boat, and the first figure they came across was the very person Luz had seen in her last nightmare with Amity, The long bearded man with a silver and gold trident.
"My dear!" the man's voice was rough with age, as that of a weathered sea captain's, but still gave the warmth of the release of longing, "How I've missed you!"
"Beloved husband!" Bast beamed as the two embraced, "It was a long visit in Ulthar!"
"And this must be Luz," the old man said.
"The one and only!" Luz replied, trying to strike some sort of cool pose.
"You're the one who seeks dread Kadath," the old man continued, "But it is for a noble cause; you must save your love Amity. To introduce myself: I am Nodens, thought I've gone by many names in the past. No doubt you have questions. Come! You must feast and prepare."