The water laps quietly at the boat as they pedal along. Takeru's legs are aching, but the girl has a look on her face which makes him keep going. She's all quiet and serious, and even Poyomon is sitting at the front, looking out into the mist.
It's spooky. The amusement park has been lost into the swirls of fog and cloud behind them, and there's no sign of land anywhere. No sky, no sun; just water and mist, stretching on forever. The girl was cheerful enough to start with, but they've been pedalling so long that there's nothing left to say. Takeru wonders if they'll ever find land again.
He stops, his legs too tired to keep going. The girl turns to look at him and sighs, before sitting back in her own chair.
"It didn't look that big a lake when we started," she says. "Where did all the land go?"
"It changed," he says, shrugging. "Like the other places."
"But… we were asleep those times, Takeru. You mean this place can change even when we're awake?"
He blinks, surprised. Doesn't she understand anything? Poyomon hops over onto his lap, and he cuddles his friend tightly.
"Of course it changes. Everywhere does. The cottage is the only place which is always the same. Well, and the hill with the snow, too. But I don't know where they are any more."
He sighs, and scoots back in the chair. The boat rocks beneath them and he clutches to the seat, looking out at the water nervously.
"What's wrong?" the girl asks.
"I don't want to fall in," he says, staring out at the water.
The surface is grey-blue, reflecting the dreary fog around them, and it looks cold and dangerous - and horribly, horribly familiar.
"Why would you fall in?" the girl says. "We're sitting in a boat."
Takeru shakes his head. He's not sure why the water scares him so much, but the air is cold and damp and there's hardly any wind and it all feels still and trapped, and part of him is just sure that he's going to fall in - and then he'll sink, pulled down into the cold and the dark while water is all around and he can't breathe…
A hand grips his shoulder and startles a yell out of him. He flinches, then clutches Poyomon as the boat rocks even more. Opening his eyes he realises he's safe and dry; sat on his seat still, with the girl giving him a worried look.
He stares at her for a moment, catching his breath. It all felt so real. He can still hear that muffled roaring in his ears, and as he looks down at his clothes he expects them to be soaking wet. Instead, he's completely dry, and Poyomon is looking up at him.
"Poyo?"
He wants to comfort his friend, stop him being scared, but the words won't come because he's still not entirely sure that he is safe and dry. His head is throbbing, and it's hard to focus on anything, and there's a word right there, dancing just out of reach in his head, and he knows, somehow, that if he could just know what it was then everything would make sense.
But the word flutters and fades, and as the throbbing eases away with it, he's just sitting in a boat with Poyomon and the girl - although he's more sure than ever that something about this is all wrong.
"Why are you here?" he says at last.
She stares at him, eyes wide, blinking. "What? Takeru, don't you remember? We're looking for the boy."
He shakes his head. "No. I know that, I just meant-"
There's a flash of pain in his head, and for a split second, Takeru can see someone else sitting beside him in the boat. Another boy - older than him with wild, bushy brown hair and a pair of goggles on his head. The sky is clear and blue and they're pedalling towards a shore, and he feels so light, and happy, and ho-
"Takeru!"
Hands grip his arms, and he realises he's falling backwards out of the boat. He panics and grabs the girl to pull himself back up, then cries out with shock as the boat starts rocking wildly. By the time they're settled back into their seats again the pain in his head has gone, and all he can think about is how much he wants to be away from the deep water. How badly he wants to be on solid ground.
"What happened?" the girl asks.
Takeru frowns, not sure what she means at first. The memory of the light feeling is almost lost amid his panic. Still, he clings to what's left - a tiny spark of something which feels like it belongs with him, and a sudden new knowledge which comes hard on its heels. He knows that face. He knows the boy he saw in the flash - it's one of his friends. The one who always wants to play soccer. The one who used to be Takeru's favourite friend until the boy arrived. How is that possible unless the girl is really right, and he has been to places which aren't the cottage before?
But if he's been to all these places before, why doesn't he remember?
"Takeru?"
He jumps, so lost in his own train of thoughts that he's forgotten that the girl is waiting for an answer.
"I don't know," he says, and frowns. "It feels like I had a memory, but that doesn't make any sense. It was like a dream memory, and they aren't real - but I saw one of my friends."
He's expecting the girl to agree with him about it being strange, but instead she leans forward, her eyes going wide. "Who? Which of your friends did you see, Takeru?"
Even Poyomon seems quite excited, bobbing up and down on the bit of plastic between them. Why are they acting so weird?
"But you don't know who my friends are," he says. "They're my friends."
The girl frowns, and sighs. "We need to get off the water," she says after a long pause. She looks almost as cross as Takeru has ever seen her, which doesn't make any sense. Maybe this is just how she is? The boy with glasses always worries, and the short boy with the rectangular thing is always getting distracted, and the girl with the big hat is always really cheerful, so maybe this girl is just grumpy and bossy?
No. He can't say why, but the moment he thinks that, he knows it's not right at all. His head throbs and for a moment he's somewhere else completely, staring at the girl in a dark, shadowy place as she starts to glow. There's a white animal of some sort standing next to her, but before he can get a good look he's back in the boat again, and the girl doesn't seem to have noticed anything. His head throbs painfully, but he's starting to get used to that by now. Why can't he see strange things like this more often? Glowing people isn't a bad thing to see. It's interesting, and a lot better than the other stuff. The bad feeling wasn't so strong, either.
Still, he's pretty sure he's never seen the girl do that in the whole time she's been here. Does that mean he's been dreaming again, even though he's awake? There's only really one way to find out.
"Can you glow?" he asks.
The girl stares at him, open-mouthed. "What?" She sounds pretty surprised, but not grumpy.
"Glow," he says. "I thought I saw you glowing, but maybe it was another dream."
"Takeru, I don't… wait. What exactly did you see?"
He frowns, trying to make the picture in his mind again. It's surprisingly hard.
"We were in a dark place, without a sky. It was all grey and brown, and you were glowing, and there was a white thing with a tail helping you stand up-"
"You remember! Takeru, that… that happened. It really happened! Can you remember anything else?"
The girl seems really excited now, sitting forward in her seat. On his lap, Poyomon hops up and down, and the overall effect is to set the boat gently rocking in the water once more. Part of him is worried about this, but it's hard to focus on it when the girl is more happy and excited than he thinks he's ever seen her, and it's catching, it really is, because something about that happiness feels familiar to him, and even though his head is still throbbing, there isn't really so much pain with it any more.
He stares at her, trying to understand. Remember? How is he supposed to just remember things? He can't control what his head does, after all. It's not as though memories stick around all the time. They pop up on their own and then disappear again, and the older they are, the less they pop up. He's sure of that, even if the last couple of days do seem to be a lot less foggy in his head than the rest of his memories at the cottage. Still, the look on her face makes him want to try. He likes happy friends, after all. It's much more fun than sad ones.
Screwing up his eyes, he tries to think about the girl glowing. It's hard - he's not really sure what it is he's trying to remember, after all - and the rocking of the boat is really distracting. After a minute or so he gives up, and sighs.
"It's too hard," he says, huffing a little. "How am I supposed to know what I need to do, anyway?"
The girl frowns, but it's a thinking sort of face, and not a cross one. "Maybe it would be easier if we could get out of this boat," she says, looking around. "The fog seems to be getting a bit thinner - we could look for land. We have to find something familiar at some point."
They start to pedal again, although Takeru isn't as sure that they'll find anything useful. The fog is starting to clear, yes, but it's just showing more and more water around them. Poyomon hops up to the front of the boat and looks out over the water, poyoing softly. For a long while they don't talk, and the gentle lapping of the water and the sound of Poyomon's quiet murmur get so familiar that Takeru starts to tune them out. He watches the girl for a little bit, but she's facing forward and concentrating, so instead he turns to look out over the water.
It seems bluer now - and the fog is thin enough that he can sort of see the sky up above them. It's a warm day, too, and the water doesn't look so scary any more. He still doesn't want to fall in at all - he's pretty sure he'll sink - but before, he was sure that it wanted to get him, and now he's starting to wonder what's down there. Something is, he's sure of it. Deep water like this is meant to have… a friend? It's not a friend like the others, though. More a sort of… someone who helps. Someone who shows where the land is, and… and then leaves.
Takeru blinks, sure for a moment that he can see black specks drifting across the sky. He shakes his head and the sky is just plain blue again, with no sign of fog at all. The waves stretch out to the side, glinting in the sunlight, and blurring slightly because his eyes have filled with water of their own. Is this sadness? It's a little like how he feels after the crying boy dream, but it doesn't make any sense. Why do black specks make him feel sad?
"Takeru, look!" the girl cries, breaking off his train of thought. "Land!"
A.N.: Holy cow this chapter was hard to write!
It's hard for me to judge how far through the story I am at this point (I'm a terrible judge of length - when I started I thought I'd be wrapped up in 15-20 chapters, and nooooope), but I am reasonably sure that I'll be approaching something of a reveal soon. Ish. Possibly. Anyway, until I reach that point, the balance of what to reveal and what to keep hidden is going to get increasingly difficult to write. So updates might be a little slow, because I'd rather take longer and get it right than rush out chapters and it not work. Fingers crossed I don't screw up anyway!
Also, thank you so much to everyone who has favourited, reviewed or followed! It really means so much to me to know that people are interested in this story. I hope I can continue to hold your interest through to the end.