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A huge, dying sun appeared in the sky of the Shores of Night. A totally alien presence in that place, that colored water and sand in red, pink and orange lights.
The blood on Daniel and Corinthian’s naked bodies glistened as if on an open wound. The hunt had been particularly fun and they had not yet washed off the blood of the dreamers they had visited that night. They sat, close together, on the now pleasantly warm sand, as the sun seemed to melt into the waves.
The Nightmare grinned
- You are particularly romantic today, my Lord -
- With you, always -
The silence was absolute except for the lapping of the waves. No one ever dared to approach the Shores when the Corinthian and Daniel hunted together.
Suddenly the red of the sun became darker, almost purple. The heat seemed to increase even as a cold wind began to move the water. The Corinthian's senses began to feel a change in the air: something was about to happen, though he could not tell if it was danger or wonder. Out of nowhere a strange, inexplicable noise began to spread, voices softly whispering incomprehensible words. And a beat, like a drum, that went in rhythm with the lapping of the waves.
He stood up, facing Daniel so as to protect him from any possible danger, looking around, trying to discover the source of that noise.
The voices and the drumming were slowly getting louder and louder.
- Do you not hear these voices, my Lord? -
Daniel got up in his turn. He approached the Corinthian, gently placing a hand on his shoulder.
- The Nightmares are invoking me-
The Corinthian listened entranced to those voices, trying to understand the meaning of the words.
- What language are they speaking? -
- Ours, my Corinthian -
He had heard of the ancient language of Nightmares. Morpheus had banned it after his predecessor's betrayal, and uttering even one word had become taboo. It seemed incredible to him to be able to hear it again, and the sound of those words reverberated pleasantly in his ears, like a song he had stopped singing but never forgotten.
- Our language -
The sun was now purple, melted into the black sea. The stars in the sky began to spin, coming together in clusters that grew larger and larger and more tangled. The Corinthian looked at them rapt: he had never before seen the stars on the Shores of Night move that way.
- Let’s begin -
Daniel's voice was now more distant. The Dream King had approached the point where the waves lapped the beach. The water had begun to wash the blood from his feet and although his body was still completely covered in it, his skin seemed to glow.
- Sit down, my Corinthian -
The Nightmare obeyed. He sat down on the ground, crossing his legs.
- Place your hands on your knees with palms facing upwards and remain still until I tell you to -
Daniel's voice came softly to his ears, a whisper, slightly louder than the prayers that continued to resound around them. The Corinthian did as he was told. The wind was beginning to get colder and colder. The moon had returned, its white light desperately trying to make its way through the sky, which had remained purple.
His gaze turned towards his Lord. The blood on his body was incredibly still warm and fluid, like ink freshly poured onto the skin.
- Now concentrate, little nightmare. Your heart knows what you have to do -
The Corinthian would have liked to say that this was impossible: neither his body nor that of his predecessor had ever had a heart. But he had not yet finished thinking about that objection when a violent pain formed in his chest.
- Stay still. Allow the pain to work its way through -
The Corinthian clung to Daniel's calm and reassuring voice and let that excruciating pain expand unresistingly inside his body. He felt his chest explode, his ribcage torn apart by this unseen, sudden force. He squeezed his eyes shut and cried out, offering that pain to his Lord. Tears of blood began to stream down his face.
The pain ceased as suddenly as it had begun. At first the Corinthian took no notice, thinking it was a consequence of the intense suffering he had experienced, but then with enormous surprise he looked at his chest and then towards his Lord.
- What…? -
Daniel smiled at him.
- It’s your heart that now beats together with mine -
There were two beats resonating in the air now, as if a second drum had joined the first, perfectly following its rhythm.
- My Lord...-
- Now concentrate -
- I don't know what I have to do -
- You know, you have always known –
The Nightmare closed his eyes. He searched inside himself, inside the darkness hiding behind his muscles and skin, even though he did not know what he should do. He connected his thoughts to the beats of his heart, his own and Daniel's, putting them perfectly in sync. He thought of blood, red and fresh as paint ready to be spread on canvas. And he understood.
He opened his eyes again, concentrating all his will on his body and Daniel's, transforming the shapeless blood stains they both still had on their skin into words, written in their once forbidden language, tracing with his mind, like a painter, the words of prayer on their skin.
The whispering had now become a chorus of voices, more and more piercing and energetic. The hearts’ beats were louder and louder, faster and faster. The purple of the sky had again turned vermilion red. It looked like the beach was burning.
Daniel began to dance. His body moved to the rhythm of the beats, faithfully following their speed and force. His arms drew geometric shapes in the air, his feet made marks on the sand, the shadows moulded the lines of his face into a mask that was now divine, now eerie. Even the wind seemed to accompany the ritual dance of his body, singing along with the voices of that invisible choir.
Alχuvaisera, Alχuvaisera, Alχuvaisera
The letters that the Corinthian had drawn in blood on Daniel's skin began to change shape again, turning into something small and sharp, like snake scales. Soon Daniel's body was covered in them, and the Corinthian saw before him the wonder of the Lord of Shapes' metamorphosis: instead of the anthropomorphic figure he loved so much, there was now a great white serpent, looking ravenously at him with jade-green eyes.
The beast seemed to hesitate. The Corinthian smiled. He was not afraid.
- Come closer, my Lord –
Daniel crawled on the sand. The moonbeams made his red and white scales as precious as a dress of pearls and rubies. The Corinthian's hands quivered with the desire to touch them, to feel the smooth, hard texture with his fingertips. But he continued to remain motionless, closing his eyes as Daniel's body in the form of a snake coiled around him, wrapping his ankles and thighs, around his turgid sex, squeezing his chest in a spiralling embrace. His lover contracted his muscles, squeezing the Corinthian's body inside his own like a snake would do with its prey. The Nightmare moaned with pleasure, feeling the solid presence of his Lord's coils around his legs, between his legs, the tip of the snake's tail making its way between his buttocks, teasing his opening.
- Daniel! –
The serpent hissed, his teeth dangerously close to the Corinthian's neck. One bite from that huge snake would have been enough to snap his neck, leaving his body lifeless in that sensual embrace. That thought aroused him so much that he felt his cock move, even though he was wrapped in those strong coils.
The chorus had now become one eerie cry in the night. The stars in the sky whirled as if mad, the beats of their hearts like a noise that echoed, rapid, brutal, across the beach. Daniel's snake-like body became warm, his grip around the Corinthian stronger and stronger. The Nightmare felt the tip of the tail penetrate him, slowly, almost fearfully.
- So imposing and creepy, my Daniel, yet fearful that he would hurt me –
The snake hissed again and in response to that mockery penetrated him with a violent thrust. The Corinthian cried out in pleasure. He laughed, as if in the throes of orgiastic madness, an honored sacrificial victim at the altar of his Lord.
Daniel brought his serpentine head close to his lips. The Corinthian opened his mouth, allowing Daniel to make his way there too, an infinite serpent body entering again and again, filling his flesh, devouring all the darkness inside him, wrapping his coils around his Nightmare heart.
The Corinthian came, and his mute cry rumbled inside his chest, where the Serpent ravenously feasted with his heart. The choir shouted with him, the moon, the stars, all Night participated in the mad joy of his orgasm, in the offering of his heart to his lover.
What would become of him? Perhaps he would have exploded, torn into the infinite particles of sand from which he was born.
- You can move, my Corinthian –
The Nightmare opened his eyes. He was still there, sitting cross-legged, palms facing Daniel, who had reverted to his human form. The Dream King sat opposite him, mirroring his pose, palms facing the Corinthian. Though still naked, their bodies were now clean, without even a trace of blood.
Had that metamorphosis really happened, or had he just had a vision?
Daniel seemed to hear that question and answered it affirmatively with his head.
- Look -
He followed the ecstatic gaze of his Lord. Above them hung in a cloud of light a serpent egg, green and white. Something was pulsating, inside the shell. The heart of a new nightmare.
The Corinthian raised his hand towards the egg, and brought his fingers closer, without touching it. He felt a pleasant warmth emanating from the shell, felt life pulsating in it, the horror and the beauty enclosed in a form as big as an heart.
- And this, my Lord? -
Daniel smiled radiantly at him
- This is a story for us alone -