FANTASMAGORÍA

The persistance of
time and dreams
Once both children were on the other side of the door,
Loligo’s smile dissapeared inmediatly as she noticed
they were not in the highest tower of the castle, but instead
in a strange unintelligible realm that made little sense to
the eyes and seemingly, grasp of nature’s laws would be
pointless in trying to understand the surroundings. The girl,
once again looked back to the floating doll hand, pointing
indifferent towards their destination; She had no choice but
to keep following it.
As they strolled by the strange place, following the direction
which the floating hand showed them, They marveled as to
how everything seemed to flow back and forth in time. What
looked like some sort of fruits hanging from branching
sinuous shapes that towered the landscape would morph
from a flowering bud to a rotten body, looping over and
over again. Other objects like heavy monoliths would float
in the sky like fishes swiming in the ocean. far away you
could see giant bulky beasts gracefully skating the land on
stilt like legs extending miles into the sky. Some of them
resembled crystal chimeras of real animals, yet others looked
so bizarre there would need to be new words to describe
them. However strange these creatures were, they seemed
indifferent to the presence of Gulliver and Loligo.

As they marched on, the doll hand that was guiding them
rotated upwards. The children followed the guiding finger
and saw a tall spyral like road floating and coiling around
an unaturally narrow hill, closer in looks to an obelisk, yet
clearly part of the land. The road was long and the summit
was high in the sky but at the top laid another portal and
reaching it would put an end to their arduous journey, and
so, they soldier on, climbing the coiling road. “It doesn’t
seems like this place is as dangerous as the others, but it’s
certainly much more strange” Gulliver thought to himself
as he looked over his shoulder to check his little friend in
case she wasn’t keeping up, however she couldn’t look more
resolved, even trotting to make up for her small stature and
short legs.
As they got closer, keeping the pace was becoming harder
and harder, even taking a single step was becoming as tiring
as lifting a rock. If even the most basic of task was becoming
this diffucult, they dreaded the thought of having to fight
another creature like in the previous rooms of the castle.
When, finally, they saw the summit, and at the moment,
time seemed to slow down for every step they took, every
second felt like it was lasting an eternity, even if from
someone’s elese perspective they seemed to simply be moving
somewhat slower. Both children were aware of the situation,
yet it seemed even their thoughts had come to a halt as they
couldn’t start to communicate or even move their lips. At that
very infinitely lasting moment, a reverberating voice spoke,
breaking up what seemed like eternity in silence and stillness.

What at first seemed to be a language lost to civilization or
even humanity, started to turn, or perhaps just started to
sound to them, into something like the language they knew;
word by word, becoming more clear. until the sounds became
just like that of a man’s voice. Suddenly, the magical gate itself
started to turn clock wise. The children were dumbfounded as
what they thought was a portal turned into an oily substance
of many colors mixing and swirling with liquid gold that
splashed around only for the drops to stay still in time and
grow into platinum feathers which themselves turned into
wings, orbiting like celestial bodies moving along the rythm of
clock hands that materialized from the aether; they moved in
synchronized fashion with the sky’s chaotic time dilations and
sitting at the very center of it all, there was a completely pale
human face who looked at both of them with otherwordly
eyes and a calm expression. He was whispering, yet his voice
sounded thunderous in their heads,
-Who are you, small ones? What could bring the souls of
children to wander around this dominion. You shall go back.
-NO. We can’t go back! – Yelled Loligo. The girl’s voice
sounding furious for the first time; the sound of her denial
echoing through the skies, scaring Gulliver – My name is
Loligo, I’ve made many sacrificies, I brought a hero from
outside to help me traverse the curse of the castle and against
all odds, we succeeded. You can’t stop us now! – Gulliver
couldn’t believe the meek girl that he knew could be so fierce
as to demand something to this being of untold powers.
The ethereal being kept whispering, but the sound of his
words were unberable in the head of Loligo and Gulliver.
“Go back” he repeated with detachtment as if he was
talking to himself.