Beauty Of The Deep

Dreamt of you : 7

"Yes I am a witch."

A rough slap in the face pulled the sleepy Arlo out of his slumber.

“Arlo, you alright?" A concerned Seven popped right in front of the mortified boy's eyes who had his hands instinctively caressing his now-red cheeks.

Was is it all a dream?

"You okay man?" Seven furrows his eyes at the boy with a perfectly, red printed slap on the both sides of his face, feeling no remorse at all from slapping awake his best friend.

"What time is it?" Arlo immediately sat up, his eyes searching every corner of the room, but to his utter dismay, it was empty and sunny.

"It's time for you to wake, that's what time it is." Seven announced walking away from him.

Alone once again in the room, Arlo turns his head to get a sight of the window which of course was empty as well. Stuck between confusion and curiosity, the dream from last night felt so real it was hard to dismiss it from his memory.

To feed his curiosity with answers, the boy hopped out his window and went running straight to the shore. While making his way down, he had noticed that it was already one in the afternoon since that would always be the time the merchants and fishermen evacuate the ports from his faultless observation.

"Moon?" He started with an audible yell before repeatedly calling for her. He took a stroll around the land while calling name, but the area was empty.

"What am I even doing?" He stops yelling and rests both his hands in his waist. "She doesn't live in the ocean." Moon might not reside beside the ocean, but she may visit the ocean.

From his smart thinking, Arlo decides to wait for her arrival. If she happens to show up, then all his waiting won't be in vain.

Resting his back against a boulder settled just by the coast, he crossed his arms over his chest and started waiting.

Just minutes in of waiting, his surroundings were still empty and Arlo was never a patient guy. After when the minutes felt unbearable, he hoists himself off the boulder, and marches towards the crowded market.

Slight chances he would meet her there, but it was worth a try. At this point, He had no idea on why he was so eager to find her. Perhaps the questions in his mind were irking him.

As he escorts himself inside the market, he was immediately welcomed by the stench of fishes and fertilisers. Grunting at the disgusting whiff of displeasure, he lifts his top to cover his nose from the overpowering odor. The market was the only area locals trade and sell stuffs despite it primarily being a fish market. He never got used to the smell since it wasn't essential for him to be there. It would always be Seven and the other kids' errands.

"Freshly fetched fishes! Get your fishes now!" The place was roaring with people speaking at the same second. The physical and reeking distractions were interfering the boy's mission in finding the girl.

As Arlo navigated himself towards the crowd, bumping into some ate the process, he called her name.

"Moon!" He shouted under his top garment

"Looking for something lad?" An elderly voice spoke. Arlo turns to the old man and spots a tiny worn-out tent stationed away from the main road from the busy business. The aged tent was isolated away from the others, not easy to spot but somehow he saw it, let alone heard his voice.

"Yes, I am." The alert boy says once he approached the man.

"Moon was it?" The elder chuckled, and gestured for him to sit down at his flat, tattered cushion.

Arlo held his complaints, and obliged. Only fortune teller tents offer customers to comfy theirselves inside the tent, and he already figured where he was.

"Can you help me find her?" The old man shook his head, a soft smile still in sight.

"That is over my abilities but I can tell young man..." The elder had his finger pointed at him while shaking his head, "...this is the most longest relationship I ever encountered in my years of living."

Arlo was confused by the elder's statement, but he connected the dots. "Am I involved in her life in the nearing future?" The man abruptly stands up and smiles again.

"I tell the past, not the future."

Confused would be an understatement, nothing of what he just said entered his mind and he was stuck in the dark since the elder walked away and lost himself amongst the crowd. Arlo remains in the stranger's tent for a moment- trying to digest the words in, but it fuelled his curiosity more.

He never had treasuring memories of the past, when he was a kid but if he did, it would be too precious for him to forget.

“Arlo?”

A voice startled him from his self-absorption, they lay their hand on his shoulder, forcing the boy to stand up and face them.

"What are you doing here? If mother catches you she'll---HEY!" The moment Arlo saw his friend Seven, he knew that Mother would also be lurking around the same area thus resulting his death if he were to be caught. The first place his feet guides him to is, no place other than the ocean.

Panting wildly at the fast travel to his destination, he catches a familiar figure beside the boulder. He smiles softly, seeing her curled up with her chin resting above her knees, she was unaware of what was happening around her since she seem too absorbed in her thoughts.

After a moment of recollecting himself from earlier, he gathers the courage to approach her.As expected, she doesn't notice a thing. Her eyes were completely narrowed and lost.

"Knew I would bump into you here." Considerate enough, he didn't want to surprise or shock the girl. Moon didn't even flinch an inch from the sudden voice. She switched her gaze at the boy now sitting beside her, matching the position she was seated in.

"You were in my dream last night." She says, looking back at his doe eyes.

Arlo never understood whatever the elder from earlier said about them crossing paths in the past that he had no recollection of, but meeting her like this again by chance. He hope this time, the memories would be permanent.