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Awakening
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Right here, right now
there is no other place
I want to be
Right here, right now
watching the world
wake up
- Jesus Jones
Right Here, Right Now
Jacob: Newt . . . I don't think I'm dreaming.
Newt: What gave it away?
Jacob: I ain't got the brains to make this up.
- J.K. Rowling
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay
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He opened his eyes just as the light of dawn was beginning to penetrate the entrance to the cave. His ankles and wrists were no longer bound but he felt it prudent to remain prone and still as he surveyed his surroundings.
The rock walls were covered in primitive drawings. As the minutes passed, and the light crept further into the cave, Louis could make out more and more of the details. At the center was a great tree made of simple angular symbols embedded within a swirling whorl motif that combined roots and branches into an infinitely looping knot. Louis could not discern the meaning of the design with his mind, but he felt something drawing him inward as he contemplated it.
Around the central tree were various scenes of human activity. Most of the art depicted men with exaggerated phalli (perhaps wearing the koteka gourds he saw the day before?) performing various tasks. The majority appeared to be typical daily activities of a primitive society: hunting, herding, foraging, and the preparation of food; but Louis noted a few battle scenes.
He gave these a perfunctory study before moving quickly to a series of pictures that showed large, ocean-worthy vessels with high prows being dragged out of the sea by teams of men and animals under the direction of an androgynous figure standing upright in the boat. They then appeared to celebrate their arrival with a ritual procession in which a cauldron, or drum, or possibly a model of a boat was carried upon poles and before which men dressed as fish or snakes (perhaps eels?) danced, played musical instruments, and distributed some kind of foodstuff from woven baskets or bags.
This drawing fascinated Louis for various reasons... partially out of pure intellectual curiosity, partially due to the obvious parallels with his dream, but also because of the word sound that had echoed in his head for weeks. Louis felt his mind twisted into paranoia over this new discovery. Was my fall planned? Did Aquila rescue me or escort me? Was I sent to find and retrieve the ark? Why send me if they already knew where it was? Merde. Was this all a trap? Was I betrayed? But, why? Why? Why?
Louis’ eyes fell on the central figure in the religious procession, around which every other participant in the painted scene rotated as if she was the hub of a great wheel of humanity. She appeared to be the queen bee of her hive. She commanded his full attention and quickened his pulse. Standing alone, and yet connected to them all by an intangible force, she called out to him; beckoning him. All the other art, the very cave itself, disappeared. Louis was momentarily overcome by confusion. He knew her. He had seen her before in a brief glimpse of a sketch of this exact scene in one of The Brew D’Agon’s library’s books. The longer he stared at the image, the more he was certain. She was the woman of his dreams.
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