The stars and moon hung inverted over the mirror-smooth sea, while the ship drifting with the gentle swells seemed like a baby's cradle.
Gently lulling everyone aboard into dreams.
Samwell suddenly felt a summons from the sky.
In the pitch-black night, something seemed to be drawing his mind upward.
He ran upward.
At first, he strolled easily, then faster and faster, running ever higher. The cool sea wind howled past his ears, as though whispering something.
Yet no matter how he ran, he could not close the distance to the sky.
Samwell abruptly stopped and looked down—
There he saw the sea reflecting the entire starry sky, along with the tiny ship upon it, small as an ant.
I'm flying!
Samwell finally realized it.
He dived sharply, skimming across the sea at tremendous speed.
A steep mountain ridge suddenly rushed into view. Its crimson rocks resembled bloodstained claws, making his heart race beyond control.
Whoosh—
He plunged headlong into the mountains and forests.
Countless vivid scents struck him at once: squirrels hiding in tree hollows, wild snakes concealed in brush, elk warily rising in caves... They suddenly stirred an instinctive urge to hunt within him.
Fortunately, Samwell suppressed the impulse and continued onward.
Forests and hills stretched without end into the distance, reaching the limits of his sight and smell.
The unprecedentedly wondrous experience immersed Samwell so completely that he could not pull himself away.
The mountain wind suddenly grew restless, and the woods gradually thinned.
An enormous weirwood appeared before him without warning.
Its lush branches and leaves blotted out the sky, filling him with a faint sense of fear.
The next moment, the huge ancient face carved into the weirwood suddenly opened its eyes—
Boom!
As if struck by lightning, Samwell jolted awake in bed.
"Ha... ha..."
He