Repetition

She sat, thinking for a great deal of time before she steadily filled her lungs and let out a heavy sigh. Before her was an obelisk. Its pale pink surface caught the blinding sun, sending sharp angles of light spattering across the span fine, red sand that surrounded it. What did the swamp want from her? She couldn't understand why she was being troubled with these dreams and what they meant in the grand scheme. From what she could tell based on the replayed shapes of kin that arrived and solved the surrounding puzzles, these things had already happened. She'd already missed them. Why was it so important for her to know about them now?

She closed her eyes and took another deep breath. In through the nose, out through the mouth. Perhaps she had not paid enough attention last time. The second obelisk had disturbed her and she'd rushed to ignore it. There was a chance she was missing something important, but she'd need to keep a level head to find what that was. She'd take the time to clear her thoughts this go around. Maybe she'd glean something useful. Though, as the words ran through her head, she had to urge herself not to scoff at them

Sitting around wasn't helping. Trying not to let her hooves slip on the unfamiliar texture of the dunes, she rose. On the opposing side of the pillar, she could see more of those flat plates in the ground - the puzzle no doubt. Walking a little less than graceful, she rounded the towering rock, trying to keep its daggers of light from flashing across her eyes. Once she could blink them open safely, she looked down at the stones in front of her. There were eleven and most of them were disappointingly blank. She cocked her head at them. How was she supposed to get information by paying attention if there was no information to gain?

The shimmer of a flank, fire-red to contrast with the paler hues of the sand, caught her off guard as it brushed past her. Stiffing a sound of alarm, she reflexively sprung out of the way before quickly righting herself. Spinning her head, she realized the ghostly forms of the dream-kin had abruptly snuck up on her. They were all over now, peering around with the confusion she'd come to expect. She didn't bother backing away from them this time. They weren't truly there and their company bothered her less than the idea of dreaming up a fourth obelisk as punishment for not paying attention to this one.

Still, there was still an overlying problem: it was if she was peering into the past. So, as she watched a hoof placed atop one of the smooth plates elicit a reaction from the attached specter, she worried. For her, nothing changed, but the gathering of travelers grew eager without her. Was she missing something important, she wondered, as she watched them dip their hooves onto the stones in what seemed to be random order? It went on for a long time and the crowd reacted in many ways to things she couldn't see. She tried to listen carefully to the murmurs that followed them, in case they happened to be narrating what they were doing, but it was as if she was underwater. The sounds were far away and seemed to coil around in her head, resisting making sense.

After a while, it seemed the group was on to something. They grew focused, tapping out patterns while others stood off to the side, carefully watching. The slab in the middle was pressed - the only one with a mark on it - and many sets of eyes shot upwards towards the sky. Cloy looked too, but all she saw was blue. And then, she started to remember something she had forgot. These dreams always ended with her falling asleep, after which she would return to wakefulness. It was already closing in, her surroundings painted with a black haze. She took one last sweeping look over the scene in front of her, grasping for anything she'd missed, before her legs crumpled beneath her. She fell into the sand and, seconds later, it all was replaced with black