A dream:
You open your eyes and you can see the clear sky overhead, the wind blowing past, you look out ahead of you and you can see the ground below. You are up high, as more of the world comes into focus you come to feel the stone under your feet and the parapets surrounding you. You are on the top of some kind of tower. A stone built tower, there are two wooden hatches in it that seem to lead down. There are two men on the other side of the tower both with a longbow slung over one shoulder. One seems to be pointing at something in the distance. You move over to where they stand.
"I swear I saw it again there at the edge of the wood."
"Sure you did, Douglas. Same as yesterday and the day before."
"I did. Something large and scaled was moving around there on the edge of the forest."
"Ever since the reports got here about Oakheart we are all a bit on edge, its just nerves"
"It isn't nerves I actually saw something."
"I am quite sure, that you think you did."
The one guard raises his hand in disgust and huffs roughly and moves to another edge of the tower. The two men seem to fall back into a routine of walking in a large circle around the rim of the tower. They regularly stop and stand facing the outside of the tower for minutes at a time. Suddenly one of the trapdoors opens.
Stolen novel; please report.
"You two still alive up here?" a joking voice makes from inside.
"Yes we are both alive but Douglas here is seeing things again."
"Well be sure to keep an eye out for Douglas' forest monsters." The voice returns before a laugh. "Here is your meals." A tray comes up out of the trap door and slides along the wood flooring. Two bowls of some kind of stew and a large pitcher of water on a small tray. The two men hurry over and gather their portions and break out their mess kits and start eating. You can smell their meal, it isn't a particularly appetizing smell but they seem happy enough to eat it. The one you heard Douglas put the bowl down on the floor and rushes over to the edge and quickly flips his bow off his shoulder and knocks an arrow, first one then another, in quick succession. The other man jumps up quickly after setting his bowl down also and moves up next to him.
“What in the nine hells was that for?”
“I saw whatever it was again.”
“And you thought it was a good idea to go shooting at shadows? You know they will charge you for those when you fire without authority or provocation.”
“Damn it, I don't have any coin left, lost the last of it playing cards two days ago.”
“Then I suggest you go recover those arrow before shift ends and you have to turn the gear back in.”
Douglas knocks on one of the trap doors and it opens and he makes some excuse about needing to use the privy, another man climbs up onto the top of the tower and Douglas jumps down into the tower itself. A minute later you see him walking out the front gate of the tower towards where he fired the arrows. The man who was standing watch with him standing on that side of the tower watching him go. He disappears under the cover of the trees and the man shakes his head slightly, laughing to himself.
Suddenly there is a piercing scream, a scream of pain or surprise or maybe both, from the woods. The whole tower comes alive with activity, more men climb onto the roof of the tower and a couple men with heavy shields and swords stand just outside the entrance.
You wake