The soldier stood to attention after executing the slave at the order of his master. The short master of the reavers looked almost as evil as he was, at least in the soldier’s opinion. The master had received a message, the oracle of the reavers had told them of a world that was a danger and must be harvested. There would be good slaves of many kinds to be taken, but the battle would be very hard.

The soldier had accompanied his master on many an expedition, one only very recently. It was unusual for the reavers to be called to gather again so soon but the soldier would not question his master; he couldn’t even if he dared, the controller device in his brain would never allow such a thing.

It didn’t matter, the message had angered the master and the slave had been present, so the soldier had been ordered to kill the slave. He had done so without hesitation.

“How could you be so stupid as to get blood all over my floor?” sneered the master. “Go. A week’s punishment.”

The soldier bowed and left the room for the chambers of punishment. Every fibre of his being screamed at him to try and escape, the worst that could happen would be a quick death at the hands of his fellow soldiers. But he couldn’t, the controller device ensured total obedience. So he dutifully reported for punishment, and spent the next week screaming.

----------------------------------------

Ethan woke up with a start, blinking into the darkness. There was only one problem with Pearce’s home, it was deep within the conical tower at the centre of Ehleria, as such it had no windows and it was impossible to tell if morning had arrived.

He rolled over and turned on a lamp so that he could see the clock next to the bed, it was not yet one hour past midnight. What was going on? Something had woken him, but he had no idea what. A moment later he knew as he heard what could only be described as a frightened mewling sound coming from the bedroom next to his, Nicola’s room.

Ethan got out of bed quickly. Hastily donning a dark blue night robe, he made his way to her room and turned on a light. He looked down sleepily at the girl; she was tossing restlessly and muttering in her sleep. She was having a nightmare and from the expression on her face, Ethan thought it must be terrifying.

This wasn’t right, Ethan had known many children, travelled with them. Not one had ever had nightmares so obviously terrifying or so often.

“Nicola,” he said, sitting on the edge of her bed and gently placing a hand on her shoulder. She continued to struggle against something only she could see.

This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

“Nicola,” Ethan said again, shaking her gently. No change.

“Nicola!” Ethan said more loudly, becoming alarmed now and gently but firmly shaking both her shoulders. Suddenly Nicola’s eyes flew open and she screamed at the top of her lungs.

“What?” Ethan heard his brother shout in confusion as her scream woke him.

“Nicola, It’s OK!” Ethan was shouting now to make himself heard over her screaming.

“NO!” she screamed. “NO! They’re COMING!”

“It’s a dream Nicola, That’s all!”

“NO! It’s NOT! The reavers are coming! They’re coming!” With that she grabbed him and clung to him tightly, sobbing and shaking with pure terror.

“No one’s coming Nicola, it was only a bad dream,” Ethan said soothingly, noticing for the first time that his brother was now in the room. He was frozen mid stride, caught between wanting to come in and comfort the little girl and not wanting to intrude.

“No. No, they’re coming,” Nicola sobbed into Ethan’s shoulder. Ethan made a motion to Pearce to back off but stay in the room. Pearce nodded and stepped away to stand near the door.

Nicola continued to cry and mumble half-intelligible things between sobs until finally going silent and limp. Ethan gently lay her back down on the bed, she had passed out.

“Pearce, I think the first thing I’ll do when I get to the Castle is take this girl to see a doctor,” Ethan said quietly.

“Why d’you want to do that? It’s not that unusual for children to have bad dreams, ‘specially so soon after leaving home,” said Pearce.

“I’ve travelled with a lot of kids, believe me when I tell you that dreams that scary aren’t normal in a healthy child and she’s having a lot of them, too many.” Ethan fixed Pearce with a penetrating stare that conveyed the importance of what he was saying.

“D’you think she was abused by her parents?” Pearce asked quietly, balling his fists. Ethan smiled, Pearce wasn’t the most pleasant of people to be around, but he had a good heart and right now he was quite ready to do violence upon anyone who had hurt this little girl.

“No, her mother’s dead and I met her father, I don’t think there’s an evil bone in his body. I really don’t know where this has come from.” Ethan looked down at the sleeping girl. “I’ll get a chair and sit with her in case she has another nightmare.”

Pearce nodded at his brother, then yawned hugely. “D’you want a coffee before I go back to bed?” he asked.

Ethan nodded, “Please,” he said. It was going to be a long night.

----------------------------------------

Nicola was excited when she awoke, they were leaving Ehleria today to go to Dragon Valley on the train. She sat up in bed then stared in confusion at a bleary-eyed Ethan sat in a chair next to her bed.

“What are you doing in my room?” she asked.

“You don’t remember?” he asked her. His tired eyes looked confused and a little disbelieving.

“Remember what?”

“You had a really bad nightmare last night, when I came in here and woke you I couldn’t believe how upset you were,” Ethan explained, looking genuinely concerned for her.

“I don’t remember anything,” said Nicola, shaking her head.

“Well,” Ethan sighed, “That’s probably for the best.” He rubbed his red-rimmed eyes.

“Er… can I get dressed now?” Nicola asked, suddenly very aware she was only wearing her nightdress. Ethan looked at her owlishly for a moment before replying.

“Yes, Sorry. I’m sorry,” he said, obviously embarrassed. He retreated hastily to his own room.