Chapter 22: Dreams

Dreams were always something that Finn cherished. Through the best of times, he never remembered his dreams. But those were not the times he needed dreams, and therefore, he had no need to remember. The bad times, the times when he thought life couldn’t get worse and then it did, those were when he remembered his dreams.

He could recall the one he just had perfectly. He was sitting on a bench in a park. He knew this park, it was Magsimity near the downtown of Vlatin, the city he lived in for so many years. He had always liked this park, it was so green and the pathways had purple flowers that grew along the side of them. There were only a few others walking around as it was morning time and the sun was just barely poking over the horizon. The air was beginning to get hotter but it was still cooler than usual and the birds were beginning to awaken, making their usual morning songs.

It was perfect.

He took in a deep breath to soak it all in and felt a sudden stabbing in his chest. He looked down but everything was fine. He paid it no mind. He sat there, relishing in the atmosphere when a small, blue bird with a yellow bottom landed on his bench. It tilted its neck and looked at him. It looked sad, but why? More pain struck him.

Pain.

He saw darkness. His eyes were closed, the dream was over. It felt like there were small, white hot daggers digging into every part of his body. It was worse in his back but there was at least air that touched the pain there, cooling it slightly. Was the air hitting there because he was on his stomach? He realized that was it. He never lay on his stomach, it felt strange and even if it meant more pain he wished he could be on his back.

Through the pain, he realized something was wrapped around his left hand and in the other was something soft. It was warm and had a small patch of hair, still prickly from where it was shaved last. A hand. One he knew well.

Hazel. She was here holding his hand. Why was she here?

Fendrin! His eyes opened and his body instinctively went rigid as excruciating pain shot through his body. He was in a white room with a small bit of daylight coming through a white curtain. In the front of his vision sat Hazel.

"Hey," She said, a small smile across her face. The smile was full of worry and her cheeks had dried streaks from tears. "How are you doing?"

His throat was dry and when he tried to speak he only managed a groan. He cleared his throat. "In pain," he mumbled. "I'll make it."

"I shall go get the doctor," She began to take her hand away but he gripped it.

Doing so hurt but it didn’t matter, he needed her here with him. “Please, stay.”

“But-”

“I’ll be fine.”

She huffed but stayed in her chair. It was hard to tell how long they sat there like that, time seemed so distant with the constant, piercing pain throughout his body. The longer he laid there, though, he found the pain was almost like an ocean, the waves of pain would crash down on him and he’d have to grit through it but then there would be moments of rest. The whole time, Hazel was there. Just like she always was.

Why does it always end up with her protecting me?

He didn’t know, but he was grateful she was here at this moment. If she hadn't been, he would’ve gone insane.

“Did we get him?” He asked.

She shook her head silently.

He sighed, but he wasn’t surprised by such an answer. Fendrin had taken him down in a few moments. He felt even Gronan’s magic and strength were no match.

They were silent for a moment before Hazel mumbled something inaudible.

“What?” He asked.

“I’m sorry,” She nearly whimpered.

“Why? You didn’t do anything wrong,”

She was silent.

He wanted to nudge her for a response but his throat was on fire just from the little bit he had spoken. He needed water. But if he tried to drink any he’d have to sit up, and he knew the pain would be excruciating if he did that. He’d just wait for her to speak up.

Finally, she did. “I’m sorry I forced you into this life. Into being an Adventurer.”

He squeezed her hand slightly and gritted through the pain, “I wasn’t forced.”

“But you were.”

He sighed, feeling flames as the air rushed out of his dry throat. “There’s always a choice, sister.”

He strained his eyes to look up toward Hazel's face. He watched as a tear formed in one of her eyes. It swelled before it was too much for her eyelid to handle and fell down her cheek. She wiped it away with her free hand. “It wasn’t a very good choice.”

He felt one side of his mouth pull upward, wanting to make a smile but the pain stopped it. “There never is.”

There was a knock at the door before a man’s voice called from outside, “The cleric is here!”

“Come in!” Hazel yelled. As the door opened, she instinctually tugged down on her clothes, trying to make them look presentable even with the gore of battle on them.

Gronan came into his field of view and he heard the footsteps of another, much lighter man come to the other side of the bed. He wished he could've so he could size him up.

“Good, you’re up,” Gronan said and put a hand on Finn's side that made him wince. “I tried to heal you up all the way earlier but it was too much, hopefully I can get you mostly back into working order.”

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Gronan’s hand began to glow a familiar orange and a wonderful, welcomed heat entered Finn’s body. It was always so strange to be healed by a cleric. He could feel massive cuts heal themselves and the deep muscle and tissue within seal back together. He felt the dry blood all over him become liquid and flow back into his wounds.

He watched Gronan, the burly man was pushing himself further than Finn had ever seen him do so before. Gronan’s eyes were dark, already tired from healing him prior and now it seemed like Gronan’s own life force was being drained. Finn took in a full breath and realized he wasn’t able to just seconds ago. Sweat began to drip down Gronan’s face and he looked as white as the room’s walls.

The light suddenly faded and Gronan took his arm away, panting heavily. “It’s...all I can do...for now.”

“How do you feel?” The man behind Finn asked.

Finn was now breathing evenly without any pain. Slowly, he took his hand away from Hazel’s and found he was able to do so with ease. He rolled onto his back, nearly falling off the side of the bed.

With his newfound strength, he glanced toward the man and found it to be the doctor, wearing a white coat and small glasses.

“Easy!” The doctor called. “You don’t want to break your back stitches.”

Finn pulled himself into a sitting position and felt his back. In his shirt were several pieces of string and he grabbed one, showing it to the doctor. “Like this?”

He blinked several times, his mouth wide open. “By Goddess, you are a wonderful healer, sir,” He said to Gronan.

Gronan shrugged and took hold of Finn's bandaged hand, beginning to slowly unwrap it. “I couldn’t fix everything, Finn,”

Just then, Gronan pulled the bandage loose and revealed the damaged hand. He felt something in eyebrow twitch and he had to suppress a scream at what he saw.

The hand was blackened, burned, and parts where his skin had healed there were massive divots where chunks of meat had melted away. That was his hand, that was a part of him. He tried to wiggle his fingers and found it hard to do so. He kept telling them to move but could only move an inch or so before they just, simply, stopped following his commands.

He swallowed the massive lump in his throat and looked back to Gronan, who was looking down at the floor as if he was embarrassed by what he couldn’t fix.

“I might be able to get it back to normal,” Gronan said. “But it will take a while. I’m sorry.”

Finn tried to wave his bad hand at Gronan but it just flopped around. “I’m tired of the apologies today, you did your best,” He stared at his terrible, claw-like hand. It was bad, but without Gronan, he would’ve been dead. He didn’t know how he would ever repay a debt like that.

Gronan grunted but didn’t look appeased.

“I’m tired of this bed,” Finn said as he pulled his legs off the bed and put his feet onto the cold, wooden floor.

The doctor grabbed his shoulder, “Woah, we still need to check your vitals to make sure you are-”

He shrugged the doctor off. “I’ll be fine,” he stood up and stumbled but managed to catch the bed to keep himself stable. His feet felt like jelly.

"He’s okay,” Gronan said. “The only problem is his arm and he still has a very minor fracture in his seventh rib.”

“Are you sure?” The doctor asked.

Finn slowly put his weight back onto his feet and found he could stand now, “Someone needs some faith.”

“What he said,” Gronan said. “He’ll be okay, but if you want you can check.

“If you can catch me,” Finn retorted, but he felt sure that in his state, the doctor would’ve easily caught him.

“Fine,” The doctor huffed, “But if he collapses on the ground later, I don’t want you blaming me. Get out, I have to clean the room for another patient apparently needing it more,” He said and snapped his fingers.

“You heard him,” Finn said, making his way to the door and out of the room. There was a small hallway that led to a set of stairs at the end and a small living room turned lobby to the other side.

He felt himself let out a long sigh. He had been saved by his sister once again. He bawled his good hand into a fist. No matter how it seemed, he could never repay his debts. She just kept saving him. And now he owed Gronan too. He would never admit it, Gronan would just say he did because he wanted to and because they were a group. But that didn’t matter, he would still owe him his life.

I’m just like my father.

And if he kept on garnering these debts, he felt sure he’d end up like him too. He didn’t deserve that. He didn’t even deserve to be here. Yet he was and as they continued into the inn, he was met with a man that had eyes like a child. And nagged at him like one too. As soon as he saw La’Quet come through his stupid robed portal, he couldn’t help but scowl.

#

There was no cry of an alarm clock nor someone yelling into my ear to wake up. Just the smell of something delicious being cooked. Bacon. These mornings, when I was awakened by someone cooking breakfast for me, were always the best. And it was even better when I got a really good night’s sleep in my bed. I stretched but only felt one slight pop in my back, otherwise I was fine. That was strange, I always woke up with my back aching after sleep.

It was silent in my room this morning, not even birds were chirping and not once did I wake up to the damn rooster making its morning caw. And then I opened my eyes and realized I was in a stylish, wooden room in a bed that wasn’t mine. Because I wasn’t on Earth, I was on a new planet known as Gandria inside of the Anestrian Empire.

But I couldn’t change that. I was stuck in this land for what seemed like the foreseeable future.

Until whatever is calling me reveals itself at least.

I got out of bed and didn’t have to worry about the cold chill up my back from the floor as I still had my shoes on. Because I’d always have these damn shoes on.

Waking up is never going to feel right, is it?

Nevertheless, I walked out of my room and began to go toward the stairs when I could taste my terrible morning breath. I would have gone to Gronan’s room to swish my mouth out with his container of cleansing wash but I didn’t know which room he was staying in. Instead, I went to one of the baths and swished my mouth out with that water. It still felt wrong drinking from the bath but, hey, it was worth not having to taste my god-awful morning breath.

I went downstairs and saw the interesting sight of Hedge trying to cook on the skillet. He was standing on a wooden stool and even then his head just barely went above the lip of the counter.

He took the skillet off the oven and dumped strips of meat onto a plate beside it. I watched with interest as he got off the stool, nudged it out of the way, and then pulled open a small glass drawer with hot coals inside. The drawer came out and he slid the coals carefully onto his skillet. Only then did he turn around and see me. “Ah, mornin’ lad. How was the sleep?” He asked as he walked to the back patio door and opened it, keeping it open for him to hear me respond.

“Good, where’s Gronan? I thought he’d be in here.”

“Ah,” He said and dumped the coals into a metal bucket filled with water outside. There was a large sizzling sound as the fiery coals were extinguished and steam went everywhere. “He went to heal Finn the rest o’ the way.”

Shit!

The sleep had fogged my brain and I had somehow forgotten what had happened to Finn and apparently Gronan didn’t feel the need to wake me up! “Dammit, I have to go check on how it’s going,” I turned to the portal still in the living room. “When did he leave?”

“Oh not too long ago, just a few minutes ahead o’ you is all.”

“Okay good, you making breakfast for everyone?” I asked.

“O’ course!”

“Even better!” I called, going through the portal.

Why didn’t he wake me up? Just because I can’t do anything to help doesn’t mean I don’t want to be there!

Just as I walked through the portal, the door to the inn opened. On the other side was the rest of my group.

Finn locked eyes with me and froze.

I knew Gronan's powers were good, but damn. “Great work Gronan,” I said in awe.

Finn rolled his eyes, “You could've been there to witness it. Instead, you decided to sleep on the job.”

I felt a pulse of anger radiate from my head to my jaw.

Glad to see you're still a dick.