Dreams have a subconscious way of telling you about yourself, and sometimes the surroundings you are in. For example, when I slept outside in an alleyway that smelled of old man musk. I had found myself dreaming that night of wallowing my body in horse shit. Perfectly fitting for the torture my nostrils went through. Thanks, brain. My subconscious always finds a perfect way to put the icing on the cake for an already excruciating situation. Anxiety is another lovely perk I have acquired while traveling alongside Osiris. Even with these "lovely" additives, I find it hard to believe that some people never experience hardships such as I have. It's molded me into who I am today. My word is my bond, My thoughts attempt to be honest. Yet still, I find common folk to be stirred up by the pettiest of events. I guess it's not just people who follow the money it's pettiness too. There are instances when I ponder that my life isn't going to surmount toward anything and that I've wasted a lot of it on thievery and pointless purchases. I had stolen a hundred coins from a family's personal stash and the next day bought a large staff and cape. The staff was cool and was handcrafted by a Levanant that stumbled into town while traveling to the capital. The cape and staff lasted a week. Two weeks, in prison and lots of torture later, I was back out. I was much younger then so killing me by hanging wasn't the moral thing to do. So the Guards let me go, as usual. I wish that Guards had the balls to just stab people who do injustice. I feel it would solve a lot of issues in Duria, real quick. But then again there are always two sides to the coin. I definitely deserved to be stabbed.
Aside from my internal ramblings, dreams are to this day my favorite escape from life. Real or not, they are a grand canvas to something that might be a reality in the next life, or so I tend to believe. I could never know what was going to come from them, yet they were mostly a fun way to express my thoughts. Aside from the occasional nightmare, I loved sleeping. Naps on couches, under a tree, on a rooftop. Anywhere my back didn't feel exposed and I was out of sight.
One of my favorite dreams is the one where I was at a giant round table full of fat-looking Knight Guards and Gristmill's Lord Draksis. We all shared a similar set of clothing, such as the "royals" tend to do. Maids come out from two large Kirkwood doors with golden handles. Their hands were full of silver platters. pounds and pounds of freshly cooked meat. It would've made a grizzly cry. The best part is, when we begin feasting and gulping down all the mead in the room we could get our porky fingers on. A few short moments after the lord drinks from the goblet and along with the Guards, their heads all expand and pop! Hilarious, I love that dream so much. After their heads pop like cherries, I always burst out laughing in the dream. The subconscious is indeed the most "creative" thing in the world. If only it could become a reality, my life would be easy.
The most recurring dream that I experience that brings me a sense of serenity is when I have some imaginary girl I meet and we are just watching the night sky up on a tower. It may be a lewd dream sometimes and we don't need to discuss that in great detail, but it was always quite nice. The girl in nature always looked different and was gorgeous. If only getting a lover was that simple. I don't delve a large portion of my time into talking to the opposite sex and that's for obvious reasons. I'm a former criminal with not much going for him and I am an upcoming botanist. Whoopie, what a hunk of a man that is, I can already see myself speaking to my dream wife, "Oh what's that honey, you need me to steal from the market again? Of course!"
On the other hand, I had fun dreams of exploring the world. I've already had my fair share of exploring, not exactly legal but I did do it. I will never stop loving the excitement of finding random caverns and finding lost loot in forests. There are so many things to uncover in such small areas of the planet I could lose my mind if I delved deep into the hidden geography of Duria.
Although, tonight's dream was different. My breath visible and I was struggling to inhale at all, where am I? A few glances later and I realized this was the center of a blue rock platform. It had white carvings on the floors and I was looking down around at what they were inscribing. I couldn't read it, some sort of language I couldn't understand with symbols of men etched around them. I kept surveying the surrounding area. It was cold, and my body shivered. I was on a mountain top, though I couldn't see how high up. Snow was everywhere except this platform. I quickly deduced that someone must have taken care of this particular spot, but for what purpose?
Brimmed with curiosity, I kept looking around. Twelve pillars all in a circular fashion were connected to the platform with a small blue flame atop each of them violently whipping around in the wind from the peak of the mountain but staying lit. I began to think I was going to be a sacrifice for some demon god and that I was going to soon be eaten alive or worse. I looked straight ahead in between the first two pillars. This place was ginormous. I also felt an incredible rush of purity within me. It was as if my senses were heightened ten times their normal level. Air seemed like a calm touch to the skind and the pressure of the height of the mountain went away. It was as if I was back at ground level. The peaks surrounded me in a circular fashion. The area seemed to resemble a cult-like configuration, though it was missing white chalk on the floor with the pentagram and dimly lit candles.
My dreams can't be too predictable now can they? There was light sleet falling from the sky above, no sun, and only a foggy mess in the clouds. this being a mountain top the air was crisp and light. The feeling of being high up was obvious but I never got a chance to see just how high up I truly was. All twelve of the blue glass-like pillars must've been at least twenty feet tall. There was a dip in elevation from the circular platform I was in, and a man was standing on the edge looking out in the distance. A man with brown hair, and an all-white outfit. Intertwined with blue lacings and golden buttons. There are several things that seemed weird about him from what I could already see. I wanted to see the man's face so I shouted out to him.
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"Um. Hello? What's going on?"
The strange man's shoulders perked up and slouched down. He turned to face me his cape flowing behind him and looked like he was staring into my soul. After a short breath of cool air and while speaking he created a new platform out of thin air with a simple wave of his hand, "Ah yes, welcome Tudor. I suppose it's time to start our meetings, yes?"
He's talking to me like he's an old colleague. Odd, but I didn't think too much about it. "I guess so? I still didn't exactly get an answer on who you are?"
The man stepped across the man-made pathway and inched his way slowly towards me as we kept chatting. He came about within arms reach before he put a hand on my shoulder. "Where are my manners? Welcome Tudor, to the Astral plane of Ice. I am Forbos, the God of Ice. Wielder of water, ice, and everything nice. You must be quite curious as to why you are here. In a dream, In a dreadful-looking outfit. Which is fair. Have no fear though, my boy. I have been able to grant you the most exquisite of powers, those of which you can't even comprehend without being here first! Poor human child, yet a future god all at the same time. How beautifully tragic."
I burst out laughing. " This is a fever dream. What the hell is my subconscious doing now, am I really going to be this power-hungry and salacious over a simple chat with Lauren? Landell probably will tell me I don't have powers anyways. I hyped myself up so much before bed that I am having practically a wet dream about being a god of Ice. I do appreciate my brain's level of creativity though. Maybe Osiris was right and I should write books because no one could come up with this level of "creativity." "
The sudden interjection caused Forbos to change his demeanor. In an instant, his body was washed away from what appeared like snow, and he reappeared directly in my face. I could even feel the heat of his breath on the frosted tip of my nose. "Now I have no problems with having a good time. Though this is no joke Tudor, as a matter of fact, I am displeased with how long it took you to get here. You haven't even thought about the possibility of having magic all these years. Your parents made me a promise. Turns out their word was worthless and now you are here in front of me already a fifth of the way through your human life span." His voice got tense, and he turned away and wiped his face.
A sigh and a small cough later he restarted, "Apologies Tudor, I can see you really don't understand where you are or the position you are currently in. It's quite mandatory that we start talking now and get the basics out of the way as soon as possible. I won't have you for long though, the next time we meet up it will be much different. I can sense what that man Landell is going to do, I don't have a problem with it. I just think you may end up injured or worse. Though in the future you may not know it. I can sense it. Not always but usually important pieces of a puzzle. I tend to get them in dreams of my own on the Astral plane and I need you to understand that you need to point your arms at Osiris instead of outwards. Did you get it? I'll save you from the heartache before it happens if you trust me on this."
My mouth shot open for a moment and I immediately shut it. What is this guy talking about, Forbos a god of Ice wants me to do something with my arm and point them at my brother. Right, I scrunched my eyes shut for a moment to just simmer in the words that were spoken to me. So now I have found myself in an Astral state, and a God telling me that he's saving me from future heartache. Still not buying it. He may have weird teleport abilities but I just don't see how this could be a thing. I kept quiet for a little longer and Forbos allowed me the time for contemplation and inward thoughts. Yet, I couldn't help but feel like this was still just a really good fever dream. Maybe that could get me out of dealing with Landell tomorrow, I have had a feeling that he is a creep. It would get me out of "finding my talent."
I looked at Forbos with my voice nonchalant, " Well guess what buddy, I'm not buying it. It's pretty good the story I made up for you to tell me but props for the execution subconscious."
Forbos' eyes went white. and his body fell to the ground as a clump of snow. "We are out of time for tonight, I gave you a choice, and you denied it. So be it. Though with these powers. Your life can be given meaning. No is not an option here. Only you are the one who can decide whether to grab it or not."
The "Forbos" snow had been taken by the wind and drifted off over the pillars. This level of detail my brain came up with is astounding, It was hard for even myself to understand what was going on in my head. Forbos seemed like a cool hero. My eyes wandered the ritual-esque mountain top and noticed there was a scroll on a rock table that was perched beside one of the pillars to my left. Since he was gone, I decided to look at the scroll, it was sealed with blue wax. The wax depicted the form of a bird. It's an insignia for a guild most likely, there are lots of guilds that use animals as their Insignia. Taking note of the symbol, I removed the wax with a small tug and unfurled the single piece of parchment.
Tudor comes to the apex soon.
You must prepare in haste.
Let me know if you need anything Forbos.
- A. E.
After reading the parchment, the air was washed away from the scene and I woke up breathing heavily labored. I passed out for a few seconds for no reason. My body was in shock for a moment, that dream was oddly surreal. Osiris was still asleep and even after my eventful arising, I was feeling good. I needed to get some stuff done in the field this morning but I wasn't sure if I was up to the task just yet. There was something off about that dream that my mind just couldn't put into words. I decided to write it down in my dream journal, it's a keepsake item that I do for fun. That's because our minds have more fun while we are asleep than we do in an entire week, hence why I always try to savor those moments. Dreaming was a grand escape from the world I dreaded.