II: The Call

The whole forest vibrated with the word. As if it had been spoken from everywhere at once. Even parts of herself, her muscles and mind felt the word pulse through it. Like a heartbeat. Causing her body to tighten and stand in anticipation as if she’d been waiting to hear it her whole life.

There was an oddness about it though. It brought her a sense of calm, like she’d been wrapped in a large blanket or had been teleported back to the meadow. While at the same time it caused a low, churning ache in the deepest part of her belly. Like magma bubbling lazily, threatening to give way, the fear took root in her gut. She wanted to run away from it. Turn on her heels and leave as quickly as she could.

There was a part of her though, and not a small part, that wanted to run toward it. Wherever that was.

She did not let that part win.

Sinne shoved her greatsword back into its sheath and forced her muscles to move. Fleeing back in the direction she’d come without looking back. There was no part of her that would stay in that place, not when the shadows talked and the forest wanted to consume her. She was fast and movement through terrain such as this was something that came easily to her. Her body picked up speed, her feet finding every sure foothold in the earth as she pressed through the forest. There was no slowing until she spotted a thinning in the treeline. Breaking through it, Sinne let out a choked noise.

She spun back to look behind her.

Somehow she’d come out in a small patch of cleared forest at the place where she’d sworn the entrance had been. Still this dark, shadowed clearing was not it. No matter how sure she’d been that she’d headed south. South and home. Somehow something had gone wrong.

“No,” she said. “No.No.No.”

Her mind was beginning to reel when she realized with a sense of heavy dread that she was trapped like an animal in a cage. This forest, it was magic and it was dangerous. It didn’t want her to leave it, not until it was done tormenting her.

With a loud, booming crack, thunder sounded above her. Causing her to jump and spin back toward the clearing just as lightning flashed in the sky. It sent a second of stark, bright purple across the darkness that lit it just enough for Sinne to see the figure that stood against the edge of the trees opposite her. Having spotted it, she stared hard at its silhouette. Holding her breath as the silence stretched.

Another piece of purple lightning cracked through the sky, brightening the slumped man that indeed stood across from her. Finally Sinne swallowed.

“Hello,” she called toward him. “Are you… well?”

The figure hadn’t seemed to notice her before so when she spoke it’s body flinched. Or perhaps the better term was twitched. His dark, shadowed form straightened as a low rumbling noise escaped his mouth. He must have been in pain. His stomach could have been the cause from the way he’d been bent almost in two before. She took a hesitant step forward.

“The forest,” she said. “It seems to be alive somehow. We’d best get out of here.”

The man let out a moan that was nearly eclipsed by the strong rustle of leaves as a harsh wind picked up. Sinne glanced around her, watching the tips of the trees bent dangerously in the mounting weather. They needed to leave, she didn’t like the look of the clouds that peaked through the treetops. It was dark and angry. A storm, she noted with a shiver.

“We should go,” she said again. This time she took a few steps toward the man. He was wiggling about now, his moans softer but still audible as she neared. Closer now, Sinne cleared her throat against the strong scent that was growing. It stung her nose and made her eyes water. As if she’d stumbled across the corpse of an animal that'd died and had already gotten well into its decay. The man could have been trapped there for months with the smell of him.

She stopped before him, fighting back the urge to place her hand over her nose. Instead she took to breathing from her mouth as she leaned over. It seemed he wasn’t paying attention to her, though she’d thought that she’d been heard across the clearing. The storm must have swallowed her words. Touching his shoulder though send a fierce, unusual urge to run through her body. Her fingertips took in the corse, ripped fabric and leathered skin beneath.

Then purple lightning cracked again. Giving her enough light to see the hollow eyes and slack jawed, lifeless face that had tilted up toward her. Sinne looked death in the face for the first time and screamed.

That strong gut feeling she’d had, that there was no going back had been correct. As she stumbled back, her heel catching yet again onto something below her. Her body tottered. Threatening to fall backwards once more but she was able to catch herself this time. This was lucky too because the man. No. The dead thing was upon her and would have easily ripped her apart if she’d been caught on the ground.

His voice was louder now. Harsh, unintelligent moans rose from his throat. His hands reached for her. Dark, sharp nails cutting into her body as they grabbed at her arms and clothes. Tearing at her. Another crack of purple light sent her into an outright panic. Half the thing’s face had rotted away. Leaving only a jaw that hung open as it clung to one side of his face. His deep, eyeless sockets and empty hole where a nose should have been stood dark in the moment of light. Then he was shadowy again.

“Get off,” She cried as she bat his hands away. “Don’t.”

Then her hand was on her greatsword. Like her muscles moved on their own. She pulled it with a practiced hand from her sheath and in the same, swinging movement lobbed the creature’s head from its shoulders. The rotted body part landed with a loud, squishy thump onto the ground as the body stumbled back. Though it did not fall at first. Instead it tottered, as if it was dazed, before slumping back and crashing to the ground.

Sinne stood gasping. Staring at the body. Her mind blank and her body unmoving.

She wasn’t sure how long she’d been there when a piece of thunder rumbled overhead and rain began to fall around her. Her eyes wandered upward like it took every ounce of her energy to do so. Drops of cold water dripped onto her face from the clouds above. Yellow lightning flashed this time and suddenly the storm consumed all her senses.

If it wasn’t for the voice, Sinne might have laid down then and allowed the forest to consume her. However, as she felt her grip on her greatsword slackening it rang through her head once more as it said, “Dreamer.”

She sniffed. Somehow all of this seemed to be that damned voice's fault. She wasn’t sure how, or why, but she wanted to lash out. Throw herself into a fit like a screaming child would. Protect herself from the way it abrasively entered her mind and made her whole body feel like it was going to fall back into a peaceful dream.

“What do you want?” Her words came out harsher then she’d planned. Snappish. Loud. She didn’t regret the tone though. She was so tired. Like someone was disturbing her after she’d finally been able to lay down after days of no sleep.

“Dreamer.”

Sinne clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth. “What! What? What do you want?”

“Dreamer.”

Suddenly Sinne could no longer hold in the fury that had replaced her fear. Swinging herself around to look at the treeline, she hissed low in her throat. She was tired of this. Of this forest. Of the darkness and the rain and the damned voice. The voice that couldn’t seem to say anything other than that one word.

“Leave me alone!” She snapped. “Stop calling me. Can’t you see I’m doomed? I…”

Her voice trailed away as the fury and anger disappeared almost instantly. It was replaced with something Sinne didn’t understand. A deep, unyielding urge to allow the pain in her mind to win. Her chin began to tremble as she let her greatswords’ tip fall into the earth.

“I’m not going to make it.”

“Sapling,” this had been another of the voices from the shadows. “Can you hear me?”

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Pushing back the burning of her eyes, Sinne looked up from the ground at the edge of the trees. Where the dead thing had stood, deep into the forest Sinne could see a soft light. It was white in color and faint. However it stirred Sinne to take a step toward it.

“Yes! I’m here!” The voice said. “Can you see me?”

Sinne took another step toward the light. “I can see you,” she said.

Perhaps it wasn’t loud enough or the voice simply did not have the strength to speak to her again through the dark, but it remained silent. Sinne knew that she had to go to the light. It was an urge similar to her need to see the stag. However this one did not draw her in with unease, it was simply a calm and reassuring pull. Like a lover guiding someone to safety. So Sinne let it pull her as she let the heavy thing her hands drop to the ground and started toward it.

There was no hesitation in her walk now as she cut through the treeline and wove through the forest. The light was soft, but it dispelled much of the darkness. Setting a faint glow to the outlines of the trees and making the shadows hide. It was now that Sinne noticed the spiderwebs that clung to the brack and branches of the forest around her. Decorating the trees in curtains of thinly woven webs, like curtains that drape over everything. The spiders were gone though. Perhaps the light had chased the shadows away just as it had the shadows.

Sinne stumbled on a branch that stuck from the ground. Her legs barely caught her as her hand reached out to grasp at something to steady herself. Which was a large, web covered tree. At once Sinne hissed and withdrew her hand. The sticky webs came away with it like she was peeling off a layer of the tree's skin. Her heart skipped as she waved her hand, trying to free herself from it.

“I must speak with you,” the voice said again.

Sinne’s eyes flashed toward the light. “I’m working on it,” she stated.

“I sense a great danger,” it said. “Come and listen, so that you can defend yourself.”

Sinne looked back over her shoulder at the voice’s warning. The forest behind her was also lit by the faint light. However the rain was becoming heavier and the light was having trouble breaking through it’s downpour. Leaving a sheet of water to dim it’s already faint existence. Behind her where the darkness was heaviest she wondered if something loomed there. More shadows or dead or perhaps something far worse. She swallowed and pressed on. Rubbing what she could of the web away on her shirt instead of dawdling.

The storm was peaking as she continued her hike. The rain was now heavy sheets of water that weight on her shoulders and thundered against the other surfaces of the forest. A strong, howling wind was also beginning to brush through the trees. Causing them to lean and creak against the force. Thunder would boom every so often. Still the light seemed so distant. Like it was wandering farther from her, walking in the same direction as her so that their distance never lessened. So she quickened her steps.

Sinne’s voice was coming out in gasps. “Wait,” she said. “I can’t catch up.

Then she was falling and water was around her. Strong, beating water that picked up her body and swept her along in a direction she couldn’t determine. Her eyes searched wildly in the dark waters, arms beating against the current of the river. When she broke the surface it was only for a moment before it pulled her back under. Not allowing her more than a second of breath.

How had she not spotted the river?

Again she found a moment of relief as the water allowed her to break it’s surface before pulling her back under. The current roared in her ears, loud like hundreds of voices all calling out at once. In fact it seemed as though a great battle raged beneath the water.

Flashes of faces moved across her blurred eyes. Ones she didn’t know. Again her head broke free of the water. There was a great, lumbering beast that soared through the sky. A dragon. She gasped for air. A place of gray, dying land. Her hand grasped at a rock on the edge of the river but it slipped away. A monster made of vines. Sinne struggled against the water as she tried to grab again at the ledge but again lost her hold. More faces. She felt a branch graze her fingertips as her strength weakened. Places she didn’t know. Her body had begun to lose the will to fight. Her eyes were darkening. The visions were fading. Then a strong, male voice spoke close as if it was right next to her ear.

“Commander, a word?”

A branch slapped against her palm and at once her fingertips closed around it. Clinging to the wood with every bit of her waning strength. Forcing her weak arm against the current she was able to swing her other hand up, grasping hold of the branch with two hands now. She hung her for a moment as her body screamed. Her mind threatened to black but she fought the urged. All at once she strained, her arms pulling her against the current as she pulled herself to the surface. Gasping as her head broke the water and was finally able to take in air. Sputtering coughs escaped her mouth as she gripped the branch more securely. Allowing herself to rest once she’d found a good hold.

When she’d gotten what breath she could, Sinne began her struggle to the shore. Using the branch of the low hanging tree as an anchor as she pulled herself to the bank. It took several, long minutes and Sinne had to stop several times to make sure she didn’t lose her grip. Finally though she’d made it. Throwing herself onto the cold ground in the pouring rain. Flat on her back as her lungs sucked in desperate gasps and her muscles screamed.

“I want to go home,” she muttered. She wasn’t sure she could go home. Sinne had gone south. In fact, she was sure that before she’d fallen carelessly into the river she’d been heading south for some time. The light might have even been showing her the way out.

Her body jumped, heart hammering as she spun onto her stomach and searched the treeline frantically. The light. Had she lost it. Who knows how far the river had carried her down and the light was already so far away. Then she spotted it again.

Standing mere feet from her was the white stag. He looked bigger. Brighter. Then she remembered but she’d been so far away at that time it made sense. It also dawned on her that the light might have been him, as he lit the space around him like a small white sun. She did not dare move or even breath as he watched her. Afraid he may run away and leave her in the darkness again.

However he did not flee. He did the opposite as he lifted a hoofed foot and took a step toward her. Then another and another until Sinne could have reached out and touched him. She didn’t dare to. In fact she still lay twisted on the ground, her belly down in the mud and she watched him. Then his head neared her face, stopping mere inches from hers so that she was looking into the most green eyes she’d ever seen. Like every bit of spring had been bottled and poured into them.

“I…” she swallowed as her words caught. “I want to go home.”

He blinked at her but did not move.

“Can you help me?”

Again another blink. This time though he let out a huff of air that blew warmly against her face. Again he closed the gap between them. His nose touching the skin of her forehead as a great, blinding light encompassed them both. Sinne let out a yelp. Not because it hurt or she was afraid. But because the feeling of warmth that flashed across her body when touching the Stag was startling and felt foreign to the cold that had seeped into her soul.

She kept her eyes closed for a time as she let the warmth wash over her. The rain had stopped and it felt almost like sunshine was beating against her skin. All at once her eyes flashed open and the world around her washed over her.

Sinne was no longer in the forest. She lay in soft green grass in a bright sunlit alcove in what seemed like a forest. Though she couldn’t tell from the rocks that circled her like a protective wall. Water bubbled over its edges along with moss and tree branches and vines. Where the strong river had once roared was now a lazy drifting steam that was warm where her feet touched it.

The Stag was now gone. Instead was a gentle slope up the bank of the creak to a large, moss covered rock that a large centaur stood on surrounded by a collection of Sylvari. The word came in gently to her mind, reminding her that she too was Sylvari. The centaur’s back was to her, his voice was coming out in a loud smooth tone as he spoke to her siblings.

“Forging serenity within the heart is more difficult than any physical battle,” he was saying as she pushed herself up from the sand. “Life can be painful, after all. You shouldn’t fear the trials you will face though. Hard ground makes stronger roots.”

Sinne had lifted herself from the ground and had taken the few tentative steps toward the group. When she paused behind him, the centaur turned. His aged, kind features creasing into a smile as he looked over her.

“Ah. Sinne,” he said. “We’ve been waiting for you.”

Sinne hesitated. “You have?”

“Oh yes,” The Centaur said. “I was worried you'd been lost.”

He swept his hand out to a spot in the grass where no one was sitting. A few of the other Sylvari had begun to chat while the Centaur’s attention was on her. Their voices were pleasant like the noise of her wood and she realized they all smelt soft like flowers.

“I was lost for a time,” she said. “It was… like a nightmare.”

The Centaur’s face grew grim as he looked over her. Then he looked back at the others and gave them a kind smile. Saying, “Wait here, children.”

He then took a few steps away from the group and gestured for Sinne to follow him down the bank of the stream. She fell into stride beside him. Allowing the silence to stretch until the centaur felt they were far enough away from the group to speak.

“What you witnessed was very likely just that,” the centaur said. “The Dream is a delicate place. It takes only a small tip to disturb the balance and throw us into nightmare.”

Sinne’s brows pulled together. “The Dream?”

“Yes, Sapling. This,” he swept his hand around him to gesture to the world, “is the Dream.”

She followed the movement of his hand. Taking in the stream and the waterfall and the trees that hung over their small safe place to shade them from the harsh sun but not take away the warmth. She noticed then the other things in their alcove. Wispy, ghostlike things that wandered about on the edges of the cove. Unlike the shadows, these seemed peaceful. Harmless.

“What is the Dream?”

The Centaur shrugged. “It is where all Sylvari start their lives,” he said. “Here you take in the sustenance of memories.”

Sinne paused in her walk, the centaur coming to a stop beside her. “Memories?”

He nodded once more. “Memories of other Sylvari, of those who have already awakened. You are fed upon visions of things past, things that can and will affect your future.”

Sinne thought back to the faces that’d flashed through her mind. The voices she’d heard. Had those been part of her Dream? They’d been so different from the meadow and the place she was now though. Like a nightmare.

“You said what I saw,” she paused for a moment in thought, “could have been a nightmare?”

The centaur’s face once more grew grim. “Indeed.”

“What is a nightmare?” Sinne understood the concept. The centaur’s words of memories feeding her made sense. She’d always known quite a bit about things she’d never really learned. Like the knowledge had been placed in her mind without her having to experience the thing itself. It was from others. The awakened is what the Centaur had called them. They’d learn these things and it'd be transferred to Sinne through the Dream. Did that mean that nightmares were their experiences too?

“Nightmares are ways that our enemies attack the Dreamers,” The centaur said. “There isn’t time enough to explain now, but trust that all will be made clear in time.”

Sinne’s stomach flipped. “No time,” she asked. “What do you mean?”

“You have someone waiting for you,” he said. Her eyes followed his to a place in the rockface where a transparent figure stood in a large pathway cut from the rock. It was the only place within the cove that led out, though to what Sinne couldn’t tell.

“Must I go?” She looked over at the Centaur and sighed when he gave her a slow, grim nod. “Can’t I stay with you?”

The centaur chuckled. “It is a hard choice to make,” he said. “However we must not let wrong ripen into evil or sorrow. Something is poisoning the Dream and it has chosen you as its Valiant.”

“I want to go back to my meadow,” she stated. “I don’t want to fight or be a … valiant”

The centaur reached out a hand to place on her shoulder. This seemed to steady the way her head spun, grounding her into the calm place that they were. Away from the things she’d seen in the dark forest, the nightmare. If she left, she’d have to face those things again. She felt it in the way the centaur’s eyes held hers.

“You cannot expect the world to bring you peace, Sinne.” He said. “You must find it… and fight for it.”

Sinne closed her eyes. Experiencing the darkness again, the shadows and the fear, was not something Sinne wanted to do. However, she knew that the centaur wasn’t just speaking wisdom thrown at her with no meaning. He was speaking the truth to her. That she was again in a river whose current was pulling her in a direction she didn’t want to go.

“You there,” the voice broke through her silence. It was once again the female voice that she’d heard calling her in the darkness. Her eyes moved to the figure the centaur had looked towards again. Fixing on the transparent figure. She realized that it too looked back at Sinne. Unlike the other wandering ghosts.

“Sapling,” the woman called out. “Please, the Dream is in jeopardy.”