I try to duck down, closing my eyes, despite knowing that I’ll be on the end of his weapon’s point before I can even get out of my chair. However, after a moment, nothing happens. There’s no feeling of metal biting into my skin, no fading away of my mind, nothing. Maybe it’s because we’re in the place where souls go when they die?
Then I notice the sounds of muffled struggling above me. I open my eyes and see that the figure that was charging me is being held aloft by green tentacles. Looking over, I see that The Dreamer is holding him up with an annoyed expression on her face.
“Really? And here I was thinking you’d be better behaved.” She sighs and shakes her head, causing him to be shaken as well. “Come on dude, just be cool. I know you want to act all cool and be the combat mentor person, like in all the manga you read, but have some class. The kid’s been through a lot lately.”
The man stops struggling and drops his glaive, which now that I’m getting a better look at, has some nasty looking hooks on the back of the blade so that if it gets pulled out it’ll hurt a lot. The lady unceremoniously drops him and he hits the, um, ground? It’s a little hard to tell if there is a floor here or not. Nevertheless, he falls and quickly sits up, reaching for his glaive in the process.
She scoffs and uses one of her tentacles to snatch it away and toss it into another tear. “Nope. No more of that thank you. You’ll get it back when you learn to chill.”
“What?! But that’s mine! I made it and it’s been by my side since before we even meant.” He crosses his arms as he floats to his feet, a reddish flash of light comes from where his eye is peeking out from.
“Um, can I ask what’s happening?” I look over to the lady for some kind of guidance.
She uses her tentacles to fix up the place I was sitting at, pouring another cup of tea, and motions for me to sit down again. Then she pulls out another chair next to her and grabs the man by the collar of his suit and puts him down into it.
“Sure Ollie. This is my friend, Aiden. He’s a… well I suppose this is as good as any time to talk about what you are facing back home.” She sits down and takes her tea in hand before continuing. “This ‘Demon King’ is not the true threat, he is only a pawn in a larger game. A game with an old enemy of ours.”
Aiden takes a cookie and quietly munches on it, somehow not uncovering his mouth.
“The thing that’s calling the shots is something called a Nightmare. Aiden here is of the same species and so is his sister, who you’ve met before.”
I recall the short girl from before, I can’t really tell if she and Aiden are actually related because of his tentacles. I’ll just have to take her word for it. “Wait. Then what’s his deal? You seem to be friends with two Nightmares, why do you need me to fight this one?”
“Aiden and his sister are a special case. The others of their kind are a fair bit more, ah, bloodthirsty I guess? Violent?”
Aiden speaks up at this moment. “Other Nightmares have a need for bringing about destruction and other such tragedies. The reason my sister and I are different is because of some random stroke of chance. I’m more stable than her and have full control over my actions due to certain circumstances that I’d rather not get into. So you’ll have to forgive my sister for acting poorly towards you, it’s not something she can really help.”
“Oh, okay. I’d like to know more, but I won’t pry into your personal things.” I nod towards him and he grunts in response, also nodding. “Umm, The Dreamer said something about you having some of my Inkling? I just thought I’d ask. I’m sorry. Your attacking me has really just thrown my thinking through a loop.”
“Oh right, yeah, no I don’t think so. You’ve got to earn this stuff from me. I’m not going to coddle you like her.” His one eye glares at the lady, who glares right back at him.
“Aiden. Give him your part of his Inkling. Please.”
“No.”
“Aiden, I swear I’ll grab my rapier and beat it out if I have to.”
He shrinks back in his chair at the mention of fighting her. “Uh, Oliver. May I see your Inkling?”
I hold my hand out and allow my Inkling to manifest. A single tentacle struggles to unwrap from his head, pulling off as the little barbs that cover them try to hold it back. It reaches across the table and hovers above my Inkling, then the red spot glows a dull color as another line stretches from it down my forearm.
I feel a rush of energy and an almost sneeze build up. I turn away and face empty space before it happens and an orb of energy about the size of an apple forms, before it blasts off into the distance. Which is awesome by the way.
“Woah. What was that?”
Aiden’s tentacle returns to the wrap before he answers, “I’d call it a sort of, I dunno I’m just spitballing here, an eldritch blast of some kind.” He starts chuckling to himself, just as a green tentacle comes over and flicks him in the back of the head. “Ow.”
“Stop being such a nerd. I get what you’re trying to do and Ollie doesn’t understand your references. Maybe just wait before you start with that kind of humor.”
I watch as the two begin to bicker over who’s a nerd and who’s cooler and how it’s definitely not the other and stuff. Honestly, very entertaining. I snack on some of the cookies while the two verbally fight and drink some tea.
“Maybe if you’d stop spending so much time going to cons, you’d actually help look for the Nightmare over there!”
“I spend a reasonable amount of time, you can’t judge me for my interests!”
“I can too and I only do because you never visit me! At least your sister has the manners to sometimes drop by and tell me about what’s going on out there!”
He pauses his yelling and switches to a gentler tone of voice. “Is this what this is all about? The fact I don’t come by and hang out as much anymore?”
She rubs her shoulder a bit as she looks away. “Kind of? It’s just,” She sighs, “it’s hard to be the only one stuck in the Rift, you know? I can only come out here and I don’t do it often since I’ve never needed to before Ollie.”
He reaches over and gives her a hug, which she eventually leans into. They pull away before Aiden clears his throat, his tentacles turning a slightly brighter shade of red. The Dreamer doesn’t seem to notice as she turns back to me.
“Sorry about that Ollie. Just had to get a little emotional with him. I’m not great at talking about what’s bothering me so I had to get it out while I could.”
“No problem. I don’t mind. If you want, I can just go wait over there or something.”
“What? No, no, uhh… do you still have questions?”
“Plenty. What am I doing? I mean I get that I’m fighting or at least going to be confronting this Demon King, but how does that help with the Nightmare?”
“That’s easy. By stopping the Demon King, you’re keeping this Nightmare from gaining a foothold in your world. As long as they can’t directly influence your world, everything should keep running smoothly.”
“Neat. How about… what’s your history with them? It just seems like this is a big deal for you in some way. I mean you were really grateful for me wanting to help. Seems like this is sort of personal or something, I mean I know you’re friends with two but this other one seems to really make you upset.”
Aiden shifts uncomfortably as The Dreamer’s hair begins to rise off of her shoulders, giving her a menacing appearance. The mist, which had gone back to being blue after Aiden calmed down, whirls up around us and is tinted green. She starts to breathe rapidly as the mist swirls and Aiden starts to look worried.
I start to get worried too as the mist becomes a dense green cloud overhead, an overwhelming pressure coming from it. Breathing for me becomes difficult as well, it feels like the air is being sucked out of me but no sound is being made.
Her eyes glow brightly until Aiden reaches over and puts a hand on her arm. “Princess… I know you don’t like to remember, if you’d like I can tell him and you can go rest over there.”
“No. No. I should tell him my story. There’s no reason for me not to.”
“Miss, you don’t have to tell me if it upsets you that much. I was just curious, there is no need for you to relive something painful.”
“I’m going to tell you because it’s important that I tell you myself.” She takes a deep breath before continuing. “My history with the Nightmares is a difficult one. After all, I killed almost all of them. Along with all of my own people as well.”
“What?” I choke on my lack of air.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“I am responsible for the death of almost two whole races, one of which was my own.”
Aiden interjects, “You were not the only responsible–” He is cut off as she gives him a glare.
“I know, but I did the most which brought about our doom. I built the Rift Dynamo, I let myself be tricked into thinking we could trust them that time, I got my sister killed! I got so many people killed…”
The Dreamer begins to cry, quietly sobbing to herself as the mist curls around her. Shapes begin to form, a strange construct, a handshake with a dagger behind someone’s back, and a woman being torn in half by something.
I glance over to Aiden, who looks at me and says, “I think you should come back later, use the door and you’ll wake up. I’m sorry that this all happened and also for attacking you, it was a bad joke.”
I try to say no, but I’m pulled by something towards the ornate door nearby where I entered this room. Facing the door, it swings open and I’m pushed through into a blurry looking picture of me sleeping at the campsite.
…
I jolt upright in the campsite, Charlie is still asleep but Mom is currently looking around for something inside of the wagon. It’s early morning and I can still see the stars out. They remind me of the lady.
“Honey? What are you doing up so early?” Mom turns and spots me waking up. She climbs down from the back of the wagon and walks over to me.
“Ah… I just had a dream about something. Nothing bad though!” I quickly reassure her. I don’t know if I should tell her about what I’ve gotten myself into…
She gives me a look, like she was trying to pick up on something but seems to let it go. Mom sighs as she walks over and sits down next to me. “I know that this is a little fast, Sweetie. It’s just,” She pauses and looks off into the distance, “it’s just I felt like if you stayed in Hemlile, you would have never tried to leave. You’ve never really had any kind of wanderlust or calling to see what’s out there and I was worried that you never would. I had already planned to take you and Charlie to go to school, so that maybe the two of you would want to explore the world for yourselves, it’s just it didn’t really happen the way I wanted it to.”
Mom pulls me into a hug and gives me a little squeeze on the shoulder as she does. “I wasn’t allowed to see the world by my parents and I didn’t want to be the same for you. So instead I thought maybe I’d put you out there, just to get a feel for the world, and then if you still wanted to stay you could. Honey, you know that I love you more than anything else in the world. I’ll do whatever I can to make sure you live the life you’d like to, just remember that I’ll be here. If you ever need to cry or talk, I’m here.”
Does she think I was having a bad dream about leaving home? I mean, yeah, it feels like this is a little wrong. I never felt the call to adventure before, and now I have to go deal with something so much bigger than me. Maybe I am upset. Maybe leaving home for the reasons I am is messing with me. But I decided to help with this of my own choice, the lady asked me twice and both times I agreed.
“Mom. Have you ever felt like you’ve been swept up into something way beyond your control?” I ask before I can even think about what’s coming out of my mouth. “I– it’s just I feel like ever since that night,” I gesture to myself, “everything has been messed up. I grew taller, my hair changed color in some places, hells I constantly look like I just recently managed to overcome an illness!”
“Sweetie… you have no reason to be upset about that.”
“But look at me, Mom! I’ve changed. I’m a stranger in my own body now. And everything feels like it’s so much bigger than me. Like I’m being swallowed up by some massive beast.” I start to cry as I unload emotions that I didn’t even realize that I’d had.
Mom shushes me and strokes my hair. “Oliver… I’m sorry. I feel like I’m to blame for this. Here you are, fresh from a painful experience, and I’m just adding another thing to your plate.”
“No. No it’s not your fault Mom. It’s– it’s mine.” I take a deep breath, considering what I’m about to tell her. “I have to tell you something.”
“What is it?”
“That night, while me and Charlie were captured, I think I might have died.” Her face pales as she looks at me. “And when I was dead, I met someone. A lady dressed in green and she offered me a deal. I took it because of someone’s influence, not hers but someone else. She brought me back and I think she killed all the people there.”
“Sweetie…”
“And– and then Charlie was scared and she passed out in fear of me and I ran her back and and and–” My breathing becomes shallow, I start to feel like I’m suffocating. Mom strokes my head and pulls me close. “It hurt so much. To see her scared of me. She looked like she didn’t recognize me.”
“Oliver. Look at me.” She turns my head to stare her in the eyes. “Take a deep breath and calm down. You did nothing wrong. You were in a state of panic and shock, probably, no one would handle that much better.”
“But that’s not the end. I saw her again. The same day I got my Inkling or I was supposed to. Do you remember when the priest pulled me aside after the ceremony?”
“Yes, I recall.”
“During the ceremony, when he did the spell to reveal my Inkling, nothing appeared. He accused me of doing something wrong or lying to him. Then I came back, and when the attack happened I got knocked to the ground and went unconscious.”
“Did you see the lady again?”
“Yeah. She apologized for what happened, and made the person who made me first take her deal apologize as well before throwing them out. The lady is a little odd… but in a good way I think. Then she talked about the deal with me, telling me what I would have to do and then gave me a chance to back out.”
Mom’s eyes get a light of understanding. “I see… you chose to help her, this time of your own violation.” I nod. “And is that why you feel like everything is out of control now?” I nod again. “Mmm. Honey, look at me. You made a choice and you know what your dad would say?”
“No regrets?”
“No regrets. You decided that she was worth it, even after what had happened to you because of her. I’ve raised you well.” Tears start to form in both our eyes. “I’m not sure what you’re faced with, but I know that whatever it is, you’ll do the right thing.” She kisses me on the forehead. “My sweet little boy, growing up so fast. Your dad would be so proud to know that you chose to help someone even when they’ve wronged you in the past.” Then she gives me a little poke in the side of my stomach. “Me, not so much.”
I laugh and after a moment she chuckles along with me. “I have to save the world, Mom. The lady said that this Demon King is going to try to cause war across the world. I need to stop him.”
“I know. You’ve got the same fire as your dad, the burning need to protect people both good and bad. I just want you to promise me a few things.”
“Anything Mom.”
“Don’t be afraid to run away from a fight if you don’t think you can win. You can always come back home, wherever your home may be once you start to do this. Try to tell me or someone else you trust about anything that happens. I don’t want you to try to shoulder the world yourself. And keep surrounded by friends, friends will keep you humble, keep you alive.”
“I promise. I’ll do whatever I can to keep my promise.”
“Good boy. Now, how’s about we work on that poncho of yours? I think it could use a little touch of colors.” Mom pulls out a small box and opens it, inside are various spools of colored thread. “I want to see how much you’ve grown in your sewing skills.”
…
Surprisingly, Charlie did not wake up during our little exchange, and so we got to pulling out various threads. I pick a purple and green, something just feels right about them now that I’ve gotten my Inkling. Mom hands me a needle and I embroider some of the trims with small purple swirls and a few green tentacle motifs. It’s nothing much, but Mom is happy that I can still sew.
“You could have used a split stitch there for those curves, it’s simple but effective,” Mom comments as she reviews my work.
“I guess, I just felt like trying to explore some stuff. You know, cause I’m trying to find myself in a sense?”
“Mmm, well you also made a mistake here.”
“What?! Where?!” She points at a spot where I was trying to have two tentacles wrap around a star, where one of the tentacles got crossed a little bit. “Oh no… how did I miss that?”
“It’s fine, Honey.” She pulls out her needle and says, “Stitchend,” a quick flick of her fingers and my mistake is gone like it never happened. “Mistakes just show that you’ve still got learning to do.”
“I know, I know…” Mom hands my poncho back and I put it on. At this point the sun is starting to rise and I stand up to help Mom pack up the campsite.
“Wake Charlie up please, she seems to be quite deep in it though.”
I walk over and gently shake Charlie’s shoulder whispering, “Hey sleepyhead, wake up.” She shoots upright in an instant, like she was just pretending to be asleep or something… I’ll think about that later.
“Good morning!” My apparently not as asleep as I thought friend shouts as she gets out of her bedroll. “What’s for breakfast?”
“Were you pretending to be asleep?” I give her a sharp look.
“Pshh! No! I just wake up easily. Now what are we eating?” She says, looking away and being all around suspicious. She gets up and walks over to the wolves, giving them some pets and jerky she pulled from her pocket. Gross. Pocket meat.
“Well, we have hardtack if you’d like some of that or you could eat some mildly bruised fruit.” Mom returns from the wagon with a small sack of food in hand. I reach in and pull out some fruit to munch on to start the day and Charlie grabs a piece of hardtack, only to spit it out after one bite.
“Yuck! That’s nasty!” Charlie exclaims as she reaches back into the bag for an apple. “Is that what people eat when they travel? Can’t someone just cook something?”
Mom pulls out a piece of hardtack and munches on it without complaint. “Cooking attracts wild animals so most people don’t bother, not to mention most people don’t learn to cook if they’re adventures which I think is a little stupid.”
We finish our ‘meal’ quickly and jump back into the wagon to start traveling again. We exit the woods that we were previously in and enter a large open plains. The wolves seem to like the scenery as they howl and run faster, thankfully still under our control, and we manage to cross a good distance of the plains.
Charlie has a great time during this, even sitting up front with Mom to interact with the wolves. “Whooo!”
By the time evening comes, we’re still in the open plains so Mom pulls us over to find a place to set up camp. Eventually, we find a small hill with an indent and we settle down there for the night. We let the wolves and Charlie play while Mom preps some food, not really cooking much though more like making sure it’s clean.
We eat a nice ‘meal’ and relax by the fire, listening to Mom lecturing us on how to take care of ourselves in the wilderness, most of which we don’t really get. I picked up that it’s best to drink from a running source of water and to follow rivers upstream to find people. Charlie mostly only got that when hunting, it’s best to make sure that you don’t wear any loose clothing that could make noise or get caught on a branch.
“...And that’s how to identify what mushrooms are safe to eat during the summer.”
I’ll be honest, I didn’t really understand that last one. And I don’t think Charlie did either.
“Um, Mrs. Giterale, can Oliver and I go have a quick chat? To… discuss what you taught us?” Charlie asks as she slowly gets up and walks away from the fire.
“Hmm? Of course. I hope you’ve learned a lot.”
“Yes we did, thank you Mom.” I say as I follow Charlie away from where Mom is, into the wagon.
“So, what did you want to talk about?” I ask as I step inside.