11 Recurring Dreams

Lily hesitated. She had been dreaming about that almost every night. It would be bad that she needed to remember those bad events while she is awake. 

But in the end, she finally gave in.

"I woke up with shouts around me. I was confused at first. Then suddenly, there was fire around me. The fire was engulfing the entire palace and I was trying to escape."

"Shadowy creatures appeared and attack everyone. But before they could attack me, you came and saved me. We ran away and tried to escape from the castle." She gave Hazel the gist of the story.

Hazel brows creased as took note her ward's visage. The girl was growing paler and paler as she recounted her gruesome nightmare.

But before Hazel could ask her to stop or even ask a question, Lily continued. "Unfortunately, the endings usually vary. There were times in which we jumped off the cliff while other times we were both caught by those shadows."

Then Lily seemed to remember something. "There was only one time that I have dreamed that we managed to escape, but the rest were filled with blood and gore. And the most scary part is that we were both killed."

"Recurring dreams, you say...." Hazel muttered while in thought. "they might be omen...but I need to be sure... "

She got up and walked towards the shelves. Most of the spell books here were secretly left by Zeke and Master Chervil.

There were tomes and grimoires but they are common ones which only contained information than actual spells.

The magical tomes and grimoires that she had collected here was meager compared to what her mother has in their coven.

But even just a little, Hazel hope that they might contain the information she needs.

Hazel put her hands together while silently casting a spell. Her hand glowed and a small pentagram formed.

Then, opening her hands, a palm size version of Hazel appeared with a wisp of smoke.

Lily stared in wonder as Hazel put her miniature copy down the desk next to the shelves.

"She's cute!" Lily gasped as she observed the mini doll-like version of Hazel. In response to her praise, the mini Hazel gave her curtsy and a wink.

Hazel smiled before calling the attention of her dwarfish clone. "I need to find out something about recurring dreams. Make sure to give the information to me once you find them."

The mini Hazel nodded and turned around. It blinked once making several books popped out of the shelves and flew to the desk.

The books stopped before the tiny Hazel doll. She blinked twice and copies of mini Hazel emerged.

The tiny doll-like creatures took a book each and opened them. As soon as they found a page with an info regarding dreams, they made another copy and sent that particular copy inside the page.

"Wow! That's a great way of information gathering." Lily commented while watching the clones do their task.

"Thanks! It is quite efficient but it takes away a lot of my mana and energy."

The two chatted and drank their enchanted cocoas. After a while Hazel stopped and turned towards her clone which was standing alone on the desk.

The tiny clone was motioning them to come close. The two made their way towards the clone and saw a notebook made of parchment was next to it.

Little Hazel bowed once and disappeared into thin air while leaving the note behind.

"Let's see." Hazel took the notebook and laid it down on the table. She turned it to the first page.

"There's nothing there." Lily commented as she peeked from Hazel's shoulder.

"wait and watch." Hazel said.

Before she finished saying watch, ink began to swirl at the center of the page. From the chaotic blotches, words started to form until sentences and paragraphs emerged.

Lily's eyes widened as the first paragraph was revealed.

In ancient times, recurring dreams are thought to be omens. They usually appear as nightmare especially if something bad will happen in the future.

"Hazel... this is..." Lily gasped out as she read the rest of the information.

"Recurring dreams can happen ranging from once a week to several times a month. They come frequently as the future event will come close at hand." Hazel read the words.

She gulped before she continued. "Most often than not, these dreams are likely to come true. However, since they represent a future event, there are options that the person can do in order to change or avoid such outcome."

"Hazel... I am scared." Lily cried out as those nightmarish shadows flashed in her mind.

The lady-in-waiting embraced the young girl and waited for her to calm down. "Listen, your highness. These recurring dreams are like presage. They represent the future, hence we can still do something to avoid such event."

"Really?" the princess looked at her with hopeful eyes. "how?"

"First, we need to find out why you had been having such nightmares." Hazel said. "Maybe, was there an incident that you can think of which will result with another kingdom attacking of our country?"

Lily's brows creased before her face had gone pale. "I heard Papa and King Bulrush of Azalea talking about arranged marriages. I know that I would be subjected to a loveless arranged marriage way back when I turned 12, so I had been prepared for such."

"Unfortunately, Papa seemed to have opposed something the other king had proposed. I would've shrugged off their argument but their yelling got louder until both of them threatened each other with wars. I am not even sure how it ended like that."

Hazel thought for a while. She had been trying her hand in looking into the future with divination lately.

The images that she had seen so far were not good. People were fighting each other... Perhaps her premonitions had something to do with the Kings' battle of words.

She wanted to share what she had foreseen but seeing the young princess's face made her change her mind.

"I am pretty sure that it was nothing serious. His Majesty might have a good reason for arguing with King Bulrush. And despite fighting like that, I am pretty sure it won't end up in a war like in your dreams." she tried to reassure the girl.

"King Fennel and King Bulrush were best friends since childhood and I don't think they will throw their friendship like that." Hazel had pointed out. "Plus, we could change that outcome once we figure out his majesty's plan."

A few weeks later, Hazel learned that she should have come up with the solution earlier.

An impending war was coming and she would've been able to prevent it from happening if only she had paid attention carefully.

Now, the least that she could do was to protect the princess.