24 Chapter 24: Dreams
After a few moments of darkness, a series of images and scenes play out in my mind's eye all at once. Sounds of people crying out for loved ones and grief-filled screams echo in my ears at the same time sounds of swords cutting through people along with gunshots penetrating limbs and torsos make my mind spin. A little girl's singing abruptly turns to the young girl's muffled screams, then silence. I see different battlefields with otherworldly creatures fighting against each other. The first battles are between creatures with a white pure glow around them and creatures with a dark but somehow pure glow around them.
I see all sorts of beings, all with that intelligent glint in their eyes that show they are as smart as humans, if not smarter. Little winged women and men grow in size, wearing clothes fashioned out of blades of grass and flower petals and holding spears adorned with blooming flowers and wooden swords with green magic swirling around the blades. Each one of them has impossible beauty, but also with a few flaws. Creatures with sludgy faces and stout bodies ride upon horses that look like they are made of mud with glowing eyes and wings.
Most fascinating, though, are the angel-like creatures. On the dark side, they have great wings that are just shorter than their own heights and are as black as raven wings. The dark aura round them is mostly clean and very dark, and somehow I know that they are powerful. They hold long swords that look like they are fashioned out of the auras surrounding each of the beings. Each one of them has a different engraving of symbols on the flat of the blade, and somehow I can read the symbols and I know that it is an old language. Some say brave warrior, or kind one, or even malevolently loyal. At the front of the charge is an angel with a slightly weathered face and cutting blue eyes and black hair, with a crown that seems to be made of black thorns. He is obviously muscled and graceful as he rides upon a horse black as midnight and with eyes the color of molten silver.
On the light side, it is the exact same with the angels except their weapons and auras are white instead of black. At the helm rides an angel with stormy gray eyes and a neatly trimmed beard. I scrutinize the vision and notice that the majority of those fighting are men, and even so the women that are fighting seem to have less skill and stay back mostly.
The later battles turn between the creatures with a white glow, however most of the glows are much more tarnished than before, and creatures with muddy black glows, like the dirtiest of impurities. This time, no kings are at the helm of the armies, and instead they are in the back. Something has gone terribly wrong. Almost every one of the creatures are tarnished, some more than others. The dark side has warriors completely impure, with inhumane looks and greater strength but fading morals.
The vision changes abruptly, showing me faster and faster visions of assassins, plots, diseases, and so much destruction. I feel like exploding from all of the information dumped into my mind, every single vision I saw sticking and flashing in my eyes. I even see the birth of a baby that looks like the first angel dark leader I saw, with jet black hair and striking blue-green eyes. The child surprisingly has an untarnished dark aura, and I wonder if it is the same person.
Gasping, I open my eyes and the visions, and my thoughts are pushed to the back of my mind. I realize my position on the ground through the burning pain that disappeared with the visions. I am sprawled on the grass as if I fell off the roof, and I realize that I did fall off the roof. The burning pain comes from within me, and it isn't the pain of falling off a four-story house roof. I look at my arms and see even the light bruise I had this morning is gone.
Through the mind-numbing pain, I know that I will collapse soon, and I have to get back inside. So, like the idiot I am, I decide to scale the side of the house to my room instead of walking inside. This distracts me from the pain, though, and soon I am back in my room. I barely make it to the rug in the middle of the room before I collapse, shivering, as the pain takes over my mind and puts me to sleep.
I did my best, I think before I am completely out, I trained myself well.
When I dream, I realize I am in the state of dreaming where I know I am dreaming but, weirdly, I can make my own decisions, and the pain has disappeared. I find myself in an otherworldly setting, standing in the middle of a forest clearing, staring up at a large modern castle.
I look at myself and realize I am in unfamiliar clothing. My hair, not in a crown like I put it before I went to sleep, is similar to the hairstyle I wore to my birthday party, with a mini crown and the rest of my hair flowing down to my knees. I am somehow wearing a white lacy sleeveless top with a black skirt that reaches down to my calves, like something I'd wear to a business meeting. On my feet are black flats and there is no jewelry to be found on my body.
Something tickles my foot and I look down into the grass, where each blade is a vibrant green, shining like a jewel. To my surprise, little tiny creatures like sprites or fairies dance around, polishing each blade of grass to perfection with green tendrils of energy from the center of their palms. One of these creatures land on my foot so I crouch down and study it further.
It seems to be female, with hair green as grass pulled into a bun with a few tendrils framing her face. She is obviously younger than the others, and much more youthful. If she were human, I would say she isn't much older than me. Her eyebrows and eyelashes are also green, and her skin is pale, tinted green, but it doesn't look like she is ill. Her irises are the same jewel-like green of this weird grass and her lips are a slightly darker shade of green than her skin. She doesn't look like she has much muscle, not even lean, but she has a very feminine figure and curvy body, covered with an off-shoulder green slip that goes to her knees. On her tiny feet are little green slippers and I begin to notice the light around her, white and pure, just like in my visions.
As I reach down to touch her, she flits away with nearly transparent white wings, like those of a fly. I look at the rest of my surroundings.
All around the clearing, large trees, larger than any on Earth, stand tall with leaves polished like the grass and beginning to turn yellow. The bark looks a lot sturdier than any bark I have seen, almost like it is reinforced steel. Little animals I don't recognize scurry up and down the trees, gathering strange blood-red nuts and vibrant orange and yellow berries as small as a pen point.
The castle in front of me has white brick walls and black tiled roofs, with multiple towers and buildings connected together. In front of me, a few yards away, there is a large gate, at least twenty feet tall, that opens into the castle boundary. It looks like it is made of some sort of incandescent white wood or something that I can't identify. Next to the doors, as if guarding them, are two large realistic stone lions standing at least fifteen feet tall.
I abruptly turn around when I sense a presence behind me. A green column of light appears in the grass a few yards behind me for a few moments before it fades into a strange looking middle-aged woman and man.
They both look a lot like the grass fairies, with their green hair and tinted skin. The old woman has healthy, thick waves of hair loose that flow down to her back and she stands a couple inches shorter than me. She has green eyebrows and thick eyelashes framing a set of pale green hooded almond-shaped eyes. Her nose is slightly upturned, and her full green lips tilt upward in a smile. Freckles spread across her nose and her neck, and she wears green robes the color of her hair and the polished grass, with little blades of the grass woven into the fabric on the bottom of the robes.
I also notice her motherly heart-shaped face and her rounded body, a little chubby but not overweight. She wears a simple crown of grass blades upon her head and has the posture of someone regal. Her body language shows relief and excitement, from the way she subtly alternatively bounces on the balls of her feet to her toes.
The elderly man standing to my left looks similar to her, as if they might be twins. He is taller than the woman, but still an inch or two shorter than me. He has the same fluffy green hair the color of the polished grass and he has it in a military cut. His eyes are also hooded and shaped like almonds, with the same exact shade of irises. His nose, though larger, is also upturned and his lips, though thinner than the woman's, show he has much more constraint as I use much more brain power to find the vague glimpse of a smile.
He has a less rounded and chubby face and torso, and not nearly as many freckles. He wears an identical crown of polished grass blades upon his head and he, too is excited, but much more relieved. He wears the same robes as her, and they both have the same skin, elderly, yet somehow youthful.
I notice this in less than two seconds and, in the blink of an eye, rearrange my posture so that I stand straight and tilt my chin up ever so slightly, saying that I am not here to fight, but I can if I have to. The woman acts like a giddy child and begins approaching me, and I notice that she doesn't walk, but she levitates a few inches off the ground. Coming towards me, she places her hand on my cheek and grins, flashing perfect white teeth.
"Look! It's really her, Herbesco!" she exclaims, putting a hand to my forehead, "I can feel all the power inside her, and she hasn't even Transformed yet!" The woman seems to get even more excited by the second. The man, who I assume is Herbesco, whose name was pronounced with the h silent, comes toward me as well. I don't cower or step back, as to do that is to show weakness. Even so, I feel in my gut that they will not hurt me.
"Who-What are you?" I say, stumbling a bit on my words. They both give me a smile, which is creepy since they look similar and eerily have the same smile, too.
"Oh! Silly me, we didn't even introduce ourselves! Well, I'm Grasidi, and this is my twin brother Herbesco. We are the twin Spirits of grass and herbs, son and daughter of Crescentia, female elder Spirit of growth and Imber, male elder Spirit of rain, rulers of the grass and herb Faeries, Goblins, and other little Nature Spirits," The old woman replies, and I stand a little shocked, processing the information. I know I am in a dream, but it still feels…real. As if I am traveling somewhere but in my dream form.
"Is this real?" I ask stupidly, causing the twins to give each other a look.
"We'd better take you to the Most Powerful and the Lion," Grasidi says, and I reluctantly follow her when she leads me into the castle. It is just a dream, so I might as well take a look. I mean, how bad can it be?
