Bad Dreams
Gorum waited about an hour in line, sighing with a bit of internal relief as he stepped up to the two young women manning the sign up table.
The brown haired twins were young, perhaps 19 years if he had to guess. Not overly beautiful enough to make people infatuated as they signed up, but not ugly enough to make a passerby uninterested.
The two girls wore friendly, but fake smiles, noticably faltering for a moment once Gorum stepped up. However they both regained their professionalism rather quickly.
"Hello there, how can I assist you?" piped up the twin on the left, an almost annoying cheer in her voice.
"I am here to participate in the tourney." Gorum said, keeping it short and sweet. Well...short.
"Ah, yes I should have guessed. Well then! Please take one of the forms and fill it out. If you are illiterate, my sister here will read it and fill it out for you. Once you're done, you'll want to find an inn as the tourney won't start until tomorrow!" The girl said cheerfully, handing Gorum a charcoal pencil and some low quality paper.
"Mhm..." Gorum quietly took the paper and filled it out rather absent mindedly as he was now trying to think of what sort of inn he could stay at with how large he was compared to the average towns person. He finished it up and handed the paper back to the girl, an odd look appearing on her face.
"Erm...sir, are you sure you filled this out correctly? This information is correct?" She asked, a hint of bewilderment in her voice.
"Yes, I filled it out correctly, I'm not simple." Gorum said, grumbling a bit at her strange attitude. Gorum was sure he filled it out just fine, he was used to paperwork after all.
"O-Of course, I didn't mean to imply...n-nevermind. Is there anything else?" she said nervously as she tucked away the paper.
"Yes, do you know if there's an Inn someone my size can stay comfortably?" he asked.
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Gorum let out a sigh, sitting in a pile of hay next to some horses. Currently, he was around the back of an Inn on the outskirts of town called 'The Weeping Glade Inn'. The Innkeeper unfortunately didn't have a room Gorum would comfortably fit into, but she was kind enough to offer Gorum his own stall in the barn for customer mounts.
'Perhaps that girl misheard me when I said comfortably...' he thought as he sat with his legs crossed, staring at the barn wall. While Gorum wasn't really picky about where he would lay, it's not as if he preferred roughing it. Although, being in the barn did remind him of his youth a little bit...
"Should I just...sleep...then?" Gorum mused aloud as he began to grow bored. It had been quite a long time since Gorum last actually slept, at some point he just stopped sleeping altogether and couldn't actually remember the last time he did sleep. It had at the very least been a decade, at least that long he knew. Of course, if a regular person stayed up that long they'd die. One full week without sleep is enough to put a regular person at risk of total organ failure.
Gorum eventually decided to just...try and sleep. It had been quite a long time, so he deserved it anyways.
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A boy slowly opened his eyes, dried blood caked across his forehead and the corners of his eyes. Muscles twitching in agony as he tried to lift his arms, only to see his hands trembling and broken to bits. Shards of bone protruding from his bloodied flesh.
Gasping and wheezing quietly for air, he crawled through the trench he was in as explosions and crys of battle filled the air around him. Dust kicking up and stinging his bloodshot eyes as chaos continued to erupt. Crawling through the blood soaked dirt, he knew not where he was going.
BOOM!
A large cloud of dust kicked up as something landed just infront him, a bloody middle aged man in ragged plate armor arising from a the newly created dent in the ground. A intimidating and jagged buster sword hoisted over his shoulder.
"Damned filthy bastards, knocking me back like that..." Commander Kaius muttered as he stood and dusted off, soon taking notice of the boy in the dirt. A crazed smile appearing on his face.
"Weakling! You were alive! That's splendid, but your weapon is gone..." he muttered as he plucked a tattered spear from the dirt and tossed it Infront of the boy.
"Pick that up and get back to fighting! Or else I'll just kill you myself when this is done. Hahaha!" Commander Kaius cackled madly as he leapt back into the fray, letting out a maniacal laugh of a war cry.
The boy gulped, fear shivering down his back as he looked down at the spear, shakily placing his hands on the weapon and forcing his broken and battered fists to clench around the haft. Slowly bringing himself to stand on his broken and fractured bones, looking towards the battlefield.
The crimson and violet sky was lit ablaze with magic artillery, explosions of all colors showering the field in volleys. Wyverns, massive bats, harpies and other winged monstrosities soaring through the sky. An ever bloody battle of multiple armies taking place before his eyes.
The chaos of the battlefield rung in his ears as he tightened his grip and started to limp to the fight, gradually charging as he dragged himself on battered legs. Filling his lungs with blood and thunder as he screamed a battle cry of his own. He joined the death march, and succumbed to the violence before him.
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Gorum's eyes flashed open, the gentle sound of birds gracing his ears as the morning sunlight pierced through the barn walls to illuminate his golden armor.
"Hrm..." Gorum contemplated quietly as he sat cross legged, still and calm. It had been a long time since he though of his first grand battle.
Perhaps, it was best if he didn't have dreams at all.