Jaek

As Jaekel went to go pour himself a cup of hot tea, he reflected that he did not usually lie to his best friend. But if he mentioned that he had a dream last night, everyone would be asking him all about it, and it was Rune's birthday. Not only that he was utterly confused by the dream in the first place. He could not make heads or tails as to why he had dreamed about that. Usually it was fairly easy for him to understand what Xi'eli was trying to tell him, but he was at a loss this time.

As he watched the tea swirling into his glass, it was as if he could see the dream again. The thing was, he really had no idea why he was being shown this. It was not inside the kingdom, but was in the wild lands of Nix'Ryl. As usual he somehow knew where it was taking place, though this time was only in the most general way. He somehow knew that it would happen in about one day. But he had no idea who the people in it were.

'Two people were fighting each other, as if to the death. One, a woman, was clad in the traditional garb of the Varenduil protector. She wielded a gleaming scimitar that flashed quickly and dangerously. The other, who seemed to be a lithe feminine form, wore a long grey cloak, that hid her body almost completely except as her hands moved using two different blades to defend herself.

The two danced in a swift manner, neither one seemed to be gaining any ground. And then another creature arrived. It came climbing on the walls, the claws of the great lizard leaving indents on the cave walls. Its wings folded against its back. It was a dragon, but one unlike any Jaekel had ever heard of. Its scales, instead of being a solid color, were iridescent and some of them even glowed. It was beautiful, yet extremely dangerous. Even in the dream, Jaekel could feel the powerful magical aura from the creature.

The two women turned to look at the newcomer. The black clad woman froze, but the other one merely leaped backwards. The dragon opened its great maw really wide and there was a flash…..'

That had been when he had woken up, in a cold sweat. He had been unable to fall asleep again, his mind constantly dwelling on it. He wacked his black hair backwards as he blew on his tea to cool it. His eyes went to his best friend as she was in a constant whirl of talking to people. Most of the people here were related to her except his small family of three. One could definitely see where she took after both of her parents.

Long messy red hair, grey eyes, an ethereal faelike quality to her entire being. She was as confident as she was beautiful. He often found himself thinking that if she just suddenly starting sparkling it would suit her entirely. He knew that when they were older, she would be one of his biggest helps, even if he had not ever told anyone that. Not all the dreams he had were nightmares, and not all of them were spoken of to others.

He shuttered his eyes closed for a minute, massaging his head. As often as he got these headaches, and even if he was rather used to them, they were still uncomfortable.

"Broder Jaekel, you alright?"

He glanced down at the young boy, tugging on his shirt worriedly, with a smile, "Yeah, Ajax, just fine." Ajax was one of the younger siblings of Rune, only his twin sister was just a smidgen younger. A real sweet kid it was hard not to like the six-year-old, even if he did have a knack for getting himself in trouble. "Go play, kiddo." He gently pushed the kid towards where some of his slightly older siblings were playing.

"You always are so good with my kids."

Jaekel glanced over at Rune's mother, a smile lit his face as he looked at the gentle woman, "Well, I did grow up looking after them." It was true, he and Rune were the oldest kids in the castle. As such it had naturally fallen to them to keep her mischievous siblings in check. Caldron had helped, and Althea and Vestyl had after they were a bit older as well, but it had been the oldest two who had always been left in charge.

She laughed, "And you still refuse to call me auntie." There was a note of disappointment in her voice.

Jaekel flickered his eyes away, "My, uh, condition left me fully aware that you were not my aunt at a young age, and so, I guess I never got in the habit." This was not the full truth, it had actually never let him call her auntie, something he had not understood until he was thirteen.

"I see… any chance you could?" She looked hopeful.

"No, I don't think so." He shook his head. "At this point it would just feel weird to me."

"Pity," She sighed.

His head feeling better he decided to head back to where Rune was, he refused to be the downer on her birthday.