Book 2 - Dreams

I spent all of yesterday trying to level up my skill. Only pausing to cast a spell before answering the door to get our food deliveries. It took me until well into the night to actually accomplish it though. Amy for her part would crouch down, with her eyes glowing purple, and observe me until her magic ran out. I had to tell her multiple times to not touch me and probably could have shaved off an hour in my training if she had listened. I collapsed into the bed with Amy a little before two A.M.

I dreamed of hundreds of different places and people flashed through my mind: men, women, and children all asking me for something.

I found myself surrounded by a huge ongoing battle. A kid in robes had his head bowed. "Please smite those that would do me harm." I saw a woman riding a wolf coming at him but didn't move to help. I didn't know what was going on and wasn't going to aid in killing someone who might be the innocent.

A merchant prayed for a successful business deal.

I stood next to a weeping mother. Her cries as she held a child, echoed in the room. Her words kept repeating while a man beside her was shouting at another man next to some animal with a bloody mouth. I wanted to help and her tears turned golden, as she wept over her unmoving child.

I blinked and was now standing with another woman as we watched a family praying over dinner. She smiled at them and then me. I felt her goodwill, in that smile, but before I could figure out was going on I was off to the next place.

A kid sitting in a classroom praying for good grades on an upcoming test. I watched as the teacher began to hand out the papers for it and shook my head. As if praying could replace studying.

Then a warrior praying for strength to crush his enemies. I thought of helping but a burly giant that stood near him, glared at me as I stepped closer and I thought better of it.

A guy was praying for inspiration for his book while a curvy lady was whispering in his ear.

Then I was next to a demon. Its harsh language made my ears hurt. A bigger demon stood near an altar, knife in hand. The demon I was next to barked and snarled before the one by the alter plunged the knife down into a smaller demon that was tied to it.

A man asking for help getting the girl he likes into bed. I snorted at his prayer as if I could help with that.

I was in a forest. A teenage boy knelt on the ground surrounded by the dead. Some were beasts but most were his party members. Tears streamed down his face as he prayed. "Please save them. I'll give..." I laid my hand on his shoulder as he continued and the last thing I saw before I found myself on a in the raging sea was him looking up at me. His eyes glowing golden.

I stood on a boat as it was tossed about on the sea. I saw men struggling to hold onto anything close before the shipped bucked and I fell off.

I found myself standing in a thieves den. They were praying over a table of sand and stones. They asked for riches and offered a share of their haul for any aid given. Humph, as if.

As I opened my eyes to greet the day, I could remember a bit more of last night's dreams but even so, most faded away and only fragments remained.

*Goddess of Life: Selected*

I pulled up my character sheet and saw it now said 'Goddess of Life, ?, ?' leaving me to believe that I would be able to "select" up to two more titles or areas of power. The other things I noticed was some of my skills and spells were greyed out with timers next to them as if they were on cooldown and the number of believers had increased to a hundred and three. I closed my display trying to understand what happened. My dreams seem to deem what type of goddess I would be. My actions on who I helped were deciding what type. I felt lucky that I didn't go to bed hungry and end up with some weird title like God of chickens or something similar.

I refocused because today would be the day people would come after us, if Amy was correct. There was no guarantee she was. The further out a prediction goes the more things could change what was seen. In two days, in such a small town, that was unlikely so I had two options for changing our fate. The first was to keep it as similar as I could to what she had predicted and just change small factors. Examples of that would be if I put traps in the area we were going to run in or sent 'Shifters' to pretend to be us. The other option would be to simply go against it. Fight instead of fleeing or simply leaving the area before it happened. This option tended to take more strength than the first one. Anything could happen and things tended to crop up to delay your departure or if you decided to fight, something bigger might show up explaining why you were running in the vision. In the end, while fate could be changed you needed to know how to. There was a whole class on the intricacies of how to, with the least effort.

Oddly, I wasn't worried at all. Since that night in the capital, I have not been afraid of fighting. While the feeling of being able to crush a small town under my heel diminished it had not vanished. It was stupid, I know, but the overconfidence in that area seemed to have become part of me. Too bad I didn't seem to have any more confidence with anything else. I still felt flustered as I woke up next to Amy. I was wrapped in her arms as I woke up, as if I was her teddy bear that helped her to sleep. I was stronger and if I wanted I could simply break loose but I simply laid there. I wondered if I would be alone forever. Did Gods even date? If they were eternal would I have to watch all my friends age and die? I shoved away my doubts as I enjoyed her soft touch as she slept. Should I try and return her to her family before leaving? While I wanted her to stay, she was not cut out for a life on the run. I will think on it but first things first, we needed to deal with anyone foolish enough to try and stop us from leaving.

I did not get to enjoy Amy's warmth for long. A hurried knock on our door woke her up and like yesterday, she scuttled away as if scalded. I got out of bed and used my spell to transform us before opening the door. It was the same lady that brought us food yesterday. This time there was no food. Instead she was sporting two black eyes and bruises on her arm where somebody had gripped her arms, hard! I didn't get out any greeting before she yelled, "You have to run! Hurry, they are coming!"

I nodded.