The Storm of Nightmares

"Granny, I just want to go home", I was on the verge of crying, and the old lady only wanted to tell incomprehensible tales of the family of Vlad Dracul. If I had even the tiniest bit of interest in anything, it was in the fact that the old lady occasionally made dramatic movements which seemed impossible for her age.

"When I was a little girl, my father hid me in a trunk for 7 days!", I could barely grasp the elements of exaggeration in her stories which I don't suppose were her faults at all. For example, even seven minutes would feel like seven days in a trunk.

"Oh but you wouldn't understand!", she seemed to be getting tired and sat down in one of the chairs.

"When his daughter was born, we were relieved. They say their women don't give good births, and some don't give births at all. That's why their men abduct ladies after their hearts and turn the poor girls into one of them. And then, she was wed into a political marriage, and then she was gone. And we were all happy and we rejoiced...", the old woman looked up at me, "So what is it, son? You were saying you come from the future. If you had told me such a thing before entering my house, I would have locked my door before a freak such as yourself stepped inside but now here you are and here I am, telling you the story of my beloved but wretched Wallach. So son, crazy in the head as you may be, what do you want to do now?"

That old lady sure was gullible, wasn't she?

"I don't really know, Granny. I doubt anyone's ever come up to you with the same problem as me but I really need to get home as soon as I can", I had regained my calm at some point.

"I would want you to leave too", she stood up and peeked out the window, "Your horse started this awful storm outside and its about to send my house flying."

"Oh yeah, that...I'm sorry about it, really".

Indeed, the horse's mane had kept on turning black and the horse kept goofing around the town, until there was an enormous storm brewing and it looked like he guided this tornado of a wind.

"Ah, this is just like the beginning!", I did believe she was done with her stories but I was utterly wrong.

"When Dracul rode the nightmares...he held the rein in one hand and the grail in the other. And then he erected the grail at the gate of Wallach. That began his rule, his authority! Oh, that wretched day!", she spoke as if she had seen it happen.

"Well...Granny, its unfortunate but regardless, I don't think it will help in any way."

"What an ignorant freak you are! And of course it will help, you fool! Vlad Dracul began the nightmares in Wallach with that grail...and that evening, the same dark storm took Wallach by its tail. Only that grail...that's right, the grail can end this storm and nothing else", she sounded adamant.

I, on the other hand, was quite sure the storm would soon die down. The old lady was surely out of place being so cynical and talking of fantastic things. I ignored most of what she said from Vlad to Wallach. That wouldn't end up being the most favorable experience for me. About an hour late, Granny smashed a steel pot on my head and threw me out of her house, telling me to search for the grail.

As to what this grail was and where or how I was supposed to find it, she herself had no idea. In the end, I found myself in the middle of the scariest storm I had ever seen. It didn't take me long to realize that this storm was unnatural, by all means. It wasn't the wind forming this tornado around Wallach, it was darkness or as Granny called it, 'nightmare'.

It was getting hot outside despite the storm or perhaps, due to that very storm. I extended my hand ahead of me and realized I couldn't see it anymore. That storm blinded any and all things even right next to me. I wonder how that Granny with such foul temper expected me to find this grail that I knew nothing about in the first place.

I began walking and my mind went blank. I'm sure I was thinking about something but I can't remember what is was. Eventually, I was just walking and there was no more. I wonder for how many years and centuries I must have walked ceaselessly before I realized I wasn't alone anymore.

To my right was a little girl with twin tails, skipping and hopping and keeping up with me with an aura of vague light around her as if she was illuminating the way. I kept on walking, staring at her in surprise but she never looked my way. She had a constant smile on her face and she giggled now and then and her voice made me want to cry. Still, I kept on going, mesmerized by this little girl.

For a minute, I thought about reaching out to her, but before I knew it or even realized it, I was alone again. She was gone... when and where, I couldn't tell. But she wasn't by my side anymore and that made my heart heavy.

So I continued to walk aimlessly, my whole body throbbed from the countless amounts of cuts and scrapes I had received at some point in this storm, none of which were bleeding. My legs began to feel like concrete and I thought I'd drop, never to move again but I didn't stop until I realized that once again I was joined by someone.

To my left walked an old man with a familiar face that I continued to stare at.

"Grandfather?!", that short sword was with him too, the one which was probably a memento from his son, "What...what are you doing here?"

I'm glad that he did look my way and smiled like he always used to.

"Where's Eso?", I asked. The answer never came.

Grandfather didn't speak at all but he smiled and kept walking with me and that made me happy.

"I'm glad to see you survived. Eso's not with you...she must be worried for you, right?", I thought about Eso and about Halen, "I'm sorry we messed up your place, grandfather. We didn't mean to. We really thought we were saving something. It sounds ridiculous, doesn't it?"

I chuckled.

"You didn't have anything to lose so it must be easy to forgive us. I'm sorry, but you did look like you had nothing to lose. But..."

My voice died out, I just stared back at grandfather reciprocating his gentle smile with my painful one.

"I see, so that's how it is, huh? I understand", I knew I wasn't wrong, "I'm sorry, old man, and...thank you for seeing me as your son. You must have found your real son by now...You can keep watching...I'm sorry, grandfather."

My voice was breaking, he was gone. And looking ahead, I had realized where I was. I knew the storm was about to end now. I just had to keep on walking.

But there she was, standing right in front of me in that terrifying storm. She had her back turned to me and I couldn't muster enough courage to call her name. I prayed in my heart that she would never turn around and I wouldn't see her face, after all, I knew what that storm was.

But she did turn, ever so slightly before I closed my eyes shut. And I kept on running forward.