Pale dreams

He was tired, over thirty-four hours of constant unending vigilance would do that to a man no matter there constitution. Which is why he eventually gave in and handed the reigns to another of the senior adventures to run things while he got some sleep. Of course he knew for a fact that the thing that was killing and stalking them wouldn't just be quite during his absence, which is why he had told them to double patrols until he woke up again.

Even still he was scared, scared that he would wake up to find the camp destroyed, his team and wife dead, and that monster standing over it all with a bloody sword ready to kill him as well. He never stated these worry's of course. That would just be asking the men and women he lead to start to panic, which is never a good thing.

Instead he bunkered them down and acted like the strong and confident leader they had increasingly saw him as. The truth though?

"I'm godamned terrified!" He screamed inside of his sound proof tent and headquarters.

"They all treat me as if I'm a wise old man! I'm fourth years old dammit! I've not even started to go white yet!" He bashed his lands into the table as the pent up stress of the time in these cursed woods continued to spill from his lips.

"Just because I have the warlord class doesn't mean I'm a good leader in the slightest! It's not my fault that goddamned Goddess was so stupid and didn't explain traits or class!!" Summoning his hammer from..Somewhere he broke the wooden table in the middle of the room with a mighty swing.

"It's not my fault I was shot! It's not my fault this land is so horrible! And it's not my fault those kids died!" With a final roar he cracked the earth beneath him with a mighty swing of his hammer.

Dropping said hammer he fell to his knees as the tears flowed from his eyes and the loss of the days of constant fighting slammed into him full force and with out mercy.

'I tried, so very hard. I gave them easy jobs and pushed any combat assignments on other more experienced adventurers, but no matter what I did it would always come for them. Day after day after day it would come. There body's found with cleanly cut throats lying about as if trash to be left for the animals'

He cried that night. For the souls of the children that were taken before there time, they were young and foolhardy thinking this quest would be something that would shoot them to stardom. Only for the night to come and with it death and despair. Some were found with there food dropped upon the ground and there weapons out as if to fight for there lives.

Other times they seemed to have been attacked right in the middle of simply using the bathroom with no thoughts of ever being attacked, and yet others young couples would be found together seemingly killed in there sleep with no knowledge of what it could have been that caused there deaths. In the end though the things strategy became obvious.

It was baiting them out by killing the weakest of them and it worked. Many of those killed were the children of more experienced adventurers with their deaths causing the parents to fall into a rage and run into the woods to find and kill the beast that had taken their children from them. Most were never seen again and the few that were found were heavily wounded and on deaths door step.

All of these things beat him like drums in the depths of his soul. He knew he would never sleep soundly again if he did escape this death forest in the end. So it was with tears in his eyes and the knowledge that sleep would only bring back the faces of those lost Fredrick Gracklien laid his head down to sleep.

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Dreams came and with them screams, but not of what he thought there would be. No that would be too simple instead it was of a dark gaping void that stretched on for eternity. As he stared into it though it became slowly more and more apparent that blackness wasn't empty.

No there were small shapes and forms within that all encompassing abyss. They were children of black shadow with eyes so pale white not even the greatest of artists could ever capture there hypnotic lure. Snapping from the sight when a roar of silence swept through everything and nothing like a wave he saw that thingwas perched upon a platform of broken masks of pale solid light.

What caught his attention beyond all others though was the shadow of void that seemed to hover above said thing like a cloak. It's eight great eyes staring forever into his soul like a light in the dark. The thing grew ever closer as he stared upon its great form.

Before it could reach him though a new light shine through the void like a pale light house against the sea. Looking upon said light he saw a masked GOD of a light so pale that to look upon it both hurt and soothed his soul in a way that idiot of a self-proclaimed goddess could never hold up to.

As the light met the shadow a battle of dominance took place before him and as the two sides fought he suddenly felt a simple message touch his mind like a gentle current.

'Awaken young dreamer, awaken with the promise of a new light nothing like the old'

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Awakening with a start he quickly scanned his tent for any sign of the entity's that he had seen in his dream. Finally after making sure that he was well and truly alone he took a deep breath and stood up to think over everything that had happened.

Even now not minutes after waking up he could feel the details of what had transpired inside the dream leaving him to turn into nothing more than vague notions and feelings of what happened, but the one thing that stuck was that message that came from what he was sure was the god of pale light.

A Pale king of light. Is what it was and had seemingly spoken to him. Whatever the case though it mattered not wether the dream was real or simply his imagination his men needed him and he was done feeling sorry for himself. So with a smile that even in the dim rays of light reflected light he gathered and put on his equipment and walked with a strength that was no where to be seen the night before.