Three Forces Empowered | Dream Team

Bonus: Ghost and Pegasus

Dream had had a rough childhood.

He never got to know his mother. She passed away at his birth, resulting in a child who would never understand the embrace of a loving mum. He was never close to his brother, who always seemed angry and distant around him. 

Only a few years after his mother's death, his father moved the family from their village next to the river to one further up in Guerrier territory, only a few miles away from a large forest. There he suddenly went into a coma, either from grief or despair, it wasn't known. At any rate, Dream had been left with only a brother who hated him and no one to care.

The villagers helped them. They gave them clothing and food and offered them jobs to get money, all of which Dream gladly took. He kept busy. Even as a young child, he was hardworking and efficient. He was finally happy.

All of that changed when he nearly got a knife to the head.

He had been clearing the stable, carefully brushing the hinds of the horses, when out of nowhere, a knife came whizzing at him. Dream's reflexes had kicked in, narrowly allowing him to avoid a fatal blow by ducking to the side behind a wooden support beam. 

And his potential murderer?

Dream could still remember the look on Rowan's face as he stood there, another knife in his hand, his intent to kill obvious as he raised his weapon for the second time.

He truly thought he was going to die that day.

But then a stranger rushed in, knocking the knife out of his brother's hand with some sort of staff and cuffing Rowan viciously on the head. The boy crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

That man had saved Dream's life. He was a traveller, a wanderer, and he offered for Dream to join him. After only a moment of hesitation, Dream had accepted. It was like a do-over for him, and being offered that chance was alleviating.

Dream was happy for another long while, travelling with the man, until he died when he was only fifteen, when they were stopping in a village just at the river border of Suspiro, surrounded by a humongous forest. Smack dab in the middle of assassins' territory. 

A brilliant place to be left by himself.

Where he almost got killed again.

***

Dream gasped as he ran, stumbling through the forest. He hated forests. There was always a rock or a tree root right at your feet so that you can trip, always a lowhanging branch to smack you in the face. 

He didn't dare look behind him. Knowing how close his chasers were would only slow him down. As long as he ran without stop, he would --- should --- be okay.

Come on, Dream. Please, please, please don't let me die. I--- I have to mourn. I have to find my brother, in case something has happened to him. I have so much I still have to do. I'm only fifteen!

He gave a yelp as an arrow flew past his head, lodging in the trunk of a nearby tree. His feet ached, but he couldn't slow down. To slow down was to accept his death.

"Stop for us, young one!" a gleeful voice shouted from behind him. "Your body parts and organs would be very valuable on the market!"

Please don't let this be how I die.

I'd rather die any other way.

Drown me. Burn me alive. Take a dagger through my heart. But please don't let me go down without a fight. 

His eyes widened as a person came running at him from the right. He had been cornered. 

For a moment, he locked eyes with the man racing toward him. They were stormy and grey, and fiercer than any he had ever seen. The eyes of a killer.