Risk and Reward

Dreams

a/n: Italics is when Paul's dreaming. Also, i've had this in my drafts since the 28th and it's probably gonna be my fav chapter in the series

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Paul had attempted to stay away from you, but his heart swelled when your blue eyes looked at him during lunch. He did tell himself to remove his foot at that meal as well, but his heart said no.

There was no denying that Paul become more and more attracted to you every day. He wasn't sure what it was. It could be the small compliments, or the morning chats, maybe the library sessions or the way your eyes lock on his for moments and he feels like he's falling into a black hole and can't come out until you look away.

He's falling for you hard and fast, he knows that. He narrowed it down to the fact that he didn't have many, or any, females his age in court. Yes, there were other females who he had the possibility of having the same affection for, but they were all fives while you're a hundred. Everything about you screamed power and strength and he loved that.

Paul went to sleep that night thinking about you. Seeing your blue eyes shining at him when he closed his own, hearing your laughter fill his ears in the silent room. He liked it. And he wasn't afraid to admit it. At least to himself. To anyone else, especially Duncan, and he would run away and never come back.

Listening to the soft rustle of the sand blowing over the stone roof of the palace, Paul fell asleep that night with the hope that he'd see you tomorrow morning when the sun comes up once more.

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Paul found himself walking through a meadow. The land reminded him of Caladan, only unnaturally more colourful. Large sunflowers rustled gently as a cool breeze passed over them, inturn ruffling Paul's hair. There were snow capped mountains in the distant, tall and rocky, majestic in the orangy-pink glow of the setting sun. The sky held every constellation in the galaxy, only instead of a night-time backdrop, the sky was a bright, baby blue as though it was mid-day. Puffy clouds that looked as though they'd been covered in glitter. 

This was a dream. A blissful dream.

Paul felt at peace; with himself; with the world. He felt nobody could do harm to him in a place as beautiful and mystical as this. He continued walking through the meadow, fingertips brushing gingerly over the tough petals of the sunflowers.

'𝓟𝓪𝓾𝓵?' He heard a sweet feminine voice call out. '𝓟𝓪𝓾𝓵, 𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮 𝓪𝓻𝓮 𝔂𝓸𝓾?' Paul looked around for the source of the voice, but he found nothing.

'𝓟𝓪𝓾𝓵, 𝓭𝓪𝓻𝓵𝓲𝓷𝓰, 𝓘'𝓶 𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓻 𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮.' The voice spoke again. Paul felt as though it was coming from all directions, everywhere, echoing. '𝓟𝓪𝓾𝓵, 𝓶𝔂 𝓼𝓲𝓵𝓵𝔂 𝓵𝓸𝓿𝓮, 𝔂𝓸𝓾'𝓻𝓮 𝓵𝓸𝓸𝓴𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓪𝓽 𝓶𝓮.' Paul squinted in the direction he was looking in.

'𝓞𝓿𝓮𝓻 𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮... 𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓻 𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮...' The voice didn't sound ominous at all, but it sparked curiosity in Paul's mind. He'd heard the voice sometime before, somewhere before, but he couldn't place his finger on it. Who was the face to the voice?

'Hello?' He called out, hoping that the person would reveal themselves. 'Who's there?'

'𝓜𝓮 𝓼𝓲𝓵𝓵𝔂.' The voice echoed. '𝓘'𝓶 𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓻 𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮 𝓟𝓪𝓾𝓵.' At that point, Paul broke into an even jog. His feet pounding as he shoved the sunflowers out of his way. The meadow seemed to stretch on forever.

'𝓞𝓿𝓮𝓻 𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮... ' It repeated. '𝓞𝓿𝓮𝓻 𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮...

'Where's here?' Paul shouted.

'𝓦𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮 𝓘 𝓾𝓼𝓾𝓪𝓵𝓵𝔂 𝓪𝓶. 𝓘𝓷 𝓸𝓾𝓻 𝓼𝓹𝓮𝓬𝓲𝓪𝓵 𝓹𝓵𝓪𝓬𝓮.' The voice laughed lightly. '𝓓𝓪𝓻𝓵𝓲𝓷𝓰, 𝔀𝓸𝓷'𝓽 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓱𝓾𝓻𝓻𝔂?'

'Where- where are you?' Paul almost gave up. As he was about to slow, he finally saw the end of the meadow, or at least a break in it. He sprinted over to where the sunflowers stopped growing. He was met by a river that was a deep beautiful blue, it was a familiar blue but one he couldn't recognise. That drove him crazy, first the voice, now the river. Across the river was a thick, silvery mist that swirled in the sunlight, puffs of it visible to the naked eye.

'Hello?' Paul called out, only hearing his own voice reply with the same word. No reply. 'Hello? Where are you?' He waited for an answer. Then it started to rain. Light drops of blue water trickled down seemingly from nowhere in the sky. The sun still shone bright and the sky still had small puffs of clouds, but the rain came from everywhere, cloud or no cloud.

'𝓟𝓪𝓾𝓵, 𝓭𝓪𝓻𝓵𝓲𝓷𝓰.'The voice said once more. It perked up his senses, this time the voice didn't come from all directions, it came from across the river. '𝓘'𝓶 𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮.'

'I can't see you.' Paul frowned, he was utterly confused now.

'𝓘'𝓶 𝓻𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽 𝓲𝓷 𝓯𝓻𝓸𝓷𝓽 𝓸𝓯 𝔂𝓸𝓾, 𝓳𝓾𝓼𝓽 𝓵𝓸𝓸𝓴.' Paul squinted into the swirling mist, then he saw it. A figure emerged from the mist, shorter than he, in what seemed to be a stillsuit. As the figure walked forward, the rays from the sun hit them. First the shoes, then the legs. it was about to hit the torso of the figure.

'𝓟𝓪𝓾𝓵...' the voice seemed to become more and more echoey, '𝓟𝓪𝓾𝓵... 𝓟𝓪𝓾𝓵...'

'Who are you?' Paul shouted. He watched as the figure vaporised right in front of his eyes, then the mountains, sky, sun, river, everything turned into mist as Paul fell through the vast nothingness of his subconscious as the voice kept repeating his name softly.

The voice disappeared altogether as Paul suddenly sat up in bed. He gasped for air as though he'd been suffocated. What just happened? Who was the voice? Where was he? All those questions flew through his head as he caught his breath. 

He was used to dreaming about a girl on Arrakis, but it wasn't you, and this dream... this one was new. Completely new. What does that mean? Could he have seen into his future? Who was the person that vanished? Why was the person calling him 'darling'?

'What?' He whispered to himself. Running his hand over his face, Paul glanced at the time. It was about an hour before sun-up.Paul made the decision to just sit on the roof, there was no point attempting to go to sleep now when he could sit and watch the stars. He changed into his usual black clothing and made his way up to the roof.

The dream had felt so real, so natural that it made him feel that this night sky, with it's two moons and the galaxy visible, was not the norm on another planet. If that place was another planet and not just his subconscious.

'Paul?' Asked a voice. Then it hit him, that was the voice. He knew that voice, he recognised it.

He knew who the voice belonged to.

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A/n: I hope you enjoyed it! Don't forget to vote and leave a comment :)))