Start again A Dwight in shining armor fanfic

Knight and nightmares

Author's Notes: Hiya! So this original chapter came out a bit over 10k words, so I've decided to split it up into two chapters. This one will be with Gretta dealing with her nightmares and the next chapter will be their library date. I'd love to hear feedback on whether I should keep long chapters or split them like i did with this one? 

Gretta was in her room, brushing her hair as she was preparing for bed. She decided it was best to have an early night so she would possibly get out of bed during the actual hours of the morning. Recently, she had gotten into the habit of sleeping in a lot lately. Now that summer vacation was in full swing, there wasn't a need to wake up anywhere near as early as she used to for school. Dwight and Gretta had recently been going on walks almost every day they could be together. She loved when they visited her mother, and enjoyed when they'd gone to the castle to assess what all needed to be done in preparations for Baldric and Hexala's wedding. Sometimes afterwards, they would go for ice cream or go to the mall for a smoothie. They were doing all this so their time together would be a bit more balanced between his world and hers. Gretta had an early date planned with Dwight the next day for the library. At first, she wasn't so sure about going to the library as a date, but now, she was grateful for it. Not only did she enjoy reading books as a hobby to pass the time, but Gretta was also hoping new books would help her sleep.

Since Gretta had gotten her memories back from the Forget-me-nots, she had been suffering from nightmares on occasion. Regular nightmares in the past, never really bothered her. She understood it was a part of life to experience nightmares, as everyone did. These, however, weren't like her usual nightmares. If anything, they were a far cry from the bedtime stories created to scare children at bedtime. In these nightmares, Hammond always appeared as the villain somehow, and they were much more vivid. She was in desperate need of something to suppress these recurring bad dreams, filled with mostly lost memories from the past. Her plan for tomorrow was to browse sections like romance, and classics in the library to find stories that were full of love and happily ever afters. It was possible that such tales would counteract her nightmares of experienced heartbreak, grudges, and demise when they made another appearance.

Her mind wandered to memories of her family as she relaxed in bed. She thought of some of the small things she could remember about her father. It was difficult to remember much about him before, as he was gone from her life at such a young age. However, thanks to the painting her uncle Henrick had showed them from his wedding to Lady Ermingarde, she could envision her father more clearly. The King of Rogemore was tall and mighty, who spoke with power in his voice and love in his heart. Though, she was sure some of his height that had towered over her before was due to how little she'd been the last time she could remember ever seeing him. The memory of helping her hold a sword for the first time, was something she thought of most often. Especially since it was one of only a few memories she had of him, and it was one of the last.

As the night continued on, she finally drifted off and dove deeper into her slumber. Her dreams, not long after, began to twist and turn into something less enjoyable. She knew the story of what happened to her father, that he'd been devoured by fairies. Now that she knew it was Hammond who had committed the atrocious act of selling her father off to them, it caused a malevolent nightmare to form. It made her envision what she could only imagine of what had happened to the King the day he disappeared.

The king walked with his brother through a part of the woods. It didn't take long until various colored lights twinkled around her father. The king tried his best to swat them away until they used strong vines for ropes and tied them around his legs. As he fell to the ground, he looked up at his brother. Hammond reached down, not to help him, but to remove his ring from his finger. The movements were swift, pulling him quickly through the woods, dragging him as his fingers tried to dig into any earth or tree in his path. When they reached the fairy cave, he was pulled into the cavern with his screams following. Soon after, the screams had stopped and there was only silence.