Veritas

Chapter 4

Aislinn continued to scream, even as her parents burst into her room and shook her awake. She continued to scream as her mother pulled her onto her lap in her safe embrace, and soothingly rocked her in an effort to calm her. It wasn't until her father had both of his hands on her face and forced her to make eye contact with him that she realized it had been a dream, and her scream gave way to sobs.

The realization that her father was here, he was alive, was enough to turn her terror and heartbreak into such overwhelming relief that she couldn't control her emotions. Hot tears poured out of her as she hugged her father fiercely, refusing to let him go. The family of three stayed huddled together, both parents making soothing sounds in an effort to comfort Aislinn.

After Aislinn's sobs began to subside, and she began sniffling and hiccupping, Daisy and JJ exchanged concerned glances. "Do we ask her to tell us what she dreamed? I've never seen a reaction this bad from her" Daisy mind-linked her mate.

"I think we have to. I've never seen anything this bad before, either, so if we don't figure out what it is, it may haunt her" JJ reasoned, turning his attention back to his daughter.

Daisy nodded in agreement, then reached out to cup Aislinn's cheek in her palm. She gently guided her daughter's face up to look at her, her heart breaking at the sight of Aislinn's swollen, puffy eyes. She gave Aislinn a loving smile, and tucked a strand of her platinum hair behind her ear in a motherly manner. "Sweety, I think we should talk about whatever you saw in your dream" she cooed softly.

Aislinn just shook her head, pulling her face from her mother in the same motion so she could look at the ground. "I c-can't s-s-say" she answered between hiccups, and kept her eyes averted.

"You can tell us anything, nugget" her father countered, his deep and gravelly voice helping to soothe her aching heart. For a moment, she thought she'd never hear that voice she loved so much ever again.

Aislinn nodded her head once, but didn't look up; nor did she say anything at first. She was lucky, though; her parents knew her well, and didn't rush her or urge her further. They knew she was planning to speak, and just needed time to gather her thoughts.

After an agonizing period of silence for the parents, Aislinn finally began to speak. Her hiccups had subsided, and although her voice was a bit nasally, she was able to speak relatively calmly. "I dreamt that...We were under attack. It was at the border" she began softly. "There was so much blood...It looked like we'd been ambushed, our defenses didn't seem right...But still, we were winning. The bodies were all rogues, except...Except..." she squeaked out the last word, unable to voice what she'd seen. Her bottom lip began to quiver, and her eyes began to fill with tears once more as she shook her head, signaling she couldn't continue.

"Shhh, it was just a dream sweety. There's no attack, we're all okay" Daisy assured her, rubbing soothing circles on her back and giving her a squeeze.

"I just mind-linked the border guards, they said everything is normal, okay sweety? Nothing to worry about" JJ added, trying to appeal to his daughter's logical side. He gave her a reassuring smile and reached over to place his hand on the top of her head.

Aislinn nodded, still unable to speak as she wrestled with her emotions and tried to get them back under control. She didn't voice her concerns, but the fact that they'd been ambushed in her dream was still bothering her; of course the guards would report all was well. Maybe the attack was yet to happen, and she'd had some kind of premonition. She didn't want to say anything, though, because she knew her father would volunteer to go run the border; that was the last thing she wanted right now.

Always with the sharper mind of the two, though, Daisy pointed this fact out to her mate. "Well if we were ambushed in her dream, the patrol may not necessarily know it was happening yet" she explained. Aislinn's panicked expression when she looked up at her mother told Daisy that she had been thinking the same thing.