Monster

Bad Dream

Beor was busy cleaning the house, scrubbing the dinner pot clean, when he heard a small whimper coming from Hero's room. Everyone else was outside, the other children helping his brother and uncle to thresh the ripened wheat next to the barn. He could hear their cheerful voices and laughing.

Another whimper came from Hero's room and a stab of guilt pained Beor's heart. Sighing, he left his chores and went to the child to check on him.

Little Hero slept fitfully in his bed, breathing fast. Beor could almost feel the heat coming off him – another bout of strange fever that has been occurring of late. Hesitantly, he reached to the child's forehead to gage the degree.

Strange dizzying feeling came over him when he touched his hand to the child's hot, dry skin. He quickly pulled his hand back and the feeling stopped.

Again, the child whimpered and turned his head, his lips in a pout and unruly hair sticking to his cheek. Beor gently patted his head then.

"Shhh. It's just a bad dream. Hero, wake up. It's just a dream." He said gently, hoping not to startle the child as he had last time as he woke him out of his nightmare. Hero impatiently moved again, throwing his arms wide, his gleaming eyes moving beneath his closed eyelids.

Beor leaned closer. "Hero..."

The strange dizzying feeling came again, but Beor ignored it, too worried about the child to pay it heed. He should have though. The next moment the child moved again and his small hand flew and touched Beor's cheek.

A whirlwind of colors exploded behind Beor's eyes and in the next moment he was no longer in his cabin. He staggered a step before he caught balance and fearfully glanced around himself.

It was dark, except for the gleaming flames licking the remnants of what seemed to be burning houses of a village. He thought he recognized his own by the stump of the oak tree he planted right by the porch. The barn next to his house was blazing and so was the wheat.

And then something grabbed at his legs, startling him. He violently broke free and heard Hero's cry. Looking down, Beor stared at the little Human who now sat on the ground, looking up at him with eyes full of fear and hurt.

"Oh, I'm so sorry." Beor immediately leaned down to the child to pick him up to comfort him. Hero immediately clung to him, burying his small face against his chest so only his unkept hair remained visible to view. In utter confusion, Beor once again looked around himself.

"Shhh. It's all right. This isn't real. It's just a bad dream." He automatically repeated, helplessly looking around him at the strange place. And then he gasped, his eyes widening as he realized what had happened.

Hero's dream. That's where he was. He had once felt the same strange, dizzying sensation when the Witch told him to touch the child's hand so he could see the child's dreams. It had happened again.

Unwillingly, Beor pressed the little Human closer to him and looked around uneasily. He had half expected to see Hero dreaming about the witch, but this wasn't it at all. It was more like that memory that the Witch showed to him, except now mixed in with the elements of what the child had grown used to seeing, like his village and his house.

Was this a memory then or just a nightmare? And... what was Beor supposed to do now that he was here?

Gently patting the child on his back to calm him down, since he could feel his little body trembling, the villager searched around him with puzzled eyes, not sure what to do.

"Notch, this isn't working..." A voice grumbled from behind and Beor span back, his heart rate thundering in his chest.

A tall figure stood behind him, by all looks a real Human, complete with gleaming enchanted armor and a sword ominously glistening red in his hand. Flickering red light from the dying fire gleamed along its sharp edge as the Human considered Beor with a grim expression. Beor blinked in confusion, staring into the Human's disapproving, violet eyes.