The Unlikely Hero

Chapter 10. Dreamwalking

It felt hot. It felt incredibly hot. My body felt like it was burning in flames and my mouth was so dry as if I hadn't drunk even a droplet of water in days. My ears were filled with buzzing sounds and through it I thought I could hear someone scream. It echoed in my brains a few times only to be replaced by new screams, which seemed to cut through the buzzing ever so sharply. I wanted to open my eyes and take a look at what was going on, but I felt so dizzy. My eyelids were so heavy that it felt like it weighed a ton or even more. Yet, I tried my best and finally after a few more tries I managed to somehow pop my eyes open. The view was bright and it stung as I blinked a few times. As I finally adjusted to the lighting and took a better look around, I realized I was high up in the air above what seemed to be a village. A burning village, actually.

For a moment I simply stared down as I tried to comprehend the situation. The village was burning? A fire? I could discern people running around frantically and yelling on top of their lungs and I thought I saw something else down there too... Something that was attacking the villagers, perhaps?.. I tried to look closer, but the shapes were of weird and unfamiliar forms. To top it off, that was the moment when I realized another wondrous thing. I was... up? Immediately my eyes shot down to my body and then, suddenly and crazily, I realized I had no body. There was nothing. I was nothing!

Well, if to be exact, I seemed to be a silvery ball of something glittering and fluffy. Hmmm... Fluffy... Was I... a cloud?.. I shook my head in denial or, if to be exact, I thought I shook my head, but who knew... Do silver balls even have heads? What about eyes? Ears?..

"Ok..." I said out loud and thank the Gods I still had my voice. Even if I was rid of my absolutely gorgeous legs. "So, I'm a cloud. Big deal. I can be a cloud."

"You're not a cloud," someone said in a rather amused voice just behind me and I flinched so hard I actually flew up in the sky a few meters.

I did my best at whirling around to face the speaker as I cursed myself for getting scared that easily. But, hey, it's not every day that I dream of being a cloud and then someone tries talking to me. Still, what I saw literally took my breath away.

Up ahead of me there hovered a dragon and it was a humongous beast. I thought he was even bigger than the one that got me into this kind of trouble, whatever his name was. And he was all black. Pitch black. So, dragons did come in different colors and sizes... Ah, never mind that... There was yet another dragon in front of my eyes and as he flapped his majestic black wings I felt like a little ball of nerves that I was. What was the chance of me meeting not one but two dragons in a span of a few weeks? Meanwhile, the dragon seemed to be done assessing me and cocked his head sideways, as his ruby red eyes fell on me.

"Interesting..." he noted. "You're not Tanek."

"Tanek?" I echoed. Wherever had I heard that name before?..

"I didn't know he had any progeny," the black dragon continued thoughtfully as I was still contemplating on that awfully familiar name. My memory seemed so hazy at the moment. "And a Dreamwalker, at that."

"AH!" I suddenly exclaimed. "Tanek the mental dragon that died on me!"

"Died?"

"Umm," I muttered. "Yeaaah. He is kind of dead now."

If dissolving into little specks of dust means death to a dragon...

"Hmmm," the black dragon mused. "So, Tanek the Dreamwalker is dead."

"Yeah, died on me so very ungracefully," I repeated again as I surveyed the dragon in front of me. He seemed to take the news about a dead dragon comrade rather well.

But putting that aside, what is actually happening? Am I dreaming? Dreaming to be a cloud, which is having a rather civilized conversation with a dragon? And talking about dragons. That Tanek. Is he the cause of all this... mental craziness? And the fainting incidents I had before, too? Well, bummer. He did curse me, after all. But then again... who is this huge reptile?.. Looking at its majestic wings and sharp claws, his bloody red eyes that seemed to be piercing through me with slight mock, I could not help but be intimidated by him.