The Necromanced (Being Edited 7/21/14)

Chapter Seventeen: Nightmares

Chapter Seventeen: Nightmares

I awoke with a start. Cold sweat soaking my sheets. My heart raced. It was just a dream. Just a dream. Calm down, it was just a dream. I tried to calm down. I sat up and lit a candle. It flickered casting shadows across my chamber walls. I felt my body shaking as I took out my small notebook and began to write. My hands were shaking so violently that my handwriting turned into a stuttering mess. I still pressed on, my childlike handwriting slowly scrawling across the page. I wrote every word I could think of, and even some I was sure weren't really words at all. It was the only way I could calm down. I hadn't been having the nightmares long, but they were getting worse. I hadn't mentioned it to anyone, I didn't want to alarm anyone. It wasn't really a big deal, or at least I didn't want to make it one. 

I finished practicing in the small book and my heart rate fell back down to normal. I got up from my bed and walked around. There was a small potted flower on the table. I glanced in its direction, I saw it in the candlelight. It was dead. I touched the small brown petals watching them crumble and fall onto the table. I tried to remember if it had been alive the day before. It was, I remember, I saw it. It was red. Red and green, the center was white and daisy-like. I tried to put it out of my mind. If I could kill a plant in my sleep I wondered what else I was capable of.

I wandered down the halls alone keeping my presents unknown. The last thing I wanted was to wake anyone. I went to the balcony, it overlooked the courtyard. I looked out lost in thought, I wasn't sure what I was  doing up, all I knew was I couldn't sleep. Not after having another dream like that.

"What are you looking for Mariden of Rivershire?" A voice came from the shadows behind me. I jumped.

"Nothing, but since you obviously know who I am would you mind introducing yourself?" I asked, hoping I wasn't being too impolite.

"Crowsburrow, Jase of Crowsburrow." He said stepping just outside the shadows. His face was still hidden, I began to wonder what he was doing up here so late at night.

"May I ask what you are doing up at this time of night?" I asked, not sure whether that was impolite, I hoped that if it was he would excuse it as an outsiders mistake.

"I might ask you the same." His tone was even and quiet. It was the type of voice you would expect from a statue.

"You might, Jase of Crowsburrow, however as I already have, you might oblige?" It was a question, not a statement. 

"Very well Lady Mariden, I was taking a walk."

"Really all that fuss over a walk?" I was incredulous.

"I'm a very... private person." 

"I can tell." 

"So what about you Lady Mariden?" He asked, his face now visible, he had a nice face it was statuesque, much like his voice. 

"I... couldn't sleep."

"Lady Mariden–" I interrupted him before he could finish his sentence.

"Just Mariden. Please, just call me Mariden." I complained.

"Very well, Mariden, you do know that any one of the palace healers could give you something to encourage sleep."  

"I'd rather not." I interjected.

"I can understand that." He agreed. He was younger looking in the light. I could see his eyes, they seemed large and dark amid his pale complexion. He wore a dark cloak, black by the looks of it. I was still curious to why anyone would be up as late as I was. I had to remind myself that I was up at this late hour as well.