Magic Of Light

Dreams of Light

Tiiv knew he was  dreaming. Some people said that they couldn't tell they were dreaming until they woke up, startled. Tiiv always knew, he had the strange sensation of knowing but still living it. This time somehow it was different.

He was running in the dark, flying by trees and bushes, jumping over fallen trunks and rocks. Fear grasped his chest with iron fist, and made it harder to breath. He put all of his strength into the motion, his muscles tensing and pushing, but he hardly made any progress. The shadows reached after him, pulling him back, branches lashed into his face and the uneven ground worked against him. He heard frightening noises from behind, his pursuers shouted, dogs barked and swords cringed. They sounded closer and closer. He looked back over his shoulder. A gigantic dog was running after him. It barked spitting foaming drool, his sharp teeth snapped. Tiiv knew that it was a dream, but he couldn't shake off the fear that clouded his thoughts and made him running even faster. To no avail. He heard an angry growl just behind him. He wanted to scream, but no sound came out of his mouth.

Then a small white light appeared in front of him. It was hard to decide how far it was, but it seemed to grow. 

Something grabbed his leg. The giant hound closed its mouth over his ankle. He expected the pain to explode into his brain, but it didn't come. The hound shook its head and Tiiv found himself flying. He hit the ground hard, but still couldn't feel any pain. Strange. 

The light he noticed got bigger. It seemed to come from a round source, growing slender tendrils, which swayed like long grass in the wind. They became longer and longer, and Tiiv had the impression that they were feeling around as if searching for something. 

The hound growled with anger and it was on Tiiv again. It reached him the same time as one of the tendrils of the light did. The hound came to a halt, confused. The light felt around Tiiv like a caressing hand, and he felt warmth enveloping him. It reminded him of sitting comfortably before the fireplace with a cup of hot tea in his hand. 

The hound let out a scary growl again, but it didn't attack. It was backing away. Tiiv let the warm feeling wash over him, and he just lay on the ground. Eternal calmness filled him and rocked him gently. 

Then it became hot. Too hot. It burned his skin. The light now completely encompassed him, thickening around his body. He couldn't see the hound anymore, and he couldn't care anyway, because his body was burning. He screamed silently again, trying to crawl away from the unbearable pain, but the light held him. It lifted him off the ground. Tiiv felt a rush of even greater agony that jerked his body violently. Then the pain wasn't that horrible anymore, it lessened, so Tiiv could think again. It faded more and more until it was only a slight discomfort, and then disappeared completely. The light was gone.

Tiiv was laying on the ground, breathing hard, trying to figure out what just had happened. He was fully awake, but he couldn't recall at what point he woke up. It was hard to get his mind around this strange dream.

He was just lying there, staring into the darkness. There wasn't any light at all, the blackness was so thick he almost could touch it. Silence surrounded him, and the only sound was the slow dripping of water that echoed back from somewhere.

Then it came back to him. He was in a cave. He had fallen down into the cold water and somehow dragged himself out. He must had fallen asleep and dreamt the strange dream. Now he was wet, shivering from the cold. Fear grabbed him, real dread this time. The blackness enveloped him, closing on him, making hard to breathe.

He sat up. The cold sensation and the splashing told him that his feet was in the water, so he backed up a few feet. He shivered in his wet clothes that clung to his body. He pulled his knees up, hugged his leg and rocked back and forth. He tried to figure out what to do, how to escape from this misery, but the thoughts slipped away like slimy snails. Even his brain slowed down in this freezing cold.