The Youngest Mage [Completed]

(4) Dream Work

That night, as usual, Leanha put Dalbreath to sleep after his mother and father came in to kiss him goodnight. "What story would you like to hear tonight?" she asked him when his parents were gone.

"A story about Finn," he said.

"Okay, one story about Finn, and then to bed with you."

"What will you look like in my dreams?" he asked.

She smiled. "You'll know me when you see me," she said.

"Hurry and tell your story. Who does Finn kill this time?"

"I can never understand boys. With you it's always kill, kill, kill. Finn was gentle too. It wasn't always about him killing the evil ones."

"Okay," said Dalbreath, "you can tell me one of the boring ones. I'll try to stay asleep until the end."

She frowned "All right, I'll tell you a killing story, but just one," she said, shaking her head.

"Yippee!" yelled Dalbreath, sitting up in bed.

                                       Finn and the Six Headed Serpent

When Finn was young and really old, he came out from his cave which was in the Thunderbird Peaks at that time, and walked on the light of the dawn until he came to a mound where a lone tree grew, and in the tree was a six headed serpent. There was a woman near to the tree collecting blackberries, and she was pregnant with two sons. Finn could see that the woman did not see the serpent, and was in danger of being swallowed whole. So Finn snuck up and caught the serpent by the tail. A great struggle ensued, and in the commotion the woman hid herself in the forest of Aneku on the far side of the planet.

It took Finn a long time to cut off all the heads of the serpent, and during that time the woman and her pregnant belly were lost to the world. Some say her sons will not be born until humanity learns to live in peace. Others say she will be hidden in Niland until the Tilithneaa and the Fae find love and have peace with each other.

                                                                    The End

"What does it mean?" said Dalbreath.

"Nobody knows for certain, but many Sages and Mages have their theories."

"Tell me your theory, Leebeehoo," he said.

She laughed, but then grew serious. "I'm not positive, but I think in part it means that sometimes NaGoeVoDaa [God] comes down to Avalon in the form of Finn so that He can understand our struggles and help us with them."

Dalbreath smiled big. "I like that story, very much now," he said.

Leanha tucked him in and gave him a kiss on the forehead. "Now go to sleep. I'll see you in a while."

She turned off the light on the way out.

"Oh yeah, who was the pregnant woman?" he asked, but she was already gone.
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It only took Dalbreath ten minutes to get to sleep, but it was an hour before he began to dream. In his dream he somehow knew that he was on his way to a great castle, the kind they have along the southern shores of Rhean-Rhe, the kind that were built long ago for protection from mysterious lands at sea where many of the Before People had bases, which are islands that few people from the mainland have ever visited, and from which even fewer have ever returned.