Sight

3: Swapping Dreams

Rhys POV

I was running. I was running faster than I ever had before, jumping over obstacles in my way. I dont remember ever being able to run this fast. I was surrounded by a forest. It was dark and misty and I could hear deep whimpering. It was all around me. Why was I running? Who was crying?

A sudden laser beam ripped through the air besides me, making me yelp. That was when I realised, I'm not me. That yelp belonged to Theo.

'Shit, this is a dream!' Another beam splits through the air, grazing my cheek. I yell, falling onto my knees. I hold my palm up to my face, pulling it down to see it covered in blood. Pushing on my knees, I stand up to look around. There was no one there, and the crying had stopped.

I gasped as I fell into nothing. I was no longer in the forest, I was surrounded by darkness, and I was falling into it. What the hell was going on?

In the distance there was a figure illuminated by a pale glow. I found myself floating towards it slowly, squinting my eyes to try and decipher who it was. My eyes widened.

'Canaan?'

'Rhys!'
I shot up, gasping for air. Theo was kneeling in front of me, his hands on my shoulders. I could feel my heart pounding and hear my rapid breath. I felt sick. 'Rhys, what just happened?' I pried his hands off me.

'I-I dont-' I wipe at my forehead to discover a layer of sweat. Canaan. Canaan was there. 'Theo- Theo I was you. I was- I was inside your dream,' I stood up, the blankets falling to the floor. Theo copied my actions hesitantly.

'How is that possi-'

'Who is Canaan?'

- - - -

We were sat in the kitchen silently. Neither of us knew what was happening, with the energy transfer or the dream scenario. We were both shook up. It was only around five in the morning, the weather outside being cold and foggy.

'Do you ever go into a room with the intention to do something, but then get there and forget what you went there for?'

Theo looked at me blankly. He was sat on the stool across the table from me, a warm mug of coffee in his hands. He hadn't spoken much, and I could tell he was trying his hardest not to read me by the way he was avoiding eye contact.

'It kind of feels like that, you know? Canaan. The name- I know it. I know I should know why I know it, but I don't.'

Theo sighed and played with a stray piece of curly hair. All of this absolutely terrified me, and I think Theo was starting to feel the same way. 'I have an idea, but you're not going to like it' He spoke up. I already knew what was coming next. 'Let me inside your head.'

Theo's POV

So much had happened in the last 24 hours that I had almost forgotten the reason I was here, the reason why I left the Sanctum. I half expected Rhys to question me, I also expected him to put up a fight of some sorts. I was definitely not expecting any of this.

Earth Elves live in Wymond, or Sanctum of Wymond. The Sanctum was named after the Earth Elf who escaped slavery and rescued many others. He built a sanctuary for himself and everyone else he saved. Back then our kind were known as potens terra liberi, which roughly translates to Gifted Earth Children.

I should have ignored Rhys' outpost, and his stupid fire. I should have kept running. However, everything that has happened is making me believe our meeting was not a coincidence.

His eyes told me everything, in the sense that he was terrified. Not only did he somehow end up in my dream, but it made him forget something, someone, who sounds rather important to him. The only idea I had was to dive into his memories.

I pulled a stool up and sat in front of him. I placed both my hands on his temple and looked at him quickly, asking for complete consent. He nodded. I closed my eyes.

I was in. I could see memories floating past me, but I couldn't see anything to do with Canaan. I ran through them, like how you would skim read a book. I didn't want to see anything he didn't want me to see, my only purpose to find out about Canaan.

All of the memories were useless, and I was about to leave until something caught my eye. When you're in someone else's memories, its like you're in a big room. Almost like a hall, but its pitch black. Except for the memories. They float around, like little clouds. They all radiate light, showing a preview of the memory within. So when I saw a black cloud, a huge black cloud, I was shocked and frightened. This wasn't normal, but nothing that had happened with Rhys so far I would consider normal.

I walked up to the memory cloud, ignoring all the others. Once I was in front of it, I didn't know what to do. I couldn't see anything in it. It was like Rhys, how he couldn't see me. It made me frustrated, which led me to grabbing the cloud. Normally, making contact with the cloud would just take you into the memory, but considering I couldn't do that, I expected my hands to just pass through it.

I cried in pain and yanked my hand's away. I stumbled backwards, and brought my hands up to my face. They were burnt.

I came out quickly, falling off the stool and landing on the floor harshly. It wasn't anything compared to the pain of my hands, which I realised were still burnt.

'Theo! What the hell happened?!'

This was bad. Really, really bad. Terribly terrible. I knew what was wrong, I knew what was wrong with that memory cloud, why he couldn't remember Canaan. I stared up at him as he gaped at my hands.

'You're cursed.'