The Journal of a Connecticut Yankee

Sweet Dreams Pt. 2

"Whoa, whoa, hold up a minute!" I exclaimed as I held up my hands. Folding my fingers until just both my index fingers were up, I continued,

"First, let me say how freaking awesome it is to see all you guys, Tetris-"

"Tertius." He corrected with a slight cross expression.

"Right, sorry. Tertius, how are you? And let me guess," I looked and pointed to the other two not-brothers. One was wearing blue mechanics coveralls while the other, a deep maroon high neck tunic of sorts.

"Quartus and Quintus? I know we never officially met but, still happy to finally meet everyone- wait a minute..."

I did a quick head count, we were missing someone...

"Where the hell is my fanboy, Secundus?!"

Arawn and his not-brothers all glanced at each other before Arawn, himself, answered slowly, "Secundus "survived" our demise and was reborn."

"Reborn?"

He nodded with a wry smile, "Yes, it seems that our destines are are more interwoven than even I could have imagined as you have already met the being he was reborn into."

"Who?" I frowned trying to guess. Oh god, please don't let it have been Devin. Please, don't let my shitty luck be THAT shitty!

"I believe you know him as Allen Belushi, the male Dragon."

My eyes bulged at his answer.

"Fucking serious?"

Everyone nodded.

"Holy shit," I breathed, my mind reeling. My fanboy did me one more solid by saving my ass on that cliff, who would have guessed?

"You seem confused." Arawn commented while Tertius, Quartus and Quintus each grabbed a chair and sat at the table.

"No... I guess more like stunned? I owe Allen my life from stopping me from killing myself. I guess it's just shocking that we met after all this time had passed..."

"As I said before, Donnie, it would seem our destines are greatly intertwined." He remarked with a smile as he joined his not-brothers in picking at the food. Three more mugs of beer appeared suddenly for them.

Hopefully my boy was picking up the tab for all this, but then again, it was my dream, so probably I was footing the bill.

"Okay," I sighed, "shocking revelation number four down, hopefully that's it for the night?"

"For tonight, yes."

Fucking fabulous.

"So how are we all doing this? Couple karate lessons from Tertius and some other stuff from the rest of you guys and I'm good?"

Tertius choked and nearly spit out the beer he was drinking as I said that, and the rest look to Arawn in amusement.

"Not in that fashion, no. You shall spend two years with each of us as we teach you various methods of physical, mental and magical defense and offense. I would prefer more time than that, but we will have to make due. You shall be the last being that has the knowledge of the Annwfyn."

"Years?! Arawn! I got a week, maybe two with my kids before I'm off to England. You're talking about eight years! That's not gonna fly!"

Everyone smiled at my near freak out making me think I missed out on an inside joke.

"Rest assured Donnie, the time span will be in the dream world, not in the waking one. Have you ever noticed how in some dreams, time lasts a very short while? And others, potentially longer than you have slept?" Quartus asked.

"Kinda... Yeah," I brought a hand up to my chin and squinted in consideration, "I know that date with Ilias should have taken more time than I was asleep for..."

"Exactly. As you sleep, we will be able to manipulate time in your dreams to allow us to train you. You will experience a full year in only eight hours."

If anyone else had said that to me, I would have called them bat shit crazy. But knowing the small amount of what I knew of Arawn and his not-brothers and of what they've done, they could say just about anything to me and I'd believe them.

"Mmm, that's some Dragon Ball Z, hyperbolic time chamber shit right there," I remarked reaching for my almost empty beer.

"Only without the limitations of entering it more than twice in a lifetime." Quintus interrupted with a smile. All of Arawn's not-brothers turned and looked at him silently.

"Oh do not judge me! I needed something to pass the time when I was on watch." he grumbled.

"So eight nights, huh? Are you guys sure you can pull this off?" I asked, ignoring Quartus ground breaking admission that he was a DBZ fan.

"The manipulation of a dream is easy enough. Telepathy, Telekinesis and Psychic aspects being a speciality of mine, I am sure." Quintus answered.

"Kinda curious, but who or what is it you guys are training me to take on? You said that I would die, who's going to kill me?"

"Do you remember the words uttered by Druella, the last time you saw her?" Arawn asked.

"She uttered a lot of words. But yeah, why?"

"When you publicly announced that you were a member of the royal family and assisted the Maou in the merging of the two worlds, you set into motion a series of events and possibilities. There will be beings that will want to aggressively thank you, as well as others that will seek to exact revenge. Furthermore there will be those that will wish to take advantage of your stature and knowledge. All possibilities pose a deadly danger to you in one form or another." He answered.

"Not exactly all sunshine and rainbows, huh?" I remarked dryly to everyone.

"No, which is why it is our intent to properly prepare you for the various situations you may encounter." said Tertius.

"So the fact that I have Winona, won't mean anything?"

"In the old world, your firearm gave you a significant advantage over others. Currently, that advantage is now moot. Even with Winona, without our training, and to use a euphemism, it would be equivalent to you going into battle with a water gun."

Ouch, that bad huh?

"Alright, you guys sold me. So when do we start? Tonight?"

"We shall start your instruction tomorrow night. For now, I believe we have darkened this reunion enough." Arawn remarked.

Looking to his not-brothers he smiled and raised his mug,

"To a successful indoctrination of Donnie, and a more pleasant future."

Tertius, Quartus and Quintus raised their own. Looking down, I saw that without my noticing, I had gotten a refill.

"To good friends, good drinks, good food, evening the the odds... and flipping Fate the bird!" I added.

Knocking our mugs into each other, we celebrated our plans to not only defy the powers that be, but also in keeping my ass alive.

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