Inheritance

Chapter 28: Dream

Eory climbed into the comfortable bed with its fluffy pillows, its warm, heavy, sheets and downy blankets. He pulled them up to his chin and let out a happy sigh.

He had spent most of his life sleeping on an uncomfortable sofa, and so he thought the bed was the coziest one in existence.

He pressed his cheek against the pillow with a smile.

It only lasted seconds before his mind decided that this new bedroom was terrifying, however, and his smile turned to a frown. He suddenly wanted Kori to look under the bed for monsters like she had when he was little.

It was so unfamiliar and dark.

He stared up at the high ceiling with sweat dripping down his forehead and drifted in and out of something which he couldn't tell was a dream or his over-active imagination.

It began with events he had experienced just earlier that day.

His senses had been dazzled and delighted; overstimulated and aroused.

The sun peeked out from the blanket of gray clouds as he entered his childhood home—Castle Maribel—and watched the crowd of busy peasants and nobles going about their business in the city.

It was loud, it was new, and it was... frightening and wondrous. These were sights that had not blessed his eyes in years.

Many of the humans who looked at him hurried away from him in fear and whispered his name in terror. Most of the few fairies did as well.

But it was also familiar, warm, and happy, and Eory thought to himself, I'm home...

And within his wakeful dream, everything seemed all-the-more dazzling than it did in real life, which he thought was impossible.

The residents of Castle Maribel seemed to glow with a cheerful other-worldliness that Eory could never understand.

They were outgoing, loud, and... Close.

And all his surroundings after that shifted from one of possible beauty, to impossible beauty.

Beneath his feet, the grass was so long and so green that he thought the fairy goddesses themselves must have grown it. The castle structures were shiny white and struck Eory's sheltered and naïve eyes with their surreal loveliness.

Everything seemed to fit together perfectly; it was all a gorgeous tapestry, but there was a loose thread.

Eory himself.

He did not belong among this upstanding, happy, and glorious people. He was a monster, and he felt undeserving to walk among them.

He leaned against the stony wall with Gershom in his arms and watched a crowd of people pass him by who didn't even bother to jeer at him or look at him fearfully.

They ignored him altogether.

They ignored him until the crowd walking by grew larger and larger and trampled everything underneath their careless feet, including Eory, and he was wiped out of existence with the rest of his family.

His screams pierced the air as he was trampled, and he threw an arm over his face to try and protect himself, but still no one spared him a passing glance.

But soon, the pain stopped and everything went silent all around him as he wept.

It felt like he was suspended there with his arm thrown over his face for minutes--until a giggle cut through the silence.

He removed his arm from his eyes and came face-to-face with Taylor who was looming over him with her hands on her hips.

She grinned confidently and pursed her lips. "Ohhh! Poor baby! Afraid of being trampled by those who hate you? That's good. You should be."

She stretched out a hand to him and he sat up with a glare adorning his face. Oddly enough, he wasn't terrified of her like he was in real life. He was merely angry. He mumbled darkly, "why are you here...?"

She winked. "You need me!"

He looked her up and down in disgust. She was wearing a dress that was not appropriate for any dignified young lady. It was cut just above her knees and colored a garish pink.

"Kori says that a proper lady wears dresses that cover her whole body..." He scolded her.

He reluctantly took the hand she had offered him and let her pull him to his feet.

"Your precious Pollyanna doesn't wear a dress at all and you don't care about that! You and your proper, boring dress code and your proper, tepid manners! You know the truth, don't you? The manners Kori taught you are for nothing. Arrozans are meant to be wild and unhinged, and her attempts to tame us were pitiful. If you liked proper manners, you wouldn't want Pollyanna so badly!" Taylor clasped her hands behind her back and stared him down confidently.

Eory ignored her and looked around curiously and scratched his yellow head. They were standing in an entirely empty, white space. "Where are we...?"

Taylor grinned and seized his wrist. "Let's explore!"