Blade West: Book 1

Chapter 9: Nap-Pucchino

"The Kingdom? Why the rush?" I asked my mom. 

"Because you aren't safe here son. I've done my share of defending you and hiding you from the world. You have to go to Aveila so you can be trained and be safe. If you stay here any longer, I'm 100% sure you'll be attacked." She said crossing her arms.

"I understand, but mom I'm honestly tired. I actually passed out for a while and I'm just now coming to. My body hasn't had any proper rest since yesterday when I left to go to school and this whole thing started." Her face kinda went pale. "You...passed out?" Ven came to the rescue. "He was under a lot of stress but he was fine! Ace and Ven was there with him!" That was a lie. I woke up and neither one of them were with me, and, in fact, when Ace found me, we ended up fighting. But, my mom's shoulders relaxed a little so I went with it. "I don't like it, but go ahead. Actually, all 3 of you get some rest; you'll need it for your trip to Aveila. I'll keep watch."

Ace made prayer hands and bowed his head. "Thank you so much Ms. West!" Ven nodded and I yawned. "I'm headed back downstairs, don't break anything." Why did she feel the need to say don't break anything? We were supposed to be sleeping. 

Though I was the only person who lived in this room, I owned a king sized bed. I half expected Ace and Ven to sleep downstairs on the couches, but I already knew they were going to sleep in here with me. Ven hung up his coat in the closet and got one of the pillows that were in there, Ace kicked off his shoes, and I went into the restroom and washed my face. The sun was beaming through the window, and it was a reminder to me that it was still pretty early in the day. My body, though, reminded me that last night still wasn't over. My back, stomach, thighs, and forearms were all sore, as well as my wrists. Ven's blows and fighting Ace was a lot. I was still new to all of this. I'm sure they've gotten into fights and whatnot for years, but those matches with them were fight numbers #2 and #3 for me. My instincts and inclinations were beyond excellent, but my experience wasn't. My body needed to adjust and grow to accommodate this new lifestyle of mine. 

I took off my shirt and turned around in the mirror to do an inspection. I had a few red areas on my skin in different spots (probably from Ace's explosions and Ven's electricity), but outside of that I looked fine externally. Still just sore. I walked back into my bedroom, threw my shirt on the dresser and stretched out on my side of the bed. Ace was already snoring but Ven was still awake. He was staring, sleepily, at the ceiling.

"We didn't hurt you too bad did we?" He asked me. "Of course not." I whispered. "It's been a chaotic first day, but we made it." I continued. "Yeah. I'm excited for you to see the kingdom; you're going to love it...and I know they'll love you too." "I'm excited too. I can't wait to see what everyone is like." I said drifting off into sleep. "I'm setting an alarm to wake us up in 4.5 hours." Ven said, but I was already gone. I'd have to remember why he said 4.5 hours. That was so specific, but that was a conversation for later; I need rest now. I closed my eyes and let my consciousness drift.

As I drifted off into sleep, I wish I hadn't.

As I said before, I usually don't dream. But I had a dream last night after not having any for months, and here I was having another one the very next day. My diagnosis? I think I'm going to be dreaming a lot more now. Now... last night's dream was wild, but I've never had a dream like the one was having.

In this dream, I was sitting on top of this weird pedestal. It was made out of red-brown chiseled stone that swirled pretty high into the sky. The top of this pedestal resembled a clawed hand. In the middle of this claw like structure, the palm if you will, was a white, transparent, ghost like orb that had wisps flying off of it. The claws of the hands were attached to this orb, and unfortunately, I was inside of this orb. It felt like a prison. I didn't have control of my body so this wasn't a lucid dream, but I was still observing and intaking everything around me. I was...hot; the temperature inside of this orb was pretty extreme which made me wonder if the wisps coming off of this orb was magic or steam.