The Other Castellan

Do Demigods Get Normal Dreams? No? Damn

Lucas scowled. "I don't care," he shot back. "I'm saying their names, whether they like it or not. They can't do anything about it."

"They could kill you."

"Oh, shut up."

They fell silent for a few minutes, and Luke returned to his book. After some rustling of paper as Luke turned the pages, Lucas couldn't hold it in anymore.

"Do you think he's the one the Great Prophecy speaks of?" he blurted out.

Luke glanced up, dog-earing the page. "Maybe." He didn't elaborate. "You know that you're not supposed to talk about it."

"Yes, yes, yes." Lucas rolled his eyes. Eavesdroppers and all that. Blah blah blah.

"He'll have to reach sixteen first."

"Yes, yes, you're very funny."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

That night, Lucas had an unusual dream. Usually, his dreams were either visions or very strange dreams that made no sense or made too much sense that he wasn't sure if it had really happened or if it was a dream. He once dreamt that he was sitting in the strawberry fields, eating a slightly brown banana.

But this dream was different. Lucas stood in a dark alley, shrouded in shadows. It looked like the sort of alley someone would find in a busy city. Well. He was pretty sure alleys only existed in cities.

Lucas stood there, peering at the dark alley, trying to see the end, but he couldn't. It was completely dark. But the closer things were to him, the clearer it was.

It was blurry, but Lucas managed to make out three leathery and shrivelled bats with glowing eyes, yellow fangs, and large claws. He jerked backwards and noticed a poisonous green viper on the ground half-covered in shadows.

Lucas tried to back off, but he found he couldn't. What was this? He had never had a dream/vision like this before. The dream slowly faded to black, but not before he heard a loud, clear voice, yet frail like an elderly woman's:

"Where is it?"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Lucas jolted awake. He sat up quickly, hitting his head against the bunk bed. To be more precise, the bed above him. He winced, praying that he hadn't woken Luke up. He'd understand, but it'd be embarrassing. Besides, waking someone up wasn't exactly a good thing.

He pressed his hand on his heart, trying to calm down. He could feel his heart thumping erratically. That was a strange dream. Maybe the bats and the snake symbolize something? But what? Some monster, maybe? But he couldn't think of anything involving bats, and the only snake-related monster he could think of was Basilisks. Or maybe his subconsciousness was still focused on Lyra. She was one of the nice monsters, which was nice. It was something new, and Lucas didn't hate it.

Though maybe it was because he wasn't thinking properly. The sun hadn't risen yet, and he had just woken up. Maybe fresh air would clear his mind. He didn't think he would be able to sleep, anyway.

Besides, sneaking out was always fun. He had missed the harpies' shrieking.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

When the sun finally rose and everyone had eaten breakfast, Luna joined Lucas at the shooting range. She also had her own pistol, though that was because Lucas had stolen one for her birthday present once. It was exactly the same, if not for the small rainbow Luna had painted on it.

"So," she began, "I heard you leave this morning. What happened?"

Lucas winced. Had he been so loud as to wake her? "Did I wake you?" he asked.

"No, no, I was already awake," she said. "I was going to see the sunrise. I decided not to, you see. I thought that you'd want some time alone. I heard the bump. Anyway, I can always see the sunrise tomorrow."

"Oh." Lucas frowned. "Have I told you that I get visions? Of the future? If I haven't, I do get visions, by the way."

Luna seemed unfazed. "You had one last night?" she guessed.

"Yeah," Lucas said, shoulders slumping. He hated them. "But this one was... weird."

"Weird."

"Yeah! Usually they're kind of like demigod dreams, but this one was more symbolic. I was in an alley."

"And there was stuff in the alley?" Luna asked.

Lucas nodded. "I couldn't see most of it," he explained. "It was like it was covered in shadows or something like that. But I saw three bats with glowing eyes and a green viper. Any clue as to what that means?"

"Hmm." Luna seemed to think about it for a moment. "Well, it's an alley. Maybe you have to reach the end of the alley? If that's the case, then maybe the bats and the snake are obstacles?"

"Oh, you're a genius!" Lucas exclaimed. "You're just wonderful!"

Luna's cheeks turned a light shade of pink. "I'm not... That's not... Oh, just stop it."

Lucas grinned. "Nope," he said cheerfully. "Though we still don't know what kind of obstacles they symbolize, but that's alright. Maybe this vision is for someone else, like some kind of prophecy."

"We should get you familiarized with different methods of seeing the future," Luna suggested. "Maybe cartomancy, first. The dreams come naturally to you, so there's no need. Anyway, surely we can experiment with different types."

"Yeah," Lucas agreed. "That'd be fine. I signed up for Divination, anyway."

So, maybe he was a bit wary of it at the start. But it's fine! He's been dealing with it for two years, and he hasn't gone mad yet. Maybe it was only his mother that had turned mad, and maybe she'd be the only one that ever would.

A/N

Okay, so this one is even shorter (1.5k), but, at least you get an update without skipping any weeks? I guess? Either way, this chapter is really short.

Anyway. I feel like Lucas would sympathize with Percy since he's a Slytherin. I mean, he did spend two whole years being ignored and taunted by the entire school. So, he'd know how Percy feels.

More interaction between Luke and Lucas. I was thinking that Lucas wanted to help, in a terrible way. And of course, the conversation somehow leads to them talking about the Great Prophecy. Things happen. I'm sure there are more disastrous conversations.

Okay. So, I decided to change the way I did visions. I didn't quite like it, and I thought it was too direct. So, that happened. Maybe it's because Lucas is thirteen and his mind did something.

So, storytime. The banana dream mentioned is an actual dream that I had. I wasn't sitting in a strawberry field, though.

Here's how it started. It was on the 31st, which was Sunday. So, I was thinking about what I was going to eat the next day at school, and my mind, for some reason, settled on bananas. We didn't even have bananas in our house. So. My dream ended up like this.

I was at school. I sat at my desk, and we were having snacks. I opened my bag and I saw a slightly brown banana. Then, for some odd reason, I said, "Oh, that's nice," and I woke up. 

Anyway, a virtual hug goes to anyone who can guess what the bats and the viper symbolize.

I don't even know about this part. I guess I kind of just wanted to write Lucas slowly overcoming his fear? Also, I kind of just stuck on cartomancy. It sounds fun. Also, I may have been slightly inspired by An Undertow of Sand by Shujin1 on Ao3.