Quest (OLD: the new version MIGHT be posted shortly)

Chapter 10-Sage

I had a nightmare about the Hole that night. I was in my cell and the guards were poking at me with their spears. I was led out to the torture chamber where my dad was blue from the Dunk.

“Dad!” I shouted. “Dad, run!” It was too late. He had drowned and the guard, the one guard that was always there when I was, pushed him down the chute. I opened the flap to follow him, to find him. The smell of the pit hit me full force. I could smell the rotting flesh of every dead prisoner of the Hole. It suffocated me. The guard, the one that always watched me, the one with the dead green eyes and cold soul, was also there, sneering. He pushed me down after my father.

I wandered through the sea of corpses, looking for my father. Instead I saw my friends. I saw Argus’s body with maggots crawling through his beard. I saw Serenity’s frame, her flesh rotted away to the bone. I walked through the faceless bodies, only noticing Emily with a vacant expression, or Heather with matted, dirty hair, or Pete with Lashes all over his exposed chest, one cutting to the heart, or Jae with his back broken form Stretching.

The bodies came alive, but not alive. Hands stretched out to grab me. Empty eyes locked onto me. They dragged me down into their fleshy mass.

“Why should you escape when we couldn’t?” they asked. “Why should you get another chance when we didn’t get one? You would climb all over us, use us, for your own freedom.”

“No!” I insisted. “I’m trying to help. I want to help.” I was dragged under where only the faces of my dead friends were visible.

“Why should you escape when we couldn’t?” I was suffocating and sobbing at the same time.

~*~*~

I woke up with tears in my eyes.  Everyone was still asleep, so I got up quietly. I went out of the tent all the girls were sharing, needing to smell some fresh air. I could hardly breathe because of the nightmare, which seemed too real.

I inhaled a deep breath of the woodsy air. The fire was just coals now, but some heat still radiated off of them, so I sat as close to them as possible. I tried to focus on re-casting the fire, but I could only produce a few sparks that wouldn’t take. I huffed and pulled out my wand, since I always wore my boots just in case. I tried again, nearly putting the tip in the dying embers. Still nothing. I tucked my wand away and curled in on myself, trying to keep my body heat inside.

A thick blanket was set around my shoulder and the fire started back up. I looked up to see Serenity.

“I heard you get up,” she smiled. “Are you feeling alright, dear?” She handed me a cup of warm tea that had assumedly come from her bag.

“Not really, but… I… it was just a dream.” Serenity’s bright-blue eyes looked at me knowingly.

“Sage, sweetie, you don’t have to be strong.”

“I’m fine, Serenity,” I assured her.

“You’ve been through a lot, Sage. I saw how the werewolf shook you up, and I saw your face when Emily asked you about the Hole. I know you have ghosts, dear. It’s alright to be spooked by them.”

Her graying hair and warm face brought up the raw heart inside of me. I pushed it down. I had no room to be weak at the moment. I was supposed to lead the other questers. I was in charge, and Emily had already melted down.

“I’m fine,” I repeated. Serenity didn’t reply, but she put her thin hand on my back and rubbed it in soothing circles.

“You know, I never had a daughter,” she said suddenly. “I can’t have children, really. I’ve tried everything. I can’t even adopt because they won’t let mage’s adopt. But, Sage, if I did have one, though, I’d want her to be like you.”

“You hardly know me,” I pointed out.

“No, but you’re a strong woman, ready for any fight.”

“You’ve got to be the same, going on this quest.”

“My only reason to live is in the Hole, and this could not hurt my chances of getting him out.”

“Your husband is in the Hole?” I asked her. She nodded slowly. “I’m so sorry.”

“Oh, dear, I know that there are many people that have loved ones in the Hole. I am not so vain to think that my tale is worth any more than yours.”

“I will still hear it,” I told her. “Distract me, please.”

“Where should I start?” Serenity mused, taking a mug of tea for herself and refilling mine. “Well, when I was your age, a bit younger actually, I was the worst troublemaker around.”

“I don’t believe that.”

“You shouldn’t judge someone for who they were, based upon who they are. Adults have lived through their youths and learned all the hard lessons already. I used to sneak around and use magic to freak out trappers and I would drink wines and beers. Once I got a horrible hangover and puked in my neighbor’s bushes. That’s not the story I wanted to tell, though. I was going to tell you how I met my husband, Godfrey. I was going to a rave, this was back when the very first anti-mage laws were being barely enforced, and he was in the band.” Serenity smiled at the memory, staring into the fire as if she could see the past. “He was guitar and he was quite a looker. There were tons of girls swooning over him.

“I wasn’t too bad to look at myself. After the set was over he sought me out and we danced all night long. I didn’t even know his name yet, but we really hit it off. I didn’t see him for a long time after that night. I had sobered up and started taking life seriously and we met again. I knew it was him. This time we started dating and got married. Oh, it was a beautiful wedding, one of the last before those were banned as well. We kissed under the new moon with a wreath of wildflowers around us. Then we moved into a small cottage and we were happy.”

“That’s a nice story, and much better than mine.”

“Yours isn’t finished yet,” Serenity reminded me.

“Neither is yours,” I countered. “Thank you for this, Serenity. I might be better now.”

“No problem dear. I’ll leave the tea right here if you need some more. Try to get some more sleep, dear.” She left me with one more back rub.

“Goodnight,” I muttered. I sat there a while longer, not thinking, and dozed off.