Monster

Unexpected Friends

Hero was dreaming again. He was dreaming of a villager running across the rocky plain. It looked like a travelling merchant by his style of clothing, though it was all torn and stained as if he had been lost in the wilderness for months. Several arrows flew past him, clattering against the rocks and the villager fearfully ducked.

His face looked dimly familiar, but for some reason Hero couldn't focus on it well, the features blurry. Something in his heart tinged in a painful way. He hated seeing anyone hurt like this.

This was only a dream, though, and Hero tolerated it as he did all the others before it. This had not been the first time that he dreamed of this villager wandering in the wilderness.

Maybe he was dreaming about his uncle, Beor? Hero didn't remember him very well. Only the big, strong hands lifting him up and setting him on a bench by the table. And a calm voice praising him with a smile hidden in it. 'Well done, kari.' Hero was not sure if those memories were real and not made up ones like so many of those that appeared in his dreams, which made no sense to him.

Watching the villager run made him worry about him. It looked like the villager came across a nest of skeletons, magical constructs that sometimes appeared and animated the bones of the dead. And, this was somewhere high in the mountains.

Hero watched the villager deftly jump over a large crack in the ground and then dart to the other side, taking shelter behind a tall rock. Hovering there, the villager slid his back against the rock and then covered his face with shaking hands.

"I'm so sorry... So, so sorry..." He whispered to himself and Hero's heart went out to him again. On the other side of the villager's shelter there was nothing there at all, only a tremendous drop into the mist and white nothingness beyond. There was no place for him to run anymore. No place to hide as the undead creatures drew closer.

Hero's hands unwillingly drew into fists where flames appeared, scalding his skin with warmth that was almost too hot to bear.

"Stop it!" He yelled at the approaching skeletal beings carrying their bows. "Leave him alone!"

He woke up, the words slurred and quiet on his tongue, his yell having become a sleepily murmur.

His heart still thumped in his chest and, glancing at his hands, his white eyes widened. Quickly, he thrust both of his flaming hands into the cool dark earth next to him by the roots of a great, overturned tree.

"Hero? Hero! Where are you?!" He heard a distant voice calling him in irritation. His head snapping in that direction, he immediately jumped up and then ran toward it from the woods. Then, he paused and looked back, eyes frantic and wide holding on the half-filled basket of mushrooms.

Darting back, he grabbed it and allowed it to vanish into the magical hold, which he had same as any villager. Then, he ran as fast as his small legs allowed, jumping over the roots and rocks, and picking up speed until he leaped out of the forest and into a glade from which he could see the rooftop of his house.

Smoke rose from the chimney as the oven was working non-stop. And even from this distance he heard the sounds of laughter and talking as a merry gathering took place next to his house. He could see Margol's figure at the edge of the field facing the woods, impatiently looking back between the forest and the party.

"Hero!" The older child yelled again, his tone even more contrary than before. Reluctantly now, Hero sighed and moved forward at a slower pace, pretending that he didn't just run fast and trying to calm his fast breathing.

As soon as Margol saw him, his green eyes suspiciously narrowed. "Did you fall asleep in the woods again?"

Hero shrugged, dropping his gaze. He couldn't explain the occasional dizzy spells he got sometimes, which made him fall asleep in the middle of doing something. He would then see places and people of which he knew nothing about.