Monster

Trying to Get Back Home

A fire burned in the dark, on top of a small hill surrounded by mass of trees nearly invisible in the night. Next to the fire sat a familiar figure.

Narrowing his eyes, Hero stepped closer and saw the same tall villager in tattered clothing of a merchant. He was sitting wearily, his shoulders stooped with a drowsy look. Hero couldn't quite see his face, the features once again hazy as everything else around.

Was this another dream? If it was, Hero felt relieved! Last time he had seen that villager was in a precarious position at the edge of a cliff, surrounded by undead skeletons shooting arrows from their bows. How did he manage to escape that? Hero must have missed it all because he had to wake up. Still, he looked at the tired villager with gladness. He was safe again. Good!

"Hero?" A quiet voice calling his name with disbelief startled Hero. He found the villager looking at him. On Hero's tensed reaction, the villager smiled. "Don't be afraid. Don't you remember me?"

"Atta Beor?" Hero uncertainly verified. The villager nodded, appearing a little saddened by Hero's uncertain reaction. Hero still looked at the villager with disbelief. Slowly, he stepped closer to him into the circle lit by the fire.

"You can see me?" Hero asked hopefully and the villager smiled and nodded.

"You must be asleep again." He strangely concluded.

"Why?" Hero frowned a little and pinched his arm, but everything seemed normal to him as it always did in strange dreams like these. Only the images slightly blurred.

"I know because I've seen you do it before." The villager said confidently and then yawned. "Remember how appa Fir tried to teach you how to tell us stories? Well, you can dream storylike dreams, even if you cannot tell stories like some Villagers can. Your gift just works slightly differently... Unless its me who is right now dreaming." The villager murmured under his breath the last words and sighed softly. 

Hero eyed him curiously, his eyes falling to the villager's large hands. They seemed so familiar. Calloused and strong from work and all the chores. Suddenly, he saw same hands placing a bowl of stew before him on a worn out wooden kitchen table. His heart panged.

"Atta Beor?" He asked again, feeling something tight in his throat.

"Yes?" The villager replied, sleepily glancing up.

Hero suddenly moved and hurried the few steps toward the villager and threw both his arms around him, clinging to him in a hug.

At first startled, the villager relaxed and gently patted Hero on his back and hair to comfort him.

"Shhh. It's going to be all right." Beor said by old habit, smiling a little at the nice dream.

Little Hero looked almost exactly as he remembered him, only a little taller and leaner. His arms and legs seemed to have lost nearly all of his toddler pudginess.

The child lifted his face and looked at Beor with tears, startling Beor once more. "Where did you go, atta Beor? Why aren't you coming home?" 

The child's question stirred a raw wound in Beor's heart and he swallowed. Reaching to the child's tears, he tried to wipe them with his sleeve, but then saw how dirty and frayed it was. The child continued to look at him, desperate and insistent. Beor sighed.

"It's my fault. I walked too far and fell. I'm now lost, Hero. I am very far from home."

"You're lost?

Beor softly nodded, looking at the dream Hero sadly. "I'm not giving up of course. I will find a way back. I promise." He reassured.

The child, appearing relieved, nodded and leaned his head against Beor's shoulder, hugging him tightly again.