Paul Atreides X Reader (Dune)

Part 4: Finding Fremen

Lady Jessica slowly returns to consciousness, her eyes fluttering. As they open, all she can see is smoke; smoke and sand. They had crashed in the desert and were in the middle of a sand dune. The ornithopter wouldn't be going anywhere. Jessica had a pounding headache, but that was the least of her concerns. She rubs her stomach gently before she unstraps herself and carefully moves forward, attending to her unconscious son. "Paul?" She says, tapping his cheek. A few drops of blood were running down his chin, presumably from him hardly biting his lip upon impact. His mother wipes the blood off of his mouth and chin with her sleeve, not caring about it staining her tan cloak red. Paul still did not move. He was breathing, however Jessica couldn't tell if he had any internal injuries. "Paul?" She tries again, lightly shaking him this time. Still nothing.

Paul Atreides may not be seeing what's real in this moment, but he was seeing.. something. His eyes may have been closed, yet he was seeing. In his mind, he saw a similar scene he had dreamed of before. Him battling against the Harkonnens, however, his father wasn't there this time. He had an entire army of people, but, not his father. Where did he get an army? And where was his father? In this vision, he was leading, he had control. But he wasn't ready for that, and hundreds of his men were being slaughtered because he couldn't protect them. That scared Paul. He knew he needed to find his father so this "dream" wouldn't end up happening. His father was the Duke, not him.

"Paul!" He finally hears a familiar voice saying, bringing him back to the present moment. Paul's eyes shoot open, and he inhales sharply out of pain and fear. He ends up inhaling more smoke and sand than actual air, making him cough. Jessica sighs in relief upon seeing her son awake, unstrapping him carefully and pulling him in for a light embrace and burying her left hand in his hair. "Are you okay?" She asks after he had stopped coughing. Paul doesn't respond, instead he smacks his lips together as if tasting something, his brows furrowing. "What's wrong?" His mother looks at him, concerned. "It's.. sweet; the sand. Like, cinnamon?" Paul tells his mother. Jessica smiles, "it's spice." She says and slowly goes to stand, exiting the ravaged ship. Paul follows, feeling a little lightheaded when he stood, but he wasn't too bothered by it. He was really only worried about one thing in this moment: his father.

"We have to find father." Paul says determinedly. While he had no idea where to begin looking as he didn't even know where they were, he needed to find him, and he would. "Paul.." his mother starts, she already knew Leto's outcome. "No! Let's go, now." Paul turns and begins to walk down the dune. "PAUL! STOP!" Jessica yells. "We don't know where we are! We could be in worm territory! You can't just walk blindly into the desert!" She tells him sternly. "It doesn't matter! Father is out there, he could be alive! We can find him! I know he's-" Paul stops when his mother gives him a sad look. "Paul.. he could have been thrown miles away. We don't have the time nor the supplies to search the entire desert. Even if he did somehow survive the fall, he wouldn't last long with Shai-Hulud out there." Jessica tells him the hard truth. Paul shakes his head in refusal to believe his mother, sitting down in the sand and burying his face in his hands.

     Paul, angry, digs his fingers into the sand and grabs a handful of it; or rather, of the spice. He crushes it in his hand before attempting to throw it, the wind blowing it back in his face. He goes to rub it out of his eyes when his eye vision starts to change into something rather than darkness. Beneath his eyes, he sees people; people he didn't know, yet seemed familiar. People in the desert, surrounded by nothing but it, as he and his mother were right now. He saw himself. They were staring at him with their sharp blue eyes, simply observing him as he stood in front of them. They also had a plug in their nostrils, and they wore these odd looking suits. Paul sits deeper into the sand and falls more into this vision, trying to put the pieces together. He's seen this stuff before, not in person, but yet he knew what it was. Maybe it was all the film books he studied. These people he was seeing, matched the description of what Fremen did in his books. They were Fremen, he knew it. But something was off. Why was he with them? Why weren't they killing him? And why were some.. bowing down to him?

     That's when it hit him. He was never supposed to come to this planet for the Harkonnens, or even for his father, he's here for the Fremen. He needed to accept that his father was gone, and he was the new Duke. But he wasn't the Duke of Caladan, that didn't seem right. No, he was the Duke of Arrakis. He was here for the Fremen, to fight with them, to learn their ways, to protect them, and maybe even to become one himself. This is what his studies were for all along. They had been important, as he had predicted. There was an unclear part of this vision, though. There were only fragments, but he could somewhat see a girl. A Fremen girl. She was beautiful. And something about her was different than the others. He wanted to find out more, he needed to find the Fremen.

     Paul's eyes open and his vision returns to reality. The first thing he sees is his mother kneeled down in front of him. "Paul, are you okay? You were out of it for a few seconds. You weren't even responding to me. Is it the spice?" Jessica asks with her worried motherly tone. "No, I'm fine." Paul responds, standing. "I know where we need to go." He said. "We can't go anywhere, Paul. We'll just have to wait for Gurney to rescue us." Jessica tries to tell her son, but he shakes his head. "We'll be eaten alive by then. We have to find the Fremen, they're our only chance at survival. Not only that, but I think we were always meant to find them." Paul says, looking into the setting sun. "You can't know that- plus we have nowhere to begin looking. It could take us days, and we'll be dead from dehydration by then." His mother tries to reason with him. Paul, being stubborn, rolls his eyes and says, "just believe me, please. I have an idea on where they are. I know how to sand walk, I'll teach you that as well." He wasn't changing his mind. "You're going to get us both killed, Paul." Jessica tries one last time, but she knew she should trust him, even if it went against her own wishes. They didn't have much to lose at the moment, after all. Maybe the Fremen could help them until they can get back to the Palace, she hoped. "Follow me," Paul said and began to lead his mother to the Fremen.

Quickly showing his mother how he believed sand walking was done, Paul and Jessica slide their way through the desert. The sun was getting low, so they had to be extra cautious on where they stepped foot as it was getting darker. Soon enough, they had been sand walking a long way and the sun was completely gone, blackness filled the desert. "Should we make camp?" Jessica asks, grabbing the tent from the emergency bag that was kept in the ornithopter. Paul looks around until he spots a place by some rocks that they would be somewhat sheltered in. Mother and son sand walk to the rocks and set up the tent, sitting inside it with their legs crossed. Jessica lets out a small grunt, placing a hand on her abdomen. "What's wrong?" Paul asks, noticing the discomfort in his mother's face. "Just hungry," she replies, which was true. Neither Paul or Jessica had eaten or drank anything since the early morning, and they had had a rough day to say the least. Paul's throat and lips were dry from dehydration, and that didn't help his headache either, but he knew he'd have to force his body to go without food or water just a little longer. For now, he just wanted to sleep.

The two rise as soon as the sun peaks just above the horizon. They wanted to sleep longer, and they definitely could've as both were still exhausted. However, they couldn't stay here in the middle of the deserts' heat without proper wear or supplies. They packed up and kept moving. About an hour of continuing to sand walk passes before Paul suddenly stops in his tracks. "What is it?" His mother asks, stopping behind him. The sand beneath them started to vibrate, and Paul could hear sand breaking in the distance; it sounded as if a tsunami was coming, instead it was sand. But it wasn't just sand. Sand doesn't make a tsunami on its own. "Did you break your rhythm?" He asks his mother through gritted teeth. "I.. don't think so?" Jessica replies, equally as alarmed. "Well.. if we weren't in worm territory earlier, we are now." Paul said, looking behind him. A large sand worm was in direct pursuit of them.