Dreams are the greatest power of mankind. In our waking hours, we dream of more, imagining our futures as they teeter on hopes, hard work, and a little luck. But when we sleep, our subconscious mind takes over, and it is a beast that cannot always b...
The only thing cold was my heart. Here Sven was, doting on me, when I was on a quest to end his life. I kept telling myself that Lexington and Sven weren't real, but every moment they talked and felt like anyone else, I was less convinced that returning to the real world was the right choice. Who was I to weigh which lives mattered and which should cease to exist?
"Come sit, Heidi," Ray slid a hand around my side to lead me to the fire, and there was no arguing with that much muscle unless I learned to limbo real fast.
Ray ushered me to the log next to Kearo, and Sven took a seat next to me just as Ray was about to sit there. With a huff of air and a roll of his eyes, Ray parked next to Sven and handed him another cup of hot chocolate. Now that I was seated, I could see the small pot of cocoa simmering over a tiny campfire fit for a mouse. It would have made me laugh the day before last, but Xin had sapped the joy from this world.
I took my first sip of hot chocolate, and it was the perfect warmth, just hot enough that it tickled my taste buds but not so much as to steal my sense of taste. I did my best not to flavor it with my tears as I scrunched my eyes to keep them from falling.
"Why are you all up?" I croaked, drinking more hot chocolate with the delusion that it would improve the state of my constricted throat.
"I told them," Kearo said, sitting up straight and crossing his arms over his chest. The depth of his navy eyes left little doubt as to what he'd told them, and my cup slipped from my fingers as my heart pounded in my chest.
Skin as white as snow caught my mug before it fully left my hands, and Sven smiled as he returned it to me, his open lips showing the points of teeth meant for crushing bone. My stomach squeezed into a knot. What reason could he have to be so close and smile if he knew I was out to destroy the only world he could exist in?
Sven stood so quickly that I jumped to my feet, but he merely set my hot chocolate on his chair and relocated to sit on Ray's other side. His happiness sank as he slumped much like Lexington was, and I was suddenly very aware that I was surrounded by creatures that could tear me to pieces if they disagreed with my decision. I flexed my hand as I realized my crowbar was by my bed roll, and I turned toward Lexington's stump. He was still on it, in the same position he'd been, his eyes cast into the flames.
"Heidi, they're not going to hurt you." Kearo's voice was a whisper as he turned in my direction, his blue eyes near as red as Lexington's from the light of the flames. "Sit. We moved beyond the 'everyone's going to die' part to figuring out what to do about the dream weavers Xin said would block our path."
I didn't understand.
And I didn't sit.
Lexington stood, and I backed up with my hands clenched so hard that my nails bit into my skin. Fangs peeked out of his open-mouthed scowl, and with how his blood lust controlled him at night, his words were the last thing I expected.
"If Faella has a home somewhere and a family trapped within this world that she cannot remember even to care about, then this is no world of dreams but a cage on her mind," Lexington growled more than spoke, but his anger was directed at the grass at my feet, like the world itself was an affront to his existence. "Everything we had here would be a lie no matter how real it was if I willingly participated in deceit for selfish desires."
My knees buckled, and I fell on my stump with anything but a willing desire to be seated. Tears filled my eyes, and I buried my face in my hand as they flooded out. The goal I had sought to complete was no longer in front of me. I wanted to help people, to return to the real world so humanity no longer lived trapped in their own minds, but Xin's words echoed heavier than even my grief.
"Humans suffer, Heidi. What world we are in matters little."
A hand touched my shoulder, and I raised my swollen eyes to Sven sitting on the stump next to me again.
"There is no value in fool's gold," Sven said in a voice uncannily soft for a beast of his size and power. Under all of Sven's playfulness and wrestling with Ray, he had a gentle soul, and it formed a lump in my throat that I couldn't swallow. "Treasure is a subjective term for that which is highly valued, and you grieving my fate is more precious than any shiny rock you could bestow me from a world of illusion."
"Is that why you haven't eaten me yet?" I embarrassingly blubbered, and Sven brought his hand to his lips to stifle a chuckle.
"I don't eat people, Heidi. Anything that moves is fair game when I'm half asleep, but I don't circle our group and salivate over the prospect of you tripping into my jaws." Sven's wide, pointy-toothed smile was oddly reassuring as I settled and tried to calm down enough to process.
Kearo had never even mentioned telling our party about everything in Xin's castle, and as frustrating as it was that he kept doing things without talking to me first, it was better this way. It meant I wouldn't have to string them along with lies, but the unavoidable end rent my heart.
"It's worth noting, Heidi," Ray spoke up with his mug on his lips. "Whether you choose to save this world or not, the truth remains. There is a means to this world's end lying around, and should someone else choose to destroy it, our lives here could cease at any time without warning. Both Sven and I would rather knock on fate's door and face it than cower and fear the passing of each minute."
"As would I," Lexington added, still standing tall with his arms crossed over his chest. "If my life is nothing but a flickering flame in the wind, then I wish to go down fighting by Faella's side." Lexington shifted his gaze to where Faella slept on her bed roll against the trees. "All I ask is that you don't tell her. Faella is too young to understand. Let her have one final adventure to save the world. It will be a nice dream to remember when I'm gone."
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Word Count: 1864
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