Where little Hero's dream abilities do not go without consequences.
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"How long has he been like this?"
Potion maker Tenaf felt the little Human's hot forehead and winced, pulling his hand back quickly. The child's entire body was as hot as a rock heated by the noonday summer sun. He quickly breathed and moaned slightly as red splotches of magic ran across his form, stifling him.
"Almost the whole day. He didn't wake up this morning." Uncle Rangil said. He and frowning Grandpa Grake stood next to the elder healer and their little foundling in his house, where Hero lay curled up on his bed. Margol and Tnul hovered nearby, their faces concerned. Uncle Rangil turned and pointed at Margol.
"He found him like this in the morning." He explained and the young villager quickly nodded, quiet as he threw his adopted brother another troubled look.
"Maybe he ate something poisonous in the forest? Were you punishing him with no dinner again?" Tenaf glanced at Rangil with disapproval and the villager's eyebrows crept up.
"I didn't punish him at all since our guests left two months ago! He has not caused any trouble at all!"
Tenaf turned a sharp gaze back to the tossing child, who at that moment moaned and curled up even tighter, pressing his hands to his stomach.
"If I had to say what happened, I would have said that this is Witches' foul magic. But how can that be, since she is already gone?" Tenaf muttered, frowning, and immediately noted a troubled look which the child's caretakers shared between them. His frown grew deeper at that.
"If you know something that can help me heal him, you should tell me that now. Otherwise I cannot help you." Rangil and Grake exchanged another look, after which uncle Grake slightly nodded.
"We believe... that before the Witch disappeared, she tried to put Bindings on him. On his magic. To keep it from waking up. Beor allowed it, because he didn't want his magic to get much stronger."
"Bindings? On a child?" Tenaf turned and gave Hero a concerned look, then sighed as his frown lessened. The elder villager gently pulled Hero's clenched arm away from his body and, wincing, turned it to look at the now reddened scars on his wrists. "That would explain much and the presence of those markings. Although how she managed to keep him alive while doing that... is a mystery."
"To do such a thing on a child... " He shook his head and thinned his lips as he shook his head with disapproval. "Your brother did this?" He looked at Rangil, who dropped his gaze and looked helplessly at grandpa Grake. It was grandpa Grake who spoke next.
"He did what he thought was best. The Witch told Beor that the child's magic was too great and would be dangerous to our village, unless it was bound."
"Hmm. I can see why... But that's what's now tormenting him. His body is producing magic on its own, while he sleeps. Or he's doing some other magic, which we cannot see. And the Bindings are punishing him..."
"Why doesn't he wake up?" Uncle Rangil asked helplessly, looking at the child with sudden guilt for his brother's previous actions, even though he had no part of it at all. Hero looked terrible, so small and pale as he breathed quickly, strange red splotches running across his form as if coiled rings of fire were moving beneath his skin. As the villagers watched him, he again moaned and tried to curl up tighter. Another little bit of flame appeared around his hands and vanished again, as if absorbed. The child breathed quickly, struggling. His strange white eyes opened a little, appearing dazed, and closed again.
"He is fighting the Bindings. Or rather his magic is. As long as he does, he will remain in discomfort."
"Can you make it stop, Tenaf? Any ideas?" Old Grake said with worry and Tenaf frowned, furiously thinking about something. After a moment, he produced a gray potion in his hands and reached it to uncle Rangil, who suspiciously looked at its gray color.
"Weakness potion?" He asked in confusion and the villager nodded.
"To make him stop fighting magic with magic. If the Bindings are there to keep him from using big magic, then they will let go once he stops doing... whatever it is he is doing." Tenaf looked at the curling child with another frown and then nodded in confidence. "In either case, he has the magic of self-healing. This won't harm him much. Maybe just make him very tired."
Not sure what else to do, Grandpa Grake and Uncle Rangil exchanged a look and the younger villager brought the potion to Hero's chaffed lips, wincing as he carefully lifted him a little.
"Drink, Hero." He ordered strictly. The dazed child's eyes opened as if in a dream, but he obediently drank a little of the potion. Another several minutes passed, while the villagers watched him carefully, and then the child appeared to still, his breathing starting to calm down again. Everyone breathed out with relief and the elder healer nodded with satisfaction.
"There. He's a little bit better already." He concluded, then again touched the child's forehead and felt his skin, which was still hot to the touch, but not bad as before. "This will make him very tired, of course. But it will likely solve the problem of his fire magic waking up at night as he sleeps. Just have him drink a small amount before bed, all right? This should help with the bad dreams, too. He'll be too tired to have any."
"He does get nightmares." Grandpa Grake nodded, sighing.
"Then this will help."
They all looked at Hero, now quietly laying in his bed, his breathing calming even more as his body stopped squirming as if he had stomach pain.
"Thank you, Tenaf." Uncle Rangil said sincerely and with relief rubbed his tired eyes, glancing at the basin of water that stood on a chair nearby as they took turns with Grake keeping at eye on the strangely afflicted child to make sure that he didn't start a fire. Both of them were exhausted, as were Margol and Tnul by all the stress.
"Of course. Don't mention it." The elder healer said and once again took the child's hands and looked at the markings there, which now paled to their usual pale color, becoming almost invisible. He frowned at it with disapproval and shook his head. "Bindings... What a harsh measure." The old healer turned to leave.
"There is something I don't understand." Rangil dared to speak and the villager turned back. Encouraged by the elder's patient look, he spoke his question. "If his Bindings are there to prevent him from using his magic, why does it not bother him much when he sets his arms on fire? Shouldn't it hurt him when he does those things?"
The elder villager paused as he narrowed his eyes in thought. "Hmm. I don't know exactly what the Witch's motivations or thoughts were when she designed this spell... But I think I know what might be going on. The Bindings were probably put in place before he initialized as a mage. When that happened, such as when he nearly drowned, he used Big Magic to heal himself and this loosened these Bindings. Now, they no longer notice when he is doing small magic anymore, only Big."
"Big? But he is only asleep. He is not making any fire." Uncle Rangil said in confusion and looked at the now peacefully curled up child, whose breathing finally evened out as he continued to sleep, unaware of them all.
"Well, that doesn't mean that he is not doing some other magic that we cannot see with our eyes. And that's what's most concerning to me if you ask me. Fire and self-healing is obviously not the only magic he has. He probably has more, or else his eyes wouldn't glow like that. So, in the end... Putting Bindings on him was the right thing." Tenaf concluded with some regret. "Even if we would not have approved of such a thing..."
Turning away, the elder villager walked out of Hero's small house, bending a little at the door. Both Rangil and Grandpa Grake looked at each other wearily and Rangil rubbed his eyes.
"Go and get some sleep, kari. All of you. I will stay with him." Old Grake promised and Rangil looked at him gratefully. Laying his hands on the shoulders of the younger villagers, he led them out of Hero's house and bid them good night.
Left with Hero alone, the old villager glanced at the gray potion sitting now on the small nightstand next to Hero's bed, and then gently gathered the child into his arms and rocked him, just as he did when Hero was still a baby.
"It's going to be all right, Hero. It's going to be all right." He smiled softly, eventually falling into a drowse himself.
Waking up a little later and finding himself with grandpa Grake, little Hero groggily looked around himself and then fell asleep again, his head resting against the old villager as he snuggled more comfortably in his arms. Something bothered Hero in the corner of his mind, something he had forgotten, but he could not remember the strange dream he just recently had.
In the morning, he was already feeling better as if no fever had occurred. Only very tired. Uncle Rangil and Grandpa Grake let him sleep almost until noon and the formerly concerned Margol and Tnul once again began to give Hero's house slightly resentful looks as they started on their chores while their adopted brother simply slept the entire day away.