Dark Thoughts on a Stormy Night

Saphira waved a stick around, pretending it was a sword as she clashed with Kraelin’s own stick. “Avast! The princess is mine to do with as I please!” she cried out.

“Never, foul pirate!” Kraelin said with a smirk, fighting back while flipping through the air.

“I get you two enjoying role playing with your training, but did I actually have to be tied up?” Elysia asked, bound in ropes and sitting on a log.

“Relax! The ropes are loose!” Saphira said.

“And itchy,” Elysia complained.

The older Saphira watched it happen from the corner of the yard as she had time and time again. She didn’t dream often, but when she did, there were recurring ones. She never knew why, though. This was simply a standard day of youthful play, other than…

Young Saphira ran up the side of the tree in her backyard, swinging from branch to branch. “You’ll have to kill me first, you scum sucking sack of cr-aaagh!”

There she went. Saphira watched as her younger dream self fell from the top branch, landing with a thud on the soft grass. “Saphira!” Elysia screamed out, and she and Kraelin immediately ran to see her, Elysia struggling to shrug off the ropes. “Are you alright?!”

“Yeah…fine…ow…” the young Saphira said, sitting up and holding her head.

“Let me get your dad!” Kraelin said, running for her house.

“No, I’m fine, I…” Saphira tried to say.

“Your nose is bleeding!” Elysia said, wiggling out of the last of her ropes.

“Saphira!” they heard from the house. Her father ran towards them, concern in his eyes. “Kraelin said you hit your head! Are you okay? By the First, you’re bleeding.”

“I’m fine, dad,” Saphira said as he knelt next to her, using his shirt sleeve to absorb the blood.

“Did either of you get hurt? Elysia?” Professor Malphi asked, looking between the two other kids, seeming to pay special attention to Elysia.

“No dad, the elder’s little girl is fine,” Saphira said, slowly standing.

“Okay, playtime is over!” Professor Malphi said. “Elysia, you and Kraelin scoot off home now! Saphira needs to rest her head before she knocks it off!” He led them back to the front of the house with an affable smile. “Maybe you can spend some time working on your magic, Elysia. Find your Talent yet?”

“N…no, not yet,” Elysia said, looking down sadly.

“Don’t worry, you will.” He gave her a wink, then shooed them away. “Bye bye now! You’ll see her tomorrow!”

The adult Saphira watched as the younger versions of her two friends walked down the road. Her father led her younger self into the house and shut the door.

“And now the dream takes a dark turn…” Saphira said, knowing how this dream always went. The thumps started inside the house. She walked up to the front window, knowing it should look into her living room, knowing it wouldn’t. Instead she saw the aftermath of her horrible mistake with the magic amplifier. She looked into a dirty basement room, her father and a strange medical man standing over her as she was strapped to a table, her right arm replaced by an insect claw, her right eye a segmented horror.

“Remove it. All of it. She can’t live like this…as a…” her father said, coldly, clinically.

“Dad…daddy…please!” Her past self moaned on the table. “It hurts! I can’t…”

“Do you want me to…” the doctor started.

“Yes. All of it. Save everything you can,” her father said. The doctor nodded, and she heard the buzzing of an electric saw. Except she wasn’t watching anymore. She was strapped to the table, staring up at the strange man, shaking her head in terror.

“No! Please, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to disobey! Please don’t cut meeeee!”

*

She woke not with a scream, but a shout of “NO!” as she always did. She sat up in bed, gasping and breathing heavily, the sweat dripping down her. “Why? Why?! All the damn time!” she hissed. “Why can I never dream of anything I hope for! Why…”

She sat in the relative quiet of her inn room, the rain battering heavily against her window as lightning flashed against the sky. “Of course. A thunderstorm. Makes sense for this place…”

A sudden knock on her door made her slightly jump. “Come on, Saphira, it’s a dream, and it’s probably insomnia prone Alex, wanting to talk or play with his stupid rodent or…” But after softly padding over to the door and opening it a crack, she saw Kraelin standing there.

“I heard a shout,” he said calmly.

“I’m fine. A…bad memory. Thanks, but…”

“We haven’t talked alone since…you know…you revealed yourself,” Kraelin said.

“Is there something you want to say?” Saphira asked. The lightning flashed again. She sighed and let him in, shutting the door behind him.

“How long were you watching us? Why didn’t you come to us? Even as Silver, why did you wait? Why…” Kraelin shook his head.

“A while. I sometimes checked in on you. In secret. Whenever my job took me near Lugara, to see how you were. When I heard what happened with the banishment…”

“You still didn’t come to us,” Kraelin said, anger tinging his voice.

“Do you have a problem with me, Kraelin?” Saphira asked.

He looked at her for what seemed like the longest time, another flash lighting his face up. “I never got to say goodbye. One morning I woke up and you were gone. Possibly dead. Exactly like my…” He looked away. “Do you have any idea what losing you did to me?! Did you even care during your times of ‘checking in’ on us?! I lost my parents! I lost you! I nearly lost Elysia! I was a little boy who couldn’t save the people he loved! Do you know what I would have given to see you alive, even with your disfigured body?!”

Saphira sighed, then she did something which surprised both of them. She wrapped her arms tight around him. “You grew up to be exactly the guy I knew you would be, Kraelin. I’m sorry I waited until now to tell you.”

She let him go. They looked at each other, letting the silence pass. Finally Kraelin nodded. “Get some sleep, Saphira. No more screaming.”

“Good night, Kraelin,” Saphira said as he left, and she surprised herself for a second time. As she laid back down, she smiled.