Nightmare

“You’ve done it!” A voice called out in what seemed to be joy. “You found a way to push healing magic further.”

I wasn’t sure of what was going on. I tried to take in my surroundings but couldn’t make heads or tails of where I was. A darkness was surrounding me, stopping me from seeing anything around me. The place I was in seemed to be devoid of life.

“We can finally help everyone!” The voice continued, echoing.

I couldn’t make out where the voice had been coming from. For each word it spoke, the direction of the voice came from a completely different direction to where it had been. The echoing was starting to cause sharp pains in my ears and head.

I raised my hand in an attempt to use fire magic in order to light up the darkness. I attempted to do so but I was unable to conjure it forth. Why wasn’t the fire coming out? I know I was able to use it perfectly just a while ago, but now I can't.

“What are you trying to do?” The voice asked, presumably at me.

This time the words echoed deeper into my head, which was causing me to hold my head to keep myself steady. My vision was starting to get blurry, which made it all the more difficult to stand. I took my left hand and rubbed my eyes until they had finally started to fix.

“Who are you?” I questioned aloud, hoping to get some answers.

After my question, there was only silence for a long period of time. I stood there with bated breath, waiting on the unknown voice’s response. Something about the voice’s tone started to seem familiar, but at the same time I still couldn’t discern who it was. It felt so familiar, yet so unknown.

“Let’s go help people quick-.”

I swiftly extended my right hand into the direction of where I had heard the voice. In mere milliseconds I was able to summon seven icicles and shoot them simultaneously into the direction.

I saw the icicles pierce something. It looked as though it was a silhouette, but now riddled with holes. The silhouette seemed to bear a strong resemblance to Fae. In shock at what I may have just done, I quickly ran towards the shadow. As I got closer, the shadow started to fade, and in its place I could see my teacher. I held her in my arms, shaking from what I had done.

“H-h-how co-o-u-ld yo…?” The last of Fae's sentence cut off in a distorted tone.

She had gotten far enough for me to understand.

“NO!” I cried out.

My eyes were forced open, met once again with a blinding light. I fell out of bed and hit the ground hard, landing on my bottom.

“Ow!” I called, feeling the pain from the fall.

I quickly looked around to see where I was. It seemed as though I was back in the guest house. It must’ve just been a nightmare. I couldn’t remember what had happened in the nightmare, but I could remember the feelings I had. Pain, confusion, anger, sadness, regret. The feelings seemed far too real to be caused by a dream.

I grabbed at my chest as it was starting to tighten. I had begun hyperventilating, unable to control what was happening. I looked down at my hands, which were still holding onto my chest. I saw the light reflecting beautifully off my ring. Seeing the ring brought back memories of Fae. I still remember the words on the letter she had left for me, tender but bittersweet. I began taking deeper and slower breaths.

After a few moments, I was able to completely return my breathing to normal. As I went to release my grip, I could see they were still shaking. I slapped my cheeks, trying to force myself out of the rut the feelings had put me in. The force of the impact was able to restore me physically, with only a little bit of the feelings remaining in my mind.

“Phew.” I let out a sigh of relief at finally being able to get a hold of myself.

I got up slowly and began my usual daily routine, this time going about it far more apathetically and slower than usual. My bath was far less enjoyable than it had been last time, and the surprise of seeing my dress washed had almost entirely disappeared. It seemed as though I was still not mentally all together just yet.

A large grumble from my stomach was able to snap me out of what I was feeling mentally, and instead caused me to focus on my hunger. I looked towards the kitchen and saw the massive pile of food still remaining from yesterday. With a budding smile, I began walking towards it.

“That’s right! I help people, not hurt them.” I reminded myself, using it as a way to regain the confidence I had lost.

As I tried to make a dent in the pile of food, it seemed as though the more I ate, the more there was. After eating several different types of foods, and feeling thoroughly stuffed, I examined the pile. To my surprise, nothing had changed. I felt completely and utterly full, and yet the pile looked like the same monster it had before. The realization of this caused me to let out a small giggle, allowing me to forget what had happened earlier.

Moving at my usual pace, I began stepping out of my borrowed home. I should consider leaving soon. It was starting to seem that there wasn’t much more I could do in this village. However, the smiles and waves of all the villagers made me momentarily reconsider.

“Maybe I can stay just a bit longer.” I muttered.

As I was taking a stroll through the village, a lot of the villagers I had helped came up to me to offer their gratitude. They tried to give me more food, but I had to deny it as the pile in the guest home seemed as though it was already growing without adding more to it. They would give me a dejected look, but I could only smile back at them as I explained that I already had too much food and that they should keep it for themselves.

I passed a lot of people who didn’t need my help. Some of them waved towards me and smiled. Others, however, avoided making eye contact with me, and were whispering with one another. It was awkward to see, as I could tell they were obviously whispering about me.

As I concluded my stroll, it had only started to sink in how much bigger this village was as opposed to the one I came from. Since the last two days I was in the village were so hectic, I wasn’t able to look around much, but after doing so, I realized this village was huge. Despite the village being much larger, I noticed that the same sense of community still existed amongst the residents of the village, similar to mine. The thought brought an uncontrollable smile to my face.

“Hey!” A familiar voice called to me.

“Oh, hey leader.” I called back, returning her greeting. As I looked in her direction, I saw her sprinting fast towards me.

“Have you seen my grandson?” She asked, still trying to recover from her sprint.

“No, I haven’t seen him all day. I’ve even walked around the whole village, but I’ve seen no sign of him.“ I answered, wondering what was happening.

“Damn it!”

“What’s wrong?”

“It seems that idiot has gone missing.”

Gone missing? Maybe it’s because I upstaged him yesterday. That’s it! I remembered that he had gone off to try and show off something that was going to be far more impressive than what I had done. He couldn’t have gone and done anything too bad, I think. After all, he’s just a kid, and it didn’t seem like he was that stupid.

“I’ll help you look.” I volunteered, feeling a slight tinge of guilt.

“Thank you. You start looking, and I’ll recruit more people to help.” The elder spoke to me.

I took off from where we had been standing and began looking all around the village. I first checked behind the houses and in the homes, places where a tiny little kid like him would be hiding. Surprisingly, it seemed as though he was not hiding in all the places I thought he’d be.

Some other villagers joined up with me and began helping me search. They explained to me how the two kids he was dragging along with him yesterday had also gone missing. That brat even dragged the others somewhere. Where could they have gone? There’s no way they would have left the village right?

We searched until sundown, turning every home inside out, and even lifting boulders to see if they were under them. At some point, it seemed as though the whole village was helping to look. Even with all the help, we were unable to find them anywhere in the village. That left us with the worst possibility.

As the thought appeared in my mind, a large scream sounded, followed by the sound of a bell. The villagers I was searching with accompanied me to the source of the sound. We saw the man who recently had the arrowhead-scar removed as the source of the sound.

“Over there! By the forest towards the north I saw some figures approaching the village.” The man explained, pointing in the direction.

I quickly ran over to see the figures, looking around to spot them. However, I was unable to see where he had been seeing them. Thinking it might be a ruse, I began turning around.

“Over there.” Called one of the villagers, pointing in a slightly different direction I was looking in.

Following her finger, I looked in the correct direction to see a total of four figures. Something wasn’t right, however. One of the figures was much larger than the other three, not to mention there should only be three kids missing. As the figures got closer to the village, the torches which had been set out to light the village began to illuminate the figures.

In the front, the two boys had been running and screaming for help. However, right behind them was the little girl who was struggling to keep up. Directly behind her was what could be described as an amalgamation of animals, all joined together. The multiple heads seemed to have strictly set her sights on the little girl, and they were gaining on her fast.

“The Chimera is going to eat my daughter!” The mother cried out from her sobs at the horrific sight.