Fated...?

Where am I? (Part 2)

I had had a very weird nightmare, one that I hoped would never come true. When I opened my eyes, they were blurry, and tears ran down the sides of my face. My heart felt sad.

It was weird. I've never had dreams about the people I leave, because when I leave them, I stop associating them with emotions. And when I do that, the path for them to appear in my subconscious creations disintegrates. It's always been satisfying to think of it that way. Gave a bigger meaning to the ending relationships in my life.

I tried to move, and my body felt aching. My eyes hadn't adjusted yet, but I needed to get up

"Oh my heavens YOU'RE ALIVE!"

The voice was so close that it hurt my eardrums as I felt a pair of arms hug me. I pushed them away. I've always hated hugs.

... But the only person who hugs me is my sister... The voice was male.

I rubbed my eyes and looked at him, and was instantly shocked by the entirely unfamiliar surroundings.

An old, frail man was looking at me with tear filled eyes and concern on his face. I didn't know him. Nor did I know the floor I lay on, or the legs and hands stretched out in front of me. It felt like I was looking through a lens.

"I thought I lost you Elayna!"

"Wha... Who!?" I grumbled. My voice didn't sound like mine. Everything was so off, like I were in a dream. But the pain was real. It didn't make any sense.

The old man ran a gentle hand over my head, "How are you feeling? Do you remember me? Do you feel pain anywhere?" His hand proceeded towards my waist, but I stopped him.

"Are you a doctor? Where am I?" I looked down at where my hand had stopped his.

My clothes, a ragged brown frock with pants underneath, were drenched in red. For an instant, my white tshirt drenched in blood flashed before my eyes. I flinched.

"Do you... Elayna, do you know who you are?" The old man scooted a bit away from me, as if to give me space. I was glad for it because I could now look at myself more closely.

Everything was off about me. My own skin felt weird to my touch, and my own voice felt weird to my ears.

"I'm not Elayna," I looked at the old man. I was having brief flashes of the nightmare I had had, and then some unknown lights flitting across my gaze, but they were going away as soon as they came, too fast to interpret. Something wasn't right.

Did I just wake up from a nightmare into another dream? That was weird.

The old man handed me a steel tumbler with water. I debated with myself, but drank it. Poison in dreams only wake you up, right?

But it didn't wake me up. Just before the normal taste of water hit my tongue, I felt a tinge of the metallic taste from my previous nightmare. Was I really okay to take on a new dream right now?

I needed a distraction anyway.

I looked around me, and at my own body. I must've been in some accident and must've been severely hurt. When I look at that old man, the word that comes to my mind is Father. He doesn't even remotely look like my dad, but .. he felt like him and I couldn't explain it. He was glad that I was okay. Clearly, he thought I was dead based on how he had been addressing me. That was sad. I was glad I woke up for him to feel better.

But I wasn't Elayna. Maybe I should play the part?

"Father... What happened to me?" I asked, trying to shake off the awkwardness of uttering those words.

He didn't seem to sense it because he looked relieved as he answered, "You were out gathering herbs in the morning, and hadn't been back till afternoon. I found you close to the lake," his eyes filled with tears, which he wiped away.

I hate seeing parents cry over dead children.

"Elayna... What happened?"

I was tempted to say I don't know, but somehow I had the memory of going by the lake to pick some herbs, and having encountered some poachers.

"... Poachers..." I mumbled. I don't know how I knew they were poachers.

"I told you to stay away from them!" The old man exclaimed, "I told you to stay out of their business!"

"I wasn't approaching them. I just... gasped when I saw them so they... shot me." I said, somehow remembering all of it in vivid detail.

How I even knew what herbs to pick was beyond me.

"I tried healing it... I tried medicines, and... and everything I knew. I thought I lost you. You were so pale and... You didn't even have a pulse..."

More of the 'murder beside the lake' was coming back to me. Based on the information that I 'remembered', I should've been dead for at least a few hours when he had supposedly found me.

But then... It was a dream after all.

"You should rest and let it heal," the old man said when I hadn't spoken for a few minutes, my hand feeling the medicinal cloth stuck over my wound.

"Maybe I should. But I don't want to wake up just yet," I said.