We Dream of Hope

This Change... It's not so Bad

Nadia’s dreams were engulfed by that same murder. The woman’s beauty was stained by that same crooked sword tearing her torso in half. Blood still splattered through the air. AS Nadia expected her dream to end she felt stuck in the moment. Her hand reached out and finally touched the porcelain skin of the victim. Her face wasn’t the tickling feeling of her tent, it was smooth with a hint of ice allowing her fingertips to slide down the woman’s cheek. Sliding her fingers further down she delicately gripped the back of the woman’s neck and pushed her off the blade spinning the woman down to lay her on the ground.  Nadia turned back to look up at the assailant grinding her teeth between fierce growls. 

For once she was able to see the culprit but it was a nightmare of its own right. The figure was a skeleton of a person with flesh just barely hanging onto bones where little muscle had room to grow. Its fingers were long slender and coated red held tips like daggers curled around the hilt of the blade that pierced the world. If the lack of girth wasn’t the most terrifying attribute the horns certainly completed the setup. Long yellow and red horns stretched high chains pierced and dangled from them wrapping around into a collar tightly fastened around the beast's neck. 

Nadia didn’t wait any longer or the beast to act, she jumped forward landing on the ground. This monster was fast. She felt like she hadn’t faced this level of an opponent in a while, but still, she knew what she needed to do. There wasn’t enough time to watch the girl take her final breath, this beast would claim more victims if she didn’t act fast. The girl would understand.

As she ran she felt a sense of regret. Had she argued with the girl right before she died? Why did she want to apologize to her for everything other than letting her die? That was something she felt anger toward, not regret. This dream needed to end, but she had no idea how to make that happen.

“I want this to be over.” It was an exhausted whisper but it echoed through the forest her feet knew too well. 

“It can’t.” 

That voice, Nadia knew it was Odion, was he trapped here too? “Odion?” 

“It’s not my dream.” Odion’s voice hung in the trees, invisible.

“Whose dream is this then? Why do I always have it?” 

“Seraphine!” The scream wasn’t from the dream world, it came from the distance snapping both her and Odion into a new scene. 

Their eyes opened to see a young man cleanly dressed his black hair combed over so not a single hair was out of place. His backdrop was a wall of red and brown rock. Their head shook violently and their hand, small and slender reached up to rub their eyes until they paused before opening them back up. 

“We’re not alone.” The voice was tiny, light, and airy; it danced through the room. They felt their legs stretch bringing them to a stance but keeping their eyes closed, “Who’s there?” 

“Se-”

“HUSH!” the light voice now full of weight and command, “GET OUT!” 

Nadia shot up out of her bed. Her body felt even heavier now that she had to control it on her own. Odion what was that?

No answer, but she knew he wouldn’t be gone too long. Today was supposed to be THE day. Surely he wouldn’t have left her alone. 

Gathering her strength she crawled out of her tent and found her world had indeed changed, but to say she could have guessed this would have been the result would have been a lie. 

In the air, a grey tint was scattered with waves of black smoke wafting out of every tent gathering into one large cloud covering the cabin of her father off in the distance.

Something’s wrong.

Nadia set off toward him, she knew something was wrong. She tried to avoid passing through the smoke but when she couldn’t her emotions went into a furry of ups and downs until she was clear of the mess. She nearly reached the cabin when one path of smoke changed into a light blue wisp. Emerging from the tent was Tomin the blue smoke clouded around him as he looked at Nadia. 

“Hey, Nadia, you’re okay!”

She wasn’t excited to see him, but something seemed different, “Tomin, are you okay?”

“Me? Yeah darling, never better. I mean that wolf came back last night, but don’t worry I took care of it for you.” Now the smoke sparkled changing to a twist of yellow in the blue. “I was so worried about you.”

“I’m sure,” So things were going to fall back into a pattern? You know when you said my world was changing I don’t know I kind of thought it was going to be scary. 

This smoke Nadia could only guess showed a person’s feelings. She wanted to continue to test her theory, but then again she was supposed to find Ma’at. “I was just wanting to talk to my father. So how about you go get us some breakfast and I’ll meet you there.” She paused watching the blue come back in the smoke, “It’ll be like a date” 

Tomin beamed at the thought and the blue completely engulfed him nearly making him disappear before he bounded off, “I’ll meet you there.”

As he raced away Nadia turned back to the cabin, she had a plan: make sure her father was okay, find Ma’at, and then time permitting have Ma’at kick Tomin’s ass for what he did last night. It wasn’t the best way to spend her day, since other people seemed to think it needed to be more drastic, but it was a start. Nadia raised her hand to knock on the door but it was grabbed quickly by Ma’at the first person not enshrouded in smoke. She held up a finger to her mouth and waived with her other hand to have Nadia follow. 

Following Ma’at they exited the campsite and ducked behind a fallen log. Ma’at dug underneath, fetching a bag, bow, and quiver of arrows. “Di, we need to get moving. I don’t think anyone knows about you yet, so before that changes-”

“What’s going on?” Nadia looked up but Ma’at pushed her back down

“Here take the bow, don’t shoot if I’m in front of you.” She then dug out her sword and held it tightly. “I know you don’t want to but I need to take you to Warner first. He’ll explain everything. Plus he’s got the rest of our supplies.”

“Ma’at, what’s going on?” Nadia wrapped the quiver onto her back. It was a bit bigger but it was Ma’at,'s so she couldn’t expect it to fit perfectly. 

“s**t!” Ma’at whispered and ducked down pushing Nadia to the ground, “Stay here. Don’t f*****g shoot me or I’ll never let you forget it.” She hopped over the log and met Tomin who also had his sword drawn. 

“Ma’at, you were supposed to be gone looking for food.” He seemed cautious in his mannerisms and crouched ready to fight.

“It was cut short. I know you don’t have much control right now, but let us leave. That’s all you have to do.” Ma’at stretched her arms out lowering her intimidation factor hoping to ease the tension.

“You know I can’t do that.” He looked past Ma’at into the trees, “Nadia, please, come back. You’ll be happier than you could ever dream with me.”

“Don’t make me laugh Tom.” Ma’at snarled and readied herself. “I know what you did, I won’t chalk that up to the demon, but this isn’t your wish.”

“What do you know about my wish?” He spat at her and rushed forward swinging his sword with little precision. 

“There you’re clumsy,” Ma’at dodged him but caught his arm and flung him backward making sure he never got closer to Nadia than she wanted. “If this was really you, you’d have run away by now.”

Nadia lifted her head up and saw the smoke surrounding Tomin, red, like blood. He was swinging his sword with determination but lacked the planning of how to follow through on a blow. Ma’at on the other handheld herself each movement had a goal, every bit of her focus was on making sure she harmed Tomin as little as possible while still protecting her friend. Nadia felt powerless but still wanted to help. Ma’at clearly had this under control, but she wasn’t wanting to harm anyone. 

Maybe I could, she took an arrow out and drew the bow. Ma’at was in front of her, but if she could show Tomin Ma’at wasn’t alone, maybe he’d back off. It was a possibility. “Hey!” Nadia called out and both of them turned to look at Nadia focusing all her strength on pulling the arrow back. 

“Nadia!” Tomin was overly joyed, misplaced, and completely in denial for who Nadia was aiming for.

Ma’at smirked but then noticed Nadia’s arms shaking and ducked out of the way just in time for Nadia to lose her strength sending the arrow flying in a stream of white light. The arrow hit Tomin directly in the shoulder causing him to drop the sword. He looked confused but then the white light coating the arrow spread dispersing the smoke around him. When the smoke fully lifted Tomin dropped to the ground. 

“What was that?” Nadia jumped over the log moving toward her victim, “I didn’t think-”

“Let’s go,” Moving over to Nadia Ma’at tugged on her arm, “He’s okay.”

An obvious lie that fooled no one. Nadia loved how that felt though, she wanted to take a sword and jam it into his back for everything he had done to her. But those feelings she knew weren’t her own. She looked around at the source and between the duo and the camp was Odion, standing proud of what she had accomplished. 

“Took you long enough.” Ma’at scoffed, “Fights over.”

Odion rolled his eyes and brought himself closer. 

“Nadia, you’ve been introduced?” Ma’at stepped out of the way for Nadia to come closer

Not taking the invitation she nodded, something about feeling what he felt didn't sit right and no smoke was around him either, there was something going on.

The smoke. That’s what you’re wondering about?

“Sorry, Ma’at.” Nadia turned to her, “I don’t want to keep you out of our conversation.”

“Oh, you’re fine Di. From what Warner has told me Odion doesn’t like me anyway.”

“Wait.” Nadia stepped in front of Ma’at, “You’ve spoken to Warner?”

“For a little while, not like it was an ongoing thing.”

It was pretty much just last night. All night long, it was rather annoying.

Thanks for that insight, but do you notice anything different right now? “Ma’at what’d Warner tell you? Because I had this cryptic note from him and I’m really just confused about the smoke, and what we’re doing.”

The answer came from both sides, her mind and ears flooded with the words “We need to get going.”

“Yeah, so I’ve been told. How about Ma’at does the talking, because right now I’m just getting a headache from trying to have two conversations.”

Odion started walking off and Ma’at dragged Nadia along.

“Should we really leave him?” turning back Nadia seemed a bit confused that no one was concerned with how they were leaving things. 

Let the dumbass lay there.

“Don’t worry about him, there’s no way Barren will leave him there for long.” Ma’at’s upturned nose guided them toward Odion’s path. “By the way, that smoke, I can’t see it, but I hear dog boy there can, so maybe he’d know more about it than me. Basically it’s just the sin being manipulated by the person, that’s all I understand about it.”

“Barren?” The pause and contemplation ran through Nadia’s head but Odion’s voice snapped her out of it.

He’s not your father, never was. Before you ask any more questions let Warner talk to you about it. 

“So we’re going to walk in silence then?” Nadia threw her hands in the air, it wasn’t even midday and already she was exhausted. 

They didn't walk very far before they discovered a much smaller campsite. It was one cabin probably big enough for a bed, not as extravagant as Nadia’s father had. It was much more run down and hastily put together. Patches of repair were rampant on the outside trying to overcompensate for the lack of handiwork. There was a small fire out front with way more seating than seemed necessary. On one log turned on its end into a high chair held Warner who smiled and struggled to gain his footing. He settled on bowing his head when his legs failed to bring him to a stand. 

“Thank you so much for coming, I wanted to take a moment to make sure you weren’t too confused with everything going on.” He paused and cleared his throat, “Of course before you continue on your journey.”

“Continue?” Nadia looked around as both of her companions were clearly already in the loop on the matter and she was lost in her isolation on how stranger things could get.