After the blinding flash of light, as I opened my eyes, I very quickly realized I was not in the same jungle anymore. For one thing, the trees were a lot smaller, and the plants didn’t glow for another I was in a village. The largest building was the church in the middle with little thatched roofed buildings around it. The town didn’t have a wall only some upraised soil surrounding it. This was Lilian’s village, I must be in her dream then, my body left sleeping back on the island.

That meant Lilian was here too, but as I looked around I could find no trace of her, there were other people though. At first, I grew apprehensive, we hadn’t left this place on the best of terms. Would they recognize me, attack me or run to tell the guards? This was Lilian’s dream, so it all depended on her view of things. As I stood there in plain sight I watched the people go about their daily chores, no one noticed me, no one even looked at me. I grew curious, so I slithered up to a boy, he had a big sack of something slung over his shoulder and was struggling to carry it.

I waved my hand in front of the youth but got no response, huh, it seemed no one would hinder or help me in here. I might as well start looking for Lilian now that I knew no one would oppose me, but as soon as I had the thought, all eyes turned to glare at me. Everyone had stopped what they were doing to look at me, the expressions ranged from outright fury to simple annoyance. As soon as it had started however, everyone went back to ignoring me to resume what they were doing. Everyone except the boy, he was looking at me now and actually seemed to see me. He wasn’t angry or annoyed though, in fact, he seemed delighted.

“Oh, Eshanai, hi, I didn’t see you there,” the boy said seeming to know who I was, had I met this boy before leaving the village? I must have how else did he know my name? I didn’t recognize him though, maybe it had something to do with Lilian? It was her dream after all, and she definitely knew my name. The boy's expression seemed to shift before turning pleasant again.

“Can you help me carry this sack?” The boy asked I was about to decline, I needed to find Lilian after all, when the boy continued. “We really need to hurry, if we’re late, father will beat us,” well we couldn’t have that, now could we, I could help this child for a little bit, Lilian was a big girl she could handle herself. We could get back to… get back to, the island, yes, we could get a boat and sail for the island whenever we wanted, there was no hurry, besides, Lilian needed some time to say goodbye to her parents. I took the sack from the boy, and he laughed and clapped his hands as I lifted it with ease.

It turns out the boy’s name was Charlie, and the sack I was now carrying was full of potatoes. Charlie lived on a farm just outside the village, the harvest had been bad this year according to him, so he bought food from some of the other farms with the coin his family had saved up. They were sheepherders, to begin with, but the empire had apparently demanded all the local farms start contributing to the war effort by planting various crops. If they couldn’t get another crop going to meet the empires quota, Charlie said he might be forced to join the army in a couple of years.

Charlie seemed to expect some sort of reaction out of me but when I didn’t respond as he wanted his expression morphed again, he quickly covered it with a mask of innocence, but this time I was sure what I had seen. Why would my lack of reaction bother him so much, learning how to fight was always good for the young, did the mainlanders think differently?

“What will my parents do without me?” Charlie said, his mask of innocence firmly back in place. “They are old and frail, they won’t be able to do all the hard work when I am gone,” ah, that’s right. Mainlanders weakened considerably as they aged. Was that why he was acting so strange, he wanted someone to help his parents when he was gone? This was a strange way to go about it, maybe I could ask Lito and his buddies to help out once Lilian, and I left tomorrow.

The sheep was out and grazing when we made it to Charlie's home, an older couple immediately approached us they both hugged Charlie and welcomed me with open arms. They seemed like friendly people, not the sort who would beat a child for being a little late. Charlie probably didn’t have to worry about that. The kid and I were immediately set to work by planting the potatoes in their field, Charlie's mother took some for the stew, but we were left with the majority to plant. There was something I was supposed to do, find Lilian, yes, but a little more time with her family wouldn’t hurt, she could come to see me once they were done. They were such nice people, Lilian’s parents, always looking out for her and encouraging her. She would go away to that university soon, her parents had been so good to her, buying books that she could read to prepare herself.

No, that wasn’t right, Lilian would be coming with me, back to the island. She could come back though, she was a very smart girl, the people at the university would be fools to deny her. I suddenly grew lightheaded as I rose up from sticking another potato in the ground, I saw Lilian's father, he had a bottle in his hand and had just struck Lilian’s mother, Gemma. No, that wasn’t right either, it couldn’t be, Lilian's parents had a very happy marriage, why was I so confused? A sudden burst of clarity hit me, the island, Lilian, none of this was real, just a dream. It was like my mind had resurfaced, and I stared at my hands holding the potatoes, I had never seen the things before, and yet I had been so eager to help Charlie plant them, not questioning anything, where had all that knowledge come from?

“Are you alright?” Came Charlie's concerned voice from behind me, and it all slipped away, like sand through my fingers. What was I doing again? Ah, yes, I was helping Charlie plant a new crop, it would be dark soon, so we had to hurry.

We were finally done, and the sun had begun its journey towards the horizon, I stood up and stretched my arms above my head, a good days work was always good, but it was best when it was over.

“Come along,” Charlie said, “if we hurry, supper will still be hot. Mother would be delighted if you could join us.” Now that he mentioned it I was pretty hungry, strange that I hadn’t noticed it before. I was about to follow the kid when I saw something flying towards us. I stopped, squinting to see better, it was a person I realized and not just any person, but Lilian. When had she learned to fly? It didn't matter as I jumped up and down to get her attention, I was just about to call out to her when a hand clamped over my mouth.

“Quickly, get inside before she sees us,” Charlie hissed in my ear, his voice sounded strange. Deeper and somehow distorted, as if we were in a big cave and his voice made an echo. I grabbed Charlie's hand, trying to remove it, he was strangely strong, kids shouldn’t be this stong, should they? As if my thought had made it, so I ripped his hand away from my mouth, the strength going out of the limb, and threw him off me. I was annoyed now, why would I hide from my friends.

“Lilian’s my friend, I’m not going to hide from her, she’s learned how to fly, that’s amazing,” I said to Charlie who had fallen on the ground.

“She’s strange though, not like us, she will fall someday and when she does she might drag you down with her,” Charlie said with a sneer. It might be true that Lilian was a little weird, but so what I was pretty weird myself.

“LILIAN!” I shouted and waved my hands in her direction, “over here!” She seemed to hear me for she turned her head towards me and started zooming in our direction, eating up ground quickly.

“You just had to get her attention, didn’t you? I had done a fine job of keeping you two apart for so long, but you are the type of person that gets distracted easily. I’m just gonna HAGHGAAAA!” By the time Charlie was done talking the farmhouse only reached to his waist, his words had turned to a bellow of rage as the creature he had become stood in front of me.

He was a troll a very familiar one at that, it was the one in Red’s dungeon before we had bonded. It all suddenly came back to me, this was a dream, I shook my head to clear it I did not want to lose myself like that again. Charlies two heads leered at me before he threw a massive fist towards me. I came out of my thoughts in time to dodge the attack I jumped out of the way as the fist slammed into the ground, making clumps of dirt fly in every direction. A purple bolt of energy flew from Lilian to hit the troll in the chest, it only laughed in its deep voice, making my chest rattle.

“You can’t put me to sleep in here bitch, this isn’t your dream,” the troll bellowed and swatted at Lilian like she was a fly as she tried to get closer to me. Lilian flew around him in circles, dodging the clumsy attempts to strike her down.

“He’s right you know,” Lilian shouted as she nimbly dodged another blow, she was like a fish in water, suddenly gaining bursts of speed as she zipped through the air. “This is not my dream, but yours Eshanai,” what, but we were we in her village then if this was my dream. The world around us waivered and blurred, but the giant troll bellowed in rage, and the world reasserted itself.

“Stop confusing her, I’m still in control here.”

“He’s only a parasite, he’s in control now yes, but only because you believe he is. This is your mind, take it back,” Lilian said, and one of Charlie’s hands grazed her in her distraction, making her spin wildly in the air before she righted herself. That’s what happened, I realized, when Charlie had his hand over my mouth, he had been so strong, but I had changed that with a thought. I had beaten this troll before, and I could do it again, my fangs came out, and I bit down hard on the trolls lower thigh as it swung at Lilian in the air. I pumped my venom deep into its veins before I jumped back. The troll bellowed in rage but quickly collapsed to one knee as my venom did its work. Beliefe was the key here, and the troll quickly grew still as my venom spread throughout its body, it toppled over, not being able to move a muscle as it overbalanced.

Lilian quickly grabbed my hand, and we were suddenly back in the jungle getting up from the pile we had landed in.

“I was going to tell you that the mage’s guild has made it here. They have made a camp on the beach, and was coming into the jungle when I found them,” Lilian said, making Lubus’ eyes bulge out in surprise, and if I was not mistaken, fear.