“Can anyone honestly say they know what truth can be found in something so simple and yet as powerful as a dream? It is through these mighty storms that visit the mind at night; that my life was flipped upside down. And when the truth was revealed to me, I found myself in a world I could never have imagined existed. But... it was there where I finally found a purpose, perhaps even my purpose.”

-Calin

Prologue: Memories of Old

There, in front of me, was a landscape unlike any I had ever seen before. Enormous mountains laid resting on the horizon, the height of which boggled my mind. Black boulders littered the flat plains that sat in the long shadows of those towering peaks.

A flash of light startled me as lightning thundered close by.

Too close.

The air was thick with the promise of rain to the dry earth; the land covered by late dusk’s darkening blanket, but it did nothing to hide the strength of the storm that was coming.

It only brought a need to make haste to my heart.

Around me, the dust layer was only broken by day old tracks; what kind could have been anyone’s guess. Yet, somehow the knowledge of something extremely dangerous that had passed here, flickered across my mind.

It was hidden from my view and there was too little time. I have come too far to fail now. I needed to be quick, before the storm erased the last of the tracks. Some of the tracks had the possible signs of a split claw on the right side, but these ones were already disturbed by the wind.

Like a shock, it finally occurred to me the strangeness of what was running across my thoughts. Notions and concepts, unlike anything that had entered my mind before, were available to me.

I tried to shake my head, to clear it, but nothing happened. My head didn’t even move a single muscle.

‘Strange…’

The word was meant to be out loud, but again nothing happened, not even my mouth moved.

This was different. Something wasn’t right.

The last week of dreams had been of falling. It was always the same, each and every night, just me falling. But this; if it was a dream... it was more real than anything I had ever experienced before.

To feel the wind, to feel its chill, it scared me to my core. Panic was close to the surface...

Without warning, or real say in the matter, my thoughts rushed away from the dilemma.

Once again, it settled in trying to find the best course of action on how to approach the caves up ahead, the right one. There was an absolute need to use stealth, these were dangerous lands.

When I looked up, there were bushes no more than a few paces ahead from the small trodden path. At no sign of movement, my body surged forward and hid behind the largest bush. It was without me even deciding to move. It was a very unsettling feeling.

Foot after foot, my unresponsive body was sneaking up silently among the brush. My head glanced up in the direction of the supposed location of the entrance. Even my thoughts betrayed me now, ‘What entrance? What’s going on?’ Instead I tried to focus on my body. It was cold and tense.

I tried in vain to steady my quivering cold hands as I searched for my quarry. The odd thoughts kept coming out of nowhere. A stirring of irritation bubbled up in me at the telltale sound of sandstone gravel crunching under my leather boots. Each intake of breath escaped in small puffs in the cold night air around me, though nothing completely distracted me of the set determination from what lay ahead.

A few steps around a large boulder, revealed a cave next to me. And on the ground there were tracks, but they too were disturbed.

Still, an anticipation of the fight tingled through my body. Fight? The thought barrelled into my mind. Why would I be excited about a fight?

I tried to halt the sure footsteps of my traitorous feet; each taking me closer towards the cave, but nothing. I was only privy to observation in the body.

The true commands for the limbs came from someone else’s mind. I was suddenly deeply afraid of what was happening to me.

My body was strung taught from concentrating solely on being silent as the night; the hunting element of me took the last few soft steps to the side of the cave.

Before I realized it, I was following him, the one in control of the body.

I tried shaking my head clear, but it still had no effect. Never before this moment had I understood how important those slight reminders of control were until they were gone.

My hand involuntarily reached down to pick up a handful of sand, studying it carefully. Senses I never had, told me a story that the adversary I had been searching years for, was close.

A clean set of tracks were pressed into the ground. It had the split claw! A strange sense of joy washed over me with the success in finally tracking it down. Perhaps it could finally bring peace to my heart.

Emotions I had never experienced tightened up in my chest, a pain that reached into my very being, overwhelmed me. With great effort, I tried removing myself from the feelings of loneliness and intense loss, but I was stuck, there was no place to go.

As if sensing my distress, the body I was sharing straightened and took step by step into the cave. It was necessary to breathe silently, but the anticipation seemed to make everything louder. All I could do was move in a soft, steady pace into the pitch black cave. I had wanted to flee, but now darkness was enveloping me.

It wasn’t long before I started to feel uncomfortable in the pressing dark. Rather, both our minds in the same body realized we could see nothing but blackness.

I was long since afraid of going in further, but only now it seemed to affect this infuriating other part of me. I was a bit glad of him a moment later, when he thought of getting some light in the darkness. I was eager when my hand reached for the pouch on my hip. “A flashlight! Finally.” Hope surged in me.

It lasted no more than a moment, only to be dashed a second later when surprisingly my hand didn’t take out a flashlight, but rather a small stone. It had strange grooves on it as my fingers traced over it. I was deeply disappointed, this whole situation was absurd. But through my disappointment, a strange thought wormed its way to the surface of my mind, to activate it?

‘What is going on?’

I couldn’t make out why I was thinking about activating a rock, I didn’t even know where for goodness sake I was, never mind what these things meant.

Only a moment into my deliberations, my gloved hand twisted the rock around and my thumb pressed down on the strange marking, dragging in a slight circle and then twisting quickly upwards and pressing down on the centre.

Out of nowhere, I could feel energy surging towards the stone. All that could describe the feeling was amazement when the stone started to glow with a white light.

Before I could inspect the impossible stone further, my head turned away from it and looked deep into the cave. The rock fragment seemed to light a few meters in every direction. And even though I was very confused, I was glad for the light and strangely at ease again, even when I reluctantly admitted I was on a hunt.

My body sprang into an attack stance a moment later when a small rat like fur ball went scurrying past me.

I sighed inwardly and my body let out a breath of relief, and with it the tension from my muscles. But it did not allow me to turn back as it ventured deeper into the cave, much to my increasing reluctance.

The path was narrow and long, my senses dulled after a few minutes. But then soft breathing sounds became noticeable from around what seemed a bend in the cave.

My sword hand gripped the hilt tighter bringing the cold blade to my front. I was terrified. But strangely the counterpart sharing the body with me soothed my nerves with the calm deep-seated determination. It baffled me to no end.

Following the sound of the sleeping prey, my feet edged forward slowly. I tried one last time to halt them, but they moved anyway, step by step.

Abruptly the equal breathing stopped, my heart missed a beat.

The hand with the glow stone, shot into my fur pocket as I held my breath.

From the darkness came a growling voice that reverberated through the cavern with a deep grating sound. “Ahh ... I wondered … when you would come to face me, seal bearer. Still ... I find you are either brave or very foolish to venture so deeply into ... our lands.” Each word heavy with calculated malice.

But before I could wonder what could make such unearthly sounds, I replied with a cool calm voice that startled me with its unfamiliarity.

“I’m here to make you pay for the thousands that lay dead because of you, monster! You... you even took Briae from me.”

Rage swept through me for the treachery the creature had committed. It felt as if it would burst out of my body by the sheer amount of anger. Out of the dark a rumbling laughter echoed through the cave. It chilled me to my core.

“Briae... Mhmm... I know that name—“

“DON’T YOU DARE SPEAK HER NAME!!” The shout from me echoed through the shadows of the cave. “I will find a way to save her. But your body will lie forgotten in the earth when I do.”

My hand slowly brought out the glow stone, casting light to the small cavern.

With the light now glowing steadily, I lifted my sword and studied the remaining shadows while the red glowing eyes of my target taunted me; its true length only visible enough to hint at its powerful potential. To my guess, the body of the creature alone was more than five meters long, half that wide. And the scales of its thick tail ground over the rock behind it, disappearing into the dark, like its body.

My heart quivered with fear, I could not imagine what thing was in front of me. But to my surprise, my sword arm was steady and ready for the fight.

In the end, I abandoned my attempts of trying to urge my limbs to do my bidding and run. My feet started toward the higher ground, the desired place for the battle that was to come.

Pattering sounds filled the space; the rain buffeted the rock, off to where I knew the entrance to be. Lightning struck outside the cave and thundered into its depths as the storm brewed. Small leaks sprung up at places around me, but its lulling distraction was far from my mind. I tensed my muscles swiftly, and screamed as I charged the dark creature. At the same time its ice blue maw surged into sight followed by a deafening growl.

This was no dream ... it was a nightmare. The worst I ever had.

Sword leading me, my body dodged the first strike of its claws…

Then, everything flashed before my eyes, as if it was being consumed. My mind pulled me away from the battle in the cave. Away from the stranger.

A somewhat familiar voice in the distance brushed at my hearing and I grasped at it …

***

“Calin! Hurry up.”

I sighed with relief, the dark dream was finally done. But when I tried to move, it was certain, it wasn’t over yet.

‘For crying out loud, what is this?’ I tried to hiss with my unresponsive mouth. Yet the thought offered no answers.

I was still unable to move a muscle. Again, all too aware of the strange sensation of being the third party in a body, a more familiar feel of a body, certainly, but something was off about it.

There was no use in wondering about such things in a dream, even if it was by far the most vivid dream I have ever had in my life. The realness of it only confused me. So I straightened up my thoughts and realized I was following a well muscled man with brown hair through a small stone village. His footsteps a steady rhythm, until we stopped at a nearby relatively large stone building. I could hear the sounds of a mill spinning on its endless cycle close by. It was a soothing familiar sound, but why it was familiar bothered me for a moment; I couldn’t recall where I’ve ever heard the sound before.

Not moments later, a man with a great black moustache opened the door and asked with intensity in his voice that chilled me.

“Is it all safe?”

“Yes. But it has gotten worse. We can’t stay here.”

The man with the moustache nodded and beckoned us to come in, his eyes were a vivid amber even in the low light, one could say sunset yellow, which was acutely accentuated by his raven black hair and his pale skin.

On the inside I found an older woman also possibly of Asian heritage with straight black hair. She greeted us warmly. Her smile could put a wolf at ease, and her same, strange amber eyes were filled with kindness. Her arm rested on a boy in his teens who was surely her son. He had the similar striking features as his parents.

The people reminded me of Japanese people with their straight raven hair, but their unearthly pale skin and bright amber-like yellow eyes made me wonder. I have never seen that color eyes before. Not in real life.

My curiosity about the people made me dig through the thoughts of the accompanying mind in the body. What I could discern was, that this small family was the people I trusted the most except for my mother and father.

‘What?!!...’

The thought struck me like lightning, my heart pounded as if it wanted to explode, my father? ‘It couldn’t be. I’m an orphan.’

Confusion churned through me, almost dizzying. I fumbled for answers, but I couldn’t find anything in the confused mind that I was sharing. Though as I was looking for thoughts, I could feel my hand clutch a letter and a small ring in my pocket.

A warmth and longing for my mother took hold of me.

I recoiled, not out of disgust, but rather at the alien concept of it. I was an orphan with no family, not even ones I could remember. But here, now, the lifelike memories of family were inadmissible. My head started spinning. ‘This is just a dream, this is just a dream, Calin, and impossible things come true in dreams. Pull yourself together.’

I tried to forsake the moment, blocking it from thoughts that would hurt me more than anything.

The door burst open and numerous people rushed into the open hall, their faces had grave looks on their faces.

“I’m sorry Darrus, we failed... they knew what route we were going to take. It was an ambush. There were too many of them—”

“Who was it? Wait... where is my wife?!” Darrus shouted.

The man with the moustache grabbed hold of him and Darrus clenched his fist, but held his fury in.

Then one of the men who had come running said, “They wore sand cowls, I’m not sure, it happened too fast.”

“Sand cowls ... the Serath?”

“Those... opportunistic slaving bastards!”

The moustached man patted my ‘Father’s’ shoulder trying to calm him down, saying “I’m sorry Darrus. Look at me. They don’t know she is connected to you. You know just as well as I do, she would rather face slavery than let ‘them’ use you for bringing down the peace of the world around us.”

My body seemed to spasm with fear for my mother, I tried to block it, but uncertainty that oozed from my counterpart drew me in, he didn’t know what slavery meant. The notion was strange to him. I certainly knew what it meant. It was a terrifying thing.

I looked back at the three. My father, Darrus steadied himself, before he said, “I will get her back; mark my words.” He paused with a shuddering breath. “If you are sure it is the Serath, there might still be a chance to get our people back.”

The raven moustached man, whom my counterpart considered like an uncle, nodded in agreement and Darrus said, “Good, but Sabs you have to listen to me, everything has gotten out of hand. But I don’t want to cause more of a panic... I know for a fact the others are coming for me and my son. You know who I’m talking about.” My uncle stiffened, his moustache twitched before he asked, “Them? ... No ... We made sure to lose them in the delta. How did they find you?”

Darrus shook his head and said, “It is very troubling, but they are coming. However, I took some extreme measures to delay their plans, and beside that, I got word that my daughter is safe. If I must fight this battle, we have to see to it, that my son is also in a safe place. If they find him...”

“I know.”

Darrus stood still, deep in thought and said, “Sabs, you’re like an uncle to him. Will you and Margret take care of him while I’m gone?”

The question tugged at me, I looked towards my uncle as he said, “Yes, we will.”

Fear traced across my mind on both sides and I said, “No Dad, don’t go!” Darrus turned towards me and crouched down to comfort me.

Mystified, I realized with clarity I was half the size of the other people in the room, but Darrus quickly broke that line of thought as he said, “I don’t think I’ll be away long, and you will be in good hands with Uncle Sabs and Aunt Margret. They love you as much as I do, never feel alone when you’re with them. And you know what? If you go with them for a while you can spend lots and lots of time with your friend now. That will be fun, won’t it?”

Warmth spread over me as I reluctantly consented, but I was oddly uncomfortable as he took my hand.

Inexplicably, my hand was that of a small boy. This dream was getting out of hand, if it even was a dream anymore, I was so confused. I tried not to dwell on the fact.

Loud bangs reverberated somewhere at the cottages close by, accompanied by shouts and screams.

Darrus hissed something and the other people in the room stormed out of the room. A hand grabbed mine and pulled me through the back door, barring it behind us. The rain was starting to fall more heavily as we ran into the edge of a forest with extraordinarily big trees, I tried to focus on them, but everything flew past us in our escape from the cottage. But close by, there were mad shouts. I guessed with surety our escape had been noted, but my other half was oblivious. I truly didn’t like being an observer.

“Scatter!”

The pursuit was on. Five men took off into the forest, away from our group. I didn’t miss Aunt Margret’s hand tightening around mine as we ran. My lungs burned from the effort, but fear of falling behind kept my body going. Without warning, we ran through a dense line of shrubs and we were enclosed in a narrow dry gorge between two cliffs, there was no break in the run as we pressed forward at a blistering pace.

After a minute or two, the shouts from behind echoed through the chasm, they weren’t far away now, but I realized to my dismay Darrus and my uncle had stopped. It was in a place between two parts of completely different looking forests.

I tried screaming at them to move, but my mouth didn’t move.

Darrus said something to my uncle and the man nodded before my father walked towards me. He crouched as he said,

“Cal... my son, I’m sorry. I have to go now. But do not worry, you’ll probably see me again soon. Know, me and … and your mother love you with all our hearts. I’m sorry this couldn’t be the birthday you deserved, but I will make it up to you next time.” The man paused and looked at me with a face that punched on my heart strings. He got serious, and continued. “But you have to go with them for a while. You will be safe with Uncle Sabs, Promise me that you will stay with them?”

Before I knew it, my body was crying. I could feel the anguish overwhelm my other half. Confusion pulled taught in me as that same moment was ripping at my heart, I didn’t want to part from this man, even if he is just a very painful dream. Then my mouth opened as I reluctantly said, “I promise dad.” And the man threw his arms around me and said, “May the angels watch over you my son.”

Not seconds later, branches broke somewhere close by.

My Aunt grabbed my hand as Darrus moved ahead of our party, right between the different looking forests.

He dropped a hand to the ground and his face pulled into a frown. Then, out of thin air, there seemed to form a silvery wall that was nearly invisible. Odd markings adorned its face. It lit up every now and then over its smooth surface.

Awe infused me at the beautiful display, but at the same time Darrus moved a gloved hand over certain markings, sweat was clearly running down his face, and a look of intense concentration passed over his features. He lost the little colour on his face and he looked ill as he gasped for breath.

Next thing, a soft ping came from the place where he touched last and two bright lines moved away from each other as if breaking the wall apart and the lines rapidly swirled as if thousands of lines were spinning in a circle.

The ping grew louder and louder, almost deafening, as the lines tore away from each other. A massive hole pierced through the churning. Immediately, sounds of the forest were overwhelmed by the strange noise of waves crashing against rocks. My father shouted over the immense noise. “Go! And be safe.”

Aunt Margret dragged me through the gap in the barrier alongside her son, his amber eyes filled with confusion as I passed by him. Several metres away from the hole in the air, I collapsed painfully to my knees, but managed to turn around.

As I looked, it was to my horror that my father was swinging a sword at a hairless man with rust coloured skin dressed in black leather armour. Even in the night, the crimson, red sun on that man’s shoulder was strikingly clear.

My uncle tried to get away from the fighting but couldn’t manage as more of the black armoured men came crashing out of the forest. He ultimately gave up, and turned to stop the oncoming men.

Shadows flickered through the gap in my peripheral vision catching my eye. But a piercing scream demanded my attention.

A part of me feared for my father as I tried to head back, but when I looked again, the gap had closed in the barrier.

The strange forest was gone, completely replaced by a sheer drop off, with a great mass of water stretched all the way to the horizon.

My stomach swirled as I looked at the storm building, with the waves making thunderous crashes against the cliffs below us.

Sheltered from the worst of the storm, there was a small beach hiding from the fury of nature. There were trees growing in the cliff wall, but the height was making my head swim. I tried to step away from the drop and sighed with relief when my counterpart also made the same notion.

I turned and Aunt Margret was also looking back to where the gap in the strange wall should have been, her strong black hair waved in the wind as her striking amber eyes searched for where the forest of trees had been swaying peacefully. But it was all gone. Just the cliff and the stormy sea stood in its place, not even hinting at the place we just came from.

Lightning struck over the sea. Aunt Margret looked around us towards the bushes and whispered something to her boy. Fear flashed in her eyes, but her voice was steady and motherly as she drew her hand through her son’s black hair.

She looked towards me and was reaching towards me, when a fierce wind blew over the edge of the cliff. Fear gripped me as my body was ripped closer to the shear drop off in strong gusts. I tried with all my might to get my body to fall flat, but it was futile.

I was not in control of this body. And so I went over the edge.

The boy rushed forward and grabbed at me, his bright amber eyes burning into my mind, all before there was just the dark grey skies in my sight. An instant later, I was falling, exactly the same way I had been falling in the dreams the past week, but unlike those ones, this time the cold wind rushed past me, gravity demanding that I fall to my death.

A woman shouted out. But the waves crashing against the rocks drowned out my own screams of help.

On my way down I slammed into a thickset of leaves of one of the trees growing on the cliff’s side. Breaking some of my fall, but it was not before I hit my head painfully hard against something.

Everything broke into flashes of water and sand … burning through my mind…

What could have been a long time later, I came to. The waves were beating at my broken form on the beach. The images were blurry. I couldn’t get hold of my senses as I lay there. Somewhere in the dark there was a warm glow of a lantern, or was it a flashlight, I absently wondered. It approached in the distance.

To my muddled perceptions, I could make out three human shaped forms. One of them spoke almost in a whisper.

“I heard a woman screaming up top, but just found blood when I came there, how’s the boy?”

The closest person just stated. “Then take a lad with a gun and see if you can’t find the woman. The young boy over here broke a few bones. Though, the hit on his head is bleeding badly. I have to get him to the hospital. Go ask old Jurik if we can borrow his truck!”

The distant voice grunted a reply and set off, yet it all sounded far away and distorted. I could feel the pain of my body, though it slowly faded as I disconnected from the body.

Then the image shattered again…

***

As the chaos settled and the images formed, I knew I was back in that cave. This was truly a nightmare by now, one I wished desperately I could wake up from.

With great effort, I focused my mind and my arms slammed forward plunging my sword into the creature’s thick hind legs. My heart rushed in excitement as the hunter part of my mind’s exhilaration washed over me after making the blow.

Yet it was but a moment and the good feeling was gone. Pain in my ribs took hold as the creature’s tail connected with my body. I skidded across the ground, but somehow I ignored the pain peculiarly. Yet on several places aches were throbbing badly, this fight had been dragging on. I could feel warm blood flowing from a wound in my upper leg. It was necessary to finish this quickly. I couldn’t handle any more hits. With that, I lunged forward to the now slightly limp monster and dodged its massive claw in a feint and reversed my swing, sinking the blade into the creature’s side and sliced a long gash into it. Everything happened too fast for me to comprehend how the move was possible.

The creature howled with pain and clawed back at my body. I screamed in agony as a claw dug into my already wounded leg, crippling me in the fight. I stumbled away from the monstrous body.

Free, I stood there panting for air, hurting all over. I reached inside my fur coat to feel the extent of the damage. As I brought my hand up, we both in the same mind, was certain too much blood was being lost. The battle would end soon, but the hunter side of me didn’t know if he could win. The great hound of the dark was a most formidable foe, a thought from his mind.

I gritted my teeth and hoped it was not too serious before looking down to watch as the creature watched me with those maleficent eyes from the shadows. The fight would be decided in a few moments. There was a notion of escape. To live to fight another time ...

But that wouldn’t solve anything. Finally, I screamed a war cry alongside the hunter that shared my mind. We lifted the sword ready for what lay before us and charged …

A voice then shouted in the distance and something slapped at my cheek. With a burning effect, I lost the flashing images of the vivid vision …”

“Calin!!!”