Content Warning: None

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Ruki awoke suddenly, finding herself alone in her room. She looked outside her window and around her room. There were no remnants of a shadow or a red sky; she saw nothing wrong. She let out a sigh of relief; the nightmare had left her in a cold sweat. She hadn’t remembered ever having that bad of a nightmare before. She slowly got out of bed and changed out of her nightgown and into her favorite pink blouse. She went over to her mirror and brushed her chestnut brown hair wondering what her nightmare meant. When she finished dressing she went out into the dining room to find her brothers and mother eating breakfast.

“Hey Ruki, you better hurry up and eat your breakfast, dad needs your help in the stable.” Her brother Rook said as she entered the room.

Rook was only a couple of years older than Ruki and was one of the closest people she had to her. When they were younger Ruki and her brothers, Red and Rook, used to play in the fields, forests and rivers together. They always spent their time together and were inseparable. Red (who is two years older than Ruki and the youngest son of the family) and Ruki both looked up to Rook who was a few years older than them as he was always around the farm. When Red left the farm to go train to become a ranger Ruki was so hurt by his departure that she stayed in her room for three weeks and cried. She felt like Red had abandoned her at the farm and embarked on the adventure that they always talked about sharing together without her.

She yearned for an adventure everyday; just an experience different than the farm she had spent her entire life on. Ruki had eventually returned to an image of herself with Rook’s help. She had become very dependent on him for he had always been there for her. Her second oldest brother Rall (who is 29) was also sitting at the table and had always spent time with his wife and kids, who stayed in the east wing of the house, and Ruki’s father. Rall’s dream was to follow in Rex’s footsteps to raise a farm with his family. He would be the one that their father would pass the farm off to since the oldest son, Ryke, left their farm when he was sixteen.

Ruki sat down and worked on her breakfast. She couldn’t stop thinking about the shadow in her dream and the smell of death that permeated throughout the air around it.

“Are you okay Ruki you seem a little out of it dear, do you want me to make you some Kaliga tea?” Irema asked. (Kaliga tea was the go-to medicinal treatment for any light sicknesses such as headaches, upset stomachs etc.)

“Im fine mother, just a little tired that’s all.”

“Okay sweetie, you just let me know if father’s working you too hard and I’ll set him straight.” As her mother said that she let out a little chuckle.

Ruki sat down, finished her breakfast, cleaned her meal up, gave her mom a kiss and then hurried to the stable where her dad was waiting for her.

Rex had just finishing brushing the horses in the stable when Ruki arrived. “Someone must have had a good night sleep,” he said as he turned and smiled at Ruki.

Ruki walked up to Rex and hugged him saying, “Good morning daddy, sorry I overslept. Mom told me that you had a lot of work for me today.”

“Well”, Rex paused for a second as he looked towards the house and then back at Ruki in a sly way, “Hehe don’t tell your mother but I told her that so you could spend time with your new present.”

He smiled and pointed to a stall in the back of the stable. Ruki’s light brown eyes were filled with surprise and joy as she rushed over to the end stall. Inside the stall she saw the most beautiful horse she had ever laid eyes upon. It was an elegant white colt whose white mane shone as bright as the stars at night. The horse seemed to glow in her presence. Ruki approached the front of the stall and the horse put its head out for her to touch. She put her hand on the horse’s snout and felt the warmth of the horse. A familiar sensation, as if she had known this horse for many years, ran through her when in reality she had only actually met it today.

Rex opened the stall as Ruki pet the horse and hugged it. The horse was very well behaved and let Ruki pet and hug it as much as she pleased. Ruki could feel the horse’s presence radiate beside her as if she could feel its life force. Rex saddled up the horse and encouraged Ruki to get on. Ruki was a very good rider, when she was little Rex often took her riding alongside him in the fields on smaller horses and other animals. Ruki always had a way with animals; it was like her presence comforted them.

Before she mounted the horse she ran over to Rex and gave him a huge hug.

“Thank you, thank you, I love you so much daddy.”

Rex helped her mount the horse, watching the smile on his daughters face.

“Now I can’t let you ride an unnamed horse, so what’s his name?”

Ruki thought for a second, “I have the perfect name, his name is Anthiros. It means one who glows in the night.”

“That’s a perfect name for him, now go play for a bit while I work on the crops, but don’t go outside of the tree line okay.”

“Okay daddy I will, thank you!”

She then rode away atop the majestic steed. As she rode Anthiros her chestnut brown hair blew in the wind, she felt as though she was floating over the open pasture. She felt like this was a dream, she had been asking her dad for her own horse for a while but she thought that she would get one of the work horses, not a horse as beautiful as this. She was so happy that she couldn’t stop giggling as she told Anthiros to go full speed. It was strange, she felt as if she was connected with Anthiros. She felt her heartbeat and Anthiros’s heartbeat beat as one. It felt like she belonged riding Anthiros for the rest of her life.

***

He was in a fight for his life, in the middle of the night under the starlit sky on some sort of flying beast. The beast looked as if it was a giant hawk with yellowish fur. He heard the clashing of swords until he realized that he was the cause. He was in the middle of combat with someone or to put it correctly he was watching himself fight from above. On one side of the fight was his black-haired self and on the other side was a person he didn’t recognize, it was a slim women who had short black hair and eyes that looked as metallic as the two swords she was wielding. Although he was watching himself fight, he still felt himself fighting as well. It was as if he had split himself into two bodies yet he could control both of his bodies at the same time.

However the body that was fighting mostly moved on its own, taking control whenever he was in trouble. He continued blocking his opponent’s attacks and counter-attacking his opponent as the fight grew to its climax. Then all of a sudden he felt himself falling; he was utterly confused at this point. 'What in the world is going on?' He had been watching himself fight but didn’t remember ever falling off of the animal he was fighting on or seeing himself fall.

He looked down as he fell and saw nothing but darkness. He only now noticed that he had lost the body that he was watching himself with and was now in full control of the body that was once fighting, whatever good that would do him. He felt lost, he felt cold, and he felt helpless. His eyes adjusted to the darkness and he soon saw the ground approaching. He yelled and put his hands up to shield himself from the impact that would occur for what little it could do, all while realizing that this was going to be the end of his life. But who was he, he couldn’t remember who he was, as this thought hit him he slammed into the ground, surrounded by darkness.

He jerked awake. He was sweating profusely and his heart felt like it was going to beat out of his chest. He looked up and saw a wooden roof; he then sat up and noticed that he was in a strange room and had bandages all over his body. He peeked under the sheets that covered his lower body and saw more bandages and that he was wearing a pair of cloth underwear. He examined multiple bruises that were all over his body along with multiple cuts on his torso and a particularly deep cut on his right side.

He reached up and felt a piece of cloth on his forehead. He then looked upon some of the scars on his body wondering where they came from; he had no recollection of ever getting them. Come to think of it, he had trouble recalling anything except his dream. He frantically looked around the room and saw a bureau across the room along with a reading chair and a side table next to the bed he was in. There was a bucket of hot water on the side table next to the bed. He looked out of the window above the bureau and saw a field of crops ending at a tree line in the distance. It was daylight, but he had no idea where he was or what this place was.

As he started to panic the door to his right slowly opened. He sat still readying himself for anything.

“Oh sorry to startle you, I didn’t know you were awake dear, how are you feeling?” the woman who walked in smiled and asked him.

He just stared at her thinking if he recognized anything about her. She had light brown hair and was wearing a light blue blouse. She gave off a comforting feeling which helped him relax a little but not enough to feel perfectly safe. He thought to himself ‘What the hell is going on? Where am I? And who is she?’ He analyzed the woman as she was carrying clothes and linens in her arms. He had no idea who she was.

“I understand your confusion, Im just going to leave these clothes on the chair and you can ask me questions when you’re ready okay?” she said as she stood at the bedside.

He managed to nod at her as she went and placed the clothes on the reading chair. She was about to walk out of the room when he managed to speak up and ask “Umm…excuse me…but who are you?”

She turned around and replied, “ My name is Irema.”

He then asked her in a confused tone, “ W-wh-where am I?”

“You are inside my youngest boys room right at the moment since it wasn’t being used for anything, oh, well I guess you may not even know what region you’re in, sorry. You are in the northwestern region of Dysi and this is my husband’s farm.”

She paused for a moment then said, “If I could ask, do you remember how you came to be at our farm?”

“I-I-Im not sure, I don’t remember anything. I don’t even remember the scars that are on my body” he replied looking at her as if she had the answers.

The woman named Irema looked puzzled, “Do you remember your name or where you come from? How about your age?” she asked him.

“My name?”

He then thought to himself, ‘My name? Whats my name?’

He stared with a blank look at Irema as he sat in shock, silent as he came to the realization that he had no recollection of who he was. The only thing he could remember was the dream he had dreamt but it didn’t make any sense. Tears started to slowly roll down his cheek, these tears surprised him, he didn’t mean to cry but various emotions were erupting within his mind at this very moment. He tried to wipe them away but he couldn’t hold them back, he then felt a mixture of sadness and anger well up from within him.

“Its alright sweetie, I’m going to get my husband, I want you to stay right here okay, we’ll figure this all out” Irema said as she tried to comfort the boy a little before she turned, closed the door and left the room.

The boy just sat there with tears rolling down his face, everything was unknown to him, even himself. After a while he managed to get his emotions under control and tried to sort out who he was or who his family was. In the corner of his eye he saw a sign of movement outside which caught his attention, it was a girl riding a horse that seemed to be glowing. It was as if he was in a dream as the girl and the horse glided across the field, shining brightly from the suns rays as they went.

He watched the girl go back and forth through the field outside. Her brown hair was flowing in the wind behind her; he felt somewhat at ease as he watched her. He wondered who she was; he had so many unanswered questions in his mind.