Pocket Stories: Dreamer

Prompt: Character has two consecutive dreams come true and then has a nightmare.

Shandra woke in terror, the light from the double moons giving minor relief to the darkness of the forest. She’d tossed and turned all night, cinching her bedroll blanket into a suffocating cocoon around her sweat-soaked body. Panic rose as she struggled to get free, trying to keep quiet so as not to wake Corban, but needing the coolness of the air on her skin to calm her racing heart.


She succeeded in throwing off her blanket, the night air caressing her skin, mocking her with its breath. The darkness knew what was coming, it had to. 


"You okay?”


Corban was awake. 


Her voice shook, “They’re coming for us Corban, and before the day dies, they will have us.” 


Shandra jumped as Corban’s warm hand touched her shoulder.


“Are you sure it wasn’t just a nightmare?”


“My dreams have been coming true, Corban. The last two nights my dreams have come true. Last month I had three dreams in a row come true! I wish that this was simply a nightmare, but it’s not! The Torpean hunters have found our trail and we are lost.” 


“Can we change it? Can we avoid the fate you’ve foreseen?” 


The flame of hope in his eyes broke her. She sobbed into her hands.


He pulled her gently into his arms, and held her, rocking her softly and resting his cheek on her head.


“I refuse to believe that everything is as desolate as you’ve seen,” he said firmly, his grip on her no less gentle than before. “Knowing what you’ve seen, we’ll simply make different choices, go a different path. Now that we know how close they are, we can prepare.”


Shandra lifted her face to look at him. “Prepare for what?”


He smiled at her as he moved a stray hair from her cheek. “Prepare for the end. Either your vision comes, we’re caught, and all is lost, or we fight for the future you can’t yet see and take out the hunters when they least expect it.”


She looked around their camp, and saw how little they had to work with. “What can we use to fight the Torpean? You’ve only your sword and dagger. And I’ve only five arrows left. These are hardly enough to face the Torpean, with their armored scales and scythes.” She shuddered, their last encounter with the hunters vivid in her mind.


“Have hope, Shandra. Stand on your feet, brace your bow, and let’s meet our fate head on.”


Branches snapped in the forest, a large creature was coming towards them at full speed. They scrambled to their feet, grabbed their weapons, and stood fast. 


Shandra drew back her bow and pointed it towards where the crashing grew louder. Without looking at Corban, she said, “Dreams or no, if we live to see the night it will be a miracle.”


The Torpean burst through the treeline, stopping just shy of their meager fire.


Corban swung his sword at the hunter’s neck, “Then let’s make a miracle.”

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