A Horrible Dream

I told Will about my oath and his eyes widened in astonishment. His face turned pale.

"Do... do you even know what you are saying?"

"I know and understand it very well. I mean my every syllable." I firmly said, without any glint of hesitation and regret. I didn't regret it. I never will.

"Now, you need rest. Come to the cabin, please." I urged and he was just looking at me with utter disbelief. As if his soul had left his body.

"Get some rest, Will" I said again and he finally his consciousness returned. He stood up and offered his hand to help me get up. I gladly took the gesture.

"Adrian, I don't expect you to fulfill your promise, but... I will always be grateful to you." he said and we headed to our cabin.

The day was very exhausting. I was longing to see my not-so-comfortable bed. It's been three weeks since I first entered this valley. In these days, this place has become my new home, a fact I had always tried to neglect. When I am here, I feel an invisible force that's protecting this valley. Isabella had told me that monsters try to invade this place all the time, but non of them has ever succeeded in doing so...except... the Lydian drakon. The monster who tried to kill me during Monster Fight.

I and Will were already in our cabin. I laid down on my bed and the weariness of the day finally overpowered my body's capacity. I closed my eyes and drifted into sleep immediately.

I had a dream. A HORRIBLE dream. A dream that changed my whole life and made me like I am today. I don't know if I hadn't slept that night something would have changed, but I still blame that night for my upcoming hardships.

This dream was different. I didn't dream about the chained man. I wasn't in the pitch black place this time, but it wasn't better either.

I was somewhere, I couldn't even dream of (okay... I AM dreaming, but try to understand my feelings). The place was so frightening that I was sure the God of Death would have looked like a cute puppy compared to this.

All around me was a river, of... FIRE! It had blazing red flames instead of water. The river was flowing with it's full might. It seemed...angry. It's rage was so intense that even in dream, I began to shudder. My legs trembled, but I somehow managed to keep myself standing.

I looked up, hoping to see the clear, blue sky above, but what met my eyes was just so nightmarish. Instead of blue sky, there was endless darkness, however hard I try, I couldn't see it's end. It was limitless.

I seemed to be on the only piece of land in the midst of the furious river. The land I was standing on was hot. So hot that standing on it was near to impossible.

I tried to look beyond the river, but my eyes refused to do so. The flames of the river prevented me from seeing anything beyond them. Just by trying to see, my eyes began to burn. I immediately looked away.

What was this? Why was I feeling all this? I am in a dream, right? I tried to calm myself. But my heart was racing as if it wanted to plunge into the fiery river.

Then... I saw someone on the other side of the small piece of land. A girl, probably fourteen years old. A teenage girl with dark brown hair, which have lost all its shine. She looked so thin that anyone could mistake her for a skeleton. Her clothes were tattered to an extent that I couldn't look at her without feeling like a pervert. Her hands were shakled. Heavy chains crept along her thin feet. She was lying unconscious on the ground. Her face was severely burnt and had almost become lifeless. It was evident that she hadn't eaten a thing for almost a month. She looked like a living dead. How was she even alive? But despite all this, she had this faint glow on her face that was difficult to explain, but that too, seemed to be fading away.

I walked near the girl and I realized that her condition was way more serious than it seemed before. How she could have lived so far? There was no way anyone could have withstood such harsh conditions.

I crouched next to the girl and tried to wake her up, but my hands wouldn't move. Something... someone was preventing me from touching her.

When I resisted the force, an invisible energy hit me and I stumbled few meters back.

There seemed to be a protective force around the girl.

And then...