Erlems

The two were quiet for the remainder of the trip back to the Gnob, all Erlem could think about were all the children traveling with that caravan and how they were all killed without conscience. Maybe the Magestrate and the Capitol were the same, maybe he didn't want to go to the Citadel. When they made it home they were excited for the food they had gathered, Daisy made a sea food stew and Erlem ate at least three bowls before getting into his night clothes and collapsing into his bed and passing out.

Daisy sat in a black night gown just looking into the stove fire, the brutality she saw from the Magestrate was unbelievable. They decimated the caravan because of the few injured soldiers, now she was almost positive the Magestrate was going to be the new power of the realm and perhaps it was safe to go to the citadel through the mages path. Was the risk worth it? What if the citadel had been destroyed after Autumnveil.

Questions plagues Daisy's mind, she didn't want to lead Erlem to danger, and she knew she could not leave him alone, he was talented but his likely-hood to survive would be almost zero without someone to guide him. It would take at least a month on foot to make it through the mages path, the mountains were treacherous, and the creatures that inhabited the area were blood thirsty, the Mages themselves tended to use other means to travel to the Citadel. Daisy put the idea to the back of her mind, even if the citadel was there, there was no guarantees that the road back to Autumnveil would be kind to magical travelers. The war, for all she knew was still in full swing, unaware that Magestrate, one one night wiped the capitol off the face of the map and was poised to become the new ruling regime, neither did she know that something must worst was starting to seed deep in the savage lands.

Erlems dreams were chaotic, he would see the faces of the children playing the game he so wanted to take part in, then he saw a mangle black willow tree on top of a nearby hill, the caravan exploded behind him as he ran towards it, the green meadow began to twist and change, Erlem's feet began to sink into the mud that he was certain was dry dirt before-hand. The hill became a black bog, swarms of devil-crows flocked above, he opened his mouth to scream but a crow muffled his voice as it made its way out of his mouth. Like a volcano erupting a never ending flood of crows exited Erlems mouth for what seems like hours. His chest felt heavy like someone was sitting on his chest, he realized he was no longer stuck in the mud, rather he was now suspended in the air, he looked at the bog beneath him and realized what was suspending him, a limb that had branches resembling fingers had him by the collar and was suspending him over the gaping razor toothed maw of the black willow. This time he let out a loud high pitched scream waking up Daisy below him. She jolted awake and jumped into a defense position, her hands were glowing with arcane power, she was ready to blow the intruder into smithereens.

"Erlem are you ok!" Her face was fierce, ready, " yea, um sorry, I had a nightmare." Erlem said, obviously shaken, he didn't move, he just tried to make sense of what had just happened " are you sure?" Daisy had softened her body language and even her voice reflected a more mother like tone, " yea, it was just a nightmare." It may have been just a nightmare but it shook Erlem, it felt too weird to be a dream, maybe it was just a nightmare brought on by the stress of the days activities.

The next morning Erlem rolled out of bed to find more crab soup and some berry juice sitting at his spot at the table.

Daisy hadn't gone back to sleep after Erlem's dream, rather she added some more protective charms around the Gnob and made some juice and wine, she also found some non poisonous mushrooms and a couple squirrels in one of her traps. She also discovered there were birds they could hunt that hid in the trees during the day and came out at night, she called them un-pheasants, they were close to a normal pheasant except they enjoyed mimicking the growls of more dangerous creatures or even making creepy sounds as you come up on them to try and scare you off. Even Daisy stayed out of the forest after dark because of the mysterious sounds that came from the shadows.

She had managed to trap a couple once she realized the dangerous creatures were pheasants the size of turkeys who liked to hide in the holes of the large trees that inhabited the forest. The addition of un-pheasant to their list of proteins was a small comfort in itself. She wondered how big the eggs were and if she could find any how did they taste, she'd love an omelet.

"Did you sleep well?" Daisy asked with a bit of caution in her voice " you gave me quite the scare" she gave a little chuckle, " must been a whopper of a nightmare, tell me, was it the caravan?" Erlem didnt really want to dive into his memory of the dream and relive the experience, even as a dream it left shivers down his spine. " It was nothing just a nightmare." Erlem ate in silence, Daisy sensed Erlem Didn't want to talk about his nightmare, the poor boy had seen so much carnage in the last few weeks it was expected his dreams to be unpleasant, the trauma he had endured was a lot for a little boy to have experienced.

The pair opted not to leave the security of their forest for a while, with the addition of un-pheasant and the crab meat Daisy magically preserved, their interest in finding different cuisine did not out weigh there fear of the war going on around them.

The next week or so in gnob was quiet, nothing really happened, at night Erlem would have the same nightmare except sometimes he'd see Stanley's arrow filled body hanging lifeless against the wall he had been pinned to.

Thirteen nights in a row Erlem awoke screaming, and every morning Daisy asked him about his nightmare, on the fourteenth night the nightmare was different. It would usually begin with Erlem watching the children pass by before being blown to smithereens or he'd watch Stanley's body be filled with arrows, then the tree would appear and pick him up and drop him into its gaping maw then he would wake up. This time the tree let loose a few thrashes at his back before dropping him, Erlem could feel a sting like fire run across his back, he let out a yelp in pain as the tree dropped him into its mouth once again.

He woke up this time to Daisy holding him, looking up at her, his eyes full of tears and a burning pain along his back he cried out " make it stop!" He screamed as the pain intensified " my back! My back" he cried and began trying to rip his night shirt off. Daisy was frozen momentarily, she was confused, Erlem was struggling as she held him, writhing in agony, crying in pain. She let the boy boy and watch as he tore his clothes off, there she saw it, even in the dim glow of the fires dying embers she could see what was clearly a large "X" slashed into his back. Daisy wasted no time and began to cast a healing charm on Erlem, he whimpered in pain, at first the wound fought the white healing light of the charge, Daisy poured more of her life force into the spell and after a few moments the pain had started to subside and the wound began to close. She continued to run the spell for an hour, until she concluded the "x" shaped scar across his back could not be removed. "This was dark magic, very dark, to be able to physically harm you in the dream world is beyond the powers all of the known studies of magic. This is a bad Omen Erlem, we need to find someone who can help us read this omen." Looking confused Erlem wanted to know more about Omens, why had he been "omened". " what can we do, i don't want to be killed in my dreams!" Daisy wasn't really sure, only the most gifted Autumn mages were trained to read omens, and the few that could resided in the citadel, only an omen reader could interpret this omen and remove the dark magic from Erlem's life force.