Dreams or Nightmares?

Epione stood at the kitchen countertops prepping the mushrooms and other foraged ingredients for processing for storage but today she happened to stumble upon an area in the forest that was growing grapes. Most of the fruit had been eaten already by the wildlife here as well as the magic folk that lived nearby most importantly the leaves could still be eaten. So, she began to gather a bunch of grape leaves to cook for meals. While she had been picking the grape leaves and some of the untouched fruit. Casimir had managed to catch a few fish using a sharpened stick that he had fashioned through some nearby materials.

They had to quickly return back home as breakfast needed to be prepared for the children to eat before they woke up. Fortunately, for Epione, Casimir had already gutted and descaled the fish. Casimir decided to lead the breakfast making as he began making a simple fish pie out of the ingredients that were available to them; fish, potatoes, and the grape leave that Epione had blanched so that it could be used as a wrap for the fish pie or a side dish. The rest of the grape leaves were made into a side dish in a vinegar solution so that they could ferment during the spring and it would be ready for the hot summer. The children's room began making noise as all the children woke up as they quickly rushed to ready themselves, arguing amongst themselves about who would use the bathroom first.

It was honestly a hassle for the children to have to separate themselves to use between the girls and the boys. Epione began to take care of the littlest of them to change the nappy and clothes. The children all began to do chores without Epione asking since they all wanted to contribute to the household. The older ones began caring for the goat; cleaning, feeding and milking. The younger ones began watering the garden and occasionally picking the ripe fruits and vegetables. Epione began cleaning the room from clothes and any dust that remained in the house while Casimir began setting up the table ready to eat.

The children quickly returned back into the house with their harvest in hand giving it to Epione to process for usage in the coming days. The goat milk just needed to be filtered from any goat hair that managed to slip past so the children could drink. The rest was used for Eloise who was slowly beginning to transition to solid food but mainly had milk. Epione mashed a bit of the potato and milk together to get a paste-like consistency before she fed her. However, it was flung around before it entered her mouth as she was trying to grab onto Epione. It wasn't too much of a mess since it was quickly cleaned up with a wet rag before she returned to the task at hand to feed baby Eloise.

Soon, the children were taken by the nymphs and dryad to learn about the survival and the dangers of the forest. Epione was left behind with the baby who was left to her own devices with some toys to play with while she cleaned up. Casimir went to supervise the baby as she began banging the toy against the ground and occasionally putting the toy in her mouth. A small sprite appeared before her in a playful manner before multiple more surrounded Casimir and the littlest causing an onslaughter of magic folk to burst through the door. These disturbances have occurred much more ever since the blackened figure appeared. They felt the warmth of safety that glowed from these three. but Chim had managed to scare off the major bulk of them. Once the house was devoid of any magic folk thus he began to settle itself in between the living room and kitchen.

As soon as Epione had finished cleaning up it wasn't long before she sat on one of the chairs in the living room to have some shut-eye. Despite being a person from the magic race she didn't require to sleep often. But, she had begun feeling much more exhausted as of late. Everything that she had to do exerted more energy than usual. It didn't take long before Epione fall asleep on the chair. Instead, she was now plunged into the dream world where the subconscious lay awake in front of her. Dreams were often said to be colourful, whimsical, and out-of-this-world weird but the dream that she was experiencing was gray.

However, this dream was devoid of colour, whimsy elements, and reality bound. The dream was set in a quaint village that was happy and cheerful. The people's voices seemed to echo weird which disoriented her greatly. Her body rushed her towards a magnificent mansion which was bound in that same village but it was much more homely and quiet. She saw a little girl being carried by a woman rushing into the mansion which Epione followed. This scene was familiar to her somehow. She watched the woman hurrying the child to his in a secret compartment in the wall of a spare room. She watched the woman run away so Epione phased through the wall to watch the small child quietly sitting in the room.

Absolutely frightened to move ever slightly which could reveal her location to whatever was coming for her. It wasn't long before she heard the muffled sound of voice beyond the hidden room. Screams of the little girl's mother and father echoed loudly from outside her room which only frightened the little girl. The little girl could only weep helplessly as she was paralysed with fear. The door of the hidden space was smashed through as the girl could only stay where she was taken away from her parents. They were battered to the ground screaming for their child. That was the end of that vision.

There was another one where the little girl had grown up wearing beautiful clothes with eyes that were devoid of any shiny in them. It was devastating to see the girl in such a state. People were punishing the little girl but there was a common occurrence with an older man with blonde hair casting a spell. There was a sense of intense fear and hatred for this man. It was a heinous spell that was used to enslave magic folk. An onslaught of memories flooded into her mind completely overwhelming her; ones of pain, sorrow, loneliness, oppression, and helplessness. There was another vision where the father of the girl had run away from the little girl as if in a hurry, abandoning her. It left a painful sting in her heart, emptying her hollow heart. However, before she could be shown any more memories, "Epione!" Her body was whipped out of the dream world bringing her back to the conscious world where Casimir was gently shaking her, "Are you okay? You were crying in your sleep." Epione was puzzled as to why she was crying. She began wiping the tears away with her sleeve as if it had never happened.

The little one cooed for Epione as a way to comfort Epione in her own way, "I don't know." Taking the child from Casimir's arms, "I can't remember much but I think some of my memories are returning." Her mind was staggered from the onset of memory recovery but it was painful, to say the least. Her head began throbbing painfully as the pain of memories coming back was agonisingly increasing the memories were scrambled but Epione couldn't tell. Before any harm befalls the child in her arms she handed her to Casimir who was visibly worried about her. She could only recount the memories based on what came to her. These memories were filled with loneliness, pain, suffering, and abandonment. She couldn't handle it. Epione quickly returned the littlest one to Casimir before getting out of the house, staggering along the way. As soon as she got into the forest she began to fly at full speed albeit her flying pattern was hazardous to herself.

She would carelessly fly into trees, and rogue foliage that she couldn't see since her vision was hindered by the pain of her headaches. Epione could barely see the healing pond that was in the distance before she crashed and landed in the lake trying to soak in the healing properties of the water. However, this time it didn't seem to work at all. The pain seemed to overpower the healing power of the lake. It just hurt. There was nothing but blinding pain that overwhelmed Epione who could only whimper in pain trying to muffle the screams that would erupt if she didn't suppress them. The pain was so much that Epione could only lay her head on a rock, trying to breathe as shallow as possible to offset as much pain as possible. She could only endure the pain. That was all her body knew what to do.

Obviously, the pain of the horrible memories caused a searing pain in her heart. Continuing to lay in the lake's water with her silent cries. She looked as if she were a banshee. A well-known female spirit from the Éire shores whose cry beckoned the death of a member in the house that it dwelled in. Many would flee at the sound of a banshee's cries as if to avoid the misfortune of attracting death at the doors of their homes. But, she was not one. A halfen High Fairy who was of mixed blood in distress in the water abode of a healing lake to relieve herself from her affliction.

______________

In the magic realm where a small child was playing with a small magical orb that was swirling with magic inside with the occasional memory playing before him. Idris had grown up from the crawling baby to a toddler who missed Epi dearly, wanting to try to find her in the mortal realm. However, his mother had forbidden him to since he was still young. Though he didn't have a full compression as to why he couldn't go he knew that it was for his own safety. Despite missing Epione very much he would often play with this magic orb which contained a portion of the magic energy that Epione possessed. It was very warm and it would constantly cause him to fall asleep.

Idris began to think about training his magic so that he could become stronger and could adventure to the mortal realm like his big sister Epi. Bore out of his mind. He used the magic orb as a training vessel to strengthen his magic skills, flicking and juggling it into the air. But, the training exercise that was given to him by Sir Oskar was tedious and boring was being agonisingly boring, "Idris! How you completed the training that I tasked you with," Sir Oskar called out to Idris. Speak of the devil. Idris continued with the mindless exercise in his mother's artifact room, "Idris!" Sir Oskar's deep voice resounded against the wall of the room as he found Idris playing with the artifact again. But, once he saw that Idris was playing with that magic orb that contained Epione's memories.

Sir Oskar's face turned pale as he quickly tried to retrieve the magic orb accidentally causing Idris to lose focus on the magic exercise. Ultimately, Idris dropped the magic orb against the ground which caused it to shatter. Multiple wisps of memories fluttered out from the shattered orb. Sir Oskar managed to contain some of the memories in a barrier of his own but there were memories that had escaped to find their rightful owner, "Oh, that can't be good." Idris went to look at Sir Oskar whose face that was previously pale had contorted into absolute fury as he began lecturing Idris.

Sir Oskar's lecture continues into the early morning when Idris' parents who were shocked to find that Idris was being lectured for so long, "Oskar, I'm sure that Idris didn't mean it." Hel tried to stop Oskar from continuing his lecture into the night. Hel was very laidback but remember that Idris loved to play with Epione memory orb and that didn't spell anything good.

Sir Oskar, on the other hand, wasn't so laidback and was livid. This was such a rare instance where Oskar would display such emotions, "Don't you realise that this memory orb was the only thing that was helping her!" He blasted out as he was unable to contain his emotions, "She was burdened with such a brutal past that completely destroyed her being!" He did not realise that he was releasing a malevolent aura that was both suffocating and oppressing to all that was surrounding him, especially to Idris who was feeling so guilty for playing with something that was detrimental to Epi.

Hel could only hold back her word since she had warned Idris not to play with the memory orb but he decide to disregard her words, "Oskar, retain yourself." She tried to get Osakr to reel back his aura which was starting to have an effect on her. Though Oskar was not in his prime state. This only showed how much power he possessed. If this occurred back in his prime his aura would have much more detrimental results, completely obliterating the entire tree that they were living in.

Thankfully, another person came and it was Coltide. She began to make preparation on a barrier over all the Phoneix members before approaching Osakar who was amidst his anger. She began to proceed to Oskar down through some soothing magic that was having an effect began she saw what was in Oskar's hands. She completely understood what had caused his anger. So, she began to help him calm down by slapping him across the face to bring him back to reality which proved to be very effective. Oskar began to realise what he had done and bounced away on his griffin holding the broken shards, "I'm sorry about Sir Oskar." She began helping the Phoneix members up but Hel brushed this incident off knowing full well that this was expected.

Hel picked up her child from the ground who was previously pressed into the ground, "The fault is with me." She felt bad knowing that those bad memories that had been released would return to Epione, "It was my responsibility to have it placed the orb in a spot that was safeguarded properly." She was blissfully ignorant of her past, living her life contently. But, now that was going to change now.