Dreams

A brutal battlefield, countless corpses piled up all over the place. Dismembered and torn bodies of knights, mages, and monsters matched the whole destroyed scene of a war. A river of blood flowed through the ground from the lifeless bodies.

I could smell the metallic scent of blood, that mixture of odors chilled my body. I didn't feel disgust, but ecstasy. That feeling was indescribable.

[Come on, we're not done yet, devour them all.]

A voice echoed inside my mind, I looked to the sides in response, I see only a man in damaged armor stained with blood and dirt, his body was shaking as he brandished his broken sword towards me. He was protecting some people on the ground, who could only crawl through the mud and blood, it was desperate.

"MONSTER!"

His shout directed at me, maybe he was right, my body was covered in blood and pieces of my enemies, who were allies of the poor soldier.

"I'm still hungry…"

My voice was different, it was as if a monster spoke for me. It whispered in the deepest place of my mind, inducing me to devour everyone, I was losing control with each passing second, hunger was consuming me from the inside out.

I had to satisfy myself.

Walking towards the survivors of the massacre, the sound of their screams and cries were the symphony that made the monster enjoy that destruction.

Then I wake up, this dream again.

I wake up in tears, sweating as if I had run for miles, lifting the blanket, I notice a small puddle on my bed. I remember that moment vividly, I know I have never experienced that moment, even more from the monster's perspective, but the language was the same as Idera, this new world, this was frightening.

Since a few nights ago, I had this nightmare, the same scene, but I had the reaction of vomiting, it was horrible. I ran to my parents' room, I couldn't think straight, but that scene gave me the creeps and made my stomach churn.

The smell of the dead, the blood, the men's cries of pain and the creatures' grunts, it was all too real.

I didn't have the heart to say that I dreamed of being a monster that devoured people, it was an unthinkable thing for a child who had never seen evil up close. Despite everything, I had to make myself normal, it was hard, but I managed most of the time.

It was still dawning, the sun rays were weak. Today, I will go into town for the first time with my mother, we will go to the central library of the neighboring town, there I will be able to research a lot about the world. I tried to forget this for now, today was a special day.

My mother works as a cartographer, she is making a map of the southern part of the kingdom, where we live. It seems to be a big job, years she has been working on it, precisely describing the routes and scale of the towns, villages, and counties.

I left my room, going downstairs and into the living room, my mother was there, preparing breakfast with the things she bought at the fair yesterday, her smile was the most beautiful in the world.

"Good morning! My son, wash up and come eat, I'm already making the coffee."

"Mom…"

Shame on me, I would have to tell him that I wet the bed again, however I didn't have to, thank the gods, my wet pajamas were already reporting what happened to me.

"You're a little boy now, you have to learn to go to the bathroom before you go to sleep," my mother said as she petted me.

Shame, the only thought going through my head, was stronger than me, mom. She took me to the bathroom at the back of the house, there was a big wooden bucket we used as if it were a bathtub, how sad that there was no running water.

I ended up taking a quick shower, before even finishing, Mom had already brought me some clean clothes, a simple set of shorts with a sleeve shirt. I put on the change of clothes and bundled up to the living room, Scott was already waiting at the table attacking the food.

"Good morning, son! A true warrior doesn't wet his bed at night."

Shame, how embarrassing, even my father makes fun of that.

"It's normal at that age, Scott, don't make jokes, you wet your bed until you were seven, your brother always tells you that."

Scott had a taste of his own joke, he was clumsy and reacted only with coughs. Martha was the quickest to defend me, I love being spoiled by her.

But that situation soon became a joke between us over coffee, we laughed and ate a lot.

[…]

We were on the way to the city, but the trip is taking longer than expected. We are in the wagon of a merchant friend of the family, luckily, he is taking some goods to town as well, things like wheat, grains, and other dry foodstuffs.

Even with the detours and being stopped by guards, it would not take more than half a day. Recognizing the scenery of the journey was a great pastime against boredom, the density of the houses changed as we moved away from the interior, small villages began to be more frequent, some old men greeted us along the way.

After a few hours we arrived at the main entrance of the neighboring town, Ugrad, the town was a connection point between the countryside and the other towns. Many people I see naturally come to Ugrad to shop or sell their goods and services, so it was quite familiar.

"We have arrived, Mrs. Lancaster, as our route diverges quite a bit, I will have to drop you off here"

We thanked them for the ride and made an appointment at the same place for the return as soon as the afternoon started to arrive.

"The city is very busy, Mom," I said, and really, for a boy who lives isolated from the big centers, it was something new.

"Surely, John, you need to see when it's harvest month, you can barely get between people."

It was a town between towns and quite busy, lots of vendors and potential buyers, bargaining and negotiating prices. The entrance to the town was like a fair, various products, grains, fruits, vegetables, animals, and every category of food was being sold. It was around 11 a.m., a time when sales were about to slow down.

Holding my mother's hand, we crossed the busy main avenue, always stopped by some salesman with an offer we couldn't refuse, we gave in a few times, they were good at their job of persuasion.

"Son, this here is the merchants' square, you see that big building, that's where Mom works", Martha said, she pointed to a structure, it was like a two-story house.

The building had a sign over its entrance, "Merchants' Association", that was the southern branch of the kingdom, who knew my mother worked in such an important institution.

"Is that that Association that Mrs. talked about before? That exists all over the kingdom?"

Her eyes sparkled at my question, she began to explain numerous things about this affiliation, making everything clearer. The Merchants' Association was like a union between the main vendors and merchants of the whole kingdom, they created rules, pacts and other policies, always aiming to improve their work and consequently their profits.

It seems that the practice of associations is quite common, there is even one of the adventurers, but there isn't one in this city, I would like to have known it. However, the place I really came to know was the Ugrad Library, the main point of our little trip.