The Beast Within
Chapter Thirty-Seven – Anya
Leela folded her hands and studied Janik's daughter, Anya, who stood by the fire and fiddled with the small clay dolls absent-mindedly. The girl seemed fairly young, definitely no more than at the age of 20. With olive skin, charcoal dark hair, hazel brown eyes and the light purple flower clipped just above the ear, her youthful features had certain beauty in them. However, she did not seem to notice anyone around them. She simply stared blankly at the toys, with a dreamy smile hanging on her face.
Something indeed wasn't right there.
"She looks like a love-sick child." Whispered Kaelyn by the air genasi's ear.
Janik had every reason to worry. When they met the worry stricken farmer outside the gate, it was exactly what was written on his weathered face.
Yet Gannayev's reaction seemed genuine. He really had no idea what this farmer was talking about. His dark eyebrows were in knots. There was a mixture of panic and bewilderment quickly flickering through his velvet blue eyes.
"Have we met?" The blue hagspawn gave him an arched eyebrow, arms folding: "I expect nothing from the farmers of Rashemen except the fact and tone you show me now. Rest easy, for I am not here to share a roof - nor will I ever again, with such a reception."
The farmer growled, almost launched himself toward the dreamwalker upon hearing his words. Leela and the others had to hold his arms and refrain the old man from doing anything rash.
"Curse you! Damn you!" Cursed the farmer, with eyes nearly budged out of his eye sockets: "Expect no hospitality from me, now or ever, dog. I offered you all this, and you took the stable... and ran your sickly claws through my daughter's mind!"
"Perhaps," Said the air genasi through her gritted teeth, trying her hardest to wrestle with a man who was a lot masculine than she was: "You can explain how this was happened in the first place? Obviously my companion had no recollection what was going on…"
"No recollection?" The old farmer was now shouting on the top of his head: "How convenient! Consider the hells he had put me through! My precious girl, my dearest's daughter! You…you sick, sick, bastard! They were right; I shouldn't have even opened the door! I should let you freeze to dead outside!"
"For your information, old man, you were very keen to let me in as soon as I showed you some coins!" Snarled the dreamwalker.
"Ahah!" Sneered the farmer: "So you do know what's happen! Sneaky, sneaky hagspawn!"
Safiya sighed, stepped forward and raised her hand. Seconds later, the farmer was in the mid air; all tied up by vines the Red Wizard had conjured up magically and yelled what the druid would assume was something not very polite in Rashemen.
"Thank you." The druid gave her friend a small grin before spoke to the old man again: "Now, I am sorry. We haven't got your name?"
"….Janik." The old farmer paused, his teary eyes glared at her for quite some time before spilling out his name reluctantly.
"Right. Now, Sir, let's say I have no idea what was happening, shall we?" The druid sighed: "Would any one of you here, your or Gann, at least tell me, what is going on? How was our friend here in the first place?"
"…I am a dreamwalker. I walk where my dreams take me," After another long minute, Gannayev let out a sigh, too and replied to her question slowly: "but I am, after all, a mortal. On occasion, I need a roof and bed rather than the stars. Upon even rarer occasion, I am courteously offered a place to stay and treated as a guest."
"I…" Janik began to sob loudly. His voice caught in his throat: "I offered you a place to stay, hagspawn, but you only had eyes for corrupting my Anya, my precious jewel…"
"Precious?" The blue hagspawn arched his eyebrow: "You took the money and you walked off to gods knows where, leaving your daughter alone greeting the guest. You did not seem to worry about your girl back then. And corrupting? Now I'd be careful, lest I take offense. Your daughter is a lovely flower, but not quite ready to pick, I think."
Leela, as well as Safiya and Kaelyn, gasped. The comment the dreamwalker made wasn't exactly an appropriate one. In fact, it was the first time they heard Gannayev say something that was remotely near. Perhaps he took this insult personally.
Janik writhed and growled even louder. His bloodshot eyes nearly tore the poor blue hagspawn in half: "How dare you?… How dare you speak of her that way - she is hurt and wounded, and you make light of it!"
"What was wrong with your daughter?" Leela couldn't help herself but ask.
"She…she speaks in mumbles." The aged farmer's body went limp: "Half-words…ever since the visit of this sinister creature! Lost to madness, because of him!"
"You think I bear the weight for that? You soil-churning fool of a farmer, watch where your tongue takes you." Gannayev's fist tightened. His body was tense, and his eyes were burst with anger: "I have done nothing to your daughter. If you blame me, I demand proof! If not, th—"
"SEE HER!" Janik cried out, completely cut off the dreamwalker's sneer: "See her, then! See how my Anya whispers your name, as if in your embrace. Then tell me if you have not touched her mind and left it in ruins!"
"You bloody damn sure I will." Without waiting for the answers from the others, the blue hagspawn sprung around and began to march toward the farmhouse at the end of the vegetable field, while mumbling away under his tone as he went: "I did that? Preposterous…"
The house seemed reasonably nice and tidy. However, the air within the wooden hut seemed…cold and lonely. It suddenly stroked to Leela that perhaps the farmer had indeed neglected this house and his daughter a little bit too long.
"Humph…" Anya seemed have sensed the stirs around her and slowly blinked her eyes: "Arh…Gannyev?"
"Hi." Gannayev inclined his head and smiled politely.
The girl cocked her head sideway and frowned: "What are you…am I awake? Or…"
"You are awake, yes." Replied the blue hagspawn.
"No!" Panic flickered through Anya's young face and she started to shake her head vigorously: "No, no, no, no, you must not come here, father will see! We've agreed you only come in dreams, only then we can be…alone."
"What?" The blue hagspawn's brows nearly shot to the ceiling: "I have no intention to enter your dream, nor have I…after the night I stayed in your house!"
"So you did enter her dream." Leela blurt out without thinking. She immediately beat herself up for it. Was that really matter? The dreamwalker can come and go from anyone's dream as they pleased, why should Gannayev be any different?
"I never said I didn't." Gannayev half-turned his head and looked at the air genasi. His eyes seemed slightly desperate, as if trying to explain something. Yet it remained well hidden behind the thick confusion: "But in most of the dreams I ventured in, I was barely an observer. I'd never do anything to the dreamer. That's not something a dreamwalker will do."
"But…" Anya stuttered and seemed slightly puzzled: "But... but you came to me last night, and the night before, and the night bef—" Her eyes darted from the blue hagspawn toward Leela. Suddenly her small face enlightened: "Arh…you only said that because she was here, do you? You try to protect me! Awe, Gann…my sweet…sweet Gann…"
The air genasi quickly turned her head away, from both the dreamwalker and the farm girl. Something evoked deep inside her mind. Something familiar yet uncomfortable. She blinked her eyes and inhaled deeply, brushing that unpleasant tension away. The druid could feel Gannayev's stare linger upon her, almost burning into her soul. She dared not meet his gaze. No, focus on the task in hand, there is little point to dwell on…things… such as this.
"No," She heard the blue hagspawn spoken to Anya patiently: "Anya, I did not come to you. I have not steped into your dream.
"But…but you have!" The young farm girl cried out. Her voice went a few pitches higher: "Who are you? You are not…not acting like yourself… Are you putting on this show so the others won't follow? Do you fear to reveal your feelings for me in front of her?"
"No, Anya. L—" The dreamwalker tried to reason. But his words were cut off by the young girl.
"But…no, this cannot be." Anya shook her head violently: "No…I believe in you, Gann. Perhaps at times you are confused, as I am—more and more, the waking world takes its toll. In dreams is where I wish to live."
Gannayev frowned. He tilted his head and studied the farm girl for a while, before tabbing his fingers on his chin thoughtfully: "Her father is not lying, something was wrong with this girl."
"Tell me something we don't know." Okku grunted.
Ignoring the Telthor bear's sarcastic mocking, the blue hagspawn turned his attention back to Anya: "Right, Anya."
"Humph?" The farm girl simply beamed and smiled at him sweetly.
The blue hagspawn looked up to the ceiling and sighed: "Can you close your eyes for a moment?"
"Well, of course!" Anya smiled and closed her eyes: "Are we playing games?"
"Not exactly." The dreamwalker reached out his hand.
Silver lights began to shimmer. He shut his eyes and tilted sideway for a few second before opened them again, widen in surprise.
"Gods," He gasped: "She's not lying. I did visit her."
"What?" Safiya piped up: "But you just told us—"
"I know what I said." The blue hagspawn gave her a pleading look: "Yes, I was in her dream. But I didn't say it was me."
"Huh?" Pretty much everyone in the room arched their eyebrow.
"She…she shaped another me in her mind." Explained the dreamwalker.
"But that's the power of the most experienced dreamwalker." Kaelyn pointed out: "This girl looks no more than 20."
"I know that!" Gannayev waved his hands: "I only said what I found, my sweet. This girl is unique. She possesses such a power at such and young age, I've only heard of it in my life. Never witness one myself."
" Ganneyev?" Anya watched on as the blue hagspawn trying to explain the situation to the others: "What's going on?"
"What are you planning to do about this?" Asked Saifya: "You are aware what's going to happen if you don't do anything…"
" I am fully aware of that." The dreamwalker sighed: "However, I cannot fix this, at least not alone. My power is not strong enough. I agree with you, the more she shapes this echo of me, the worse her madness will become. We need to end this other Gann, and quickly, before he becomes any more real."
Anya darted her gaze between them as they spoke, her face became more and more puzzled.
"Why are you speaking of madness?" Her eyes were widened in confusion: "And of killing yourself? It makes... ...unless... you are not real yourself." Fear suddenly crept upon her face, she started grabbing the clay dolls on the mantelpiece and threw them at Gannayev: "Get away from me! You are a shadow, an impostor, and a reflection, a lie cast by truth! Get out, get out!"
"Great, now we can't even look at her." Okku grumbled: "How are we suppose to kill whoever this other Gannayev ?"
"I don't know. And I don't believe that's my problem." The blue hagspawn replied half heartily. He went straight toward farmer Janik, who sat on the edge of his vegetable patch, looked utterly deflated, leaning against the handle of a hoe, with sadness and regret written all over his face.
"Am I too late…?" He mumbled quietly, almost to himself, as Leela and the rest of them approached: "Gods, what have I done? What have I done?"
"Janik." The dreamwalker came to a halt in front of the farmer: "We had seen, nay, heard your daughter."
"So?" The old man jerked his head up and glared at him: "See what state you had turned my daughter into? I did not lie."
"No, you did not." Gannayev shook his head: "However, your arrows of blame have been fired at the wrong target. This... "Gann" she whispers of, I assure you, is not me."
Janik's eyes immediately flicked up and scowled at him: " Do not lie to me! She refers to you. Do not dare seek to wash your hands off this!"
Gannayev closed his eyes and sighed: "Janik…I hope if you don't mind I am addressing you by name instead of something insulting?"
The old farmer continued to glare at him before finally gave in and nodded his head slightly.
"If you don't mind me asking, how often do you return home, prior to my brief stay?" Asked the blue hagspawn.
"I…" Janik's face turned red: "That's not hardly the point…"
"I think I know where Gann is getting at, Janik." Kaelyn cut in softly: "Neglecting those you love had taken its toll, isn't it?"
Tear once again streaming down the grief father's eyes. He didn't answer their question, but the answer was clear enough.
"I cannot promise you anything, as the situation was not caused by me." The blue hagspawn continued: "Your daughter has gift. She is very unique, something I've never…never seen in my life, and let me assure you; I've seen quite a lot of things. Because she had never learned how to use her 'gift', her dreams run strong, and they rule her, not the other way around. In her dreams, she has made a "Gann," but this Gann is something she has woven, and it bears little resemblance to me. Do you understand what I said, Janik?"
Janik stared at him for a while and shook his head.
"Her life is not in an immediate danger," Gannayev rested his hands on his waist and stared at his boots: "but I do suggest you to have someone to have a look at her quickly. There is another dreamwalker in Mulsantir, whose age and power are far greater than mine. His name is Nak'kai. Seek his help. He might be able to assist you."
"…Thank you." The old farmer rubbed his eyes with knuckles.
"Shouldn't you be the one who fetch Nak'kai? " Safiya frowned as they walked away from the farm and entered the small passageways.
"Should I?" The blue hagspawn arched his eyebrow: "After being treated so badly for something that was not caused by me, for a change, do you really think I should? Would you do that, should you be in my shoes, the Red Wizard of Thay?"
"No." The Red Wizard shook this head and didn't say anything further.
The dreamwalker turned his head around and looked at Leela, who was walking ahead. She hasn't spoken anything since leaving Janik's farm. In fact, she had been awfully quiet. The look on her face, both that night and when Anya spoken to him affectingly moments earlier, nearly tore him into pieces. The tension was unfamiliar to him, to be honest. He desperately wanted to grab her by the arms and shout at her it wasn't him who the farm girl was smiling at, not the person who had been traveling with since meeting her in Mulsantir prison, not the one who's by her side when she traipsing through thick Ashenwood snow in search for the Wood Man…
Not the one who kissed her up in the watchtower, under the vanilla twilight.
He was a spirit shaman, a dreamwalker. He had witnessed enough from the others, dreaming or not, that this could not be real. Most of them were accompanied by heartaches and tears. Hasn't himself know long ago such a thing did not exist? If it was, his own night hag mother would not abandon him in the forest.
No, this could not be such a thing.
They turned around the corner and saw the familiar little figure standing by the entrance of a gorge. Her brown hair was cropped and smudged with mud and twigs. Her battered cloths, if you can call that a cloth, were more like some barely treated animal skin hanging on the child's tiny frame, were battered and torn along the hems…
"Now, that just scared the living daylight out of me." Okku blurt out: "How in the world of Toril had she got here before we did?"
"Welcome, Spirit Eater." Kuarra bowed, continued to speak in the strange manner: "I've kept watch for you. Headman Ujuk will so be pleased that you came."
And with that word, her otherworldly face suddenly broke into a grin. A grin when a predator found its prey. A grin that sent shivers down to everyone's spine. A grin that made the hair of the back of the neck prickle.
"Is that just me," Gannayev whispered as the girl turned around and disappeared into the small gorge: "Or do we all have this tickling feeling that this Hill Tribe secret sharing meeting isn't exactly what it seems to be?"