Prompt: Deep in Thought
Characters: Arni
The problem with herding sheep, Arni soon realized, was that you often ended up having far too much time to think.
It used to be he had never remembered his dreams. Ever since he'd taken that brief, horrible job with the coast guard, though, it was as if someone had flipped a switch in his head, and now the dreams wouldn't stop.
The nightmares were… understandable, he supposed. Not fun, but understandable. After all, he now had blood on his hands, and no amount of repentance or guilt was going to undo that.
Ironically enough, he was far more troubled by the other dreams.
They weren't anything like the nightmares. As a matter of fact, they were beautiful: rolling green hills, sparkling waterfalls, endless shallow seas under tranquil starlight. Under all of that beauty, though, Arni could not quite suppress the sense of something far more sinister.
The dreams felt more real to him than reality, a fact he couldn't help but dwell on during those long hours outside with nobody to talk to but the sheep and the dogs. No matter how beautiful a dream was, he thought, when you weren't even sure what was real anymore, there was nothing you wanted more than to face the ugly reality and stay awake.
Now, he was all too aware of the ugly reality lurking just beneath the surface.
Monsters swam in those seas, he knew—don't ask him how he knew, but he did. Like he knew that even as he took his flock out to pasture, the outside world was falling to pieces around him. This—Iceland—was the dream from which they'd all eventually have to wake up.
Not any sooner than I can help it, he thought. I did my part, and it was far worse than doing nothing at all. Is it so bad, then, to want my children to sleep soundly even though I can't?
