Chapter 3: Dreams

Dreams did not bring many answers, only more questions. In one of his dreams, he was walking toward a man whose face was covered by a hood. The man crooked his finger and Flusk walked toward it. Flusk kept walking toward the man until he was about 10 paces from him; where Flusk fell into a hole in the ground that was littered with spikes. That dream woke Flusk up panting and sweating. He could not sleep again for an hour, but when he finally did fall asleep again, he wished he didn't. He dreamt of standing in the center of a circle of people. He only recognized Dan and Garc out of the 6 people standing in the circle. The other 4 were just black silhouettes of a human form. Suddenly the 6 people swirled around him faster than his eyes could follow. Then as suddenly as they moved, one of the 6 people thrust a sword out and impaled Flusk through the chest. The one who stabbed him was indistinguishable because of the speed of the attack. That dream he also woke up from sweating. Dreams like these never happened before today, and Flusk was glad when the sun shone through the window of his room the next morning.

Flusk let his dreams fade from his mind as he washed up and got dressed. Just because he had yesterday off didn't mean he'd be so lucky today. After he finished dressing, he lumbered downstairs to the common room. It was practically empty by comparison to the night before. Well it was early. His medallion felt cool in the morning chill but he dared not take it off. That medallion was the only thing he had to remind himself of his past; even if it didn't remind him more than that he had a past. The common room held 3 men sitting at different tables lazily eating their morning breakfast. Smells from the kitchen told Flusk that breakfast would consist of a mixed stew with bread and cheese. Flusk didn't feel like eating this morning, if he did he feared he'd empty his stomach. The dreams had left him rather woozy and he wanted to wait a while before stuffing his face. There was no sign of the gleeman from the night before, or of Dan and Garc. In a way Flusk was glad to not see them, after last night he was a little edgy about them and those other black silhouettes. He was sure the dreams were to tell him something, but he wasn't sure what.

Forcing his dreams out of his head took effort, but he did it. Three men in the common room would certainly not require Flusk's aid with all the serving girls around, so Flusk decided to take a walk instead. Cold as the air was, it was better to get some fresh cold air, then no fresh air at all. The street consisted of the usual, peddlers driving their wagons about, people bustling about the normal morning routine, and beggars hoping for some coin. He didn't have an exact destination at mind, just around the city for a nice walk. Along the way a bit, Flusk came upon another inn called The Proud Lion. He decided to check on his father's competition while he was here. Inside the common room there were several people at different tables huddled together and talking over their mugs. The serving girls seemed to be busy giving out breakfast and more drink. The inn was a top competitor with his father's inn and they seemed to be better off at the moment. That's all right; they don't have a Gleeman or a chest full of gold marks. Flusk thought happily to himself and laughed. As he turned to go he bumped into a tall man with dark skin and a trimmed oiled beard that named him Tairen if he had ever seen one. He was wearing a fine blue embroidered coat with a lot of lace at the sleeves and a lacquered silk hat. From the looks of him he was a lord, a lord who did not like being bumped into. Immediately Flusk backed away and kept his eyes on the floor while he murmured apologies to the Tairen lord. The man sneered at him as he would a peasant, smoothed his coat even though it did not need smoothing, and waltzed into the inn. Flusk scrambled out of the inn as quickly as he could once the lord passed.

In the street he headed along his way through the city. Not one minute had passed before someone came up from behind him and walked at his side. The man was not quite as tall as Flusk, he might even be considered short in another city. He had brown eyes and brown hair. He looked at Flusk with an amused grin and said, "Do you always let the rich walk all over you?" Flusk just stared at him questioningly. "Oh I'm sorry, I should introduce myself. My name is Kalor Hunbren." He said happily.

"Right… uh, Kalor I should get going." Flusk stammered as he quickened his pace a little. Kalor quickened his pace to match Flusk's and didn't say another word. Flusk ignored the man and kept walking about the city, pausing now and then to look at peddler's goods or haggle with a merchant. "How about one silver mark and two copper marks and it's a deal?" Flusk said to a peddler about a wool coat.

"No, no, that's way too much my friend." Kalor said to Flusk with a frown. He turned his attention to the peddler and said, "Five copper marks and that's our highest offer." Flusk just stared at him.

"Can I help you?" Flusk said after a moment of staring at the man. Light who is this guy and why is he following me?

Kalor blinked and looked at Flusk as if he asked what color the sky was, then he slapped Flusk on the back as if they were old buddies and said, "I'm helping you out with your money spending, you could get a lot more than a wool coat for what you were offering." Completely forgetting the peddler or his wool coat, Flusk just walked off back towards his father's inn. Light the nerve of people! Bloody Kalor and his bloody outgoingness! Flusk began to get more and more irritated as Kalor followed by his side and told him stories of his days as a merchant's guard. Some hawkers who came up to Flusk took one look at him, gave a start, and ran off. When they finally reached the inn, Kalor had to have told his entire life story and Flusk turned around to face him.

"Look," Flusk began, "I don't know why you're following me or why you think I want to be your friend, but just leave me alone ok? I have work to do and I assume you do too. If you like you can come in and have a drink or a meal but bloody leave me alone!" Flusk realized he was shouting and his face turned red. Majority of the people outside the inn were staring at him with confused looks on their faces. It was then that Flusk realized Kalor was no where in sight. "I uh…" Flusk realized he had no excuse for shouting without Kalor there and he flushed crimson. Where in the Light did he go? There was no explanation for shouting other than he was a crazy person seeing things, so Flusk just stepped inside the inn slowly. Bartim was waiting for him by the kitchen and motioned fiercely for Flusk to walk over to him.

"Where have you been?" Bartim asked when Flusk came over. "I've had the serving girls doing double work without you around." Flusk realized that the common room had a lot more people in it than it did upon his departure. And the serving girls were scurrying quite faster than usual. Among the men at the tables were Garc and Dan, who were quietly talking together over their breakfast meals.

"I'll get right to work dad, sorry for being late I was out." Flusk said apologetically as he went upstairs to change into his work garb. When he came back downstairs he went to work ordering the cooks what to make and taking some orders from the patrons. The Wayfarer's Rest had a huge variety of food for today. There was smoked ham with a warm broth, Bacon with sweet butter, stews of all kinds on the Andoran boarder, and of course mutton with any number of vegetables. Flusk saw no sign of Jasin Natael and he was glad. The man had really scared Flusk last night. Flusk worked for a couple of hours and then had his own meal. Dan and Garc had long since finished their meals and were lounging about.

"Good morning fellas." Flusk said to Dan and Garc as he sat to join them. Dan nodded to Flusk, a slight incline of his head, but it was better than his reaction last night. Garc said good morning back to Flusk and asked how he was managing work with all these people around. They had a small conversation about running an inn and its benefits and disadvantages. Garc had a surprisingly large amount of views for both sides. He would make a good diplomat with his good nature toward strangers and intelligence on issues. After the conversation ended, Garc stood up, stretched and announced their departure.

"Well it's been good here, I miss the city, but we really must be getting back to the farm. Your mom will kill us if we delay in coming home any sooner than now." Garc said with a chuckle, and even Dan cracked a smile. They said their goodbyes to Flusk and went upstairs to gather their belongings. Flusk took a look around the common room and saw that the serving maids had things settled for now, so Flusk did what he always did with free time, he sat outside the inn in his favorite chair and thought. He thought about the chest of money Bartim had fished up. He thought about his new friendship with Dan and Garc. But most of all he thought about Kalor. The man had been very friendly, if a bit annoying and he had taken an interest of a sort with Flusk. And how had he disappeared like that? Flusk liked thinking things through, and he was good at it, but he didn't like thinking about things that he couldn't answer. Maybe dreams could confuse him, but rational thoughts could always be figured out.

Dan walked down the path that lead back towards the farm holding the food his mom asked for. But food did not hold his thoughts at the moment. What could that dream mean? Dan thought to himself. The dream had started with Dan walking around a dark tunnel with Garc, and then the next thing he knew Garc fell down and disappeared. Dan had begun running through the darkness blindly with no idea where he was going. All of a sudden he found himself face to face with someone vaguely familiar, someone he could almost recognize, yet almost was never enough. The person looked at Dan with tears in his eyes and cackled loudly as a searing pain shot through Dan. Dan awoke from that dream suddenly when he fell out of his bed. His next dream had him standing in the same darkness as the first dream yet he was not alone. Ahead of him was Flusk, walking slowly toward a man draped in all black so you could not see his face. The man crooked his finger slowly and Flusk followed. Suddenly Flusk disappeared in a hole and the man laughed loudly. Dan didn't know why, but his only thought after witnessing the strange event was to avenge. Dan tried to explain his dreams to Garc the next morning but Garc didn't understand them any better than he himself had. Garc had admitted to having strange dreams himself, though he was reluctant to share them with Dan. That was strange, Garc always told Dan everything. What could be in his dreams that he couldn't even tell me? The path held only him and Garc yet it seemed crowded, like there wasn't enough space. That was a foolish feeling; there was plenty of open space.

Flusk contained a portion of his thoughts also. He had just met the man the night before, but he felt like he needed to trust him, he wanted to trust him. It was sort of a dependency from the moment he saw him. Dan was a very independent person, so this feeling of dependency was not received well by Dan, and he turned his anger on Flusk that night. He seemed like a sensible man, one who liked to take things slow and one at a time. Surely a man like that couldn't be dangerous. Yet the feeling of dependency never ceased the whole time he was in town, and it had only dimmed since leaving. Dan wondered what Garc thought about Flusk so he decided to ask him.

"Flusk? Oh, he seems trustworthy." Garc answered when Dan asked. "He and his father have quite a fine inn going there, I hope we can revisit sometime in the near future." Well it seemed Garc had no problem with Flusk and if Garc had no problem, then he could be trusted. Garc had a way of knowing about certain people. He had always been able to tell what moods people were in, even when it wasn't blatantly obvious. Dan pushed thoughts of dreams and Flusk out of his mind. He had more important matters to think on. Like his training with the sword. Garc had not once, but twice humiliated him in front of Peter. The second time was close; now matter how many times Garc said he had it won from the start. The only mistake Dan had made was stepping on a slippery patch of ground, which threw off his attack that would have won him the match. Garc easily hit Dan once his footing was off and he was wide open. It was quite humiliating once he thought about it. But he had it. Dan itched to take out his sword right now and fight Garc again, but they had only their real swords now, and someone could get seriously hurt. They walked on for a while in silence besides Garc's whistling. He was humming a cheery tune they had learned as kids and practically skipping to it. Light he could make dying seem fun if it suited him! Dan thought incredulously. Garc's whistling faded into nothing as a man on horseback appeared in the distance. Garc's whole ego turned serious when he laid eyes on the man. Dan had rarely seen Garc be serious besides when they were sparring. Dan turned his eyes to the man on horseback coming closer and studied him. At this distance all he could make out was that the man was garbed in a dark cloak and riding at a soft canter on a black steed. Dan noticed Garc fingering his sword hilt and he realized he was doing the same. As the man came within 30 yards, Dan got a better look at him and wished he didn't. Dan's spine turned to ice as he gazed into the man's hood. Dan didn't see the man's face, but he knew fear when he sensed it, and he was petrified. A wind blew across the path, swirling up dust and dried leaves. Dan and Garc both had moved off the path and a good 30 feet away from the man as he passed by. He rode with a purpose, and obviously did not want to be disturbed. Dan had no trouble at all leaving the man alone, he would have run if he legs weren't jelly. The man passed down the path without even looking in Dan's direction and disappeared around a curve in the path. Dan looked to Garc and saw that Garc must have felt the same way he himself did. He had a look of pure terror on his face and he looked pale. Dan realized that he must look similar. Dan and Garc got back on the path and continued walking. Dan hadn't noticed it then, but the man's cloak had not shifted a smidge in the breeze. The thought of that sent another chill down Dan's spine and he forced thoughts of the man out of his mind.

A good couple of hours went by and midday went with them. The sun began its decent over the horizon slowly. The silence in those hours seemed to stretch on forever, and Garc had not begun whistling again. The stench of wood burning filled the air. And Dan looked at Garc questioningly. Garc shrugged and they walked on. The stench grew more and more as they walked on. It seemed to be coming over the hill. A moment of shock ran through Dan, when he realized his mother's farm was over the next hill. He ran as fast as he could and when he topped the hill, what he saw left him gaping. Roasted carcasses of pig, chicken, cow, and other animals littered the pens where they were held. The fields of corn and other crops were scorched as well. But the thing that Dan noticed the most was the main barn on fire. Wood falling off burned hinges and melted doors. Garc was staring in horror at the sight before him as well. Dan unsheathed his sword and ran towards the house. His only thought was "parents". Dan slashed down the door to the kitchen with his sword and ran into the inferno. Curtains and pictures alike hung half off the walls while blazing with fire. Dan ran through the kitchen, ignoring the flames that seemed to leap toward him, and sprinted up the stairs to his parent's room. He flung open the door and saw no one on the incinerating bed or in the whole room. Half of him sighed with relief and half of him feared where they were if they weren't in their room. Dan ran out of the room and saw Garc standing at the bottom of the stairs staring into the dining room. Dan turned to go down the stairs, and the floor collapsed beneath him. Blackness took him over.

Dan awoke on soft grass staring up at a black sky. Dan's first thoughts were that it was a horrible dream, but then his nose caught the scent of the burning wood. Dan jerked up and looked around to see the farm still blazing even more so than before. It was like a huge bonfire, lighting the entire field. Garc stood over a hole in the ground and was murmuring something to himself. Garc looked over to where Dan lay with a grim look on his face. He could have made an Aes Sedai sweat with that stare. That gaze meant death. Dan tried to get up, but a pain shot through his leg and he sat back down with a grunt. His legs were bloody and banded with white linen, now stained red. Garc came over still wearing the same cold face and helped Dan to his feet and limped him over to the hole. In the hole were two skeletons, completely skinless and charred black. Dan's heart sunk as he realized who they were. His parents had died in that fire, and here they were, blacked bones of their former selves. Two skeletons, not three. Peter was still alive somewhere. At the very least Peter had survived. Yet as grateful as he was that his brother was alive, the grief of his two parents overwhelmed him, and he wept. He wept for what seemed an eternity. Dan tried to form the Void around him, to block out emotion, and found no void, no protection from the harsh reality of what was. His parents had died the day he had not been there to protect them. And he had no one to blame but himself. Garc stood there watching Dan weep and offered no consoling words. Garc's eyes were strained and red; he had already wept out all tears he could hours ago. Who ever did this will pay, under the Light, and the hope for my rebirth in salvation, this I swear. The night stretched on for a long time, there would be no dreams tonight, or for a while.