Chapter 17

A jolt of pain and terror shook Creeper awake with the sharp realization that he was suffocating. He couldn't breathe!

In panic he kicked and clawed in the darkness, fighting with all his might. It was giving, whatever it was. One more swing from his arm and he was free, fresh air flowing into his lungs as he yanked the blanket off his head and sat up, adrenaline flooding his veins, making his heart pound heavily.

Glancing wildly about the room, he took in the fire, the furniture and everything else before realization hit him.

'I fell asleep,' he realized, looking up at the chair in front of him.

'And I got tangled up in the blanket and fell out of the chair. It woke me up. He's not here, it was just a dream. Not real.'

The goblin shivered at the terrifying images flashing through his head he had no trouble remembering.

'Not real!'

Creeper nearly jumping out of his skin when a boom of thunder sounded from outside, the terror of his nightmare still perfectly imprinted in his brain, as all his nightmares had been of late, making everything from the shadows in the room to the fire horrifyingly evil.

Fancying he could feel things, terrible things, staring at him, he leaped back into the chair and covered himself completely with the blanket, trying to get as small as possible. His heart sprang to his throat as he heard the door open. Shaking, he started when he heard the sound of something being set down on the little table by his chair, and voices whispering to each other, before something gently tugged the blanket off his head to reveal a tray of food on the table.

The creature, or creatures, folded the blanket and nudged the tray toward him simultaneously. Suddenly feeling extremely embarrassed at being caught in such a pathetic state, Creeper reached for the food, remembering he had eaten nothing the night before. To his relief he saw it was a type of thick, smooth oatmeal they made sometimes. Something he wouldn't choke on.

Carefully taking a spoonful, he nearly moaned out loud as the coating warmth slid down his tender throat, already making him feel better. As he ate, the servants stoked up the fire again, which was burning a bit low, and seemingly were going to wait til he was finished eating.

If he had not been such a bitter, self-absorbed creature himself, the goblin may have been able to feel the feelings of sympathy and pity emanating from the silent, invisible figures, but he was too busy with his own problems to acknowledge them.

Several minutes later, when he was finished eating and the servants had taken the tray away, he stayed by the fire for a long while, not willing to leave its warmth and go traipsing about in the cold, dark corridors. The rest of the castle held nothing of interest for him, but he was incredibly, incredibly bored. He wouldn't be able to sleep now, although he was exhausted. His nightmare would only return to haunt him if he dared to close his eyes. He couldn't believe he had allowed himself to fall asleep when it was storming anyway.

Bitterly, he got up. If he couldn't sleep, he decided, he would walk.

A deep, far-off rumbling caught her ear, slowly nudging her mind into consciousness. She burrowed deeper into the warm blankets, not willing to wake up yet. She wanted to go back to sleep.

Another soft rumble reached her ear, making her cover her head with the sheets. The swift and heavy pitta-pat-tat-tat on the walls and window outside indicated it was raining. Rather hard, by the dim sound of it.

'If its still storming there won't be any plowing today,' her barely conscious mind thought blearily. 'Mother won't care if I sleep in a little. She's not even cooking breakfast yet.'

From her room in the little farmhouse, she could always tell when any other member of the house was up, simply by listening. The way her mother would stir her coffee a certain way before setting the spoon down on the saucer with a light little 'Clink'. . .the way her brother would go tromping around in his big manly boots, standing to stare out the kitchen window with his coffee in hand, watching the weather, every morning, without fail. . .just like Dad used to do. . .something that Avalina would do as well, when she could be bothered to get out of bed.

A small, bittersweet smile rested on her features for a moment at the reminiscing, her eyes still closed. She didn't want to open them just yet and face the storm, which would mean a long, boring day of staying inside.

She was nearly completely asleep again within minutes, but another rumble of thunder snapped the threads pulling her into blessed slumber.

'Ten minutes,' she promised herself. 'Ten more.'

Listening to the rain, she wondered why things that went on while she slept seemed to affect the dreams she had. She didn't know if she was the only person like that, or it was normal for everyone. Frankly it was a rather embarrassing question, one she didn't dare ask to anyone. She remembered that it had stormed all night, and it had definitely influenced what her dreams had contained.

'I was coming home from Dalben's,' she remembered bleakly, halfheartedly trying to remember what her dream had been about.

'I had helped him and Taran on his little plot of ground from sunrise to about an hour before sunset. We mended a broken area in the fencing, I clipped his goats' and sheeps' feet while Taran held their heads, and we did Hen-Wen as well. . .re-thatched the entire roof on his cottage *and* the little barn. . .the Princess was there too, she helped an awful lot. We wouldn't have gotten finished all in one day if she hadn't pitched in. We sat around and talked for ages before I finally headed home. Then a storm blew up out of nowhere, like Thor had decided to pay a surprise visit. It was unreal. Mitternacht spooked when lightning hit a tree and we got lost. And then we found this deeply unsettling castle in the dark, and the owner. . .well, I'm assuming it was the owner. . .let me stay for the night. His voice was terrifying, I could feel the very evil coming off him. It felt like he could see right through my soul. But, he didn't harm me, and the dream ended when I fell asleep in it. And when I fell asleep I was a bit scared, but not too very much.'

Avalina couldn't decide if it had been a good dream or not. After a long mental debate with herself, she decided that any dream that didn't end in a nightmare was considered a good one.

'But by Orion's Belt it was eerie,' she thought. 'I'm glad it was just a dream.'

Thinking, even when trying to recover details from a dream that had happened that very night, was doing a very good job of waking her up. Avalina wanted to quit thinking and instead try to stay as asleep as possible for a little longer, but her mind, now having something to puzzle over, kept bringing up dozens of details from her dream and steadily reconstructing what had happened last night. Therefore forcing her, if she decided to try to go back to sleep, make it twice the trouble it was worth.

Another boom of thunder, a little louder this time, echoed outside, what little hope she had of sleeping any more completely and instantly ruined.

'Its time to get up anyway,' she thought a bit grudgingly. 'Besides, I have Mitternacht to take care of. I know he's pacing his stall waiting for me.'

A smile, bigger than before, graced her features.

'He's worth it. And I smell Mom making breakfast now.'

Yawning, she pulled the covers off her face and half-lidded her eyes, staring tiredly at the ceiling, looking forward to the day, even if it was storming. And then she realized. . .

'That is not my ceiling.'

Suddenly sitting up in bed, she took in the scene around her.

She was in the same room where she had fallen asleep in her dream. The very same, right down to the way the torchholder by the fireplace leaned out a bit drunkenly, making it difficult to pick the torch up without burning your face off.

Her heart thudding violently, Avalina was immediately fully awake as she stared around. Her eyes widened to twice their normal size as hot drops of sweat appeared on her forehead.

'Oh, gods,' she thought, her throat constricting.

'It wasn't a dream. Its bloody real! All of it was real!'

Privately, she had been faintly wondering how she could have a dream that long and detailed and still remember nearly all of it when she awoke. And now she knew.

'Its not a dream,' she thought, suddenly feeling like her stomach had completely dropped out and fell through the floor. The memory of the deep, menacing voice that had spoken to her previously made the hair on the back of her neck stand up.

'This is a living nightmare!'

Suddenly feeling very cold, she pulled the covers up over her and leaned against the headboard. Panicked thoughts filled with varying phrasing of'What am I supposed to do now? Mom's going to be worried sick! I have to get home! How am I supposed to face that, uh. . .master of this castle. . .again? I barely did it last night! And by the sound of it, its storming just as bad as last night. Oh, somebody help me!' Filled her head, overlapping each other and rendering the girl quite dazed.

The scent of food slowly broke its way into her frazzled mind and turned her head to the table in the front of the chair by the fireplace. Breakfast was waiting.

Trembling, Avalina really didn't want to get out of bed, but her stomach had other ideas. Having decided to return to its rightful place, it grumbled loudly, reminding her of its hunger. Slowly, she swung her feet over the side of the bed, but flinched hard when they touched the floor. Looking down, she realized for the first time they had been neatly bandaged.

After staring blankly for a moment, the memory came back.

'Mitternacht,' she thought, slightly annoyed.

Sliding off the bed, limping on her sore feet, she grabbed her clothes that had been laid out by the fire to dry. To her surprise when she picked them up, they were dry and warm, and. . .she looked them over to be sure. . .yes, someone had gone to the trouble of washing them last night.

A deep feeling of gratitude washed over her as she slipped into them, feeling a bit better with her old clothes on now.

Something hung on her shirt as she slid it over her head, making her hobble to the washroom to check in the mirror, and seeing a wide bandage wrapped around her head below the hairline. Another memory surfaced.

'Mitternacht and I butted heads, so to speak,' she thought a bit wryly. 'Good thing I'm as hardheaded and stubborn as he is.'

It was quite vague, but she definitely remembered the warm, sticky feeling of something sliding down her face for the second half of the night, and she remembered a very faint glimpse of herself in the mirror last night and seeing the place where her skin had broken.

Carefully, she eased the bandage off, wincing as it came off the wound.

Fully cleaned and no longer bleeding, it didn't look as bad as it had felt last night, but her mother would not be happy about it. Avalina still involuntarily flinched at the sight.

A thick strip of clotted red ran from nearly the bridge of her nose all the way across the right side of her face, nearly to the hairline. Blue and black bruising generously accompanied it. Thankfully, her eyes were not swollen or black, just the bottom half of the right side of her forehead.

'Whoever fixed me up sure did a good job,' she marveled, before heading back to the fireplace to eat.

Sitting down to the wonderful looking oatmeal waiting for her, she murmured a "Thank you," to anyone who might be there, but there was no reply.

To be honest, she hadn't really expected one.