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Edited: 12-3-03 (Thank you, ish, for pointing out errors. They should be fixed now!)
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Chapter Five: Dreams
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The soft, pre-dawn light chased the shadows of the night away as it crept quietly across the landscape. It made its way across the Continent until it reached Ryven, where only the tower guards on duty were awake, searching the lingering haze for threats. The townspeople had yet to wake from slumber.
In a house at the town's edge, the muffled snores of Jaeden came from the upper bunk of his and Kain's bed. Below Jaeden, Kain wrestled with his blankets in his sleep, caught up in a dream. His movements grew more agitated and frantic, until he suddenly flew upright into a sitting position, his eyes snapping open into full alertness.
Panting heavily, he slipped out of bed and moved to the open window, tearing the fine netting secured across it from its pins. Though it worked perfectly in keeping everything but air out of the room, it blocked him from easily accessing said air from inside. He stuck his head outside and gratefully inhaled the cool autumn air, closing his eyes for a moment as he regained his breath and let the peaceful morning atmosphere soothe his nerves. It had only been a dream.
Once calm, he withdrew inside again and re-attached the netting to the window frame, then methodically followed his morning routine, since it was unlikely that he would be able to go back to sleep. However, since the motions of preparing for the day were thoroughly memorized by his subconscious mind, he had plenty of opportunity to dwell on his nightmare.
It had been strange. He had been in Ryven, doing something perfectly innocent that he couldn't remember clearly anymore, but had made sense at the time, and then everything... changed. The sky darkened to night, only to be lit by scattered fires. He heard screams echoing from places he couldn't see, slightly muffled, but heart wrenching. They were death-screams.
He had run, not caring that a stray arrow could have hit him from his highly exposed position in the street. He had to get home, had to know if any of the screams were his mother's or father's. Or Jaeden's. He had always felt responsible for his younger brother, and if anything had happened to him... Kain shuddered.
In his hurry he had almost slipped on a pool of blood seeping from a fatally wounded man onto the ground. The red liquid had turned the packed dirt of the street slippery, but he managed to keep his balance and continued running. The man's face had thankfully been hidden, allowing him to escape the sight of the man's dying agony, but he had recognized the type of arrow protruding from his stomach.
Even in dreams, Kain's mind noticed the little things, the details few people ever consciously acknowledged. There was always a small part of him that never felt anything, only observed the world from behind his eyes and recorded it with meticulous accuracy, able to be recalled at any time in perfect detail.
It had been doing that then, and as he'd continued to run the image of the arrow silently screamed at him. Ryven fletchers always used at least four feathers in an arrows fletching. The one in the man had three, and that meant only one thing.
Bandits.
Spurred onwards with renewed urgency, Kain raced home past fighting, fires, dead and wounded. His family's house lay just within the boundary marked by the guard towers, which made it extremely vulnerable during bandit raids. So far the house (and his family) had escaped unscathed during previous raids, but it was impossible to tell if luck would hold.
He had slowed to halt in front of the house, but before he could do anything the front door had opened and a bandit exited. He held a sword, and Kain had frozen instantly at the sight, despite reminding himself that the blood on it could belong to anyone... Before he could do anything else, though, the bandit had spotted him. And, in the treacherous manner of dreams, he had remained immobile even as the bandit had stepped menacingly toward him and brandished the bloodstained sword. The bandit had smiled mockingly at him, swung his sword—
—and he had woken up.
Kain shuddered at the memory, and forcefully shoved it into the back of his mind. He might have a photographic memory, but for the most part he could control what it was he remembered. It had only been a dream, and dreams meant nothing to the real world.
Instead, he focused on stopping his ash-blonde hair from sticking up at odd angles. It was too short to pull back into a ponytail, but just long enough to be irritating. He glared at his reflection as he ran a comb through his hair repeatedly. Finally, after much frustration, his hair decided to settle down in an orderly fashion. Satisfied with his appearance, Kain wandered into the main room of the house, which held the kitchen, living room, and dining room, and rummaged up some breakfast.
While munching on a slice of bread, Kain glanced at a flat, wooden shelf attached to the wall near the doorway to the back rooms of his house. A carved grid divided the wood into small squares. In the leftmost column, the first square was blank, but in each of the four squares beneath the names of Kain, Jaeden, and their parents were carved. In the uppermost column, following the blank square were squares in which various places around the house and the town were carved. Kain's father, Kyr, had carved the board so that the grid of squares could be used to keep track of where each person in the family was currently located. It was a simple system that worked perfectly, except for when Jaeden forgot to update his stone marker for an extended period of time. His memory was improving, though, albeit slowly.
Currently, going by the grid, Kain discovered that while his mother, Renée, was still asleep, Kyr was on guard duty in one of the towers. Kain's father was one of Ryven's most able warriors, and head of the town guards. It was because of their father's position that Kain and Jaeden had met Dyani and Erik, since they were the youngest children of the mayor. However, it also meant that his father was often absent at odd hours.
His father did try to spend as much time as possible with Kain and Jaeden, but the town's overall safety was more important. Kain understood that, and was proud of his father for it. He wished to be a guard and protect the townspeople himself when he was old enough, which was why he worked so hard to learn swordsmanship and planned to learn archery as well.
Kain finished his breakfast and moved his marker to show that he was going "out". It was the best choice, since he didn't know exactly where he could feasibly go so early in the morning. Maybe to the mayor's house, to watch the sunrise. As the largest house in town, Mayor Drion's house had two stories, and the roof gave any strong, flexible youngster the best view of the town possible, since only adults were allowed in the guard towers. Kain nodded decisively to himself and ventured out into the cool morning air.
The sunrise was indeed beautiful, turning the sky a panorama of colors as the sun's first rays peeked over the horizon. Kain watched in silence. He enjoyed the quiet of the early morning solitude, but could rarely take advantage of it. He, along with the rest of Ryven's youths, attended the town's school every morning except for Solsday, the first day of every week. On Solsday, however, (unlike Jaeden, who relished the opportunity to sleep in), Kain would often come to watch the sunrise.
The last bright colors faded into the pale blue sky, and the sounds of a lively town began in the streets below. Kain sighed at the intrusion of noise in the once-peaceful morning air, but resigned himself to the fact that a bustling town could never be completely still, even on Solsday.
Still, he mused to himself, his lips curving into a smile, now the day had begun. There was no "official" curfew or time of waking in Ryven, but by tradition the day began at sunup and ended an hour past the lighting of the watchlamps at sundown. Once the sun had risen, the day began, and the others, all of whom enjoyed their sleep, couldn't complain if he woke them up, no matter how early in the day he did so.
Scooting down the wood-shingled incline of the roof, Kain crouched at the edge. A leap away from the roof in the Mayor's rear yard stood a flagpole of polished wood, which proudly bore the town flag of Ryven: a simple rectangle of woven cloth dyed a deep blue, except for a white horizontal stripe along the top and bottom. Kain jumped and dexterously caught the flagpole several feet below the flag, then slid down to the ground. He quickly hoisted himself over the low wooden fence surrounding the mayor's house, and trotted home.
Along the way, he amused himself by considering the best way to wake Jaeden up. By the time he reached the house, he couldn't keep a small grin off his face as he went to soak a cloth in the cold water of the washbasin...
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Author's Note: Kain's turn in the spotlight, although the chances of a return appearance from his point of view are rather slim. The next scene will also be in Ryven, hence the fact that Chapter 5 is being broken into two parts, but from a different perspective. Kain's rather hard to write, simply because his character eludes me, at least until much later in this story. I wanted to try and get a glimpse of Kain as he is now, especially his concern and protectiveness for his family and friends. (Not sure how well I conveyed that, though. You know it now, at least.)
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Reviewer thanks:
Kourui: Thanks! I'm trying to make the characters three-dimensional and well rounded. Glad you like them!
Lilian: I'm so glad you like this! And yes, Minako is having to hide a lot in this story.
TK: Hurrah, you finally reviewed! Thanks for all comments, dear! points at Mii-chan Say hello to my beta-reader! :D
Firenza: Another new reader, hurrah! Thanks for the review.
Ele: Yes, Ayslin's a fun character. They all are, really.
PyroChic: I'm trying to update, honest! :)
ish: Woah. O.o That's a long review. Thank you sooo much for your comments. I'm especially glad you like my writing style, since that's one thing I'm also unsure of. Yeah, the girls don't quite seem real, despite my best efforts to make them so... Part of it's because their flaws are sometimes hide-able, so that people don't notice, or there hasn't been a situation that reveals it. I hope to bring their flaws to light more as the story progresses. Thanks for catching the typo, too. I hope you like this chapter. (And just so you know, one of Kain's flaws comes next chapter. :))
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So many reviews! Thank you, and keep it up! (And if you just found the story, review it too! Please? ó.ò)
'Til next time,
Ocianne
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