"Let's go off where it's more quiet," he said. "We need to talk about something important before…," he glanced at the sun.
I looked at him with a puzzled expression? What? Now, we have to do something or else he'll turn into one of the furry creatures with yellow eyes? What could possibly shock me now after learning that Cal, was my blood brother? What could truly be more annoying than that?
"I…" he began once we had found a spot away from the crowd. There was lake, just beyond the trees and we sat down on the grass beside it. "You see, I know a lot more about you than you think I know."
"Well that was quite obvious," I replied, not to sound to rigid. I think he knew more about me than I knew about myself. I bit into my fruit, which was ripening more and more in the sun every moment.
"No, you don't understand. I knew your parents, the real ones. Not the ones you knew to be brought up with?"
I remained silent and let him go on. My parents? My real ones? What was he even talking about this time?
"The ones that had to abandon you…., they were amazing you know. If your father hadn't…" but he trailed off again.
I was terribly confused at this point. "Wait, can you please start from the beginning. I don't know if it's the sun, or if this peach is too ripe to block everything out, but did I miss something?"
He sighed and looked at me. "You have a great responsibility Raina. If you would just listen a moment, I shall explain.
"Go on," I offered.
"Your parents were important to us all. In fact, they controlled the dream world, both the dreams and the nightmares." He looked off into the distance. "The entire dream world was kept aligned because of them. There were never too many nightmares and there were certainly never too many dreams. They ruled over everything, maintaining control and everyone was fairly content.
"Sometimes your father would warn others about misfortunes and your mother of good fortunes through the dreams. Everyone was interconnected to them through their emotions and they could come to them for help and happiness."
He smiled, "sometimes your mother could change the mood of a whole village if she was in a good mood. Sometimes when your parents fought, it gave a rather enormous emotional twinge on the whole village. They were capable of doing many many things."
"One thing about power though, in any shape or form, is that even with the greatest urge to remain stable, they can lose control. Your father, the keeper of nightmares, was haunted daily by the ever growing nightmares that he had been bestowed to maintain. Your mother had managed to keep him stable through many years of hardship, but even with her amazing power, it wasn't enough."
"One day, your father lost it. He was so infuriated and overwhelmed that he cast the whole entire town in nightmares, with such intensity that it was almost overkill for the people that were in it. Your mother tried to calm him, tried to maintain the chaos of the villagers as well as taking care of you and Cal but it was too difficult. She was not able to overcome it. All she could manage was send him from their home, shunning him forever.
Just before she managed to send him off though, he took a hold of you two. You and Cal were both taken from your home as well, and your weeping mother who had seen you go, not realizing that you too, had gone through the mortal world."
"She became weakened after such a battle and after the completely dreadful loss of you both. She enclosed herself in her home, not letting anyone out, and because her happiness was forever lost, stealing away the dreams of everyone as well."
He stopped and took a breath, looking at me and waiting. I….well I was still in shock. Was this some kind of joke? I looked into his eyes again. I could tell, somehow that it really wasn't. I sighed and then looked at him seriously.
"What am I supposed to do?"