Beor was busy cleaning the house, scrubbing the dinner pot clean, when he heard a small whimper coming from Hero's room. Everyone else was outside, the other children helping his brother and uncle to thresh the ripened wheat next to the barn. He could hear their cheerful voices and laughing.
Another whimper came from Hero's room and a stab of guilt pained Beor's heart. Sighing, he left his chores and went to the child to check on him.
Little Hero slept fitfully in his bed, breathing fast. Beor could almost feel the heat coming off him – another bout of strange fever that has been occurring of late. Hesitantly, he reached to the child's forehead to gage the degree.
Strange dizzying feeling came over him when he touched his hand to the child's hot, dry skin. He quickly pulled his hand back and the feeling stopped.
Again, the child whimpered and turned his head, his lips in a pout and unruly hair sticking to his cheek. Beor gently patted his head then.
"Shhh. It's just a bad dream. Hero, wake up. It's just a dream." He said gently, hoping not to startle the child as he had last time as he woke him out of his nightmare. Hero impatiently moved again, throwing his arms wide, his gleaming eyes moving beneath his closed eyelids.
Beor leaned closer. "Hero…"
The strange dizzying feeling came again, but Beor ignored it, too worried about the child to pay it heed. He should have though. The next moment the child moved again and his small hand flew and touched Beor's cheek.
A whirlwind of colors exploded behind Beor's eyes and in the next moment he was no longer in his cabin. He staggered a step before he caught balance and fearfully glanced around himself.
It was dark, except for the gleaming flames licking the remnants of what seemed to be burning houses of a village. He thought he recognized his own by the stump of the oak tree he planted right by the porch. The barn next to his house was blazing and so was the wheat.
And then something grabbed at his legs, startling him. He violently broke free and heard Hero's cry. Looking down, Beor stared at the little Human who now sat on the ground, looking up at him with eyes full of fear and hurt.
"Oh, I'm so sorry." Beor immediately leaned down to the child to pick him up to comfort him. Hero immediately clung to him, burying his small face against his chest so only his unkept hair remained visible to view. In utter confusion, Beor once again looked around himself.
"Shhh. It's all right. This isn't real. It's just a bad dream." He automatically repeated, helplessly looking around him at the strange place. And then he gasped, his eyes widening as he realized what had happened.
Hero's dream. That's where he was. He had once felt the same strange, dizzying sensation when the Witch told him to touch the child's hand so he could see the child's dreams. It had happened again.
Unwillingly, Beor pressed the little Human closer to him and looked around uneasily. He had half expected to see Hero dreaming about the witch, but this wasn't it at all. It was more like that memory that the Witch showed to him, except now mixed in with the elements of what the child had grown used to seeing, like his village and his house.
Was this a memory then or just a nightmare? And… what was Beor supposed to do now that he was here?
Gently patting the child on his back to calm him down, since he could feel his little body trembling, the villager searched around him with puzzled eyes, not sure what to do.
"Notch, this isn't working…" A voice grumbled from behind and Beor span back, his heart rate thundering in his chest.
A tall figure stood behind him, by all looks a real Human, complete with gleaming enchanted armor and a sword ominously glistening red in his hand. Flickering red light from the dying fire gleamed along its sharp edge as the Human considered Beor with a grim expression. Beor blinked in confusion, staring into the Human's disapproving, violet eyes.
The Human suddenly pointed his sword at Beor, with a growl lowering his chin. "I see you. Come out into the open."
"I…" Beor began, feeling trembling set into his limbs, when a dark laughter behind him sent chills running through him. Spinning around once more, the villager saw the Monster step out from the shadows.
It was the same menacing tall being that Beor had seen in Hero's dream before, only this time his face was filled with mirth rather than stand expressionless as before. Stepping out into the uneven light of the fires, the being opened its white eyes with a smirk.
Feeling caught between two adversaries, Beor panicked and began to back away from them to the burnt down wheat field. Neither of the two strangers paid attention to him, both intent on each other.
The child remained clinging to Beor against his chest, pressed to him by his fearful hand. Small fists held tightly on to his gown. A few more steps away and Beor almost stumbled, not daring to look away.
"I've told you this before. I don't like fighting you. But I will if I have to." The Human warrior had declared.
The being responded with a smirk, pulling out a gleaming diamond pickaxe, which he silently pointed at the warrior. With a long-suffering expression, the Warrior took a defensive stand, holding his sword at the ready.
"So be it." He concluded grimly.
The Monster's smile grew wider and suddenly he vanished. The warrior closed his eyes as if listening to sounds intently. And in the fraction of a second, he reacted, posing his sword so it blocked the strike from above as the Monster leapt out of thin air, aiming his pickaxe at the warrior's head.
Startling, Beor decided that he had enough and turned away from them both as he tried to run. Only a few steps away, the air turned thick like jelly and his steps slowed. His body leaning far to the ground, Beor struggled to make another step, and then one more.
Unable to proceed, he tightly shut his eyes.
"Wake up. Please wake up. Hero."
Nothing happening, the villager gave up and fearfully turned around, the air pushing him back closer to the fighting duo. The Monster grinned at the Human with an air of strange anticipation and suddenly let go, smoothly retreating a few steps back. And then his figure blurred to Beor's sight as he lunged forward and delivered a few strikes and punches, which left the Human warrior backing off a few steps as he winced, barely avoiding the whistling pickaxe. A streak of blood appeared on his cheek, slashed open by the sharply wielded weapon.
Growling, the Human thrust his sword at the grinning Monster, but he glid a step to the left and once again vanished from sight.
This time, Beor frantically looked around.
"Behind you!" He tried to warn the Warrior as the Monster's figure materialized from thin air behind the Human. He didn't need any help, however, as the warrior leaned to one side, avoiding the strike, and then sharply thrust his sword into the attacking being's stomach, impaling his left side.
The child in Beor's arms jerked, crying out in pain.
The vision in Beor's eyes went black.
He staggered back from Hero's bed and, stumbling over a toy left on the ground, collapsed backward.
Stunned, he just sat on the ground of his cabin, gasping for breath as his heart thumped in his ears. His head throbbed with pain. Wincing, he rubbed his temples. Distantly, he was aware of Hero's frantic sobbing, but ignored it for a moment as he tried to make sense of things.
Somehow, he had been taken to Hero's nightmare again and he saw… Beor wasn't sure at this point what he had seen. He had seen two beings, one of whom he was certain was the same Monster that he had seen previously, his eyes shining white like Hero's. And the second was definitely a true Human, whose power and confidence he could sense along with his irritation at being there.
Yet it was definitely a dream, because it took place in Beor's own village. He made sure to take a look around to make sure he wasn't dreaming, still, and even pinched his cheek.
"Ouch." He muttered, feeling the sting of it. His green, confused eyes then fell upon sobbing Hero.
The child was curled up in a tense ball, clutching his small hands to his stomach and whimpering.
Concerned, Beor forced himself to get up off the floor and hurried to him, going down to a knee. Gently prying the child's hands away, Beor pulled up his t-shirt and stared at the unblemished skin, where no traces of any burn or a wound showed.
"Hero, you're all right. It was just a dream. Just a very bad dream." Beor frowns, wondering to himself why Hero had acted as if he felt the Monster's pain if he had been apart from him when the Monster had been stabbed in his side by the sword. Was he or was he not that Monster himself? His reactions had been completely separate. It made no sense to Beor.
"That creature… that being… it wasn't you. Understand, Hero? He wasn't you. You are somehow connected, but its not you. I don't know why you are dreaming about him, but you are a different person, Hero. You're human. Not a monster. And you are not hurt, see?"
At the last words, the child mistrustfully looks up, still crying, and looks at his stomach, where nothing seems to be wrong. And already the strange pain he had dimply experienced in that strange place is retreating away. He looks questioningly at the villager, sniffling uncontrollably, as if to verify his words.
Beor confidently nods. "That white-eyed Monster in your dream wasn't you. He just looks like you. I think you both share the same magic and that's why you are seeing his memories." Beor slowly comes up with an explanation, which he instantly believes. His eyebrows relax as he looks at the child encouragingly.
"You are seeing his memories and dreaming at the same time. It's all right, Hero. It was just a scary dream, that's all. Look…" He pats his stomach again and smiles a little. "Nothing hurts now, right?"
After a moment, the child nods in confusion and relief. Beor smiles with even more confidence. "See? Just a dream."
"B-bad…" The child insists stubbornly. Beor nods, conceding. With relief to have found an explanation for what he had seen in the dream, although he still cannot explain how he had gotten pulled in there, except that it was witch's magic still working on him, Beor pulls the little Human in a hug.
"Yes. A very bad dream. But it's not real. Shhh. Everything is going to be all right."
He says it and believes it. And the child senses it too, because he relaxes in Beor's hands, accepting the hug and hugging him back with his small hands.
"You really have a big imagination, Hero. And… I think I know what is happening now. You have the story-telling skill. It's the same magic that our librarian has, when he tells stories to you kids in the learning hour. He makes you see things, right?"
Beor verifies and to his relief the child nods to him, confirming that he sees things too just like the normal villagers. Beor lightly chuckles.
"You have that gift, too. You will just have to learn how to control it, and then you can even share your memories with other people and show them stories as you imagine them to be, just like Kir. Maybe I can ask him to teach you. Would you like that? Would you like to be able to tell stories like Kir?"
This time, the child nods with enthusiasm and smiles through his tears.
"I'll talk to grandpa Grake and to librarian Kir, then. We'll see if we can arrange for your lessons. You can learn together with his own child, kari."
Again, Hero nods and smiles, appearing glad. He seems to understand what Beor is saying to him really well now, or maybe senses it with his own magic. He does not say anything, but Beor is sure now that he understood.
He gently roughs up his hair.
"You should go back to sleep now, Hero. And try to think of the last story that Kir showed you kids this morning. Then you will probably dream of that instead of that scary stuff and the Monster with white eyes. Do you understand?"
"Story…" The child mumbles and obediently nods, his eyes already half-closing. Beor takes a piece of soft cloth and gently wipes off his tears, then settles him down and tucks the blanket around him.
"Sleep. You have another hour or two still. Then it's dinner time. All right?"
The child nods and closes his white eyes, appearing content. Beor wonders what thoughts if any are going through his mind. He ruffles his hair, just as grandpa Grake does and notices that the child's skin is now simply warm to the touch, not hot like before. He wonders about that.
"Sleep well, kari. No more nightmares. Think of nice stories."
The child nods again and Beor smiles, finally standing up. He staggers a little as another dizzy spell comes over him briefly but dismisses it. He simply stood up too fast. Relieved, as at least some of the things are now fairly clear to his understanding as an alternative explanation for what is happening to the child, rather than what the treacherous witch claimed, he heads back to the nearly clean pot and resumes scrubbing it.
He still frowns, thinking about things.
Gift of Memory and Storytelling, in addition to Self-Healing and possible Respawn. And the Taming of Monsters. Those are the child's revealed gifts so far that he had been able to witness. What else would Hero reveal next?
And how will the elders react to this news? Beor frowns as he considers how he might tell them without revealing the version that the witch told him.
Hero wasn't a Monster.