A Dream For The Future

A Dream for the Future

by Facade Malenroh

With a long, deep yawn, he sat up from his bed of straw and wool. It had been a dark night, and he had needed to lighten his mood through his dreams. Thats how he delt with everything, he dreamed, and during those dreams, he'd see something, or do something that would cure whatever was ailing him. He and his father had been living in this small wooden hut for what must have been centries, possibly millenia now. It was only him and his father, although frequently, they would venture down to whatever village, town, or city was near at the time. They never remembered the name, of the place, for they'd only go once or twice in any meaningful timespan. Eventually, the place would die out, and another would be built on top of it, or somewhere around there, and father and son would go to it instead.

Immortal, some people called them, since they never aged. Others called them nature spirits, for thier health reflected the woodlands around them. There were even some foolish enough to see them as gods, and worship them whenever they came to town. That was thier curse, people would try to kill them, just to say they had slain the immortals, or the nature spirits, or the gods. It seemed to the duo that they visited the cities in a healthy dose, but to those humans, as they called themselves, they came every hundred or thousand years.

As the son rubbed the sleep from his tired eyes, he stepped out of bed, and pulled on his shirt. His dreams had been troubling him more and more, recently, as they did everytime, before the creature came. It was unsettling, it seemed that the creature came about looking only for him and his father. It came about half as often as the duo did, to the towns, but when it came, it killed everything and everyone, save for the woodlands. The creature, a giant in its own right, stood over seventy humans high, and near the same in length. It was covered in a pure black, hairless hide, tough as stone, yet supple as leather, and it had no head, face, or even eyes to speak of. Its eight spidery legs thrust out of its bloated body like the spears of men through the corpses of battle. Each shoot ended in a point finer than any diamond, and yet never broke the surface of the ground as it stood.

When the creature came, its simply appeared, and went searching. When it was finished, satisfied or not, it would vanish. But in its wake, nothing remained. Ruins lay scattered across the land, death and decay where life and growth had been. The duo never saw how it accomplished such a feat, yet they'd seen enough struggles between man and beast before to know that every attempt was futile, and either the creature would find what it wanted, or it would not, yet either way, it would live, and destroy.

Once, it had been an army of men on horses, with long steel shafts jutting from thier sides, and covered in steel, while yet others shot barrage upon barrage of wooden shafts upon it. The humans even had wooden machines launching anything they could put into them at the creature, but nothing helped, they died like all the rest. Another time it had been armies of machines, metalic monstrosities battling the creature, every one did something different, in a horrid racket of clicking, clanging, clacking, and crushing. Thier effort had been futil as well. Wave upon wave, generation upon generation, had broken against the creature, and each one had been destroyed utterly. In one encounter, the humans tried a magical spell that destroyed everything for miles around, but left the creature untouched.

He sensed it coming again. This time it'd be coming very soon, and the humans hadnt had much time to rebuild after the last attack. This time, the humans seemed to call the world Temuair, and they had built several cities, and small villages. They called those who had been granted the warriors spirit Aislings, and seemed to think that the duo was some sort of diety. The son found it amusing, since his father and himself hadnt visted the new world recently, and so the humans thought there were several of them, if he could remember correctly, eight. They called the great beast Chadul, and some foolish Aislings worshipped the bringer of death.

The dream seemed to signal that the creature was coming sometime that day, so the need to tell his father was quite urgant. After he finished thrusting his shirt over his head, he walked out the door, and went straight to where his father always stayed, either building, writting, or meditating, an alter in the middle of the forest. His father was there now, meditating, and as his son walked up, he simply looked up, and soaked in the tale of the dream, and its meaning, as his son explained it all. After much deliberation, the father stood up, and declared now was the time that they would face the creature, for too many humans had died before it, and he would not allow any more to do so.

So the duo, Father and Son, stepped forward, out of the woods, and up to the river that ran beside the forest. As they did, they could see the creature, a long distance away, but coming quickly. It would be there within the hour, so time wasnt long. The son was anxious, he insisted that they set traps, or something so that they could do battle with this monster on thier own terms. But the father turned him down, and told him to stand his place beside the river, for the right course of action would come to them when it was ment to do so.

And so they stood. It seemed like days had gone by, as the creature grew larger and larger, and the father and son just stood there, watching the monstrosity approach. Finally, the creature stopped in front of them, standing besides the river. The son felt the creature looking down upon them, but he couldnt, for the life of him, determine where the source of it was. But his father just stood there, looking up at the creature, his face stone seriousness.

One moment, his father was standing beside him, the next, the creature had him held up to its body, as a flap of its hide split, and its face came fourth. The creature's face was too high up for the son to make out, all he could tell was that it looked almost human in its own right. The creatures mouth opened, a gigantic abyss lined with an infinate amount of razor sharp fangs all the way down its throat, all the same dark color of its flesh. The son, not able to bear the thought of losing his father, screamed at the creature, called out, flailed his arms, did anything and everything he could think of to get its attention. And get its attention he did, for no sooner had he opened his mouth and began moving, but the creature had him around the waist and on his way down to its gullet.

The son looked up at the creature and his father, panic in his eyes. He couldnt think of what to do, he was helpless, he couldnt do a thing to stop this creature from killing his father, and then he would be next. All at once, an icy calm came over him, and as he looked up at the creature, he simply asked it if his father and he were the only ones left. The creatures bottomless black eyes shifted towards him, and answered in a drawl that could only be taken as yes. The son frowned, and then began to tell the creature of how if his father perished, so would he, and along with them the forest, the only thing that kept the planet alive, and the world stocked with humans and animals. The son told the creature how if they died, then the creature would have nothing left to kill, to destroy, and how it would be the only thing left on this planet.

The creature looked at him, and the son felt something enter his mind, searching for the truth. After a long while, the feeling subsided, and the creature dropped his father into the river, and began walking over the forest, towards anything else he could destroy. As the son fished his father out from the rapids, the father looked him over and smiled. The father told him he did the right thing, and now the creature would return to wence it came, as it did every time. Then the humans could rebuild once more, and from there, well, he'd dream that up as it came.

Facade Malenroh
Monkish of the Arts
Warriorish of the Stuff
Unseelie Court

	A Dream for the Future by Facade Malenroh With a long, deep yawn, he sat up from his bed of straw and wool. It had been a dark night, and he had needed to lighten his mood through his dreams. Thats how he delt with everything, he dreamed, and during those dreams, he'd see something, or do something that would cure whatever was ailing him. He and his father had been living in this small wooden hut for what must have been centries, possibly millenia now. It was only him and his father, although frequently, they would venture down to whatever village, town, or city was near at the time. They never remembered the name, of the place, for they'd only go once or twice in any meaningful timespan. Eventually, the place would die out, and another would be built on top of it, or somewhere around there, and father and son would go to it instead. Immortal, some people called them, since they never aged. Others called them nature spirits, for thier health reflected the woodlands around them. There were even some foolish enough to see them as gods, and worship them whenever they came to town. That was thier curse, people would try to kill them, just to say they had slain the immortals, or the nature spirits, or the gods. It seemed to the duo that they visited the cities in a healthy dose, but to those humans, as they called themselves, they came every hundred or thousand years. As the son rubbed the sleep from his tired eyes, he stepped out of bed, and pulled on his shirt. His dreams had been troubling him more and more, recently, as they did everytime, before the creature came. It was unsettling, it seemed that the creature came about looking only for him and his father. It came about half as often as the duo did, to the towns, but when it came, it killed everything and everyone, save for the woodlands. The creature, a giant in its own right, stood over seventy humans high, and near the same in length. It was covered in a pure black, hairless hide, tough as stone, yet supple as leather, and it had no head, face, or even eyes to speak of. Its eight spidery legs thrust out of its bloated body like the spears of men through the corpses of battle. Each shoot ended in a point finer than any diamond, and yet never broke the surface of the ground as it stood. When the creature came, its simply appeared, and went searching. When it was finished, satisfied or not, it would vanish. But in its wake, nothing remained. Ruins lay scattered across the land, death and decay where life and growth had been. The duo never saw how it accomplished such a feat, yet they'd seen enough struggles between man and beast before to know that every attempt was futile, and either the creature would find what it wanted, or it would not, yet either way, it would live, and destroy. Once, it had been an army of men on horses, with long steel shafts jutting from thier sides, and covered in steel, while yet others shot barrage upon barrage of wooden shafts upon it. The humans even had wooden machines launching anything they could put into them at the creature, but nothing helped, they died like all the rest. Another time it had been armies of machines, metalic monstrosities battling the creature, every one did something different, in a horrid racket of clicking, clanging, clacking, and crushing. Thier effort had been futil as well. Wave upon wave, generation upon generation, had broken against the creature, and each one had been destroyed utterly. In one encounter, the humans tried a magical spell that destroyed everything for miles around, but left the creature untouched. He sensed it coming again. This time it'd be coming very soon, and the humans hadnt had much time to rebuild after the last attack. This time, the humans seemed to call the world Temuair, and they had built several cities, and small villages. They called those who had been granted the warriors spirit Aislings, and seemed to think that the duo was some sort of diety. The son found it amusing, since his father and himself hadnt visted the new world recently, and so the humans thought there were several of them, if he could remember correctly, eight. They called the great beast Chadul, and some foolish Aislings worshipped the bringer of death. The dream seemed to signal that the creature was coming sometime that day, so the need to tell his father was quite urgant. After he finished thrusting his shirt over his head, he walked out the door, and went straight to where his father always stayed, either building, writting, or meditating, an alter in the middle of the forest. His father was there now, meditating, and as his son walked up, he simply looked up, and soaked in the tale of the dream, and its meaning, as his son explained it all. After much deliberation, the father stood up, and declared now was the time that they would face the creature, for too many humans had died before it, and he would not allow any more to do so. So the duo, Father and Son, stepped forward, out of the woods, and up to the river that ran beside the forest. As they did, they could see the creature, a long distance away, but coming quickly. It would be there within the hour, so time wasnt long. The son was anxious, he insisted that they set traps, or something so that they could do battle with this monster on thier own terms. But the father turned him down, and told him to stand his place beside the river, for the right course of action would come to them when it was ment to do so. And so they stood. It seemed like days had gone by, as the creature grew larger and larger, and the father and son just stood there, watching the monstrosity approach. Finally, the creature stopped in front of them, standing besides the river. The son felt the creature looking down upon them, but he couldnt, for the life of him, determine where the source of it was. But his father just stood there, looking up at the creature, his face stone seriousness. One moment, his father was standing beside him, the next, the creature had him held up to its body, as a flap of its hide split, and its face came fourth. The creature's face was too high up for the son to make out, all he could tell was that it looked almost human in its own right. The creatures mouth opened, a gigantic abyss lined with an infinate amount of razor sharp fangs all the way down its throat, all the same dark color of its flesh. The son, not able to bear the thought of losing his father, screamed at the creature, called out, flailed his arms, did anything and everything he could think of to get its attention. And get its attention he did, for no sooner had he opened his mouth and began moving, but the creature had him around the waist and on his way down to its gullet. The son looked up at the creature and his father, panic in his eyes. He couldnt think of what to do, he was helpless, he couldnt do a thing to stop this creature from killing his father, and then he would be next. All at once, an icy calm came over him, and as he looked up at the creature, he simply asked it if his father and he were the only ones left. The creatures bottomless black eyes shifted towards him, and answered in a drawl that could only be taken as yes. The son frowned, and then began to tell the creature of how if his father perished, so would he, and along with them the forest, the only thing that kept the planet alive, and the world stocked with humans and animals. The son told the creature how if they died, then the creature would have nothing left to kill, to destroy, and how it would be the only thing left on this planet. The creature looked at him, and the son felt something enter his mind, searching for the truth. After a long while, the feeling subsided, and the creature dropped his father into the river, and began walking over the forest, towards anything else he could destroy. As the son fished his father out from the rapids, the father looked him over and smiled. The father told him he did the right thing, and now the creature would return to wence it came, as it did every time. Then the humans could rebuild once more, and from there, well, he'd dream that up as it came. Facade Malenroh Monkish of the Arts Warriorish of the Stuff Unseelie Court

	Abel Tavern Tales
	Written Material Copyright © 2000/2004 Facade Malenroh This document maintained by Estara. Page Copyright © 2000-2004 E. Swanberg (optimized for MIE 5.x) Dark Ages: Online Roleplaying is owned and Copyright 1999, Nexon. www.darkages.com