nightmares (-)
I mean, I guess it's a good thing that I can still have "normal" nightmares, they don't all have to be about my ex. But gods, I could have done without this one.
I was in a city, hiding. The city had been split into two halves long ago, a la Berlin, but then had been taken over by a huge powerful dragon who now ruled over it absolutely. Getting from one half to the other involved a gauntlet of mazelike passages and high-visibility patrolled areas.
And I'd been here before.
nightmares (-)
I needed to get across to the other side of the city to try to escape what was coming. Because I'd been here before, maybe more than once, and been killed by that overlord when I refused his deal. Not quickly, either.
I had friends who recognized me and tried to help while I dodged patrolling futuristic craft. I knew several of them would get caught and take the bargain, since it had happened like that last time. Everyone was still trying not to get caught.
It didn't work.
nightmares (-)
The gauntlet of passing through from one side of the city to the other was designed to drain you, weaken you, spend all your resources so you'd be caught. I had a large number of close calls, and several fights I managed to solve quickly. I had some amount of magic available to me, but I was saving that since I needed every scrap to try to deal with my foe. It absolutely wasn't enough. I'd get to the other side, and he'd be waiting, and then we'd meet again and he'd make his offer.
nightmares (-)
I was caught right on the border of the other half of the city, I'd basically made it. Everybody was very respectful, including several of my old friends who were already working for the overlord. They quietly congratulated me, said they hoped I could do it and free them.
Someone else, some rebel or angry citizen, saw them treating me well and managed to strike me on the forehead with some kind of throwing axe. It didn't kill me, but it did hurt a lot.
I knew it was almost over.
nightmares (-)
And then he arrived. Massive, powerful, immensely strong... I knew I was completely outclassed, even without the wound I'd just taken. Seeing me stuck in human form, he folded in on himself and walked toward me as a human as well. Serious, slightly respectful, but knowing that he could effortlessly kill me if I refused.
For a moment I thought, "What if I give in this time? What would it cost me? Can I keep from being corrupted? He can't live forever..."
nightmares (-)
It had been more than five hundred years since the last time we did this, when he killed me for refusing. I could still remember that (and I could remember dreaming it before - this was at least the second time I'd had this dream. Outliving him seemed unlikely.
He came closer, striding inevitably toward me. I was tired, I was injured, there was no way out. There was nothing I could marshal within to help me - my white fire was either missing or I couldn't remember how to stoke it.
nightmares (-)
If I ran, I'd die. If I refused his bargain, I'd die. He was so close now, I had seconds. There was no way I could raise more than a token resistance, and it'd be absolutely futile. He was so much stronger than I was, he'd brush anything I could do aside without effort.
I couldn't run, I couldn't fight, I couldn't agree... but I reakuzed there was one thing I could do. This was a dream, even if it was a repeating one. I could just leave it.
I woke up, and left everything behind.
nightmares (~-)
But right now, I'm sad and exhausted.
nightmares (~-)
@Soreth Yikes. *hugs* That's a powerful sort of dream, right there.
nightmares (~-)
@Soreth *many hugs for you this morning then*
nightmares (~-)
I can't escape the thought that I failed somehow. All my friends (and I can't remember their names, now) are still back there. Still stuck. He's still back there, angry as hell that I managed to depart before he could stop me.
But I survived. I did something unexpected and escaped the inevitable. A foe I couldn't fight, I didn't. I just left instead. I don't know if I'll dream it again, or how things will be after I broke this "cycle". Maybe next time it will be different.