Part 1: Asfalia Chapter 11: The First of Many Yet to Come

They allowed us to eat dinner, which was a blessing. Even more shockingly, we went to bed at a reasonable hour. We weren’t sure why but Sage’s theory was that the counselors gave them a talking to about the difference between training and trying to kill a person.

Maybe it was the power of suggestion, or maybe I was getting some kind of radiation from the barrier. That night though I dreamed of something odd and it was so vivid that I questioned if it was actually a dream or not.

The sky was a swirling dazzle of colors as I looked out over a vast forest. There were too many stars in the sky and too may colors in the air. Wind itself was twirling around me as I was swept away by a feeling of pure bliss.

My feet were exposed on the cold hard ground. I looked and saw the ground I was on was a pure white marble with grains of grey that reflected the starlight. I could hear someone talking farther away.

Their voice was metallic. “Fire tonight sir?” It wasn’t one of us, I knew everyone’s voices and this was someone or something different.

“Not tonight.” The voice answered back. I knew this was a male’s. It was a deep syrupy voice that flowed through the air, asking me to come closer. “Do you smell that?” It asked.

“No sir.” The metallic voice answered back. “Would you like me to close the window?”

“You are dismissed.” The male voice answered.

I heard the opening and closing of a door and felt my feet move toward the room. It was growing cold on this balcony, how I could feel this in my dream was unclear. Inside the room wasn’t much better though I saw every detail as if it were real. It was like a fairy tale. The bed looked to be made out of trees growing into a canopy where strings of purple flowers hung down. There were no lights just a few candles here and there.

Each step I took brought more detail into view pelts of animals were laid out on the bed I reached out and touched one feeling the soft white fur that tickled my fingertips.

“Who are you?” I looked around and felt the voice on the back of my neck.

“Who-” I wanted to turn around, surely he wasn’t talking to me. If he was I controlled this dream. I couldn’t be in danger here. “What are you?” I decided to answer rather than defer to his question.

“You first.” I felt a waft of air pass through me as he took in my scent. “You're not really here.” he hissed as if it was some massive flaw.

“Am I not?” I answered back with as much disgust thinking this was the correct tone we were both setting.

“Hardly.” He chuckled and I felt his fingers on my skin causing goose bumps to form. “Interesting reaction.” He growled in my ear. “It’s almost like you’re really here.”

“You’re not real.” I whispered back my eyes closing as his hands reached around my waist.

“Oh I assure you,” I felt his tongue, it was playing at the nape of my neck. Little twists and twirls. “I’d mark you right there if I knew it would be real or last.” Those teeth, he had such pointed teeth. “Where did you learn such a nasty trick?”

Trick? I thought, what trick? What was I doing? I was once again no longer driving and was just a passenger in the backseat forced to watch something happen to me. The words from Dara echoed through my brain once more. I took a deep breath in and was immediately filled with the scent around me, like I was walking on a mountain trail and rain was just starting to fall.

“Looking to go so soon?” He whispered his hands now fully wrapped around me.

“I’m not sure what’s happening,” I whispered back, allowing myself to submit to his fingers clawing at my stomach. It wasn't a clawing that was hurtful, though it carried it’s own pain that fueled some not so innocent desire deep inside me. “I want to stay here.” I finally urged, though I could feel my hold on the scene slipping. “Can I come back?”

“I’ll caution you from just popping in whenever you like. You might see something you regret.” As he spoke, his lips vibrated my skin.

“Like what?” I hummed back wishing that I could turn around and see this man. Maybe he’d look like Rodrik, something that I was familiar with. This had to be some form of prize for everything I had already gone through. Letting me see Rodrik one last time would have been just what I needed. These weren’t his hands though. I could recall his hands still and these were far bigger. The person who owned them was towering over me, wrapping me up in a shroud of darkness that was going to shield me from everything until all I could ever want was him. Whoever this was I yearned for him to continue. I needed this release.

“Hmmm…” his voice purred again and I was melting in his arms. One of his hands pawed at my breast squeezing until a fire erupted in my core. “Oh my little mate.’ his voice grew dark. “I’ll find you dear. I’ll never stop until I can feel you for real.”

That caused me to turn around, stingly breaking his hold on my chest as his fingers also lost their grip on my stomach. My vision blurred. I stared up, feeling myself being pulled away from everything. I fought to stay, I fought everything to try to get a better glimpse of him. He was going to look for me, how would I know if he found me? Why did I want him to find me? All I could see were the bright blue eyes in the darkness. They were looking through me as if they were able to judge my very essence. Darkness continued to swallow up my being until I felt myself flying backward as if I had just been cast out.

As I drew back I could hear the sound of a bell tolling. It was growing louder and louder until I felt myself crash back into my bed, jolting up with a start.

The bell ringing was our alarm. Loud enough to cause us all to jump from our beds and quickly get dressed in our standard work out attire. That morning we all made it to the cobble stone yard on time.

Cronus was waiting for us. “Typically, on Saturdays we would take you all to another base where you would do training and sparring lessons with other soldiers. Since this is your second official day you will instead spend the morning running. Once you have ran a mile you are free to eat breakfast. We will get you when your next session will start.”

Dreyma, Sage, and I stuck together as we ran. It didn’t seem to matter to any of us how quickly we got this done. Something else was clearly on all out minds.

“Did anyone else have any weird dreams last night?” Sage finally asked as we were about halfway done.

I nodded.

“I saw something weird.” She continued.

“Like what?” Dreyma looked back she was running just a few steps ahead of us.

“It was a glass ceiling,” it was like her eyes were glossing over as she stared off in the distance, “It was clear and the moon light was filling the room below. I tried to reach out and touch it but then I heard something like the sound of someone walking and when I turned around I saw a pair of glowing blue eyes.”

“Blue eyes?” that caught my attention.