Early May, Brockton Bay, Night
Taylor's sleep could be called anything but restful.
The dreams that she'd been having lately were hardly pleasant, and weren't the lucid ones she'd normally have as she got up to speed on all things dragon.
Tonight she was seeing a young girl hold her dying brother in the ruins of an old town. After he'd passed, Taylor saw the girl adopt a look of resolve that would make even the worst villain afraid of what would happen next. Images flashed through the dreamscape then, following the girl as she collected companions; a warrior, a cat-like creature, and a wizard, though the magic he used was far different from what Taylor was becoming familiar with.
Their journey spanned three worlds, and finally they defeated the evil king who had killed the girl's brother,among many others. When the group went to claim their rewards they were sucked into another dimension and fought a terrifying creature. A literal force of darkness, it was evil and corruption that had escaped its prison and sought to bring an end to all.
In the end they beat it back, resealed it in its prison, and brought peace to their worlds. The girl lived a long life, but the experience had changed her. She often awoke from her sleep afterwards because of nightmares, and was more quiet and withdrawn. Still, she had her cat, which was no longer small and cute. Their adventures had transformed him into a magnificent winged cat, large enough that he could carry the girl and her companions into the air with ease. Her other companions helped restore order to the rest of the worlds, and when they had all passed, things remained at peace.
The most disturbing thing was that the girl looked like her. Sure, her hair was more brown, but her height, face and eyes were the same. Taylor hoped she would one day look as pretty as the girl in her dreams did.
There had been other variations on the dream, always centered on a group of young people. They would investigate a mystery, suffer hardships and tragedies, and eventually triumph over the fragment of whatever had escaped it's confinement.
Joseph Campbell had called it the hero's journey. Taylor's mother had been critical of the man's concept of the monomyth. The list of problems would occupy a long rant, and then she'd have to go read a trashy romance novel. Just because. The memory brought a smile to her face, as did the memory of her father's laughter, which would cause Mom to pout, and then go back to her book. But they always smiled at each other and talked quietly together more after doing that. It left Taylor with a warm feeling.
Still, that was what she was seeing in her dreams.
It would be different groups in different dreams. Some were a group of four or five individuals, and in a couple of instances it had been a mercenary company. It would be different places, too; ancient lands, modern cities, alien worlds, mostly timeless landscapes that should be more focused on living than fighting. But it was the same pattern, over and over. Darkness rises, someone investigates, gathers a bunch of allies, and goes and solves the mystery,
ad nauseum.
But what did it mean? And what did it mean to
her?
Finally, much later, she settled into a deeper sleep, undisturbed by dreams.
//\\//\\//\\
"Hey, Natalie," Taylor's greeting to her friend as she arrived at school lacked a certain amount of enthusiasm.
Natalie took a second look at Taylor. "Are you OK, Taylor? It looks like you didn't get a lot of sleep."
"I didn't," Taylor grumbled. "Do you know anyone who knows anything about dreams? I'm not sure I want to take this to the therapist my after school job provides."
"My father does," Natalie allowed. "Would you like to talk to him?"
"In person, yes," Taylor answered. "I don't think my dreamscape is a very nice place right now."
"Hey, Taylor!"
Taylor flinched at the greeting. She couldn't handle Vicky's aggressively outgoing nature at the moment. "Hi, Vicky," she replied.
Vicky looked a little closer at Taylor, and frowned. "You don't look so good."
"I had a very rough night last night," she replied.
"May I?" asked Amy. Taylor nodded, and Amy touched the back of Taylor's hand.
"You're showing all the signs of a high amount of stress," Amy answered. "It's causing you to not get enough sleep."
Taylor's response was to bang her head against her locker.
"What'd I say?"
- - - - - - - - - -
By the time lunch rolled around, Taylor's mood was getting foul. As she sat down, before anyone else could say anything, she growled out to her friends at the table, "I know I look terrible. I know I haven't had a good night's sleep. I've heard that from nearly every teacher and almost anyone who even
looked at me this morning. I don't want to talk anymore about it, and I'd like to eat my lunch and talk about something,
anything else, OK?"
Dean had winced a couple of times as Taylor said her piece. He could feel the building anger and frustration from his teammate. So he turned to Vicky and whispered something to her, at which she nodded. "OK, change of subject time, then," he said after thinking for a moment. "Endbringers are depressing but inevitable; in a couple of weeks, where do you think Leviathan will hit?"
"Who knows," Carlos answered. "Anywhere there's access to the ocean. It might be hard for him to sneak up the St. Lawrence river and into the Great Lakes beyond Lake Ontario, though."
"I dunno, he snuck up rivers to Madrid easily enough," noted Chris.
"Yeah, but now everybody puts stuff like anti-submarine nets out," countered Dennis. "He's got to trip those to get in, so no surprise."
The discussion soon mutated into one about which Endbringer was the worst, and Taylor got to eat her lunch in peace. As she was finishing with her cookies, her phone played its incoming message alert.
N: My father wishes to talk with you in person about your dreams.
Taylor frowned a little bit, and then remembered that Sonngrad's specialty was dreams and dream magic. After letting out a sigh, she typed out a response fairly fast.
T: He say when?
N: Before you go to sleep tonight.
T: I have to work late tonight, but I should have time after school.
N: He may visit you at home, he'll check with your father.
T: OK. Anytime after 3 but before 5.
N: I'll let him know.
- - - - - - - - - -
During her free period, after tackling some of her homework, Taylor checked the library for anything about dreams. Arcadia had a couple of books on the psychology of dreams, both of which were very thick books of very fine print, and definitely not for someone who was looking for answers to specific questions in a limited amount of time.
Still, she read through the first chapter of one of them, and was still just as confused. Just that now she had an idea what her dreams
weren't. They weren't her subconscious trying to tell her something or her anxieties playing out in her mind while she slept. These were decidedly of a different flavor than what the book in front of her was telling her.
Talking to Mr. Aleshin would probably be a good idea.
//\\//\\//\\
Taylor arrived home and subdued the homework monster for another day. Not that she really needed to, since she'd worked ahead a bit, but not too far. It had been impressed on her that while she could work as far ahead as she had material to do so, it wasn't considered healthy for her to spend all her time on her homework. She had heard this from the school, from the Protectorate, and from the Youth Guard. Her father had merely nodded in agreement when she explained that to him.
Figuring she might as well be a decent host, she'd set out some cookies, and had some coffee going when there was a knock at the door. She already knew who was on the other side of the door, since she could easily sense both Naichi and Sonngrad standing there in their human guises. She double checked through the peephole that they were alone and opened the door to let them in.
Taylor brought the cookies out into the living room, along with a cup of coffee for Mr. Aleshin and a cola for Naichi before they started talking.
"Naichi tells me you've had some disturbing and recurring dreams," Sonngrad started. "Disturbing, recurring, and dragon combined usually portends something. Tell me about them."
Slowly, Taylor told her tale, going through all the variations of the same kind of dream she'd had over the last few nights. Sonngrad listened attentively, and had only asked a few questions.
"So, what does it mean?" Taylor asked.
"Dragons do dream, just like any other sapient creature. And while the subjects of various dreams are different, they usually fall into the same categories as human dreams. Like human dreams, most are forgotten upon waking." Sonngrad took a sip of the coffee before continuing. "It's when one remembers the dream in startling clarity, as you have, that it's more serious. I want to talk with both Bahamut and Tiamat to see if they know anything about the subject of your dreams, and what it may portend.
"As to helping you get a good night's sleep," he continued, "I recommend a good, strong chamomile tea. Anything stronger is really not recommended, plus the amount you'd need would make its use expensive. Chamomile tea works as well as anything, mainly by taking an edge off of things, and won't cause you to sleep a number of years."
"Years?"
"Anything strong enough to put a dragon out will also be strong enough to keep them asleep for several years. As you still have growing up ahead of you, I don't want to take that away from you. And really, sleeping out a decade is overrated. You've got so much to catch up on when you wake up, it's really more work than it's worth."
"Not to mention all the accumulated homework," said Naichi.
//\\//\\//\\
"It's a fine day, Asti. Relax and enjoy it." Tiamat leaned back in the chair at an outdoor table at Antonio's, one of the better Italian restaurants in the Bay area. Across from her sat the aforementioned Asti, better known to most dragons as Astilabor, or Ms. Aster LaBorre to her employees, dressed in a very professional manner; a dark blue skirt with crisp pressed pleats, a matching jacket, a white silk blouse, with a pair of low heeled pumps polished to a mirror shine. Green eyes behind a pair of gold-rimmed spectacles watched Tiamat.
She nodded before taking a sip of the wine at the table. "I can afford to take a little time off," she said,setting her glass down, "but certain matters don't take care of themselves." She sampled the salad she had in front of her, nodding in approval. "Acceptable. I should have a branch office opening up in Brockton Bay soon. Negotiations to keep the legal parts of Medhall open are going well. And, of course, negotiations regarding that piece of property you were interested in have begun."
"Excellent." There was a brief pause as dinner arrived, and the two sampled their selections. "How goes some of the other 'special' projects?"
"I have made overtures to the one called Accord," Asti stated. "He is curious, and respects a sharp mind and a well thought out plan. He will not be a problem. As for the other groups, the financial backing of the one called the Teeth is slowly being dismantled, and a trap laid for when they inevitably try to correct that by force. There is something obscuring the backing of the group called the Fallen. I'm working my way closer, and soon their schemes shall be laid bare. Along with their money."
"Good," Tia replied. "Hopefully, that which they worship can be dealt with as well, without too much trouble."
"That is unknown," Asti stated. "My sources suspect that they are sandbagging, and that the heroes who had driven them off have never truly defeated them."
"Hey, can I join you two?" Hailey asked as she approached their table.
"Sure, be my guest," Tia said. "You're footing your own bill, though."
"Wouldn't have it any other way," Hailey replied, pulling up a chair. When the waiter came over she quickly placed her order, the waiter nodding. Hailey waited until he'd left before continuing. "I've got some good news, bad news, and WTF news. Usual order?"
"Yes, please," Asti said, dabbing her mouth with her napkin as she finished her meal.
"Good news is that things in the area are quiet," Hailey explained. "Since you and the Big B shocked and awed the Empire into non-existence, very few gangs, parahuman or not, want to move in here. Several of them are trying to get as far away from here as possible, even if they weren't close to begin with." Her beverage order arrived, and she paused to sip her drink.
"Good stuff. Now the bad news. The next Endbringer attack is due in less than two weeks, and short of going out and asking them where the next attack will be, the best that can be worked out is somewhere on the northern half of the East Coast of the US. Something is working overtime to keep us from divining exactly where. The local Parahumans are actually doing better than us with that."
"Traveling to wherever it happens will not be a problem, then," Tiamat said. "How many of us are able to help?"
"You and Bahamut are certain, Lendys is a big maybe. Tamara will help with medical response. I suspect you would have a hard time stopping Sonngrad and Kurya if Bahamut goes. Some of the youngsters will want to go too, but probably shouldn't join the main fight. We'll want to coordinate with the parahumans, too, they usually go all out on that." Hailey shrugged, and fell silent for a bit as her salad arrived. "Mmm, pretty good." Conversation paused as Hailey demolished her salad while Tia and Asti savored their desserts.
"And now for the WTF news," Hailey said. "Three things. Naurelin's had some creepy, easily remembered dreams, the kind dragons don't like to have. One of the local heroes found her way to Sigil and back. That should be interesting, especially if she learned anything there. And finally, I'm settling down for a bit in the area."
Hailey observed her two older sisters as her entrée arrived. She smiled as she wondered which news item had given both her older sisters the confused looks they wore.
Given name of Nieriel, comes and visits ocassionally. Unlike most Missy analogues, this one is quite tall, being of Noldorin Elvish descent. Probably won't make an appearance, but there you go.
