Saturday, November 10, 2007

Dreaming in the Redlands

You walk about the Red Castle in the dead of night. All the servants and guardsmen have been turned to statues. You wander about and find that all the nobles and crew of the Maelstrom are statues as well.
This doesnt seem to bother you much.
You wander out of the castle into the city streets. You round a corner past a stone watchman on a stone horse and see a young and pretty Chin girl in the middle of the street. She is not made of stone and she seems to reflect more moonlight than a body would normally warrant. She beckons you to follow and leads you out of the city and outside the castle walls. You come to a small clearing where 13 fist-sized stones make a circle around a larger stone. She beckons again and you both walk around the stones counter-clockwise 13 times.
After the 13th pass, the clearing is somehow much larger. The large center stone is now a statue of Murgosis. He holds a silver leaf in each hand.
The Chin girl appears from behind Murgosis and beckons you forward once more. This time you refuse, transfixed by the visage of the bull-man. His eyes are closed and he looks like he's meditating.
The girl takes you by the wrist. Her grip is icy-cold but her eyes are kind and sad. She gently leads you past the statue.
When you tear your eyes away from Murgosis, you are greeted by another representation of your love. This time he kneels in supplication, offering the silver leaves to an older Egyptian male you think to be his father.
The girl points behind the statues and there is a live person there where none was before. A half-elf wizard consults maps and charts behind the father statue, and makes an adjustment to the stone robes with a hammer and chisel. He seems to notice you and the Chin woman and mouthes a greeting, but the dream is silent and you hear nothing.
Suddenly a bearded dark-haired human appears behind the wizard with a large knife upraised to strike. You cry out a warning but no sound escapes your lips. The man stabs the wizard once, twice, three times. Then, laughing horrible silent laughter all the while, he crushes both statues with his bare hands. You are unable to move or speak as he sifts through the shattered stonework and unearths the two silver leaves. He devours them both. You fall forward, forward, forward into his horrible dark eyes--
And then you wake up.

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