Chapter 11; Rebirth

Chapter 11; Rebirth

/Gr’Erhin

/Dream Earth

Mist. 

Mist covered the lands.

Mist covered the skies.

Everything was covered in flowing white streams of pure vapour and thin wisps of white fog.

Adi kept his head still, looked nowhere but forward, blinking only occasionally.

He couldn’t be cared about in reality, but the dreams—this was his realm. He dominated this realm and he controlled this realm.

He was waiting to see Olivia, the fair, little girl who’d come to be an advisor for him although recently she’d been acting strangely in his dreams. She transformed into a large beast, but what was really unsettling for Adi was seeing her transform into an old, wrinkled woman. That sight was too unsettling for him. Plus that was the same night he met Biv. Things were beginning to change, but right now he didn’t care. He wanted to meet her. He wanted to make sure that in these spartan lands, he’d locate her and make sure she’s okay.

It’s just a dream…No. No it’s not. With everything he’d seen in the last few days, there was no way it all didn't tie into his dreams. There was no way that his dreams were nothing more than what he called them.

And so, without hesitation, he continued strolling forward, at a slow and steady pace.

Minutes later, after seeing the spots of ash rise up and down many times, he reached a small table, made of greying stone.

I could’ve sworn it was marble white last time… Adi thought.

What if Olivia did it again? What if she unexpectedly transformed again?

 Adi walked up to the stone table and sat beside it. He closed his eyes and called for her.

Nothing.

He wondered where—

‘Here we are!’ Biv suddenly said.

Adi blinked a few times, waking up at the sound of his companion. He rubbed his eyes a few times and took a look around.

A beautifully majestic house—but not palace—set on the backdrop of large, well, larger mountains than he’d ever seen. Larger than even the Himalayas by his estimation. 

His eyes widened at the sight.

‘You fall sleep, buddy? You not talk back at me on the way here!’ Biv said, with a jumpy and happy attitude. Adi was surprised that he was always like this, that hardened face of his didn’t match what appeared to Adi as a rather naive optimism on his outlook. And he bore so much excitement toward Adi, but Adi—for reasons he didn’t know—felt that Biv felt discomfort around Adi…

Strange…

Biv settled his horse slightly and gestured for Adi to get off. He tried to reach out with one leg, but ended up awkwardly tumbling onto the ground. A few men up ahead began looking at each other in what Adi guessed to be confusion.

No, it was not a few men,

it was hundreds.

Biv dismounted from his horse, and Adi felt slight pain on his right side as he tumbled… that was the first time in a long time he’d remembered the feeling of pain after a right good fall… of course the last time—

Shhhh. Don’t try and remember. He thought, silencing his mind. 

He groaned as he picked himself up and looked at two men standing out in particular—one slightly shorter but much younger than the other—folding their arms and sharing a laugh.

Adi winced as the pain spread through the right side of his body, it was going to be very sore by the next day.

‘Adi, you strange man you know?’ Biv laughed, but blinked once, slightly nervously so…

‘Come!’ He said to Adi, who limped slightly, gripping his torso. Biv went ahead. He walked towards the two men, one bearing a sheath of green on his hilt: the younger, and the elderly gentleman didn’t seem to be bearing a sword, but wore a green leather uniform with a thick overcoat of a dark green colour.

This really did seem very ancient to him—all of it. The structures of the buildings; the way the men dressed—but the most odd of all, the way the sun shone—singularly on all what seemed to be living beings. Biv explained it to him, but he still seemed dazed by the sight. Adi found himself dazed by an awful lot of things. So far, to Biv at least, he must’ve seemed like a complete, oblivious idiot. 

Adi trailed behind Biv, and saw him march up to the old man, saluting him with a bow, touching both his shoulders with his hands, and then the temples of his head, and again with both hands he touched his chest.

What a weird way to regard someone.

Hopefully it didn’t mean he had to.

He reached the two men and instantly gained their attention.
Yeah they were humans from a different planet, but like Biv, something seemed a little different about them. Was it the eyes, slightly more inwards in their socket? No that wasn’t it, and the thought left Adi wondering how he even reached such a precise, yet incorrect conclusion.

Maybe it was just his mind playing ruses on him.

He walked over, his back slightly hunched and he was nervously ticking his foot on the ground between steps, when his foot dug into the deep snow.

They examined him—both of them—head to toe, but the elderly man seemed to be more polite, with his hands behind his back, unlike the younger who flopped his blond hair back and had his arms folded, eyes narrowed. The man was a fit one, compared to Adi’s sleek physique. The elder one had a crown atop his head. He looked at all the people behind, and there really were hundreds. He blinked.

‘My, uh… what may I call you?’ The elderly gentleman asked.

Panic. Adi didn’t know what to say, and being confronted by these men, backed up by what seemed to be guards with shields and sheaths. It really was a display of man after sheath after man.

But while these men were able to stand straight, Adi wasn’t. These men were whispering to each other, Adi couldn’t.

Then again, was there anything he could do?

‘I… y-y-you, uhh…’ Completely blank. 

‘What? They brought a fekhin—’  the man began—interrupted by a gesture of the elderly man.

‘Go on son. You have nothing to be afraid of,’ The elderly man said in a reassuring tone. He winced his eyes to shield them against the strong sun—wiola, as Biv called it—which shone on him—and Adi in fact—as a spotlight.

‘M-m-my name i-is Adi Walkman.’ The fear, the panic, and Adi didn’t even know why he felt it. So what if there were hundreds of men watching? He was beginning to doubt that his excessive stammering was because of this. It was almost as if he knew something that made him afraid, but he couldn’t quite pinpoint it. Right before he tried to speak, he blinked and saw a few things—he’d forgotten what, but in the flash of that blink, it was almost as if he’d seen things about… He didn't know about what.

‘And I am Tristan.’ The elderly gentleman said, lips sticking to each other as he opened and shut them. The younger man, by the king’s side, stood there with his hands behind his back, still frowning at the sight of him.

He blinked.

Flashes of swords, flashes of fighting…
A large, muscular, and tall black man, holding a spear.

Death—death surrounded this man.

Another flash—

A craving, a sensation of craving for something so strong…

This was a passionate man.

Adi blinked once again, shaking his head—earning another glance from the younger man, who had a hand extended. Did Adi just black-out?

‘I-I’m sorry?’ 

‘I said,’ the younger man said—while Tristan stared at him with intent eyes— with a tone of slight irritation, ‘I’m Nathanial, of house Rolan.’

House Rolan? That sounded like a name from one of those fantasy books he used to read in a phase four or five years ago… 

This place seriously is medieval as fu—

Flash.

An abstract image painted in his mind, two women, one sitting on the ground on her knees, one with her glossy, painted arms out, as if intently sculpting a masterpiece, and three men, one standing with his feet merging into the reddish coloured ground, with his head down, and the other, looking to the right with arms behind his back, and the third—shock.
It was himself, the only clear image, staring back right at him.

Flash.

Everything back to normal.

And Nathanial’s hand extended again.

‘Oh! I’m sorry bout’ that!’ Adi hastened to shake his hand and put on a smile.

Disaster… He thought, as Nathanial’s eyes patronisingly stared upon his.

‘Before I query you my lord,’ Tristan said, ‘Let me introduce you to this country, this planet.’

Did he just call me ‘lord’? That gave Adi a slight laugh.

‘P-p-pardon m-me, but I ain’t no lord.’ Adi said nonchalantly.

Tristan looked at him, hands still folded behind his back—he had a sort of commanding aroma around him, and he blinked. His eyes widened.

‘Oh, trust me you are a lord in every right of the word.’

***

The king blinked, and with a flash, he saw everything. Adi Walkman was not the man he thought.

But no, he was not going to reveal it—not now at least. He was a king, yes, but if Nathanial heard this or anyone else, in fact, he just wouldn’t be able to achieve anything with his help.

No, nobody was going to know.

***

‘I-i-if you insist.’ Adi said. His panic was slowly dying down, but he was still trying to find out what momentarily happened to him. The images, the flashes—sure, he’d seen a few before, but they’d never lasted more than a second and most of the time they wouldn’t be noticeable for the most part. Something like this had never happened to him before. It almost felt like he was being controlled.

‘Daren, why don’t you escort lord Adi to the guest quarters, we can get him settled for the time being.’ Nathanial said to someone who was presumabely a guard of his.

Where was Biv? Oh right there, behind him. He hadn’t spoken a word. He was simply watching the exchange.

‘My lord, I really don’t think that’s necessary, he will come with us.’ Tristan said, putting on a large smile.

‘No please, sir. I insist.’ Nathanial said, what seemed to Adi as stubbornly.

***

Oh you son of a bitch! I’m not going to let you take this one too. Nathanial thought. He had to get at least one victory from this crazily pessimistic king.

***

The king knew that since he didn't offer to Enlighten Nathanial, he wasn’t going to let up—so he started thinking it through.

The most harm that could be done—according to the Tristan’s presumptions—was that Nathanial would be heavily involved in the whole task once he would have found out what it’s about, whether or not he asks him to be. 

I’ll give the boy this much, then… Tristan thought.

***

‘Hence, the boy goes with you, my lord!’ Tristan said, after some silent consultation.

Nathanial smiled politely and bowed his head down.

Adi didn’t usually have such heavy interactions with people, but the attention he got, two people tackling over him, made him feel important. A feeling he hadn’t felt in seven years.

The moment Adi had gotten onto that boat with Biv was his rebirth.

Flash.

This time there was no clear image, but there was one thing he could sense from it all—he was going to live again.