Stolen Nightmare

Amanda seriously regretted every single choice that got her here. It was bad enough that the council was on her ass, now this?

She huffed as the sound of talking rattled in her brain. She glared over at the perpetrator, a tall, skinny elf with eyes too pretty for her to focus, and a smile too bright and cocky for someone she could easily throw to the wolves.

Okay, to be fair, she is also very ‘throw to the wolves’ -able.

They were creeping through the dense forest of Althem. Amanda wanted to say sneaking but her companion, a ranger called Silvia, had yet to shut her mouth long enough for them to be on a stealth mission.

“Would you keep it down?” Amanda hissed, her forked tongue flicking out from between her teeth. “We don’t know what we’re getting into, but we know we’re stealing something back. If you keep yapping, they’ll hear us coming!”

“Woah–” Silvia smirked, “Someone woke up with an attitude– What’s the issue, Syrup? Not into having a bit of fun?”

She shook her head and the trains of her short, pixie-cut black hair fell between her eyes. She pushed it out of the way and back into the hood that cast a shadow over her eyes. She didn’t know why the other kept calling her Syrup– Most likely having to do with her mispronouncing ‘Serp.’ “Not the kind you’re into, no. And why am I Syrup when you’re the one trailing behind?” she responded.

She received a scoff for that comment. She ducked and weaved between the bushes. It was easy for her to maneuver her way through the woods, as she was used to running through them and slipping through tight spaces.

Her companion, however?

Yeah… They were struggling.

Amanda glared at them when they snapped a branch by stepping on it, causing a load, echoing crack to ring out.

They looked smug about it, too. “Oops,” she said sarcastically. The sly smirk made something flip in Amanda’s stomach.

She huffed. “Can you just not be an idiot for five minutes?” “Woah, there. I’m helping you remember?” They pointed out. “And you haven’t even told me what you are yet.”

The girl turned away. “Yeah, and I’m not turning you into the knights, do you know how much gold is on your head right now?” “Not too much, I assume, considering I don’t feel anything too heavy right now.”

Amanda groaned as she kept walking. “You’re insufferable! I should send you to jail.” “And why do I have a feeling that you’d be coming with me if you did?”

Her face burned with embarrassment. It’s not even that she would go to jail if she took Silvia to it. She would be killed before she even got to see a lick of iron.

“Oh, ho, ho, you’re a– MPH!” “Shh!”

Amanda felt a hand covering her mouth and an arm wrapped around her shoulders, pulling her close as Silvia ducked them behind a tree.

Just past the tree they were hidden behind, there was a group of people– Bandits, of some kind, wheeling away a wooden wagon. Flaming torches in their hands, and spares at their side, they kept trekking through the path that had been burned through the woods.

As they passed, Amanda got a whiff of something– Something foul and mixed. So many things all at once, yet they all fit together evenly to create the perfect mixture of rot.

She only knew one thing that had that smell: A nightmare.

She grabbed Silvia’s hand off her mouth. “That’s them–” “Sh!” Silvia shut her whisper down as she too leaned slightly past the tree.

They watched the group leave, and from under a purple cloth that they had over their wagon, Amanda could see a jar– One that held a purple orb that splintered into red with a sharp white center.

Amanda’s grip tightened on Silvia. She needed to get to that jar.

“That’s them?” Silvia asked calmly. “The dudes that stole that thing from you? The thing you have yet to tell me about?”

“Yes,” Amanda answered. “I’m sure of it.”

Silvia looked between her and the group before shrugging. “Alrighty then,” she said smoothly as she let go of Amanda and walked forward. “Let’s go bust some heads.”

When the moon rose in the sky, the bandit group settled down for the night. They propped up tents and sleeping bags while establishing the group that was going to patrol for a few hours.

When the next shift started, and most of the humans in the group were dead asleep, the guards started to disappear.

Shadows popped up from the bushes and snatched them where they stood. One had a rag, the other knew just where to hit to knock people out.

Weapons clattered to the floor, drawing more of the patrol over to where their missing friends were, right into the trap the two had set.

After they had taken care of the guards, Amanda and Silvia stepped into the grounds of the camp.

Amanda spoke in a hushed tone, “You stay out here and make sure there are no more– I’ll look for the ni– My thing, got it?”

“Woah, hold,” Silvia grabbed her shoulder, “Why can’t you call out, and I look for it? I’m a bit more experienced when it comes to sticky fingers.”

“You don’t even know what it is.” “Yeah, so now you can tell me.” “Why would I tell you?” “Because I’m risking my life right now to help you.”

Amanda’s eyes narrowed under her hood. “You’re going to steal it.”

Silvia stiffened at the statement. “Hold it now– What makes you say that?”

She knew it. “What won’t make me say that?” She retorted as she tried to keep her voice low. “You randomly decide to hop on a mission to help a person you don’t even know, and you’re so inclined to figure out what I’m trying to get.”

“Hey, I came here because I thought I was helping someone in need!” Silvia responded.

“Oh, yeah, and I’m just supposed to magically trust the same girl that killed the king?”

Silence hung in the air for a moment as Silvia’s face darkened.

“You promised you won’t bring that up!” Silvia shoved Amanda, who grunted in response. “It’s a reasonable fear, ya know!”

“Shut up! Just shut up! You know nothing about what happened that night!” “Yeah, and I don’t want to– just how you shouldn’t want to know anything about me!” “I want to know things about you because you’re the first person I’ve talked to in months! Do you know how lonely it is to be on the run?”

Amanda was getting more and more frustrated by the minute. “Of course, I know, why do you think I can’t go to the knights about this? But you get used to it eventually!” “Well, I don’t want to!” “Well you should’ve thought about that before you decided to– Agh!”

Pain erupted on the side of Amanda’s head as she collapsed to the ground. Her vision swam as the voices around her gargled. The last thing she heard before the world went black was a muffled curse.

—

As consciousness streamed into her, Amanda blinked lazily. Her head was spinning like mad, and her body felt like it was on fire.

She groaned as she tried to get up, her bones working against her as they turned to jelly. She heard the sound of chains clanking before she saw the restraint around her leg.

“Morning’ sleeping beauty.” The smug voice was somehow grating and relieving at the same time.

“Where… Are we?” She murmured to Silvia, who she saw sitting in the opposite corner of the cage they were in, a chain tied to her ankle just like her own.

“Cage. The bandits got us while we were arguing.” Amanda ran her hand through her hair.

Then paused when she realized she could feel her hair.

“Yeah… They took ya hoodie too.”

Amanda was frozen in fear now. She could feel it– The cold air against her pointed ears. Her slight fangs peeked out from her mouth. The wind against her bar, somewhat scaly neck.

She looked over at Silvia with her blue snake-slit eyes to gauge her reaction.

Silvia was frowning.

“I didn’t realize you were a dream walker,” she stated.

Amanda let out a nervous chuckle. “Last of my kind.”

Silvia hummed at that.

Amanda looked around, her fear rising as she tried to get away from the bars that were close to where a few men were arguing over what to do with them.

She ended up near Silvia, even though she wanted to be anywhere but.

Guilt was starting to gnaw at her– The elf was right. She had promised not to bring it up, and she didn’t know what happened.

Silvia shifted a bit, opening her mouth to say something, when Amanda cut her off.

“I’m sorry,” she stated. Silvia looked at her in shock. “What?” She sputtered.

“I’m sorry,” Amanda continued, a ping of pain erupted in her heart. “I should’ve known better than to push you like that, it’s just– I’m not used to trusting people, yet I should’ve known not to say those things to you.”

She started to draw in the dirt ground of the cage they were in. “Being alone is hard. It’s suffocating at times, then it’s empty at the next. Not knowing where you can go, where your next meal will be, or where you won’t get killed is stressful on its own, and then adding that you have no one around to support you or sympathize is harder.”

“You’re not wrong for wanting someone to talk to. I’m sorry for saying all of those things, and I’m sorry that I broke my promise and brought up the king– You’re right, I don’t know what happened, and I should know better than to judge someone on a whim,” she said.

Silvia was silent for a bit. “My father,” she stated. “The king had killed my father.”

Quiet fell between the two as Amanda rested a comforting hand on Silvia’s hand.

“I’m sorry for saying that you don’t know what it’s like to be alone.” the elf started. “At least I have some people that I meet for a day who are elves like me– Who know our values, our strengths, and what we might need on a biological level. I can’t imagine being the last of my kind in a world so bent on killing it.”

The shadows danced in the light of a torch that was near their cage. The elf looked ahead of her. “Is that what you're looking for? Something having to do with being a dream walker?”

Amanda sighed. “A nightmare,” she stated with a laugh, “It’s funny– My kind is hunted down because we can bring nightmares into the real world– Yet it’s the humans who steal it to use for themselves.”

Silvia hummed. Amanda felt herself itching to stand. “Do you have any way to get out of here?” She asked.

With a smirk, Silvia leaned back. “If you can trust a criminal– Then sure.”

Amanda rolled her eyes, “Welp, we’ve come this far, what’s the worst that can happen?” She asked. A fire sprung up in Silvia’s eyes, and the dream walker watched as the elf grabbed a pin from her sleeve.

“Then watch a ranger perform some magic.”

They were out within seconds of Silvia starting to pick the lock. They stuck to the shadows and made their way through the camp.

Amanda heard right when they figured out they were missing, and stopped Silvia for a moment to think of a plan. She saw some cans stacked near a tent.

She took a rock and chucked it at the tower, causing it to come crashing down. She nabbed Silvia to hide.

All of the guards went to that location and started to search, allowing them to slip through the cracks and make it to where they had stored their wagon in a big cloth-made overhang.

Amanda hung back for a moment, which confused her partner.

“You go ahead,” Amanda stated, “I have better eyes in the dark, I’ll check for anyone coming. The nightmare is in a jar, it’s a whole ton of different colors, and hard to miss.”

Silvia nodded as she rushed over to where the wagon was, leaving Amanda to look out for anyone approaching.

She heard her campaign mutter something under her breath.

“This is one… Strong nightmare.” Amanda nodded. “Yep, one of the strongest ones I’ve found– I was thinking about turning it into the knights.”

“How much do you think something like this would go for?”

To that, Amanda snickered. “On the blood market? Enough so that you never have to work ever again–”

She realized her mistake when she said that. She immediately turned to where Silvia was analyzing the jar. Greed in her eyes.

She started to walk up to where the elf was sitting, her heart pounding in her chest.

“Silvia,” she warned. “Hand over the jar.”

Silvia slowly looked over at her, and she watched as the elf held the jar closer to her chest.

She chewed on her lip as her hand went to the hilt of her dagger. “Silvia. We just talked about this–”

That was when, in an abrupt move, Silvia’s eyes widened and she jumped down to crouch behind the wagon.

Amanda didn’t know what she was doing until she felt something shard on the back of her neck.

“I wouldn’t try anything if I were you.”

She tensed up at the voice. Her heart was pounding as her eyes widened.

She watched as Silvia hid behind the cart, out of sight of the people who came to re-capture them.

“Turn around.”

Amanda did as she was ordered to do, and grimaced when the sword was pushed further against her throat, causing blood to trip down a wound.

“Seems like the other one got away– Left you here,” the man said. “Any ideas as to where she may be?”

Amanda wanted to say something– Out of spite or embarrassment for trusting the ranger, she didn’t know, but she kept herself quiet.

“Come on, now,” the man said with a crooked smile. “It could save you a little less pain.”

The silence wafted through the air as the man grew increasingly frustrated.

“Fine, you won’t say anything, ey?” He asked as he drew back his sword. “Well let’s make that permanent for ya.”

Amanda froze as the sword came racing toward her throat, inching closer and closer at lightning speed as her body refused for her to do anything–

“Oi! Piss for brains!”

Everyone looked over to where the shout had come from. Amanda stood there in shock.

There Silvia was, holding the jar of nightmares like it was no big deal.

“How’s this for an answer?” She screamed as she hurried the jar over to where the bandit was standing.

Amanda watched, horrified as the jar shattered at his feet, letting the hideous thing run loose.

The man screamed and flailed as it crawled up and around him, forcing its way inside like a parasite.

She felt a tug on her shoulder and looked over just in time to see Silvia grabbing her hand and trying to lead her out of there.

“Come on!” She ordered as she dragged her. “Let’s go!”

Amanda looked around her as the two fled, and for the first time in a long time, she felt like she had someone.

—

They were now sitting on a log in the woods, the morning sun rising above them.

The silence was uncomfortable, and Amanda just had to break it.

“You could’ve left me there,” she stated. Silvia stopped polishing her crossbow for a moment to look at her.

“Yet I didn’t,” she stated as she set the weapon down and joined Amanda in looking out at the sun.

“The nightmare is on the loose now,” Silvia stated. Amanda nodded.

“What’s going to happen?”

Amanda pondered this question for a bit before her answer came to her.

“I don’t know,” she answered honestly. “But whatever happens…”

She allowed their hands to intertwine. “Why don’t we stick together through it?”

Despite her focusing on the sunrise to try and cure her racing heart, she could see Silvia’s smile from the corner of her eye.

“Yeah… That would be nice.”