Chapter 262 - Playing With Nightmare
Chapter 262 - Playing With Nightmare
The mountain flanked the edge of the Ensmoire forest on the northern side. As he ascended the altitude, the air became chilly. The giant mountain rose into the blue sky like a craggy grey face with striations of snow-lined weathered rocks as if they were wisps of hair of an elf—pure and surreal. The sun rose behind them and lighted the snow with its gold. From a few carved rocky outcrops that were bare of vegetation, waterfalls fell excitedly as if to add the vigor to otherwise silent surroundings. Most of the green vegetation stopped midway to its peak, and above that the clouds meandered like a veil around it.
"This is breathtaking," said Dawn as she gazed at the scenery.
'Yes,' replied Quetz. He spotted a large flat outcrop just beneath the peak and landed there smoothly. He tucked his wings until Dawn was on the ground as she kept holding one of his scales to balance herself. 'Why don't you climb on my foot?' he suggested.
She climbed on his padded foot. The balance was much better. 'What do you want me to do here Quetz?' she asked.
'I have told you earlier also Dawn, I have no idea what you have to do. It's just that I thought you should come here to unfold the next layer of your magic.'
'Why are you so keen on making my magic grow so rapidly?' she asked as she scanned the slope. Right in front of her was a tranquil waterfall, and there was a small growth of green bushes from where it originated.
'It's important. In fact you are late. We should've completed uncovering your magic skill long back.'
'What? Why do you say that?' she asked as she focused her gaze at the strange bush over there.
He sighed. 'Because I feel contained. Only with your growth will I grow. I feel as if my powers have strangled inside of me.'
Dawn looked at him and then stroked his neck. 'I am sorry Quetz." She felt guilty. 'I have so many commitments that it becomes difficult to come out.'
'I understand,' he replied. 'There's no need to feel guilty.'
'Why do I feel that there's something wrong with the bush that is growing over there?' she pointed at the only greenery jutting out.
Quetz canted his head. 'I don't understand. It seems okay to me. Do you want me to go and check?'
'Yes,' she said and stepped away from him. Somehow she got the idea that the bush was hiding something inside. As Quetz flew away from there, her eyes focused on the mountain and the waterfall around it. They appeared to be dark and brooding. Suddenly the whole slope turned black. 'Quetz!' she called him. But he didn't listen to her. He flew towards it rapidly.
As soon as he reached the growth, he started to screech. There were bats, the size of rabbits hanging on the slope of the mountain, which had turned obsidian and the waterfall was red containing blood. The bats heard his screech and they attacked him with all might. Quetz screeched in pain as the bats, in hundreds, gathered around him and clawed him with their sharp talons and bit his skin. Their bites were scorching. He flapped his wings to ward them off and tried to turn away. It was… nightmare.
'Come back Quetz!' Dawn shouted. 'You have to fight it!'
'What is happening Dawn?' he asked completely confused.
Shadows began to rise from the black slope. They extended their hands towards him in order to catch him and pull him beneath the rocky surface. The bats had attacked his belly, which didn't have scales and so he started to bleed. Pain was unbearable. Quetz' vision became blurry. He flapped his wings to kill as many bats as possible and grabbed them with his mouth or claws, but they kept on increasing.
'Quetz, come back to me!' Dawn called him. 'Fight it. It is your nightmare.' Dawn understood what was happening. The whole thing was an illusion. Somehow her mind got connected to one of Quetz' nightmares and her magic projected it for him when he flew to the slope. Dawn didn't know how to control the illusion, how to command it back in her mind, because if she didn't, Quetz would suffer from his own nightmare, from his own dream. And so in order to break him from that figment of imagination that had gone loose, she called him repeatedly.
Quetz started to lose height and drop as he became disconnected from the world. Dawn saw him disappear.
"Quetz!" Dawn yelled as her heart plummeted. He wasn't listening.
When nothing worked, she closed her eyes and connected with Quetz. She brought her hands above her and closed the palms. Then she concentrated on the image of the sun that was shining brightly when they were ascending the mountain and used its power to break the nightmare. She threw her hands forward, with eyes still closed and when that happened, it shattered the nightmare into a thousand pieces. The obsidian around Quetz blasted and the blackness tore away as golden rays of sun filled his mind. With a sharp intake of breath he opened his eyes. He was dropping at a massive speed and considering his weight he knew it would be a matter of a few seconds before he hit the abyss.
'Dawn,' he called her feebly.
'Come back Quetz,' she called him. 'Where will I go without you?' Her call was so painful. With whatever energy was left in him, he stretched his wings and flapped them to gain height. Soon he was soaring back in the blue sky.
'I am coming. Don't be afraid.' He reached back to his rider and perched on the plateau.
Dawn immediately ran to him and closed her arms around his neck. Her heart was thudding against her chest. This was so close. 'I am sorry, I am sorry,' she said as she rubbed her face on his neck. 'It is all my fault. I won't do it again. Never…'
Quetz brought his wings forward to cover her completely. She stood on his toe. She shuddered at the thought of losing him. Those past few minutes were her nightmares.
When they both felt calmer and warmer, Quetz asked, 'What happened exactly?' His gaze went to the waterfall and to his amazement it was as tranquil as they had seen it for the first time.
Dawn looked up and stroked his chin. 'Are you afraid of bats?'
Quetz stilled. 'Yes…'
'Bloodbath?'
'Yes…'
'Vampires?'
The dragon became deathly still. 'Yes,' he rasped. He remembered his experience with a vampire in the Amazon jungles, who wanted to trap him and he barely managed to escape.
'I don't know how but somehow I managed to peak into one of your nightmares and extracted that. I started to play with it and suddenly everything went out of control,' Dawn started crying. 'I am so sorry Quetz, this won't happen again.'
Quetz was quiet for a long time.
'Why are you afraid of vampires?' she asked.
'Let's go back to the forest,' he managed to reply.
'Don't be angry, please,' she pleaded. 'I don't know how it went out of control.'
"Climb on me.'
Using his horn as a support, Dawn climbed him and the two flew back to Ensmoire.