Prompt 100-Recurring Dream

Do you have any dreams that recur? Why do you think you continue to have that dream?

“Mara! Mara! Guess what!”

The children’s squeals jerked Tamara from her midday lull. She had begun to drowse while mending a worn dress. Their excitement filled her until she thought she would burst. “What’s going on?” she asked.

Giggles fled their lips and tickled her skin. “Visitors!” the young boy cried.

“Strangers!” added another, slightly older boy.

Tamara looked over their heads down the dirt path towards the village, a sense of unease knotting her stomach. “Visitors? All the way out here?” Visitors brought change. What was happening in the world to bring strangers to her remote village?

“The lady is scary, I bet they’re her bodyguards,” the little girl said animatedly to her companions.

A scary woman and her bodyguards? Tamara set aside her sewing and got to her feet. She headed through the forest path, the children laughing and racing ahead of her. She needed a closer look at these strangers. What did they want with her people?

She found them watering their horses at the inn. A stranger trio she had never seen. The woman was barely more than a girl. Tamara was sure she was no older than herself, perhaps even a year or two younger. She was definitely fatigued, as though she had aged years in recent days. The boy exuded a similar feeling. Despite the vast differences in their appearances, they were definitely siblings, probably even twins.

The aged man held himself with a grace that only comes with long years, but who was still far more lively than his apparent age would suggest. The three had been through great trouble to arrive unscathed, and Tamara felt he had done his fair share of the labors in seeing their journey to its destination.

But why had they come here? If they were headed to Tavell, it made far more sense to take the Edril Road east around the forest. It wasn’t safe to travel straight through.

From across the green, she locked eyes with the old man. His gaze sent a shock through her body and she froze on the spot. An image of lightning reminded her of a dream she frequently had when she was restless.

It was the same dream every time. Darkness. A flash of lightning throwing the northern mountains in harsh relief. A gale whipping rain around her. Lightning again. The mountains crumbling. The earth cracking open and spewing lava. Manic laughter chasing the rocky avalanche towards her distant village. The storm raging against it, a living being trying to force back a monster of destruction. The earth quaked under their battle. This wasn’t the way it was supposed to be.

Tamara continued along her path as though she had never stopped to gawk at the newcomers. She would loop around behind the market and return to her cottage and stay there until these strangers left. She wanted nothing to do with the dangers they had witnessed. The darkness from her dreams centered on them. She hoped they would leave soon.

Notes: Just write words. They don’t have to be good words. Just write words. They don’t have to be good words. Just write words. They don’t have to be good words.

I had much grander designs for this little scene but I couldn’t seem to convey it in a way that satisfied me. So I had to remember that the key here is to write the words. This isn’t even a first draft. It’s an alpha, so of course it’s going to be ugly and full of problems. The point is there’s now a base to work from. I can fix bad words and bad sentences if I can see them.

This is from my fantasy WIP about the Elemental pairs and the end of the world. These characters have appeared on the blog before. Tamara obviously joins this little party, though she’s hesitant to leave her home. Change is scary, especially so for an empath. Elvior convinces her somehow. He knows what she is, though I haven’t figured out quite how he knows how to find/identify any of them. That’s a problem for Future Sara.

Well that wraps up this week, and the first half of the year! 100 prompts! How is it already June? I guess time passes quickly when it’s (almost) 100 days of straight writing. As I mentioned on Sunday, I will be taking another siesta from the daily prompts. This one will be a little different, though I haven’t finalized the details. Look for an update sometime next week.

Happy Pride month! Have a great weekend!