章 6: Nightmare
At the summit of a snowy mountaintop, Talon could only feel the scorching heat of the flames that enveloped his surroundings like an endless inferno.
The smell of burning flesh and wood made him want to throw up, yet he couldn't even budge from his place.
As he inhaled more and more of the smoke, his bloodshot eyes began to shed tears. Yet he glued his teary eyes to a pile of charred corpses.
Talon gazed blankly at the corpses, his breath turning ragged, unable to tear his eyes away.
As he observed the charred corpses, his heart felt empty.
Yet, he could not mourn, as his eyes suddenly locked onto a pair of hollow violet eyes that were visible even amidst the flames.
The owner of the eyes leisurely started to walk towards Talon.
The man was burning, yet he showed no sign of being in pain.
Talon could not see this strange man's face entirely, the only thing he had managed to pick from his burning silhouette was an emotionless grin sitting on his face.
As if he tried to mimic emotions but was incapable of even doing that, much less feeling them.
The figure slowly walked closer to him, the grin still on his face and felt just as fake now as it did the first time.
Seeing this, made Talon's emotions go haywire as he felt his blood boil. He pulled a spear from the chest of one of the fallen soldiers.
Once he held it, he pointed towards the burning man, this action only widened the mocking grin on the man's face. This angered Talon to no end.
"I will wipe that disgusting grin off your face, you bastard!" Screamed Talon as he charged at the burning man with his spear.
This only seemed to amuse the burning man even further as he threw back his head in laughter that sounded fake.
In that laughter there was no joy, no feeling of anything that even mimicked joy, not even mockery, it was just— fake.
As Talon drew ever closer to the men, his laughter just became even louder.
But before Talon could reach him with his spear, the laughter suddenly stopped as the men looked straight into Talon's eyes.
What Talon saw was not a person, but a burning monster with emotionless violet eyes, then the man spoke, sanding chills down Talon's spine.
"As my last act of mercy, you can meet your friends once again." As he said that, the whole world became blinded in an orange light, And Talon instantly burned to dust.
***
Then his surroundings shifted, and he found himself no longer atop the burning mountaintop. Instead, he stood in a place he knew all too well.
The dark hill, a manifestation of his Gift, loomed nearby, and the church stood closer than ever before.
Typically, he would find himself close to the hill in this surreal world, but this time, he found himself right in front of the church.
'What is even happening?' His mind raced, searching for an answer, yet he couldn't figure out anything.
Then suddenly, he heard the sound of a giant opening door, the church before him, for the first time ever, opened its doors.
The floor in the church felt strange to Talon, unlike anything he'd seen in the slums.
Other than the floor, the whole church was strange looking to him, it looked ancient. But something strange grabbed his attention.
A peculiar stained glass adorned the wall, depicting a one-eyed priest with outstretched arms and a massive obsidian serpent behind him.
As Talon studied the mural, a sudden, searing pain jolted through his missing left eye.
The intensity of the pain was unlike anything he had experienced before, causing him to collapse to the floor, he could barely hold onto his consciousness.
After what felt like an eternity, the pain finally subsided, allowing Talon to slowly rise from the cold floor of the church.
Before he could even think what was the cause of the pain, another shock gripped him, his attention drawn to a figure now visible at the altar. The person was immersed in a shroud of red mist, deep in prayer.
Gradually, the figure rose from the altar, as if aware of Talon's presence behind him.
Turning to face Talon, the figure met his gaze with a warm smile and waved at Talon who was still in shock.
"What is this place? Why am I even here? And who are you?" Talon bombarded the figure with questions.
Before the figure could respond, another wave of pain struck him, sending him crumpling back to the floor.
The figure knelt beside Talon, his lips moving in an attempt to speak, but no sound reached Talon's ears.
Darkness encroached on the edges of his vision as consciousness slipped away. Then everything went dark.
***
Talon woke up abruptly, drenched in sweat while gasping for air. The pain he felt in his left eye was gone as if he had never felt it.
Talon's eyes darted around, trying to make sense of his surroundings.
The rhythmic clattering of the carriage's wheels against the rugged terrain echoed in his ears, he was in the carriage.
Thorn gazed at Talon. "Bad dream?" She inquired, her voice laced with concern.
Talon hesitated for a moment before saying "Something like that."
He still couldn't shake off the eerie feeling that the dream left behind, losing control again to the mist, then suddenly waking up inside the representation of his Gift.
And for the first time, the church opened up for him, it was just too much to take in.
Damien chimed in, "For Gifted, dreams can mean a lot, sometimes they reveal things, help, guide, other times, the only thing they do is to make you worry without a reason."
His words were strange to Talon, he felt like Damien knew more than he was willing to share with them.
As the carriage continued on its journey, Talon's mind still raced with thoughts about his dream.
'If Damien is telling the truth, could that mean that my dream meant something? Will it happen?
And why did I wake up inside my dream, and what's up with the church?'
His head began to hurt again, while his questions remained unanswered.
'And I lost control again, damn it all.' Talon rubbed his temples in frustration. As Thorn observed him, she put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
"We are almost at the headquarters, maybe things will become clearer there." Said Thorn in reassurance while offering a smile to Talon.
Talon looked back at her, his face becoming dead serious, and said to her with a face still as iron. "Or the moment we arrive we go straight to the dungeons to get tortured!"
Thorn stared back at Talon, dumbfounded. But Talon couldn't keep up his poker face as he started laughing hysterically, his worries gradually diminishing.
Even Damien let a chuckle escape.
After that, the carriage fell into silence as both Thorn and Damien fell asleep, only Talon, the carriage driver, and the hunters outside were awake.
Yet again, Talon was left alone with his thoughts.
'Why did I lose control? Could it be because of the man in the church? But there was a time when I lost control without any dreams, and the church was far away then too. Ugh…'
groaned Talon in frustration as his head fell to the side of the carriage while he gazed out of the window. The desolate landscape of Rondor, the mountains, and the sparse forests slowly passed by.
As the capital loomed in the distance, Talon knew that they were almost at the headquarters, doubt still clinging to his mind, yet he knew that the ship had sailed.
They made their decision, and now the only thing left was to see it through.
As Talon looked over at the sleeping figures of Thorn and Damien, he was taken aback when he noticed that Damien was wide awake.
Then he turned to Talon and, with shocking nonchalance, revealed.
"I already knew about both of you. As I told you before, dreams can reveal things, there is a unique Gift out there, called the Gift of Foresight. The hunters have one such individual with them, called Paul Stargazer, the old man was the one that briefed me on the two of you."
Talon furrowed his brow in surprise. This revelation made him feel mixed emotions, wonder, skepticism, and a tinge of anxiety. "Paul Stargazer?" Talon repeated as he etched the name into his mind.
Damien continued, his gaze fixed on the passing landscape "You're not the only ones with peculiar Gifts, the world is filled with us. But be ready, the hunters, especially the higher, have a way to deal with our kind.
He then redirected his gaze back to Talon, away from the window. "Do you know why we're recruited instead of executed?" The question hung in the air, rhetorical, as Damien didn't wait for Talon's response.
"We could do way more damage to them if they continued to drive us to extinction. Now they're trying to repair the damages." Damien's expression turned ice cold.
"But we won't ever forget."
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