Act I
"Ahh. . . my head hurts." I said to myself as I woke up, no one was sleeping with me this time, mostly because there weren't many kids familiar with me anymore, most of them got adopted during the winter and usually it was autumn before I got more younger siblings.
Augh* "Fuck. . . Am I sick again?" I asked no one before I looked at myself in the mirror and saw something really bad. My brown hair turned sheer white, my skin paler than snow and my eyes were thankfully still blue but they were much paler now.
"Damn. . ." I have no other words, I started packing and changing into my most comfortable clothes. I went down to the kitchen, the younger kids that saw me gave me hugs as I walked by, the older ones started crying.
As I made it to the kitchen the mistress of the house was there and Aunty was there too cooking breakfast. The mistress was smoking as she read the newspaper, but as I entered her attention switched.
"Daniel, eat your breakfast and take this with you." The mistress said as she placed down a file on the table before standing up and leaving the kitchen. Aunty motioned me to sit as she poured me my favourite stew.
"Thank you aunty, be relieved I'm finally gonna become a Hero." I told her as I saw tears threatening to break from her eyes, she didn't say anything, just giving me a forced smile and then a nod.
I returned it with my own, more genuine smile, with nothing to say I dug in, the stew was as good as always. It made me happy as it warmed my belly. I stood up as I finished eating.
"Thank you Aunty Marry, for everything. . . can you tell the mistress that I appreciate all the help she gave me." I spoke loudly, I knew the mistress had recorders everywhere, because I found a few in the hallways. She looked stoic and even scary for the kids but from her actions I know there's a soft reason why a retired hero like her would build an orphanage.
With nothing else, I left the orphanage. The day looked so good, the air still smelled rough, making me miss the cleaner air I enjoyed in my past life. I took a stroll, probably my last one in this lifetime.
People avoided me when they saw my hair and skin, some even started calling for the peace officers. At the end of my stroll I sat down on a park bench, and then made my own call.
"Hello this is Emergency dispatch, what is the problem?" A sweet and young voice came from the other side of the call, the pay for a call center clerk was good, and the only requirements were a month of training and be atleast 15 years old.
"Pale Fever, I contracted it. Can you send a peace officer patrol at the left side of Faith park? I'll be waiting." I tried making my voice as serious as possible.
"Sir, is this a prank? You sound young and it could be a regular. . ." A pause came, as different voices came from the other side. The line turned into static for a few moments before the call returned. The voice was much older this time.
"Excuse me sir, please wait. We already dispatched a peace officer unit to your address. . . Thank you for keeping our city safe, future Hero." With that the call ended and after a few moments I heard a siren and then I saw an armoured car driving towards me.
With the time I had left I started reading the file the mistress gave me and wow, I didn't know everyone had something like this. It's about me and everything I did since I was born, all 15 years of this life was in this file.
Act II
I was in a holding room, peace officers armed to the teeth with heavy guns were around me as I was strapped to a comfortable bed. Nurses and a doctor were monitoring my vitals outside the glass holding room as I was strapped in a few hospital machines.
"I'm gonna ask a few questions Daniel, can you answer them?" A high ranking peace officer asked, as I laid down and she sat next to me.
"Of course ma'am, you can ask me anything." I told her, I know this was a procedure, I've seen videos before and this one was probably recorded too.
"Good, good. Alright what is your name?" She asked.
"It's Daniel Dawn." I answered honestly, Dawn wasn't my family name, orphans were given the name of the city as their last name. They can change it when they turn into an adult at 20 but most choose to keep it. From what they told me the names make them feel like they have a real family. She nodded at my answer as she smiled.
"What is your age Daniel?" She asked.
"15 this year." I answered her, as she looked at her Caller and her face turned pale.
"Alright, you have less than a few hours before you enter a Dream Challenge. How much do you truly know about the Dreaming?" She asked standing up as the bed I was laying on moved, making me lay down while being upright.
"I know enough, I need to finish the challenge or I die. If I die I'll become a ranked Horror, but when I win the challenge I become a Hero." I tried to be as concise as I can but I think my head is becoming too muddled by the pain of the sharp head aches, as my thoughts were turning less coherent.
The peace keeper nodded along, her face becoming less pale. But it had become serious as she started checking and securing my bindings.
"That's good, alright no matter the challenge, remember time works differently in the dreaming. Your priority is to find somewhere safe and then you try to figure out the challenge." Her voice started shaking in the last part.
"A day here could be days, weeks or months inside the dreaming, try to survive as long as you can. It'll take atleast a day for a Hero to be free enough to come here. I really don't want to fight a Horror today so try to survive as long as you can." Her hands were shaking.
"Every Dream Challenge can be beaten, the dreaming never gives impossible challenges. Fairness is everything inside a first Dream challenge, you just need time. I've read your file, you're a smart kid, you just need to survive and I know you'll be a Hero." Are eyes met.
"I'll do my best, thank you ma'am. Can you play some music?" I said as I smiled at her, her hands stopped securing my vest. And then moved to her Caller. It started playing some orchestra music, it was relaxing. It made me close my eyes, why not take a nap while we wait for the Hero.
Act III
[Welcome to the Dreaming Aspirant]
Those words flashed into my eyes, as I looked around and noticed that I was walking with a few others. We were wearing animal skins, our weapons were rough spears with flint broad heads or long heavy looking bows.
I was using my spear as a walking stick, I followed my group through a grassy field as I tried everything I remembered to see my status or the challenge I needed to do and after a few tries it appeared.
{Status}
[Name: Daniel Dawn]
[Dream Name: ()]
[Mastery: Unranked, Aspirant]
[Soul: Dormant]
[Dream Essence: ()]
[Nightmare Essence: ()]
[Aspects: (Reincarnate) (Blessed) (Sagely)].
[Arcana: Traveler]
Pale words appeared infront of my eyes, the language looked foreign yet for some reason I could read and understand them.
"Stop, we are here." A voice made the words disappear, as I focused on what was happening around me. The small group I was in stopped as we all crouched down and followed the oldest among us as she crept to the peak of a grass covered hill.
As I got next to her I saw what she was looking at, it was a camp of a few dozen huts made out of sticks and dried grass. There were smokeless pit fires, they were roasting and smoking meat. I can see the carcass of a giant elk in the middle of their camp.
The one leading us started walking back towards a higher hill as she motioned us to follow as we reached the hill, she sat down and started taking out small stones from her pouch.
"This is the camp, we attack when ready. We split in groups of three, we will raid them from the east and south, take what you can and burn the tents as you flee. After that we meet back at our camp in the forest." She told us, while showing us the plan using stones.
"Most of the adults are gone, probably hunting nearby. This camp is filled with the old and young, if we fight them we can win." Another of our group said she was tall, with strong arms.
"No, too many. We can win but they'll kill too many of us." The leader said shaking her head, it made the strong armed girl frown and nodded. Then everyone started preparing, as I looked up it was in the afternoon near sundown.
"How about we attack late at night? If we attack now, their hunters might come back during the raid. But if we attack during the night many would be asleep, we can burn half the camp and steal from the other half in the panic." I spoke out my thoughts, they listened and the leader looked thoughtful while the strong armed girl gave me a hard look.
"The night would help hide us and our trail, keeping our camp in the forest less likely to be found." The leader said as she nodded her eyes looked certain.
"Will do what you suggested, youngest. We are splitting up into two groups, and will be circling this camp. Only observe, don't fight anyone and learn as much as you can." With that I followed the leader, and some followed the other girl with strong arms.
Act IV
We were hiding on a hill, the sun had already died hours ago while we were scouting around the camp. When we met up with the other group they told us that they saw the hunters of the camp were raiding, they were already back in their camp before my group could gather.
They looked at me differently when we learned this, they were relieved that I spoke caution. Still now that we were resting preparing for our raid, I finally had time to learn about my Aspects and Arcana. From what I've learned each of them would be vital for surviving someone's first dream challenge.
[Arcana: Traveler]
[Description - The souls commonly seen when one leaves their home, they are known for their determination to move forward and to never look back.]
Well that's not very helpful, the traveler isn't one of the available to study Arcanas in the library. Damn, if I just got the more common warrior Arcana I could have atleast known what my arcana can do, and the description is too vague it didn't even say anything about the abilities I gained.
Sigh. . . It's fine, how about my Aspects? For now I don't know how to use my Arcana but atleast from what I've read, Aspects were a lot more simple, so I tried focusing on my Aspects.
[Aspects: (Reincarnate) (Blessed) (Sagely)]
[Reincarnate - You have a determined soul capable of life after death, you are not easy to kill.
Blessed - The dead patrons have noticed you in their slumber, you are closer to them than most other mortals.
Sagely - You share the soul of Shamans, the Philosophers and other great scholars of old and seekers of knowledge, their wisdom flows through your soul. Let them guide you.]
I kept reading the description of my aspects over and over until I blinked and the pale words disappeared. The spear in my hand gave me comfort, as I took a breath. I needed to prepare myself, I will be raiding, people will fight back for their lives. . . I need to be ready.