I am writing this to remind myself of where I am coming from, and to where I am going.
I am a dreamer, I was taught by The Old One*1, along with many more of his students. I was by far the youngest for I hadn't ever entered the Dreamrelm until after the opening of the chaos rift. The Old One was known by most to be my grandfather. I was there when he passed on.
He was called into the dreaming one day, for he had felt the mass death of his fellow "Keepers*2". I sat by the fire as he rested in his chair. I was relaxing, until I saw him sit up strait, for a brief second I thought he was waking, but then he began to thrash about. He did this so hard, that he fell over backwards. I ran to his aid, he smelled like old burnt leather. his skin was bubbling, and boils were forming almost instantaneously across his whole body.
"I almost made it, I was so close to it," he gurgled, while clutching the center of his chest. After pleading for him to explain, he just smiled, and stated that "the Keepers are now closed, I am sorry I couldn't induct you into them." closing what were left of his eyes, he passed on.
After finding The Old One dead, with me crumpled over him, rocking his body. I was brought out, and placed in my Grandmother's care. In front of everyone, we grieved for The Old One, and for a while we truly did, but always in secret, my grandmother didn't think it was "The Sanctuary of Guardianship*3" that killed The Old One. Unfortunately there weren’t any dreamers left to find out. So she continued my training, in hopes that I might discover something within the training, that would allow me to find the answers that were needed. I had been seen inside The Sanctuary, but everyone outside thought that, the only reason that I was there, was because of my relation to The Old One. Unbeknownst to all outside of the Sanctuary, I was the last person to be accepted as a full student.
Everything was all right, until one day, while meditation in my room, something seemed odd, It was as if I could step. That the best way to describe it. I had entered the dreaming for the first time. Not knowing where I was, I walked, and asked questions to all whom I saw. One was Guarddog, standing in the OOSM Threshold room, waiting for an OOSM initiate to sponsor him. Heh, that was quite a while ago, I'm not sure where he is now, last I heard, he was a Ruler of the OOSM. It was during the time of no mares, but that is another story.
Once I awoke from the dreaming, my Grandmother was there, with tears of happiness, but also with the forethought of concern playing throughout the rest of her face. Without even asking, she already knew where I had been. for she had seen the mask upon my Grandfather's face a thousand times before; it was like an old happy memory reawakening within her. We talked, and the memory grew sad, as she learned that all of The Old Ones' friends and contacts had been killed; either in the first chaos wave or the second. As I talked, I mentioned that there were four houses open. A quick inhalation was the only sign that she displayed. She asked about Grandfathers "Keepers", I wasn't truly sure, but the closest house with that name was the keepers of the Eternal Shadow. At that time, the house was closed. Gloom incased her as a cold mist encases an empty house. I tried to console her, to the best of my ability, but I doubt it was enough.
The next morning, we started out daily routine as normal, so as not to alert anyone within Rol, our town. For to dream was to be painfully set apart from everyone else. This only started after The Old One died though. Before then, Dreamers were thought to be on the same plateau as scholars or young Elders. Unlike in Naben*4, where to dream means a life as a slave.
After three months of acting like everything was still normal, I decided to ask for permission to enter the, now dormant, Sanctuary of Guardianship. The Elder of Rol wanted to know why. My explanation, was that there were still items that belonged to The Old One in it. After using the excuse that "normally the spouse of the departed retrieves all of the keepsakes. But my grandmother was very old, and the Sanctuary was not in perfect shape." The Elder agreed to hand over the key. "Just this once though..." was his reply. the next day, and the following days, I continued to borrow the key. it became such a normal process, that people started a joke about my wanting to reopen the place. I played along with it, until the Elder Council sent for me. There, at a closed meeting to all except myself and the council members, they were deadly serious about asking the whys and the reasons for my spending hours on end in the old building. To this day, I will not forget my response, and to this day, I am still not sure why I acted this way.
In a Calm, and perfectly composed voice, I answered them truthfully. "For the past Five months, I have been reading everything that has been in the Sanctuary’s library. That, in combination with Dreaming," at this point, with the mention of Dreaming, I saw horror in all of there faces. " Yes, I can Dream. It was not the Dreamers that killed the many people of our town, it was a slow build up of Chaos, that struck, ONLY those who could Dream, down." Disbelief colored there faces, some able to hide it better then others. It was one of the middle Elders that responded immediately.
"Your stating that everyone who died, could Dream?! Impossible, for all who could dream were part of the Sanctuary. Not everyone that died, though, WAS a part of the Sanctuary!"
With a completely still voice, my reply was thus "You don't have to be part of the Sanctuary to Dream. you just have to have the ability."
Quickly, and with much venom in her voice, a younger Elder stated with a very haughty tone, "IMPUDENT WELP! Everyone knows you are the GRANDSON of the old one. " The name was stated as if it were the name of a dead elk that was found three fourths rotten, that had been sickly to begin with. "Do NOT suppose that entitles you to safety from the LAW!"
I couldn't believe how fast the Middle elder changed the subject. Sadly, just before he did, most if not all except for the eldest, agreed that the law was the law, and that any person found Dreaming was to be imprisoned.
With my mouth agape, I was summarily excused to the jail. That night, the Eldest of Rol, awoke me.
"I am so sorry lad," the Eldest stated. "the judgment has been passed. You are to be given the 'Usual Treatment*7'. Please, forgive me, I did not want this, I am so sorry." with that he patted me on the back of the neck. As he released his hand, I could feel what at first I had thought to be his rings, fall down the back of my shirt.
After he left, I quietly reached into the bottom of my shirt, pulling from it a very small key, that fit the cell door perfectly. Thanking the Eldest under my breath I moved away from the cell. Since I was not thought to be an adult until my 25th winter, they still treated me as a child. Thus, not bothering to set a guard. Leaving my fond child hood memory’s behind, I took a v-line directly for my house. Acting as just another person walking in the town, I came upon my house. Always the thoughtful one, my grandmother, as soon as she heard about my summons to the council meetings, brought all the camping and hiking supplies, from the storage shed, to my room. Leaving the window unbarred, she had forethought about what was going to happen. I then left, knowing all to well that Naben was a true death sentence, I decided to find where The Old One came from. The City Across the Range*9.
I am now on the run. I am about six months into The Range, and living off of the land. I will continue to try to dream, but as of late I have been too scared to try. Today will be my first attempt. I hope to make it, C-ya on the far side of The Mountains.
*FOOTNOTES
1* The Old One, from the histories that I could find, was from "the City Across the Range.*8" he chose to move down to Rol, my home town, while he was still young. he married my grandmother, and opened the "Sanctuary of guardianship.*3" there he lived with his family until his death three years ago.
2* Keepers, as I knew them, were the group that my Grandfather belonged to. Whenever I asked him about them, he would quiet up very quickly. Only stating that "to know about them, was to be one of them, and only one of them knew the whole truth."
3* The Sanctuary of Guardianship was started by The Old One. It was open to all, weather they showed any potential for dreaming or not. Inside, they taught all about the dream city and why it should be protected. Weather through allowing some chaos into balance out all the order, or by keeping all chaos out; the student’s choice. It closed after the death of The Old One. the building is not allowed to reopen, for it is thought, why I'm not sure, that the beliefs killed The Old One. With such beliefs, all who didn't die, were accused of conspiring to kill everyone. I excaped thank God.
4* Naben, the city across the sands of war. the city of Naben and the City of Rol, have been at war for sometime. the disagreement that started it all was the belief in Dreaming or not. Naben's beliefs came from there terror of people who could dream. As much as I know about there belief, is what is tied in with Rol's beliefs.*5
5* Rol's beliefs are, or technically were, that Dreamers were there to help the land of Kiesnomok. Naben believed that Dreamers just hurt, and were secretly trying to take over the land. Rol and Naben were two of Three Power player in the City Across The Range. The third player, we don't know anything about, except that he volunteered to stay behind, but I am getting ahead of myself. The Three, as they were called, started to argue. the argument was about Dreamers, for the first Dreamers were starting to appear around about then. Naben feared them, he thought that if they could actually enter a Relm that the rest of the people couldn't, that meant that, the Dreamers had all the time in the world to plot his downfall. Rol was of a different opinion. He looked foreword to meeting with the Dreamers and learning from them. The Third member was impartial on the subject, and told his followers to think of Dreamers as ordinary people, and completely disbelieved in Dreaming all together.
Both Rol and Naben were horrified for there own reasons. With a few more terse words said by all three, they came to there first Unanimous agreement, on this subject. the would take there followers and two would leave to create there own cities. so after a few weeks, Naben and Rol left The City Across the Range. They came to a desert, With two diverging roads. one leading east, the other west. Naben took his followers west, and Rol with his East. There, Rol founded his city.*6
6* Rol with his followers in tow, headed East crossing the vast desert. He came to a land of green grass, and beautiful trees. there he stopped and declared that this was where he would found his city. Within the trees, a clearing was made. The trees that were cleared were used for the first homes, and main hall of the City of Rol. The people knew the value of the trees, so the next building that went up, was a tree nursery.
There, at the last building, they kept a count of which, and how many trees were used. Then after the seedlings were large enough, they planted the seedlings just outside the outer edge of the tree line. cementing there place as fortified by the trees. A multitude of years have passed and the tree line has been extended till it touches the sand of the desert.
7* The Usual Treatment was used for our most heinous criminals, it was a one in a million chance, but they still had that one chance to make it. The accused is given one jug of Water, striped of everything except trousers, and sent to walk in the desert. Orders were given to all hunting parties, that if the convict was seen, to shoot his arms first, then slowly work towards the center of the body. Trying not to hit any vital areas, so as to prolong the disgrace.
8* The City Across the Range - All that is known about this city is that it use to be the haven for the Teachers*5, and there use to be the Three Powers, who split to create the Three Cities of Naben, Rol, and the Third stayed to keep The City Across the Range.
9* Teachers are also known in Underlight as Lyrans.
