Greywolf - Wysper of a dream

Over the years, Asena had taught me a lot of skills. But the only one she said I've mastered is the ability to take a nap wherever I am.

Papa led us through the Shadowlands to the place where the Daemo monsters had re-entered the world, and did the same for us. The air was colder there, with a harsh wind whistling across league after league of rolling hills of brown grass. An obvious trail led across the steppes towards a small mountain surrounded by hills. The dead, grey tree was in a sheltered valley without any ruins around it, which was odd, and papa suggested he take Castor with him and scout ahead. Attila agreed after Hypam and Asena chimed in their support, and watches were set while the rest of us settled in to wait.

I'd been laying with my head against my pack, watching the sun set, and I must’ve fallen asleep, because I found myself sitting beside a fire on a treeless plain. Looking up, the sky overhead blazed with a sea of stars, more than I'd ever seen my entire life. They also looked strange, totally unlike the night sky anywhere that I'd been before.

Movement flashed at the corner of my eye, and I looked around me as I got to my feet. "Who's out there? Show yourself."

In the darkness beyond the shadows cast by the crackling fire, a woman's voice chuckled. "No need to be alarmed, Greywolf."

I took a step backwards. "Yasataar?" She stepped into the firelight, dressed the same way she'd been in the Great Khan's tent, her tangled hair covering her face. "I thought you were dead."

"What lives inside the dream can never die until the dream ends," she replied, grasping her hair with both hands. "And perhaps, not even then." Yasataar pulled her hair back, away from her face, and I gasped.

She now had eyes. "If I didn't think I was dreaming before, I know I am now."

"I have drawn you into the dream." Yasataar looked at me from across the fire. "As I have drawn Wysper," she said, adding as her eyes narrowed, "and Old Bone woman's adopted Daemo sorceresses, Shirr and Willow."

Three nude females stepped into the firelight beside her. The Daemo on the right looked normal except for the purple hair, but the purple haired one on the left looked blocky, like a living statue half finished. Wysper looked alright... wait, her body's wrong. "Wysp? Wotan's blood, what happened to your arms?"

Wysper's shoulders and side were smooth as if she'd never been born with arms. "In the real world she is fine," Yasataar said as tears streamed down Wysper's cheeks. "But know this: after the attack on her people happened, Old Bone woman walked the dream and saw a vision of death for Attila and his warriors." Yasataar pointed her finger at my face. "She claims that you are the only one who can keep the vision from coming true. She says if you do not find a way to stop it, Old Bone woman will have her Daemo craft Wysper into the form you see her in now."

My hands clenched into fists. "Leave Wysper out of this. If any of you hurt her, I swear I'll kill you."

"If our warriors die," the angular Daemo said, "not only will we take her arms, but her tongue as well. She will not be able to care for herself, let alone become her people's khan."

"Yet, if you stop whatever evil is about to happen," the wide-eyed Daemo added, "mother will throw her support behind Wysper, and help her succeed. Greywolf," the Daemo said as her voice turning pleading, "mother's visions always come true if they are ignored."

"Alright," I growled, "you've both made your point. Exactly what is it I'm supposed to do?"

Yasataar snorted. "I asked the same question. Old Bone woman only told me that you will know when the time comes."

I threw up my hands in disgust. "You're telling me I've got to destroy something that'll kill your people, but you can't even give me a hint what it is? Shite!" The Daemo began pulling Wysper back into the shadows, who struggled to break free without success, and I moved to leap over the fire and rescue her. "Wysper!"

Hands caught me as I opened my eyes. "Greywolf," Attila said as he shook me, "wake up!" Night had already fallen, and a ring of stones held the crackling fire I’d almost leaped right into. I stopped struggling at once and he let me go. "Whew, that was close. What was it, a bad dream?"

"I... I'm not sure. I think it was more than that." Glancing around the fire, one of dozens at the bottom of the valley, Hypam sat nearby with papa beside her, who’d probably been flirting with her as Asena looked ready to thrash them both. "Hypam, does Old Bone woman have a pair of Daemo sorceresses named Shirr and Willow?"

Hypam's mouth dropped. "How can you possibly know that," she finally sputtered, glaring at me as she rose to her feet. "No one outside of the clan knows about them. Tell me who told you, and I'll personally carve out their liver and fry it up before making them eat it."

"You're too late," I replied in a bitter voice. Everyone around the fire, including Castor, Titan and Paulus, had stopped whatever they'd been doing, and now listened as I told them all about the dream. Once I'd finished, I looked at Hypam. "So, was it just a dream or something else?"

"That was no ordinary dream," Hypam replied. "I know for a fact that none of you, except my cousin, have ever seen these Daemo. Yet, you just described Shirr perfectly." She took a deep breath. "Old Bone woman or someone else, maybe Altani the healer, gave the three of them a substance called 'Tears of the Dragon', which put them to sleep, and into a dreaming state. From there, it was no effort for Yasataar to draw the three of them into her own dream, and bring them with her when she dream-walked into yours."

"Considering Yasataar's dead," Asena said in a skeptical voice, “I don't see how that's possible, even if such things as dream-walking actually exist."

"Yasataar isn't dead," Hypam snapped as she glared at Asena. "Just because you don't understand what our shaman can do, Celestial," she added with a sneer, "doesn't mean they aren't powerful. Yasataar has become one of the spirits too strong for any human to command."

"Lucky for us she's on our side," papa said.

Asena gave him an incredulous look. "Don't tell me you believe this superstitious nonsense."

From where he was sitting on the ground, papa looked up at her and shrugged. "It isn't nonsense. Before the Celestials arrived, all the primitive human tribes had shaman who learned to work with the weaker spirits."

Asena crossed her arms over her armored chest. "Then why haven't I heard about this before?"

"Because the knowledge was suppressed at the beginning of the Prince's war. Only the few tribes who didn't have Celestial overlords, like the Picts, for instance, held onto the practices." He motioned towards Hypam. "When her ancestors were driven away from their cities, someone must have secretly retained the knowledge, or they met a shaman who taught them to dream-walk, and they began using it in order to help her people survive." Papa gave me a knowing look. "I'd say my son has his work cut out for him."

"Oh no he doesn't," Asena snarled. "Greywolf's remaining with the reserves, like we talked about while he was asleep."

"What?" I whirled on Asena. "You're not leaving me behind, not when Attila's people are at stake."

Asena lumbered around the fire and planted herself an arms-length away. "Oh yes I am. You had a dream, nothing more, and I'm not risking your life over this foolishness."

"It's not foolishness," I snapped back, glaring up at her face... though I was closer to eye level with her than I used to be. "You can't tell me where I can or can't go, not anymore. You're my mother, not my commander."

She raised her hairy hand. "You'll do what I say, or else-"

Titan, who was now looming behind her, grasped Asena's wrist with his own massive one. "You are not Greywolf's battle-commander," he rumbled, motioning with his other at Attila. "He is, and he will decide whether or not Greywolf comes with us or remains behind."

"Greywolf fights beside me," Attila said, meeting Asena's glare with a hard expression of his own.

"I don't see what all the fuss is about," Castor growled as he got to his feet and joined us. "Ghostdog and I scouted the ruined city, first from the outside, and then inside in a few secluded places, and there just aren't enough Daemo monsters to kill everyone."

"Like I told all of you before," papa said, rising to his feet as well, "the Daemo must've been taking losses they can't replace. A few of the creatures are big, granted, but other than the fifty foot tall tree near the main entrance, there really isn't anything that threatening running around."

I gave papa a puzzled look. "A Daemo tree?"

He grinned. "Haven't seen one of those since the time I'd lost my memories, just before Lady Sword-son's revolt in Xian. They drink blood like normal Daemo, but they also dissolve flesh right off the bones. The Daemo use them to dispose of the bodies after they've drained a human dry."

I shook my head. "But how can they do that? I mean, they're trees, right?"

"Tree is just a word used to describe them," Titan rumbled as Asena pulled her arm away and glared back at him. Titan ignored her as he went on. "A Daemo tree is a partially hollow creature with a large opening like a mouth, and tentacles of different sizes and lengths. As I understand their anatomy, it has multiple chambers above the large one near the base of its trunk, filled with juices that dissolve flesh. When the pit, as it is called, fills with bones, the creature flushes everything out through another opening, then secretes more juices to refill the pit."

"Does it eat the flesh?"

Titan shrugged. "No one knows for sure, but given how large they grow, it must. The only danger with a tree is if you get too close, one of the tentacles can pull you into its maw."

I made a face. "Yecch. What does it do then, drop you into the pit?"

"Not if you're alive," papa said with a grin. "Instead, you get slurped up into one of the upper chambers, where the tree... entertains you for a while, as it drinks your blood."

I screwed up my face. "Entertains you?"

Papa gave me a wink. "Don't ask.

"No one's going anywhere near that tree," Attila said. "The plan is to kill the creatures on the walls and the openings, especially the ones at the main entrance, then fill the tree with explosive arrows and kill it while the infantry holds back any counterattacks. After that, we'll begin taking the rest of the city."

Attila reached up to place his hand on my shoulder as he looked up at Asena. "In truth, I think Old Bone woman worries too much, but if something does go wrong, Greywolf will be there to handle it."

"Not without me and Titan beside you," Asena growled, "and that's not up for debate."

A sly look stole over Attila's face as he looked at me. "I suppose they’d be useful."

"They're just afraid we'll steal all their glory," I replied with a wink of my own, as Titan chuckled. Asena just rolled her eyes.