Greywolf - Wysper of a dream

Over the years, Asena's taught me a lot of skills. But the only one she says 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's colder here, with a harsh wind whistling across league after league of rolling hills of brown grass, and an obvious trail leading across the steppes towards a small mountain surrounded by hills. The dead, grey tree's in a sheltered valley without any ruins around it, which is 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 be asleep and dreaming now, because I'm sitting beside a fire on a treeless plain. Looking up, the sky overhead blazes with a sea of stars, more than I've ever seen my entire life. They also look strange, totally unlike the night sky anywhere that I've been-

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

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

I take a step backwards. "Yasataar?" She steps 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 replies, grasping her hair with both hands. "And perhaps not even then." Yasataar pulls her hair back, away from her face, and I gasp.

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

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

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

Wysper's shoulders and side are all smooth, as if she'd never been born with arms. "In the real world she is fine," Yasataar says as tears stream 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 points 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 clench 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 says, "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 says, "mother will throw her support behind Wysper, and help her succeed. Greywolf," the Daemo's voice turning pleading, "mother's visions always come true if they are ignored."

"Alright," I growl, knowing better than to argue with a Daemo, "you've both made your point. Exactly what is it I'm supposed to do?"

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

I throw up my hands in disgust. "Wonderful. 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 begin pulling Wysper back into the shadows, who's struggling to break free without success, and I move to leap over the fire. "Wysper!"

I'm on my feet, lurching forward with my eyes still closed as hands catch me. "Greywolf," Attila says as he shakes me, "wake up." I open my eyes. Night's already fallen, and a ring of stones holds a crackling fire I almost blundered right into. I stop struggling at once and he lets 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's sitting nearby with papa beside her, who's probably been flirting as Asena looks ready to thrash them both. "Hypam, does Old Bone woman have a pair of Daemo sorceresses named Shirr and Willow?"

Hypam's mouth drops. "How can you possibly know that," she finally sputters, glaring at me as she rises 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 reply in a bitter voice. Everyone around the fire, including Castor, Titan and Paulus, stops whatever they'd been doing and listens as I tell them all about the dream. Once I've finished, I look at Hypam. "So, was it just a dream or something else?"

"That was no ordinary dream," Hypam replies. "I know for a fact that none of you, except my cousin, have ever seen these Daemo. Yet, you just described Shirr perfectly." She takes a deep breath. "Old Bone woman or someone else, maybe Altani the healer, must have given the three of them a substance called 'Tears of the Dragon', which put them to sleep and into a dreaming state. From there, it would be 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 says 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 snaps as she glares at Asena. "Just because you don't understand what our shaman can do, Celestial," she adds with a sneer, "doesn't mean they aren't powerful. Yasataar has become a spirit too strong for any human to command."

"Lucky for us she's on our side," papa says in a dry voice.

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

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

Asena crosses her arms over her armored chest. "If that's true,, then why haven't I heard about it before?"

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

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

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

Asena stalks around the fire and plants 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 snap back, glaring up at her face... though I'm 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 raises her hairy hand. "You'll do what I say, or else-"

Titan, who's now looming behind her, grasps Asena's wrist with his own massive one. "Your son is right," he rumbles. "You are not Greywolf's battle-commander." He motions with his other at Attila. "He is, and Attila will decide whether or not Greywolf comes with us or remains behind."

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

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

"Like I told all of you before," papa says, 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 aren't any monsters all that threatening."

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

He grins. "Haven't seen one of those since the time I'd lost my memories, just before Lady Sword-son's revolt in Xian. The trees 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 shake my head. "But how can they do that? I mean, they're a tree, right?"

"Tree is just a word used to describe them," Titan rumbles as Asena pulls her arm away and glares back at him. Titan ignores her as he goes 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 stomach 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 shrugs. "No one knows for sure, but it must, given how large they grow. The only danger with a tree is if you get too close, one of the tentacles might pull you into its maw."

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

"Not if you're alive," papa says 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 screw up my face worse. "Entertains you?"

Papa answers with a wink. "Don't ask."

"No one's going anywhere near that tree," Attila says. "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. Then we'll begin taking the rest of the city." Attila reaches up to place his hand on my shoulder as he looks 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 growls, "and that's not up for debate."

There's a sly look on Attila's face as he looks at me. "I suppose they would be useful."

"They're just afraid we'll steal all their glory," I reply with a wink of my own as Titan chuckles and Asena rolls her eyes.