Hey, a reasonable time of day (before evening/night, lol), but still feeling quite crummy (caught whatever illness, crud is going around) so hopefully I will actually finish this this afternoon. We’ll see. *Update*: Yeah, that didn’t happen, finishing it right before bed, oh well.
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Prompt: Your fantasy world is a volcanic planet. The story involves lucid dreaming. Something precious is lost. The story includes a wolf. The story also includes a flying vehicle.
Genre: Fantasy
Source: Fantasy Plot Generator
Time Spent: 90 minutes
Word Count: 2691
Prompt: Your fantasy world is a volcanic planet. The story involves lucid dreaming. Something precious is lost. The story includes a wolf. The story also includes a flying vehicle.
Seamus Tarlon navigated his small airship with practiced ease, handling the ropes that controlled the wings on either of the vessels deck through the air currents and updrafts from the lava fields. Aside from mages portals, airships were the only safe way to navigate the volcanic expanses between settlements, usually themselves suspended in the air, save for those on the islands of the Three Oceans, the only significant bodies of water on the Terra. While airships were common, very few, small or large, would dare travel so far into the depths of the Abaddon Fields.
Seamus was a man of middle age, short but powerfully built from his years working on and then later flying his own ship, The Dreamdancer. He had a wide brimmed blue hat on his head, a loose tan colored tunic which showed off his muscular chest and arms and tucked into a leather belt. The belt held up blue trousers which were in turn tucked into brown leather boots which matched the leather gloves he wore to prevent rope burn. He was sweating from the exertion and the heating rising from the lava below but he felt compelled onward.
As well as being a skilled Airship Pilot and Mechanic, he had another skill which he rarely talked about which had given his own vessel its name. Seamus Tarlon was a Dream Dancer, meaning that he could not only control his own dreams, but walk into the dreams of others, and even at times manipulate them. With careful practice, controlling one’s own dreams, or Lucid Dreaming as it was sometimes called, the ability to ‘dance’ between the dreams of others and exert some control was extremely rare. With much practice and a little bit of luck, a mage might be able to learn it, although many had gone mad in the attempt, but it was impossible for anyone non-magical who had not been born with the ability, like Seamus had.
Mostly, Seamus used this ability to create pleasant dreams for himself and keep away nightmares, and would occasionally ease the nightmares of close friends and partners, but that had all changed. Seamus had always sensed something, for as long as he had been aware of his ability, a great twisted nightmare like the great storm, far in the distance, but he had stayed away from it. He was not sure what made him start to edge nearer to it a few months ago, perhaps a sense of boredom, daring, or curiosity, but he had begun to go nearer to this vortex until finally, several weeks previously, he found himself standing on the shores of one of the Oceans, in whose dream he could not say, as a great cyclone of horrors and nightmares twisted and turned itself before him. Standing so close to it, seeing its fury, feeling the wind and rain lashing against him was like the fear and thrill he had felt the first time he had ridden on an airship, and also the first time he had piloted his own.
Seamus found himself returning to the edge of this storm of nightmares nearly every night, trying to recapture that feeling. As he edged, closer and closer, to the storm each night he had made a discovery, there was a mind somehow trapped at the eye of the storm, as it were. He could sense little else but that the mind was powerful and calling out for help and release. He had tried to venture fully into the storms but quickly learned that was futile, even with his abilities as a Dream Dancer, he could not tame so many and such powerful nightmares and trying to do so, or find a way through them, could well kill him, as he worked out on waking from the third night of attempting with a pounding headache and blood running from his nose and ears.
It had taken a few days and all of his skills within Dreams to figure out that, somehow, this trapped mind that was still calling out to him, was somehow in the very heard of the Abaddon Fields, on or around one of the three greatest volcanoes on the terra which stood at its center and in which he was under the impression that nothing did or could live. And thus, he had provisioned himself as best he could for such a perilous voyage and had taken The Dreamweaver. With so many rivers and pools and flows of lava from the smaller volcanoes, the air currents were twisted and confused, and it took much skill and hard work to navigate them. It had taken nearly a day to clear the smaller mountains and begin approaching the Three. They all had various names in various traditions, but their size, continued flow, and frequent larger explosions which rocked half the world, meant that most simply call them the Three. They towered far above any other mountain on the whole Terra, and lava continually belched form the top, and also from fissures on its sides, producing vast rivers which flowed through the black and twisted forms of lava long cooled, gathering in a pool, practically a small sea, here, diving back into another fissure into the ground there, colliding in great, bubbling cauldrons of unfathomable temperature and dangers.
Seamus knew his airship could never go over the Three, no airship could, so he carefully steered around the nearest. It was rough going, with eddying air currents and blasts of great heat from the mountain, but his airship was well maintained and he was a good pilot, so after some struggle he made it past. Between the three mountains was a great sea of lava, fed from the Three, with crust-like islands of cooled lava flowing here and there. Seamus was sure of it, some-how, the mind he had encountered, was there.
He adjusted his wings and buoyance carefully to slow his flight and keep him as close to the lava as he could get, safely, and began his search. The heat was starting to get to him, he was not as young as he was, and would soon need to raise his airship high into the air to float so he could rest and get a break from the heat. Luckily for him, he quickly found what he was looking for. At what he guessed was at the center of the Lava Sea, there was what he guessed he would call an island. It was made out of the same, black cooled lava but it was a good size, and did not seem to float or move, and there was even a large hill, practically a small mountain. Seamus steered The Dreamdancer towards that.
As he got closer, he could see that the mountain had a large cavern in its side. With some more careful flying, he brought the airship to rest, and secured, next to what turned out to be a massive cavern. The heat was great, but not unbearable, although Seamus hoped there would be no lava within this cavern as that would turn it into an oven that he could never entered. Part of him thought it was a good idea to dream and contact the mind that way, but being unsure of what it was there, and how close in the nightmares were, so scouting in the physical world was wiser.
Seamus moved cautiously into the cavern, which steadily slopped downward, but there was, fortunately, no lava and in fact the air began to cool a little the further in he went. He was not sure how deep into this lava formed mountain he went, but at the bottom of it, he came face to face with a sight he had only seen a few times in his life.
The descending cavern ended in an incredibly vast chamber, at the center of which was a massive dragon. He had only seen one at a distance, they sometimes could be seen over the lava fields but never approached settlements or airships, but there was no mistaking it. The creature before him had dark red, bronze, and black scales and was bigger than the largest of airships. A long and powerful tale could be seen twitching, four legs with powerful claws were curled up under it, wings were folded, and a long neck ended in a massive head that lay, curled up near his body and tail. Its eyes were closed and twitching, with the occasional spurts of flame and sounds of growls rose from it. The dragon was the dreamer.
Seamus had a moment of being unsure of what to do, but in the end his curiosity, and the feeling that he had come this far already, won out and he found a secluded spot, well away from the Dragon’s head and set himself down. He pulled a small vial from the bag he had with him, a potion that would quickly put him to sleep, and downed the potent liquid and was soon well asleep.
Looking around his own dream, he could see the swirling nightmares around him, and quickly found the telltale shimmer of the boundary between dreams, and slid into the dragon’s dreams. It became evident that everything, the nightmare and the creature at the center, were all coming from it. Seamus moved as quickly as he could away from the vast, black clouds that walled off the calm center form the rest of its dreams, and towards the center. What he found was a dragon, much smaller than the one in the cavern, who seemed to be trying to hide from the Nightmares, and gave a jump of surprise, a shocking move from a creature, even in dreams, that was a considerable size.
“What is going on?” boomed the dragon’s voice, within which Seamus thought he could sense a touch of dread. “Are you some new tormentor?”
Seamus shook his head, “no, my name is Seamus Tarlon, and I sensed you here and heard your cries for help.”
The dragon did not respond immediately, eyeing the human up and down, but finally said, “I am Gabbakkar, or at least that is as much of my name most are able to pronounce. How is it that you came through the great storm of torments? I have been trapped within it for. . .I don’t even know how long, but every time I try to leave, in any direction, torments beyond count rise up and throw me back here. I have even tried magic and dispelling what I am guessing is a vast storm, but it has been useless. Do you know those that trapped me here, and how to free me?”
“I do not know who so imprisoned you, nor why, but I think all you need to do to escape is wake up, and that I can help you with?”
“Wake up?” scoffed the dragon. “I have been awake for hours and you seem far too solid and coherent for me to still be dreaming.”
“Ah,” said Seamus. “I think I know what has happened to you.”
“Please, do not keep it to yourself, I am reading for the nightmare to end!”
“When you say nightmare, Gabbakkar, you intend a comparison, but it is the literal truth. Something or someone, most likely a group of someone’s from what little I know if it, has trapped you into a perpetual nightmare. The Storm of Torments is what they used to keep you in one place, and you have, I think, been trapped here so long that you can no longer tell that this is a dream as well.”
Gabbakkar reared itself up and look around, confusion in its eyes. “I remember. . something. . .wanted to use my powers, but I would not give them willingly so they bound me. I thought just physically, but then I found myself here. How do I wake up from this then? And how are you here?”
“I am a Dream Dancer, and thus able to move between dreams. As I was exploring the edges of the great storm of torments, I touched your mind briefly and came to find you. I am told that breaking free of a perpetual dream or nightmare such as this is difficult for the individual, but I think, with my help, we can.”
“I shall try anything,” said the Dragon, firmly. “What must I do.”
Allow me to approach and rest your head upon the ground. I will need to be in contact with your head to do this, and I am sorry but may even need to climb onto it.”
The Dragon laughed as it lowered its head to the ground, “dragons are made of stronger stuff than what the weight of one human could do, besides if this is all a dream I shall come to no harm anyway.”
Seamus walked up to the dragon and, as he suspected, needed the aid of a nearby stone to post himself the top of its head. The Scales were hard and abrasive to the touch, even through his gloves, but at last he was atop the dragon head and place both hands down on top of it.
“Is this something you do often?”
It was Seamus’ turn to chuckle, “once, on accident, but I have read several books on the technique.
The dragon’s replay sounded skeptical, “I am quite literally in your hands, Seams Tarlon. I am ready for whatever you have.”
“Okay, when you start feeling your mind drifting away, move away from the feeling of this place and towards what feels more real, that is you.” With a deep breath, Seamus closed his eyes and concentrated. He could never explain to anyone how he manipulated dreams, he was not sure he understood it himself, but he tapped into those deep feelings linked to the dream spaces and the feeling of being awake and tried to merge the together in his mind. He took all of his concentration to make it happen, he quickly knew he would be in for another horrid headache, but still he pressed on.
As the conflicting feels and pains got deeper and deeper, the harder Seamus hung on and the harder he pushed. At last, with all the remained of his strength, the bridge was made and he could feel the dragon slipped through and into the real world. He had just enough time to witness the great storm of nightmares collapsing before he too felt himself leaving the Dream Space.
Seamus sat up slowly and cupped his head, which felt three sizes too big, and groaned. This was perhaps the worst headache of his life and he could feel blood dried under his nose and ears. It took him a moment, and a swig from another vial meant to help with headaches. Looks around the Cavern he just about screamed when he saw the massive dragon’s head in the middle of the vast chamber, just staring at him, waiting, patiently.
The dragon’s voice, far deeper than in dream, said, “You have been asleep for several days. I know little of human medicine and do not even know if it is normal.”
Seamus shook his head, “no, the effort it took to wake you must have truly exhausted me. I do feel like I am going to be alright.”
The Dragon seemed satisfied with this and gave a deep bow saying, “I say that you, Seamus Tarlon, are a friend to dragonkind for your actions in saving me and I am in your debt, particularly at risk to yourself.”
Seamus shrugged, “I cannot abide seeing others suffer.”
The dragon did not seem to hear that and continued on, “How long have I been trapped here? What are the major goings on in the world? How did you travel through the lava field ?
And so, the questions continued and an odd sort of friendship developed between them and soon the entire terra would come to recognize the human Dream Dancer and the immense dragon that would soon come out of the Abaddon Fields and begin the search to understand who had trapped the dragon, and why.
Well, this ran longer than I intended, surprise to surprise, but here is another finished writing prompt, and another one that I got into and had fun with.
Hope you enjoyed and that you are having a wonderful day and get to do, or experience, something creative.
– Jon
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