Autumn, Chrónia 565
When Nathos opened his eyes he had no idea where he was. He had never seen this place before, nor had he any knowledge of one. With a stunned gaze, he looked around and after not figuring out anything useful he frowned.
Because of his surroundings, he had no real clue about the direction or if he was up or down. He was standing on top of a very reflective ground and when he took one step forward he noticed that it was water. With each footstep, a ripple appeared in the water, but even though it wasn't deep he couldn't see the bottom. All he could see was his own reflection and the beautiful partly clouded sky.
Not knowing what was up or down he stumbled a few steps, fell to the floor and to his bewilderment the water wasn't making him wet. With a frown, he went through the water with his hand, but to his surprise, no water was left in his hand. It didn't stick to his hand and just immediately went straight through his hand.
*What is this?* Nathos asked himself as he got up. This place confused him and he had no clue about what he was doing here.
"Hello?" Nathos asked with doubt in his voice, he had no idea if anybody would be there or if someone would even hear him. "Is anyone there?"
He knew nobody was here. He could see very far and the only thing he could see was the reflected sky and the sky itself. *Why am I here?* Nathos asked himself.
But before he could come up with an answer a room appeared in front of him. It looked like it was a children's bedroom and with the stone walls, wooden furniture, and burning hearth it looked like a cozy room. He saw a woman sitting next to the bed on a rocking chair with a child in her lap. Together they were reading a book and he could hear the women explaining the texts patiently, while the child was enthusiastically asking the woman questions.
Nathos was stunned and started to walk closer. *What is this?* He thought. As he got closer the thing that immediately caught his attention were the eyes. Both the woman and the child had slightly glowing green eyes and in the darkroom, they were the thing that stood out the most. The child looked awful a lot like himself. No, he knew it was him. It was a younger version of himself, although his eyes were different. This one had two green eyes.
"Hello?" Nathos asked, but he got no reaction. "Can you hear me?" Nathos asked, but just as he wanted to step into the room he was stopped. It seemed he could not leave this mirror world.
"Mother, will you read me another story before bed?" The child asked and Nathos was stunned, that woman was not his mother. This woman had green eyes and long blond hair. She was wearing a beautiful silk dress and this was already something his mother would never wear.
"You are not my mother! Who are you? Why do you look like me?" Nathos asked as he tried to enter the room. He had so many questions, but before he could ask more he heard a voice just like his own behind him.
"Father, am I doing it correctly?" The voice like his own asked.
As he turned around the father of the voice answered, "Perfect, son, you will become a fierce warrior."
That voice was not his father's Nathos thought and finally, he could see where the voices came from. He saw another younger version of himself with deep blue eyes sparring against his so-called father. They were sparring in what looked like an apple garden and the man his other version called father was a heavy build man with deep blue eyes, black hair with streaks of grey and a slight tan. They were both wearing light leather armor and with the wooden sword, they had a go at each other.
This man, this woman, they looked an awful lot like himself. He looked down at the reflective water and looked at himself. Both his eyes glowed in the reflection. "What is happening? Is this real?" He whispered.
Of course, nobody answered and the two scenes kept playing on both sides. He took long looks at both of them and he couldn't understand anything. They weren't his parents, that wasn't him. His eyes didn't match, but he knew deep down this was the biggest clue he had ever gotten in his life.
"Is this real?" He asked again, "Are those really my parents? Is that really me?"
"Who am I?" He shouted at the sky, thinking nothing would happen, but to his surprise, things began to unfold. Both scenes stopped and the so-called parents began to walk hand in hand with their child in his direction. They stopped a few meters away from him and that was when it happened. The world began to spin and the four began to run towards Nathos. With a blinding light, they crashed into each other and Nathos had to shield his eyes from the light.
When he could open his eyes again he saw three figures standing in front of him. The broad blue-eyed man and the blond green-eyed woman stood behind the younger version of Nathos, who now had the exact same eyes as he really had.
The Nathos in front of him raised his finger and pointed at the real Nathos, "Mother, father, who is that? He looks like me?"
The man ruffled his hair and put a hand on his shoulder. The woman sat down next to him on her knees, embraced him with one arm and said, "That's you, Nathos, you just don't realize it yet."
The woman didn't look at the child next to her but looked straight into the real Nathos. "Don't worry, Nathos, you know the truth already." The man looked him deep into his eyes, but before Nathos could retort he began screaming and fell face down towards the water.
With a loud scream, Nathos woke up and found that he was drenched in sweat. The only thing he could repeat to himself was that it was a dream, it wasn't real. It couldn't be.
Nathos shook his head and sat on the bedside. He was out of breath and he was extremely hot. The sweaty hair clung to his forehead and he picked up a piece of cloth to dry his hair and body.
He couldn't believe what had happened as he looked out of the window at the bright moon. It was midnight, but he couldn't go back to sleep anymore. He had to find answers. He quickly lit a candle and on his tiptoes, he walked to his mother's bookshelf. She had tons of books and he hoped he could find his answers there.
-Ω-
When the sun rose above the trees Nathos was still sitting at his desk, reading a book about dreams with a grim expression across his face. He had not gone back to sleep after his weird dream last night. He sighed and massaged his head. He had been frowning the entire night and the lack of sleep, constant reading and thinking had to give him a headache.
The book in front of him contained all kinds of information about dreams, visions, and nightmares. Together with it supposedly he would be able to explain what he saw. The author of the book exclaimed he had received teaching from both a priestess of Locua, goddess of sleep and hallucinations and a priest of Plemnak, god of prophecies and the truth. Therefore, Nathos saw it as reliable.
As it turned out he was having visions, or just hallucinating. Nathos sighed and stretched, letting his bones crack in the process. If they were visions there was a truth behind them, but that meant that he had a different identity. It would mean that his parents weren't really his parents. He was not ready to believe that yet.
If his dreams were hallucinations, well that would mean he was either going crazy, ate mushrooms from an ancient forest in the east or was under some immortal spell. He could verify that it was neither one of the last two options, which left that he was going crazy. As for how he felt now that could be entirely true.
Nathos almost jumped up with a scream when the door of his room was suddenly opened by his mother. His mother looked at him weirdly, he must've looked strange sitting at his desk at sunrise while eyeing distressed.
"Good morning, mother," Nathos said with a slight tremble in his voice.
Thyia laughed and walked up to him, hugged him from behind and planted a kiss on top of his head. "Good morning, Nathos," she looked down at his desk and saw countless books and papers lying around, "what are you doing up so early?"
Quickly Nathos closed his book and shoved it under a piece of parchment. "Nothing, nothing. Just reading some stuff."
Thyia laughed, "Alright, so mysterious, you little rascal."
Nathos blushed, he had no idea what to do. His mother ruffled his hair and walked to the door, but before she walked out she turned around.
"Don't forget about breakfast, Nathos, you know you cannot think well on an empty stomach." She said with a smile and left.
Nathos on the other hand barely heard what she said, he was still staring at the now empty door frame. When she turned around Nathos had taken a good look at her face, but could find no comparison to his own. The image of the woman in the dream kept appearing. For the first time in his life, he noticed that he looked nothing like his mother. On the other hand, his facial features clearly resembled the woman in his dream.
Suddenly tears began to roll down his face and he began to sob. He could not believe this was happening. *What if my parents are not my real parents?* Nathos asked himself while panicking.
He tried to calm himself down and took deep breaths. *You don't know anything for sure yet.* he said to himself. He regained his composure and wiped his tears away. There was no use crying now.
Nathos sighed and leaned back in his chair. *Maybe I am really going crazy?* He thought as he turned his head to the side, staring out of the window.