I awoke from that odd dream once again. This time, I was sweating, gasping for air. I sat up instantly, trying to shake that ominous It shook me to my core. The boy, the woman, the red moon. All of it didn't seem right to me, not at all. My wives were already awake, and they seemed worried about me. Gwendolyn held my right arm, while Altris had a hand on my chest and patted my back with her other.
"Hey, hey," Altris whispered. "What's the matter?"
"You're okay. We're right here." Gwendolyn added.
They were used to this kind of thing with me, which makes me ashamed. I suffered awful nightmares about my past journeys that always came back to me. I guess you could say I was traumatized, but I don't want to self-diagnose myself. The scariest nightmare I have is the most reoccurring one, the nightmare that recalls the events of me losing my eye. The worst part of it wasn't the pain, or the loss of the eye in general. It's why (or you could say, how) it happened. I hate thinking about it, and whenever my daughters ask me about it, I just say I was born without it. The dream about the boy and the woman was a runner-up, however. I don't know who that boy is, or that woman, but something about the two being paired up made my nervous system jump. I can't shake that feeling of dread, fear, and the need to protect that child.
My wives were able to comfort me, just like they always did. I calmed down. My breathing became regular, but I was still pretty sweaty. Gross...
"Thank you, both of you." I said as a placed a kiss on both of their foreheads. Altris' jirab was off, revealing the mystery that goes on under an adult Witches hat. I say that like it's a bad thing, but no, it's very beautiful. Both male and female witches have...that under their jirabs. It is a private thing, only to be shared with family and close friends, so it's not my place to tell you what's under there.
I looked out of the window which normally gave me a nice, sunny view of the Kingdom of Karangan, but it was still dark outside. It seems that dream scared me so bad that I woke up in the middle of the night. Not out of the ordinary for me, but rather unpleasant.
"You were groaning in your sleep again, Gou. We're worried about you, we've been telling you this for years." Gwendolyn whispered. "You've been through enough, those days of travelling are over. You have more than enough time to see a therapist."
"No, no. I'm okay, I promise." I hated making them worry. It seems that I couldn't help it, though. I could see why. I was reckless when I was younger, I was only fifteen when I left my home country to travel. I had no experience, or knowledge of Fiends. In fact, I almost died on my first day away from home because of a Fiend attack. That was in the past now, though. What's done is done. My eye is gone, Luca lost his arm, some companions died. Despite being something I can't change, it doesn't make me feel any better.
"Don't be that way, Gou. We're your wives, you don't have to struggle alone." Altris reassured me. I know I can count on them. It's not that I'm uncomfortable with telling them how I feel, I just don't want them to worry about me. I mean, my father definitely had his issues. I know that because he wasn't that good of a father, but I didn't realize that until I was about nineteen. He never talked about his feelings to my mother, at least not publicly, and he never told my brother and I anything either. We didn't worry about anything because we were basically told we had nothing to worry about. That kind of thing worked for years in our family, so that's how I want my family to feel.
"I know, I know." I said. "It wasn't one of those dreams again, just a silly nightmare. Sorry for bothering you. You two can go back to sleep, I have to get ready for my trip soon." Luca and I was supposed to leave at sunrise, and from what I could see outside, that would be very soon. I got up from our large bed, climbing over Gwendolyn and stretching, followed by a yawn. I turned back to look at Altris and Gwen. It was hard to see them, there was no light in the room aside from the sun slowly lighting up the kingdom, but that was about it. I used the little Magic I knew to conjure a small fire to illuminate the room better. The flame was more of a will-o'-wisp, but it was more than enough to see the gorgeous faces of my perfect wives. Gwen's marvelous golden eyes were locked on me. Altris looked at me with sleepy eyes, and seeing her full lips made me just want to kiss them and never stop. Ah...I love my life.
"Once I get dressed, I'll give you two your kisses goodbye and be off with Luca. Zelch Kingdom isn't as close as I wish, so please, forgive me if I miss the birth of our third child."
"Of course," Gwendolyn answered. "It's not your fault. I just wish you didn't have to go on such short notice." Gwendolyn's ears were angled downward, a sign of her sadness. I always found it interesting that the ears of an Oraphim can tell you about what they're currently feeling.
"Yeah, I know," I sighed, but I smiled nonetheless. "But I'll be back as soon as possible, and once Suki is born, I'll spend as much time with her as I can." Suki was the name we chose for the baby Gwendolyn was carrying. We didn't know the gender, but I had already made two girls, so we're just assuming it's another girl. If Suki is actually a boy, we'll just slap a "T" on there and name him Tsuki to make a more masculine spelling.
"I can't until we meet our third. I wonder if she'll have your eyes, Gou. Or, eye." Altris joked. I don't know how I'd feel if she had my eye color. My pupils are red in color, so seeing a baby with my "rubies" (as Gwen calls them) would kind of throw me off. Red is a color with a normally negative connotation, so my brother and I were looked at differently because of them. I don't want my children to have that going on with them, so during my wives' pregnancies, I secretly pray that they don't have my eyes. (Or, eye in this case.)
"Eh...I sure hope not."
□ □ □
I got dressed shortly after. I put on one of my favorite coats. A black coat made from the wool of a Northern black sheep. The collar was white and was made of fur from a Sea-Rat, located in the South-East ocean. Under that, I wore a dark, tight shirt I had custom made to withstand burning and slashing attacks, since it's made of the tissue of leviathans in the North-West ocean. After that, I put on my belt and dark pants, along side dark brown boots. The dark colors are simply for camouflage at night so I can sneak around King Wesely's castle and protect him better.
I kissed my wives goodbye before sunrise, grabbed my briefcase, and left our bedroom. I made my way to Adeline and Eudora's bedroom, where my two daughters rested. I gave both of them a kiss on their foreheads and left my home. I found Luca standing outside of the fence with Lomaingrandr on his back. The sun was finally starting to rise, and the two of us set out for Zelch Kingdom.
It took us a month to get there. It would've been weird if it didn't take us a while, Zelch Kingdom is located in an entirely different continent. Thankfully it wasn't located in the north, it would've taken us at least a year to get there, and probably two years to get back due to how large the North Continent is. The Kingdom of Karangan isn't that big of a country, so we were out of there pretty fast, less than a day really. The longest part was reaching Zelch Kingdom from Lendleville, the southernmost country of the Continent of Deserts. Once we made it to Zelch Kingdom, we had to find the castle, which wasn't very hard. The architecture in the Zelch Kingdom is specially made to match the king's tastes. He gathered many people skilled in Magic to form buildings, houses, stores with mainly copper, reinforced with their energy to make it more durable than regular copper. Religious sites and homes of those who have international fame (sometimes national depending on if the king likes you enough) are mainly silver. Finally, the castle of the king and his personal favorite people have homes mainly made of gold. The castle is also the largest building in the entire country, so it wasn't hard to find him. In case you couldn't tell, King Wesely is a very...for lack of a better term, overzealous person.
"Ah! Brings back memories, doesn't it, Gnome?" Luca said as he stretched his arm. Luca's phenotypically North Continent, as in he's native to the Continent of the Sun. He was raised in a West Continent orphanage near Zelch Kingdom, though, so he's very familiar with it.
"For you, yeah. I've never been here. This kingdom seems very...rich."
It did look very rich. The scenery was beautiful. It was very early morning, the sun wasn't all the way up and because of that the sky was a wondrous mixture of pink and purple with some blue. The breeze was warm and kind, thankfully it wasn't rude enough to blow my shoulder-length hair into my face. The copper and silver of the architecture reflected the light from the sky brilliantly, giving an array of pleasing colors.
"Yep! King Wesely loves gold. Well, he loves things with lots of monetary value in general. Might as well call 'em Midas."
Hah, I get that reference.
"So, the giant castle is his, right?"
"Naaaaah, it's your mom's house, you pirate." Luca said, making fun of my obvious question.
"Shut up, you amputee." I said, mocking Luca.
"You can do better than that, gnome."
"Yeah...it's too early for this." Luca and I are extremely close, so we can comfortably make jokes about each other's shortcomings. We don't mean it, of course. We're just that close. Of course, if we meant it, then we'd probably have fought about it, in an argument, or physically. Even if we did...I would win.
"Come on, man." Luca walked forward. "We got work to do!" I sighed. I really didn't wanna be this guy's bodyguard. I knew about him because he's very popular, known as the richest king in the world. Aside from that, I heard he's also very much of a "scaredy-cat," so he's constantly surrounded by knights in fear of being assassinated. The fact that he's called two White-Ranks to protect must mean that something sinister is going on. Something a whole legion of knights can't handle.
As Luca and I make it to the castle, we discover that there's a giant moat. With no bridge. There is literally no way to get to the castle. It's not like we could swim either, this moat was the size of a lake. King Wesley really is a scaredy-cat...weirdo.
"Well...this wasn't here the last time I was here. Whatever he's got going on must be serious."
"Do you think it's got something to do with the red moon that's been popping up recently?"
"Hmmmm...." Luca paused, closing his eyes and putting his hand to his chin. "I do find it weird that it's been happening a lot recently, which shouldn't be possible, but I don't think it's related to that."
"Ah. I see." Over our month of travelling, I didn't have that dream of the boy and the woman, not once since I left my home. So far, I've had it twice. The day before Adeline's birthday, and the night before I left for the West Continent. The boy had pointed ears, like an Oraphim...could he be a relative of Gwendolyn?
No, that's racist. Not all Oraphim are related. But why would some random kid show up in my dreams doing the exact same thing? And that woman. A pale green woman with crimson lips standing in front of a red moon. I don't understand at all. I've had a similar dream to this before Adeline was born, but it was different in ways. I was holding a baby with Oraphim ears while sitting on a rocking chair outside. It was nighttime and the moon was a pale pink color. I felt at ease, though, completely opposite to how I feel about this dream. I'm so confused-
"Uh...Gou? You okay?" Luca patted my back with his only arm. "You've been staring off into space for a while.
"Oh. Sorry, just thinking." I must've just seemingly stopped talking and just started staring at the moat.
"Are you thinking about how we can get to the castle, or are you thinking about your wives?"
I chuckled. "Believe it or not, I wasn't thinking about either."
"Daydreaming, huh? You really are an air head! Hahahaha!!"
"You're one to talk, remember when we were in the Temple of Ruin and you almost got us killed because you couldn't solve a mathematics problem?"
"Not my proudest moment but I digress."
Luca and I laughed it off. It really takes me back to when we were younger. I was a prick to him and Altris when we first met. I do regret that, but at least I was able to meet them.
"Luuuuuuucaaaaa~!" A voice from the castle called out. It was extremely loud, loud enough to make an Oraphim kneel over in pain from how high-pitched it was. It instantly caught my attention along with Luca's, making us snap are heads in the direction of the castle in the blink of an eye. The golden castle gleamed with excellence as we saw the bridge fall, splashing the water and creating waves large enough to engulf my house. The man who screamed Luca's name was short, out of shape, and covered in jewels. He had a very long beard that could've touched his knees if he just moved it slightly. What is this hobo doing in the royal castle?
"Oh, King Wesley's awake." Luca said nonchalantly.
"...That's King Wesley?!"