Legend of the Assorians: Dream Extract

Aldar Xylan awoke in the midst of a deadly, raging inferno. All that had existed was destroyed and burning. He rubbed his eyes to clear his vision. His emotions were overcome by immense terror as he saw the ghastly scene that lay in front of him. He saw his parents, tied together by a terrifying creature.
         It was the embodiment of fire, with a face of contained flame. Aldar gazed at his parents. Their faces held expressions of suffering, but they also held emotions of acceptance and pride. His mother looked at him and said in a sorrowful voice.
         ‘We do this for you, son.’
         He couldn’t muster the will to speak. All he could do was stare in to his mother’s eyes, and an overwhelming twist of guilt grew within him. He turned to the creature and begged within his own mind, unable to voice his pleading.
         Kill me instead! He yelled within. Please! I will do anything you like, just let them free! Cold tears slid from his eyes as he watched for the creature’s response, hoping that it could hear his mind’s voice. The creature tightened its grip on his parents.
         ‘You will fail them,’ it taunted in a deep, hiss of a voice. ‘Now you shall watch as they die and witness what your life will cause.’ The flames of the creature tightened and grew, and licked around his parents’ bodies, enveloping them in the burning fire.
         Their voices erupted in to ear-wrenching screams and Aldar’s heart shattered as he watched their eyes evaporate in to thin air and their skin char. They melted from the intense heat of the fire creature until their bodies were mere piles of ash on the floor.
         Aldar fell helplessly to his knees. Their horrifying scream was haunting his mind. The creature morphed in to an almost humanoid form and stood before him. It kicked the ashes of his parents across the floor and in to the flames.
         ‘Their deaths were your fault,’ the creature bellowed. ‘They are dead because of your failures and your selfishness.’ Aldar cowered on the floor, frozen in the presence of the being. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t summon the strength to move away.
         ‘For years, you have remained unaware of your powers,’ the creature said, spouting fire, ‘and when you discover your abilities, you will kill the innocent, help the greedy and befriend the evil.’ The creature spat a flame in Aldar’s face and he screamed in agony as he felt his skin blister.
         The creature leapt at him with a deadly snarl, fire spouting from its every orifice. The flames of its face shifted to form a deadly sneer. He stared back, still clutching his face in pain.

* * * *

Aldar yelled out and sat up. His heart was pounding faster than ever before. He felt the sweat dripping down his face as he curled up in to a small ball at the top of his bed, shaking. He was at home. His father burst through the door.
         ‘Aldar!’ he squealed, his voice breaking with worry. ‘Are you okay?’ Aldar jumped from his bed to him. His father’s large, trunk-like arms held him there. He was overjoyed that it had all been a figment of his imagination.
         ‘I’m fine now,’ he said as he released his father and sat on his bed. He wiped the sweat away and looked around the room for even a hint of fire… there wasn’t even a single, glittering ember. He relaxed and lay back.
         ‘Are you sure?’ his father asked.
         ‘Yea,’ he said, feeling a stab of guilt for waking his father up in the middle of the night, ‘It was just a bad nightmare.’ His father nodded and left the room, closing the door on his way out.
         Aldar breathed a sigh of relief and closed his eyes. He began to drift back to sleep when he heard something. It was a faint, whispering voice at the back of his mind that ended with a deep hiss.
         ‘It’s only a matter of time.’