You didn't used to dream often. After all, dreams involve sleeping, and you don't sleep; you trance.
But that never stopped certain people and entities from hijacking your meditations for their own purposes.
You find yourself knee deep in a river of blood. This isn't the first time your dreams have taken you to this place. It's never pleasant.
You can feel a presence watching you intently. You know who it is. You don't yet know what he wants.
A bony dagger appears in front of you, handle pointed towards you. This isn't the first time it's been offered to you, either. But this time there isn't a handy "sacrifice" for you to murder in this dream.
Until it dawns on you that the intended sacrifice... is you.
You stumble back, trying to put some distance between you and the blade. But the river of blood around you makes that difficult. You can barely manage a couple of steps.
You can sense the disappointment all around you. You're used to this. You've never wanted his approval, after all. God or no, you want nothing to do with him.
"If you will not surrender willingly," the god's voice echoes from everywhere and nowhere, "then I will simply take what's rightfully mine."
The dagger turns, blade pointed right at your heart, before it flies straight towards you. You can feel it plunge into your chest, as real as if it had happened to you in the waking world. You cough and choke on your own blood, watch as the black ichor pours from the wound and mingles with the red blood filling the river.
It takes far too long for you to wake, but you manage to force yourself out of the trance and back into consciousness. You reach for your chest and are relieved to find no sign of injury; no dagger lodged in your chest, no bleeding. The dream truly was nothing more than a dream. You sigh in relief, shutting your eyes and reminding yourself it wasn't real.
"You alright?"
Your eyes snap open again with a gasp and your gaze shifts to the entrance of your tent. Zia has poked her head inside, and she regards you with half-awake concern.
"I-I'm fine," you say, your voice shaking too much for the lie to be remotely convincing. Zia stares at you in response. You force yourself into a sitting position, even as your aching body protests. "What are you doing up?"
"...Nightmare," she admits with a shrug. "Decided to take a walk to clear my head. Heard you choking and went to check on you."
"I'm fine," you lie again, but you know Zia isn't buying it. A moment of awkward silence passes between you, before Zia climbs into your tent and sprawls across your lap.
" 'M sleeping here tonight," she declares.
"You have your own tent," you point out.
" 'M sleeping here tonight," she insists, already sounding like she's drifting off.
You sigh in defeat and lie back down. Looks like you're trapped here for the rest of the night.
Maybe you'll both get lucky and not suffer any more nightmares tonight.
"Good night, Zia."
From her lack of response, you're fairly certain she's already drifted off again.
