"Daddy, where are you going?"

Lesta turned towards his young son. "Somewhere far away. I'll see you soon, and don't follow me, OK?"

The young boy stood in the doorway watching as his father left the village. The dream was happening. He knew the father's name, Lesta, but not the young boy's.

The young boy disturbed Dyluck. Why did he see the dream through the child's eyes? Why did the foreign land he saw seem so familiar, so much like home?

High in the sky was he, in the Fortress with Thanatos. And that was another puzzle - Thanatos was so cruel and hateful, and Dyluck knew what he wanted from him, but he just couldn't get his mind off the idea of being someone else than who he had grown up as.

In the haze of forgetfulness and dumbness, the dream began where it had ended before.

The young boy watched as Lesta walked over the horizon, towards the light. Then a great sound from above and far away, in the light, scared him. Dyluck had seen this part before, but he knew that the dream continued, and that its secret would be revealed. The little boy grew fearful and ran down the road after his father. "Daddy! Daddy!" the child cried, and started to run. After running for a very long time, he came to a battlefield. Men lay dead and dying everywhere, and it promised no hope.

Both Dyluck and the little boy spotted Lesta and ran towards him. He was covered in blood, sword cuts on his legs and chest, spell burns on his face and hands. The dying man sensed his son and opened his eyes.

"My son, leave! The battle's not over!"

"But daddy, I want to fight too!"

Lesta looked into his son's, and therefore Dyluck's, eyes for a few seconds, nodded and closed his eyes. "So you have sealed your fate. You will die violently." A crash and blinding white light followed, and the dream ended.

Dyluck awoke then, to find a man, a woman and a sprite watching him. He recognized the woman as his girlfriend, Leanne.

"Leanne, where am I?..." he stopped as he fought Thanatos for the body. But Thanatos was stronger, and so all Dyluck could do was destroy his body. "I'm sorry Leanne. I can't stay, he's too strong and ancient for me. Keven, take care of her for me." Dyluck didn't know where the words came from, and worried as Thanatos challenged them.

But it meant nothing. The white light came and took him to a battle camp. Lesta came up to him, and Dyluck was glad.

"Father." he said.

Lesta smiled. "Prepare for battle."

author's index main index