Help! I've been kidnapped! No, not really, its just that I've been working on my other story so much that I keep forgetting to update the blog. We aren't too far away from the end of Blink's story though, so we should be finishing it pretty soon.
Baird’s eyes opened wide and he put a hand to his head as his face lit up with a sudden idea. “Lucid dreaming! That has to be it!”
“Lucid dreams?” asked Blink. “What are lucid dreams?”
“Have you ever had a dream and realized that you were dreaming?” he responded. “And suddenly you could control it?”
The professor nodded, beginning to understand. “Yes… I’ve had those once or twice. What about them?”
Baird grinned nervously in the face of Blink’s dour scowl. “You can learn to recognize when you are dreaming, and when you do, you can bend the dream to your will. I’ve been practicing it for a while and sometimes I realize I’m dreaming almost right away.”
“How?” asked Blink, crossing her arms. “How do you do it?”
The writer balked. “Uh… I’ve read about some techniques seers use… they think that lucid dreaming allows them to glimpse the future and the past. B… but I don’t remember everything about it… I need my books.”
Blink reached out and touched his shoulder, instantly transporting him to his home.
“I’ll never get used to that,” he said shakily, moving unsteadily to his overfilled shelves. He rummaged through the stacked books, tossing them haphazardly aside. He swore and moved to the next shelf. “I know it’s around here somewhere…. Ah! Found it!” He turned to go to the kitchen only to yelp in surprise as Blink took his shoulder.
“Well I hope we have the ingredients here then,” he said as he recovered his balance. “Professor, can I look through your larder?”
*
Blink stared warily at steaming in bowl in front of her. It smelled like herbs and earth and looked like the dark cider she drank at the tavern in Mauradin. She poked at the thick, syrupy liquid with her spoon, watching it dribble back down like honey.
“What’s this supposed to do?” she asked.
“Seers use this to induce a waking dream state,” Baird said, pouring over the weathered pages of an old manuscript. “It’s the quickest way to bring on a lucid dream. It’s actually related to sleep root powder.”
“Wonderful,” she muttered, taking the list he had written out. “What do I do if this works?”
The professor and Baird shrugged in unision.
Blink glared at them and took the bowl, draining it. She could feel the effects almost instantly as the world began to spin around her. Baird and the professor took her shoulders as she began to sway on her feet, helping her to the nearest chair. Her eyes were hidden by her mask, but Baird got the sense that she was looking around the room, watching things that only she could see. She started to reach out, but her arm fell weakly into her lap as her body relaxed into the seat. For several long moments, nothing happened, but then the room lurched and vanished, replaced by a second room. This second room was almost the same size as the workshop, but was more sparsely furnished. The single hearth was cold and dozens of unlit candles lined the walls in between oil lamps. Books, fewer and better kept than Baird’s, filled a bookshelf between racks of weapons and armor. Baird looked around as the foreign room flickered and began to fade, catching a quick glimpse of a bed and wardrobe in the corner. Blink shifted in her chair and he heard a clatter as the room disappeared again. The last thing he saw was a dark shape in the window before they were back in the workshop.
“Reapers were guarding my house,” Blink grunted, forcing away the potion’s effects. “I could feel them trying to get in.” She lifted the mask and peered at Baird. “Were you there with me? I thought I saw you.”
“Yeah, you took us with you,” Baird replied. “Did you mean to do that?”
“What?” asked the professor. “What happened? One second you two are gone and the next you’re back.”
“My magic didn’t take you?” Blink passed a hand over her face. “Then why did it take Baird?” She got up, hefting a heavy bag she had gotten from the other room.. “The Reapers are coming again. We have to get ready.”
“Our traps are exhausted,” said the professor. “I don’t have any bottled lightning left. Is there enough time to recharge the batteries?”
Blink shook her head and dumped the contents of her new pack on the table. She picked up a slender blade and pressed it into the professor’s hands. “No, they will be here within minutes… this sword has a lightning enchantment, it will work at least as well as your bottled lightning.”
The old man nodded grimly and turned away, examining the blade as he took it over to an empty battery.
Baird swallowed nervously as Blink took out a large hammer and held it out to him. He shook his head and backed away. “I, I don’t think this is a good idea… I’m not a warrior, I’m a writer!”
No comments:
Post a Comment