Sick and Tired

No, I'm not sick and tired of anything in particular. I am literally sick. And tired. It all started a few days ago when my sister Catherine came down with this nasty cold. She spent most of the day hanging around me asking me to get her stuff. I didn't care, she was sick so I figured I'd help her out a bit.

All she wanted me to do was get her a pop now and again and let her watch me play more Eternal Sonata anyway, so I let her. Same thing last night, except she spent most of her time hanging around my mom. When my mom eventually said "I'm going to get sick" I realized that my throat did feel tighter than usual. I knew what was coming, and by the time I went to bed, my body was really starting to feel it. Sore throat, runny nose, headache, blurry vision, the works. So I went to bed and slept.

The next morning when my mom was yelling to get John and Catherine off to school I was forced awake. I leaned over and took a tissue to blow my nose since I couldn't breathe through my nose. It was incredible how much crap came out. My nose felt cleaner than it had in years right after, and I got a few really nice breaths in. But I could feel it closing again in real time. My throat was the thing of nightmares. light breathing was fine, just a light tickling that I can deal with. But if I opened my mouth to talk I was in for a world of pain. My whole throat rattled and vibrated with each syllable I uttered. It hurt so bad that when my beloved called to say good morning I had to cut it short trying to get by on as few words as possible so as to avoid the pain. Even explaining the sheer torture I went through with each consonant was hardly worth it. So I just told everyone I was sick. You'd think word would travel quickly in a household. But I was interrupted many times during the day for varying reasons.

Eventually I did sleep. And I had a really interesting dream. It was such an odd concept. Basically I was a Dragoon in training. At school. But I was also a Space Marine cadet. Most of it is fuzzy, but one of my fellow space cadets learned of a spot where giant alien worms were in abundance, and there was a safe spot where they couldn't reach us. So if we went there, and killed as many of the unending waves of alien earthworms as we could bring enough ammo to handle, we would level up enough to make the rest of the semester a breeze. It worked like a charm. We gained 15 levels in the span of an hour. By the time we left, we were no longer lacking in levels. On our way out I saw a door that was a little bent around the edges.

"Don't go in there" my classmate warned me "The Urdon behind that door are too dangerous for us, only a few teachers are strong enough to handle them."

I didn't object to the warning and off we went. When we rejoined classes our special training regiment really paid off. We were far stronger than before, and for the first time we got an "A" in our classes for the day. Needless to say that such a positive response told us we should go back to the Thresher Maw camp to get more powerful. Maybe even powerful enough to enter the yearly student tournament.

The same guy won that tournament every year. He was so untouchable that the idea of beating him never crossed our minds. We just wanted to get into the top 4 or something. That kind of recognition was enough to get us a bonus upon graduation. Turns out that guy doesn't like the idea of fair play (do they ever?) and had learned of our secret training rituals. So he followed us one day, and set a trap to make sure we could never catch up to him.

Our training wasn't going as ludicrously fast as it was the first time we went there, but we weren't under leveled anymore. We still were gaining experience at a steady clip and our progress never faltered again. We were acing all our classes and that was good enough. After one especially fruitful afternoon we ran out of medpaks and decided to call it a night. As we walked back to the main shuttle we found the door locked, and the shuttle missing. While we were trying to figure out what to do I thought I saw something move in the hallway. I decided to investigate while my classmate stayed behind tryijng to call the shuttle back. I wandered down the hallway and found a small glowing kitten. I sighed to myself and picked the little guy up.

"You little bastard, you scared the shit out of me, you know that?" I said to the glowing cat. I looked back to see my classmate but he was just beyond the curve. So I looked back to the cat and found... Nothing. The cat was gone. I was holding in my hands a spell scroll of some sort. I put the scroll away, a little weirded out and started walking back. That's when I noticed the door to the Urdon area. Or rather, the fact that the door was gone. Laying in a pile of scrap metal on the inside of the room.

Nervously I looked into the room, the thick metal walls slashed to ribbons by some disturbed creature. Backing away, I ran to where my classmate was working with the door. I could only hope he had it opened and was waiting impatiently for my return. I rounded the corner and froze in my tracks when I saw a large monstrosity, the Urdon I could only imagine, walking slowly towards my classmate, Frozen in the far corner, unable to find a way out of his predicament. I had something of a flashback, and I saw the glowing cat again. I also saw the spell scroll and I pulled it out without hesitation. I read the indecipherable words aloud to myself and with a flash of bright light, I realized something in me had changed. For lack of a better term, I took a level in badass.

I slowly raised my head, my eyes shone with an intensity unknown to me before as I clasped my hands together and produced a lance made of both fire and ice, bound together by thunder, forged in the darkest pits of my soul.

I lunged at the beast, who now had my full attention and slashed at me with one of his many clawed limbs. I ducked beneath the attack and lunged upward into his underarm. Following through with the attack I tore the limb completely out of its socket. Wounded, the beast was pissed.

Attacking with its remaining limbs and leaving me no chance to rest, each blow was aimed to kill. I ducked and dodged every attack with relative ease at first, but it was not long before I began to tire. I had to find some way to get close to finish the beast. Then, I saw it. After a particularly wide swing the Urdon had left its left side completely exposed. I rolled to the right, planted my feet and put all of my weight into one desperate lunge.

The beast saw me roll and attempted to stop me, but it was too late, his weight was shifted the complete other way, and there was no chance for it to get me in time. I felt it's skin tear, it's muscles shred, it's bone crack and finally, it's heart stop. With a final whimper, the great Urdon fell to the ground. It's eyes managed to focus on me just once, they showed great fear. They looked at me as if I was a monster, coming to destroy everything it had ever known. And as they lost there luster, I felt sadness. I helped my classmate to his feet. He was in complete shock, unable to work his mouth into producing words.

We walked together, back to the Urdons cell. We spent some time examining the walls, trying to figure out how it was being fed. We never found how it got food, but we did find a nest, full of long dead baby Urdon. After that, everything blacked out.

Several weeks had passed since the incident, and the tournament was upon us. Despite repeated attempts to resummon my lance, I had been thus far unable to do so. I still had unimaginable strength though. I fought my way through the tournament fairly uncontested. And eventually made it into the final 4. The other 3 were my classmate, that jerk that set us up (nobody knew about that, not even us) and a certain special Red Mage I had a thing for.

The first round was me vs. the Red Mage. The fight lasted for nearly an hour before I finally succumbed to her deft attacks. That's right, I lost. To a girl. But hey, she kissed me before I was escorted out to the medical ward to get patched up.

I didn't get to watch the next match between my friend and the reigning champion. But I did hear about a "horrible accident". Not long after, they brought my friend to the medical ward and they tried their best, but he was gone. Killed by the champion.

They were calling it an accident. But I knew better. I made my way to the Red Mages room and beg her not to fight, to forfeit the match and let him win. She was as stubborn as I was though, and refused to back down from the fight. She thanked me for the concern and asked me to leave.

The next day the tournament championship started. I watched as she fought with elegance and grace, returning each blow she took with 3 more of her own. It seemed as though she would win. I sat back in my chair and sighed with relief. Then, it happened. It seemed as though the wind stopped blowing. I looked down at the fight, and I noticed a flash in the champions eyes. He grabbed the Red Mage by the throat and punched her 3 times in the gut with his free hand. He threw her to the ground and lifted his great sword high over his head. He was going to end this with one blow. As she layed there, totally unguarded, trying to regain her breath, he started to swing.

I didn't recall doing it, but before I knew it I was at the large fence blocking spectators from interfering from the fight. My head spun for a moment, I saw the glowing cat. Then somebody whispered in my ear...

jump...

I stood back for a moment, looked up at the 30 foot fence, closed my eyes and leaped with all my strength.

When I opened my eyes, I was in the air above the fence. I landed in the ring. Grabbed hold of the Red Mage and leaped again to safety, just as his sword carved a 6inch gash deep into the ring. He looked at me, hate in his eyes. And something else. They were dark, too dark. He pulled his sword loose from the rubble and brought it to bear. I knew what to do. I clasped my hands together and brought forth my mighty lance. It started to rain, and I do believe some heavy metal started playing in the background.

He lunged at me, and I sidestepped it. I swung my lance at his back and cut deeply. He turned to me again, his teeth clenched in anger or pain. And started a flurry of attacks. I parried, blocked and dodged each attack. Slicing away his armor when the opportunity presented itself. Obviously outmatched, he called upon some dark power. It corrupted his dark heart beyond any remnants of humanity. And what was left wanted me dead.

He kept up his flurry of attacks, but he was too fast for me now. It was as if he never tired. I backed away while desperately blocking as many attacks as I could manage. Suddenly he stopped attacking, howling in pain. The Red Mage was laying on her side across the arena. Readying another spell to blast at the monstrous champion. Not one to take an opportunity for granted, I used the chance to power my own attack. Thrusting an innumerable amount of times deep into the soft tissue of his torso. Finally, with one final blow, my lance began to glow brightly. I lunged it deep into the monsters heart. Light began to shine from his eyes and mouth as he howled in pain. He dropped to his knees, then to his side, dead.

The crowd erupted into cheers. And I woke up.

That was my dream. Surprisingly vivid. See you all tomorrow.