Sweet Dreams Ch. 06: Learn How to Dream

"It was a mistake to neglect the Low Pass for so long. This part of the route really took its toll of our horses."

When the sun stood low in the west, we crossed the river Zaffa and saw the first signs of the town.

The nearer we came, the more unreal it looked. Many damaged houses around a glistening white temple on a hill in the middle of the town. There weren't even cracks in the walls or pillows, or at least none, that we could see.

When we reached the first houses a man came running towards us. He was dressed like a priest and seemed very agitated.

"Who of you is Shathor of the house Ashta?"

We did not answer. We just looked at him. I could not believe what I heard. How could anyone know that I was here, and why would anybody in the south use my family's name. Even most people in the north had forgotten this name.

"I know that today a young man, named Shathor of the house Ashta will come to Faltara. I have orders to guide him to the temple as soon as he is here."

Ladar stepped forward and said, "I am Shathor of the house Ashta. Who ordered you to bring me to the temple?"

"No, you are not. I do not know, who Shathor is, I just know, that you are not. And I will not answer any question to you."

Now I stepped forward, "Thank you, Ladar.

Good man, I am Shathor of the hause Ashta, but no one used this name in a very long time."

"I do not know about this. You must get down from your horse, Talalla is her name. She is very tired. You will walk with me. But do not forget your book."

How could that man know all this?

"Are there any scouts or messengers from the Low Pass in town?"

"No, they all just passed by, after most men left the city. There are only a few hundred people here, mostly women and children."

I took my father's book and gave Talalla's reins to Mandrak. "Take good care of her. She needs rest."

Then I followed the priest into the city. He led me to the temple quickly. I asked him, "Could I have something to drink before I enter the temple?"

"Of course, just wait here." He left me standing before the undamaged temple and went into the temple house -- it had some damage, but it seemed to be safe.

He brought me a glass of water and looked at me with piercing eyes, "I am a priest at the temple of the good of dreams for twenty years. But never did I experience, what I have seen last night. Please enter the temple. I will stay back here."

I opened the door to the temple. On the inside it looked much like the temple on the Low Pass. There were some windows high up, an altar in the middle and a big chair at the end of the room. The chair seemed very comfortable.

I looked back to the priest. Then I remembered something, "I shall greet you from Gulrak, Lavak's priest on the Low Pass."

"Thank you. I haven't seen him in decades. I hope he is still well."

"He is old and blind, but he says he will live on the Pass for another ten years."

"I will visit him as soon as possible. We have to reconnect. Now walk in and close the door behind you. Sit on the chair and pray to Baramir."

I did as he said. When I sat on the chair, there was nothing. Never before in my life did I pray to the god of dreams. What should I say? What do I pray for? Sleep, not disturbed by dreams of my father. But maybe that was exactly what Baramir wanted?

I did not know. I just sat there for some time and listened to what I heard from outside. Sometimes I could hear someone walking, sometimes someone was saying something, but I could not understand a word.

With time I became tired. The chair was really very comfortable. I tried to stay awake, but my eyelids became so heavy. I fell asleep.

"I am such an idiot!" I said to myself.

"No, you are not," I heard my father say, "Most people need years to understand. You understood it the moment you fell asleep."

"How do I pray to the god of dreams? In my dreams. Of course. And I tried to stay awake with all my might."

"Open your eyes, Shathor!"

I opened my eyes and before me was the temple, but it was not dark anymore. It was filled with light. And I was not sitting in the chair, I was standing at the door. On the other side of the room was no chair, but another door. This door opened slowly. My father was standing by my side.

"Take my hand, son."

"What is going on, father?"

"You will see."

The door on the other side of the room opened and out came to men. I did not recognize them. They looked very much alike. They took each other's hands and began to dance around the altar in the middle.

"Is this like Gugor's revelation?"

"Not yet, son."

"Who are they? They are brothers, aren't they?"

"Yes, my son. But stop talking, look at them."

I watched them dance. The smooth movements of their feet and arms around the altar were hypnotizing. The longer I looked at them, the more I felt like in trance. I squeezed my father's hand. He squeezed back. I did not dare to look away. I was dreaming, so I did not have to blink either.

I just watched these two men dance. It felt like I watched them for hours.

Suddenly they stopped and looked at me. At first, I felt naked. I sensed that they could see everything. Then I felt ashamed because I knew what they could see. Then I felt overjoyed because they still looked at me and smiled.

Suddenly there was a deafening voice, "He is not yet ready." I could not see who was speaking, but it seemed to come from the door, where the two men came in. The voice was so loud and so powerful, it frightened me. Father squeezed my hand again.

The two men answered, both talking, "He will be. We will help him."

They looked back at me, smiling, "Do you know, who we are, boy?"

I looked at them, too confused and afraid to answer at first. But then I remembered something: one of them had a face on the front and on the back of his head. It did not strike me at first, but now it came to my attention.

I looked to the man on the left side, "You are Talamir, the god of sleep." and to the man on the right side, "And you are Baramir, the god of dreams. I am in your temple. And you were dancing -- like the three sisters were dancing for Gugor a long time ago."

Again, they both answered at the same time, not with one voice, but at the same time it was like one man talking. "Rakkar, you can be very proud of your son. You raised him well. We will help him. But we will talk through you from now on. You have all the time you need. He cannot stand the gods for long yet. He is not yet ready."

Then they both embraced me at the same time. I had my eyes closed again; I could not say how it worked, but I felt both at the same time.

"Open your eyes again," I heard my father say.

I saw tears in his eyes, "What is it father, are you sad?"

"No, Shathor, I am happy. Once more, maybe one last time, I can teach you something. This time with the help of the gods."

"Why do they help me?"

"You will understand, but you..."

"Yes, yes, I am not yet ready."

My father smiled, "Exactly. But you will understand. And I will help you."

"And how will you help me? How will the god of sleep and the good of dreams help me?"

"Each god has their own gift to give. Some were already given to you. You already received Isanna's gift the moment you were conceived: Life.

You received Ralatha's gift from me and your mother, you gave it back to us, and you gave so much more of it to Larna: Love.

You receive Talamir's gift every night: A good night's sleep.

You will one day receive Naletha's gift: Death. And believe me; when your time has come, it is a gift, not a curse.

Baramir's gifts are not just the dreams you dream every night. Baramir can give you the gift to reach out to others in your dreams."

"The same way you reach out to me?"

"Not the same way, but very similar. You can reach out to many people, but not to everyone. Even Baramir cannot reach out to people who have no regard for the powers of the gods.

You have to have some sort of connection to the people you reach out to."

"Would it be easy for me to reach out to Larna?"

"Yes, this would be possible. You have a very strong connection to her. But as I told you, it is not easy to get her attention."

"And I am still wondering how you got it."

"I would care more about how you will get it. It is not just about getting her attention, but getting her to remember what she dreamt. It becomes easier in time, as you can see by yourself. I think you have no problem to remember any dream with me."

"Not at all."

"So, it is about establishing the connection, not maintaining it. To get her attention you must either make her see something, she usually never sees in her dreams, or something, that reminds her of you in a very fundamental way.

Until then she will always be in a somewhat 'dreamy' state when you visit her."

"How do I find her?"

"You come to this temple?"

"But I cannot stay in Faltara forever."

"Not to the temple in Faltara. The temple in realm of Baramir, where we are right now. You should be able to remember it quite well.W

WSo, I must dream, to come to someone else's dream?"

"Exactly."

"I am dreaming now. How do I find her?"

"First you must make sure, that she is asleep. Just think about her, what do you feel?"

"I miss her, and I long for her, and I... ahhhh... I have to feel her, not me. It feels susceptible, like someone with arms wide open."

"Yes. That is how it feels, when you are in this temple and think about someone who has the right connection and is asleep. For example, what do you feel, when you think of Tangara?"

"I feel nothing. No, not nothing. I feel a solid wall."

"She is awake, and her mind is alert. She cannot dream and you cannot establish a connection to her mind now. Now try to think about Gurna, my 35^th wife."

"I feel nothing. Not even a wall."

"You cannot establish a connection because there is none. And now I will ask something from you, that you will try sooner or later, and you will learn about this. Try to establish a connection to your mother."

"But she is dead!"

"So am I, and I am in your dreams."

I tried. At first, I felt nothing, then I felt some sort of fog and suddenly a sharp, stinging pain, that made me come back immediately.

"It hurts."

"Naletha alone decides, who talks to the dead and who does not. You can try to reach out again, maybe Naletha lets you in, but usually the dead come to you, not the other way around. Let your mother rest in peace.

Now you will learn how to reach out to someone. Think about your wife again."

"It feels like a room with the doors wide open."

"Look over there!"

The doors where the two gods came out before were wide open and on the other side, I could see a garden.

"Now we go into Larna's dream and try to find her."

"Will she also be able to reach out to me?"

"Normally not, but I do not know, what the gods' plans are with her."

We stepped through the door and suddenly we were in the palace garden in Rallagoah. We saw Larna walking naked in the spiral parterre around the great fountain in front of the Garden Wing.

I wanted to run to her, but my father stopped me, "Let's just stroll to her. The gods said we have all the time we need. You need to experience other people's dreams and give it some time."

We strolled and we enjoyed the sensations. It took a few minutes to reach Larna. She was looking at us and greeted us, "Your Majesty, Your Majesty. What a wonderful day it is in the garden."

I did not know what to say first, so my father nudged me. I looked at Larna and answered, "'Yes, it is a wonderful day. But every day I see my wife is a wonderful day."

But she did not seem to pay attention to what I said, "The palace looks beautiful in the morning sun."

And she turned away from us.

"Now you see, what I meant with 'dreamy state'. She seems to know that we are here, but she does not really react to it. You must get her to interact with you. This is why I tickled you in your first dreams with me."

I went after Larna, embraced her from behind and kissed her in the neck. She always reacted strongly when I kissed her there, usually her reactions ended with us both in bed.

She seemed to snap out of her state for a short time, but then fell back.

My father stood behind me, "You are on the right way, but I think it is not enough. Maybe she sometimes dreams about you kissing her, so this may not be unusual enough."

I took a few minutes to think about what to do next.

"Father, could you please leave us for some time."

"Of course" He smiled and walked away towards the Inner Palace.

Again I embraced Larna, kneaded her breasts and kissed her neck. She stopped and moaned. "This is fine, don't stop." But she was still dreamy. I kissed her more and pressed against her. Then she wiggled with her butt against my groin. I reached down between her legs and massaged her clitoris. She was wet and hot and moaned even more, but still this seemed not to be too unusual for her dreams.

I decided to be bold. I kept one finger on her clitoris and reached with my other hand between her butt cheeks from behind and massaged her butthole for a second. What bad could happen?

She twitched and moaned even more and said, "You never did that before. It feels fine." And suddenly, "You never did that before. Shathor, what are you doing in my dream?" She squeezed her thighs together and turned around.

I took my hands of her. And kissed her.

"You did not have to take your hands of me, it felt nice, but unexpected. You never did that before."

"I had to get your attention, so I tried to be bold."

"Are you really in my dream, or do I just dream about you."

"No, I am really here. My father is too."

"Ahhh. I am naked!"

"Girl, there is nothing to see I have not seen before. But just think yourself clothed and you will look decent again. After all, it is your dream." My father said while he walked out of the Inner Palace.

Suddenly she was clothed again, but her face was red, and she looked a bit uneasy.

"What is happening?"

"Shathor is being gifted by the Baramir, the god of dreams. And he is working out how to use this gift. As his first step he chose to visit his wife in her dreams."

"This is wonderful. This feels like the dream I had a few nights ago. Ohhhh. No. Your Majesty, this was your doing? It was an awful dream."

"I had to get you to send the ship with money southwards. What other choice did I have?"

"There were many choices. But this? No. You just wanted to play with my mind!"

"And in the end, you did the right thing."

"Hmm," she said, pouting.

"Shathor, Larna, you two can use this to satisfy your need for each other, when you miss each other, when you long for each other. But you can also use this to communicate, to send messages. But you have to make sure, that you remember them correctly, before you get to sleep and that you still remember them, when you wake up."

"How do I wake up, father?"

"You just think about it, but do not yet. Larna, I do not know if the gods decide to give this gift to you too. For now, you do not have it. Shathor can reach out to you, but not the other way around. The first few times he will have to make bold moves to reach your attention, but it will become easier, and you will remember the dreams better with each time.

I will leave you two alone for now. You should have time enough to satisfy your need for each other and to talk about the situation. And Shathor!"

I snapped out of my trance looking into Larna's eyes, "Yes, father?"

"Gulrak was right about the north.

Good night to you two. Have sweet dreams."