Snippet #2346422

"Um." Rae turned to face Kri, waiting for her to continue. "It's kind of a long story. When I was little, I used to have these really horrible nightmares." Hm, nightmares? Rae used to have them as a little girl; her father would hold her and whisper assurances in his gruff voice until she fell asleep again. Her heart ached at the thought of him.

"And I was convinced that these nightmares were coming true." Rae quickly stopped thinking of her father - she would hate to cry in front of these people. "And everyone would tell me they were just dreams. That they couldn't possibly come true. But when I got older, they got worse. And everything that happened in my nightmares came true. And now..."

Dark eyebrows nearly reached Rae's hairline at this. Her nightmares came true? "Now they're the worst they've ever been. So, as a healer... I was hoping you could help me. But if you can't..." Thoughts swarmed through the young healer's mind, trying to fully understand what Kri just told her, and how she was supposed to help.

"I..." Curses bubbled in her throat as she realized exactly how limited she was as a healer. Her studies and the minimal teaching she'd been able to gather had covered so little! She understood next to nothing about the brain, and was unable to heal anything that involved it. And were dreams not in the mind? "I don't know if I can help you; I don't have extensive study on the mind. However, I can try. Exactly how long has this been going on?"

Kri had to think about the answer to the healer's question for a moment. How long HAD the nightmares been happening? "Well," she began, tentatively, "I guess I've had them almost forever." She paused again, trying to think of what else to say, tring her best to be specific. "They got really bad right after we rescued the prince and his cousin."

She started to nervously play with a strand of loose hair that had escaped from her braid, deciding to finally meet the healer's eyes. It suddenly seemed very clear to her that she could trust Rae. There was something about her that was just very... Reliable. Kri could not remember the last time she had made the conscious decision to trust someone. She carefully unknotted her fingers from her hair. And looked At Rae's face for the first time in the entirety of their conversation, "Care to tell me what you think?"

"They've been going on forever..." Rae repeated under her breath, turning her eyes to the fire. It must be some sort of ability or curse or something then, if there had never been a time when she didn't have them. But what? The healer had never heard of anything like it.

"I think this is very... interesting." Rae replied slowly as she searched for the right words. "I've never heard of anything like it, but if it is as bad as you say, I will do my best to help. What sort of things do you dream about?"

Kri thought for a few seconds. "Well," she began, thoughtfully, "I guess they're all kind of similar, in that they're all about death. They always have been. Sometimes, I'll meet a person, or walk by them in the street, and dream about their imminent death that night. Though, usually, the nightmares are about this war."

She flashed back to her dream from the night before, with the fire and the screaming, and the name, which still felt as if it was being breathed into her ear, as if by some unseen ghost, or by the wind, which was gently snaking its way around the fire. "They're pretty vague, as far as I can tell. I can't usually make sense of them until whatever they're predicting happens."

She remembered the soothsayer her birth mother had once taken her to, the one who sat in a cave several miles from her village, and breathed in the smoke from a burning pile of sage, claiming it 'cleared his sight'. She remembered him cupping her face in his withered hands, and whispering to her what the dreams were, what her ancestors had called the ability to have such dreams. She recalled how her mother had not taken a word he said seriously, and encouraged her to do the same. "The ancient wood elves," Kri continued, "Had a name for it. Translated from Elvish, it's along the lines of 'the gift of prophecy'." She sighed. "But it's really just a pain. I'm not really sleeping at all anymore." She gestured to the circles beneath her eyes, yawning slightly.

Rae looked around for a moment, but no one was paying any attention to them. "You foresee people's deaths?" Her voice was hardly above a whisper as her mind churned through all the information it was gaining; trying to make sense of it. "Well, if you really have this 'gift of prophecy', I'm afraid there isn't much I can do. It's an ability."

She continued quickly, not wanting to let Kri down. "However, I might be able to help with your sleeping. I know a lot about plants and herbs and their medicinal qualities. I can make you something that will put you in a deep sleep for several hours. People don't usually dream when put in this deep sleep, but I'm not sure how these dreams of yours work. It's worth a shot, though. Right?"

Kri smiled a little at how much the healer actually wanted to help. Other healers might have just shrugged off a problem they couldn't deal with, but Rae's persistence in assisting her was kinder than anything she had expected. "Any assistance would be welcome." She wondered, for the briefest of moments, if this was what she remembered as friendship. It was, she decided, something of the sort. "Something to help me sleep would be great." She clarified.

Rae smiled in response, giving Kri's shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "I think we'll be breaking camp today, but I'll make sure I make you some once we settle down for the night."

Kri allowed herself to smile for real, thanking Rae, and stood, wondering if perhaps there was an egg or two left, as her appetite had returned in just a few moments without food.