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The two of them had been asleep for a few bells by now. A dull glow of light from a snuffed out fire the only thing really visible in the room. Estinien slept restlessly as the nightmares plagued him this evening. They didn't come often these days but tonight they were rearing their ugly head once more. It was always some iteration of the same two dreams. The traumatic memory of his family's charred corpses or the bottomless well of despair and hopelessness as Nidhogg consumed him from the inside out. Why he had to repeatedly relive these events, be tortured by these memories, he did not know. On this night, it was a the former. Reliving the worst day of his life in his slumber.
Rhu'by usually slept very deeply, usually unknowing of Estinien's nightmares when they occurred. Something she often felt guilty about. Not waking him to stop the pain, not being there to comfort and support him, sleeping peacefully while her love suffered. She wished he would seek her out after waking from such a thing but he never did. He never wanted to burden her but she could always tell in the morning when he'd slept poorly from bad dreams. On this night, Estinien tossed and turned, waking her partially. Just enough to recognize groggily that he needed her, but before she could fully gain consciousness she felt that all too familiar pull, the feeling of going under, the echo was taking her. She tried to stop it, to push back against it but it was futile, that never worked. Before she knew it, she was in—the blurry subliminal space of an echo.
She was surrounded by green fields, rolling hills, tall grasses, and spring blooms. A village sat in the near distance. A lovely day with few clouds and a sun that warmed everything it touched. Until the breeze halted suddenly, everything becoming unnaturally still, the fields entrenched in shade. Rhu'by looked up to see a massive black dragon blocking out the sun, its course set on the village. Realization and panic hit her in the chest all at once as she understood now that the rolling fields she stood in where Ferndale and the echo she was experiencing was Estinien's nightmare.
It happened before she could react, the dragon's roar shook the ground beneath her causing her knees to buckle, the flames overtook the village in mere seconds. The screams of the villagers who ran toward the fields, their bodies burning, before dropping dead in the surrounding grasses. The smoke was thick and stung her nose and lungs as the force of houses being razed to the ground blew it outward into the field. It was a war zone unlike anything she'd ever seen. As swiftly as it began, it was finished, and the dragon roared again before taking back to the skies. The pain and suffering of the village people ceasing as there were no villagers left to make a sound. The sky was dark with smoke and ash, the village a flaming pile of rubble. She couldn't move, stun-locked, braced against the side of the knoll. All she could do was stare at the destruction while blood trickled from her ear and disappeared into her hair.
Childlike screams caught her attention from the opposite direction. A boy came rushing past her—Estinien, twelve summers old, draped in tattered linen clothing, frantically sprinting towards the village. Tears streaming down his face as he shouted no over and over again. Rhu'by took off after him, following him as he ran to what was left of his home. Her body felt as if it were running in slow motion as she struggled to keep pace. The bodies of his parents lay in the rubble of what used to be a house. A father draped over a mother as if he'd tried and failed to shield her from the attack. He called his bother's name repeatedly as he climbed through the debris and boards before finding his lifeless body beneath a fallen beam. Rhu'by tried to comfort him as he wailed, to pull him away from the boy's corpse but he couldn't see nor hear her.
Suddenly the dragon reappeared behind them and spoke something in dragonspeak she couldn't comprehend. The dragon's voice so booming that it startled them both. Estinien whipped around to face the dragon, screaming at it, crying. Then, everything went black. Rhu'by frantically looked around, the village was gone, the hills and fields were gone, and a second later everything was fire. Flames and smoke and ash everywhere with no end in site and amidst it all Estinien, small and scared with tear streaks through the soot on his face fell still as the dragon devoured him. Rhu'by screamed, running after the dragon, flames licking her clothes. The ground began to fall away from her feet, the echo's haze closing in on her vision as she burst back to consciousness gasping for breath. She grabbed Estinien by the arms and shook him awake. Before his eyes could adjust, before a single coherent word could form on his lips, she dragged him toward her and hugged his head to her chest as she held onto him.
Her heart was racing behind her ribs and her body trembled, Estinien pulled back away from her as he grabbed her waist to pull her down to him.
"What's wrong? Are you alright? You're shaking."
"I—I…" She was still trying to even her breath.
Shh. "Everything is alright. Breathe." He soothed. A pang of guilt rose up in her throat. She should be soothing him, not the other way around.
Was this what his nightmares were always like? Everything was so real. How accurate was this representation of that day? She couldn't imagine be wracked by those memories so often.
"You were having a nightmare just now, yes?"
Estinien hesitated before answering. His eyes dropping and a deep frown forming on his face. "Aye… I apologize if I woke you."
"I had an echo… of your nightmare. I was there. I was in it. You couldn't see me or hear me but…" She had tried so hard to not cry, to hold back the tears and not show how affected she was but she failed and gave herself away with a choked gasped sob.
Estinien pulled her fully into his arms and pet her hair while she fought back against her emotions.
"I never wanted you to see that. I'm sorry."
"No! Do not apologize." She weakly beat his chest. "This isn't about me and my feelings. This is about you. To think this is the torment your mind puts you through? How often are you left alone to deal with these horrid memories without comfort? I should be apologizing to you, for not being there to hold you, for being ignorant to the depths of your pain."
"My pain is mine own. I would not burden you with the knowledge of things I wish I could forget." Estinien scooted up the bed to sit up, keeping Rhu'by at his chest. "You already do so much more than you know."
"How so?" She questioned not believing she'd done anything.
"I used to have nightmares nearly every time I slept. But they've lessened over time, and especially since you've been at my side. Sleeping next to you makes the nights smoother."
"Verily?"
"I do not lie. Since meeting you I have many… nice dreams." Rhu'by looked up at him curious, her eyes begging him to continue. "…I have things to look forward to now. While I will never forget my past and it may yet haunt me for many many summers still. I have a life worth living again. A life of my own, with a future. I am not bound to nightly terrors anymore, just occasional ones."
Rhu'by settled down a bit, comforted by the knowledge that this wasn't a frequent occurrence for him.
"If we are to be together, Estinien, then I never want you to bear your burdens alone. Please seek me out, lean on me, in whatever way makes you comfortable. I want—no, need to be there for you. No one should have to go through something so awful alone. Promise me?"
Estinien thought on it a few moments. He never wanted to drag Rhu'by into his past, into the mess of his mind. But he knew she was right and were the situation flipped, he'd feel the same way she feels now. So he relented and decided he could honor her request. Truthfully he probably needed her support if he were to continue to heal these old wounds.
He tightened his arms around her and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "I promise."