Chapter 159 – Her nightmare
Noah could not help taking a heavy gulp as his throat went dry from sitting with his mouth open. It was not an overly loud sound, yet the moment his gulp sounded the young woman froze. As the mesmerizing jiggle stopped, Noah instantly came back to his mind, but swore at himself for not holding himself back from making that sound.
Unlike her unmoving body, her ears that stuck out to the side from her tumbleweed-like hair were now quickly fluttering back and forth searching for the source of sound.
Only now Noah took a careful look at the girl herself, finally noticing her beastly ears. Far longer than any humans and sticking out to the sides at almost ninety degrees to her temples they had a small fur on their backside.
Her skin, which Noah at first perceived as white was not simply white-skinned human tone but quite heavily inclined into an almost chalk-whitish tone. Even whiter than any human albinos.
As the silence settled the girl slowly turned around finally taking notice of Noah gazing back at her from the grass.
Her eyes went wide as saucers and the blissful expression she previously had instantly changed scarred or even horrified. The next moment she dashed away from him at full speed.
"Wait!" Screamed Noah, jumping up to his feet, however, she seemed to run even faster as she heard his voice.
"Wait, please! Calm down! Please, Stop!" Screamed Noah toward her back as he dashed after her but no matter how much he asked her, with every sound that came out of him she seemed to be even more panicky as she tried to increase her speed even more. And as she sensed his approach she seemed to fall into a full-on panic attack from fear as she started to scream and cry while putting her full force into her dash as if desperate.
They ran for a few seconds before Noah noticed the world around them becoming darker. He slightly turned his head to look at the sky and saw dark clouds that suddenly appeared in the sky out of nowhere. Strangely with every step they took these clouds became darker and soon turned entirely black.
Noah gazed back at the running away girl and then he looked at his own hands and his eyebrows creased. For some reason, the figure of a running girl in front was being engulfed in shadows a lot stronger than him as if the darkness concentrated around her.
"Damn it! I am an idiot!" Thought Noah. "This is a dream world and she had a good dream, but If she is scared it turns into a nightmare."
"I will not hurt you! I just want to talk!" Shouted Noah, but the young woman seemed to be not listening anymore. She ran with her head bowed and seemed to even close her eyes from fright, not even looking where she ran to.
At that moment darkness started to engulf her. Shadows suddenly turned to countless dark hands that grabbed at her limbs, trying to capture her.
"No! No, please! Let me go! Let me go!" The girl started to scream as she tried to fight the darkness off while running but soon stumbled and fell head first. Strangely the earth underneath her suddenly disappeared revealing a void into which the girl suddenly plunged from the hill with a piercing scream.
Noah's eyes went wide from shock as he barely stopped at the very edge of the cliff.
"Oh fuck!" He swore floundering his hand on the edge moments away from falling but managing to take a step back and breathe out. "Oh shit, the girl… What should I do?"
"Free your mind before jumping.." He remembered The words of someone from CS and his face straightened as he made up his mind. "This is just a dream…" He took a deep breath and stepped forward into the void, plunging down after the girl gazing firmly into the darkness.
The wind hissed around him as he kept speeding up, falling down with his head first holding his body straight and hands at his sides.
Soon he could see the girl's figure that fell before him. She kept falling in a haphazard way floundering her limbs from side to side, chaotically rotating in the air. When she turned with her back down in one of her rotations she saw Noah's quickly descending figure and outstretched her hand toward him as if pleading to save her.
As she concentrated on Noah, she finally stopped struggling and stopped rotating, now diving with her back down. She kept gazing with eyes full of fear into Noah's firm fearless eyes and they seemed to give her hope.
When Noah was close to her he reached toward her outstretched hand, taking a firm hold of her, and pulled her toward himself catching her into a tight embrace. She clutched at him like drowning in desperation. Just as they both hugged they were plunged into darkness as if they sank into a black ocean. The sound of rushing water filled Noah's ears.
They floated in the darkness for some time, unable to see or feel anything except for the loud sound of water and each other's bodies. The girl clutched at Noah's body with her full strength, holding him in a firm embrace as if afraid he would disappear if she relaxed even a bit. After some time the sound changed to that of crushing waves as if they floated up from the water, but they still could not see anything.
A bit later a dim red-orange light started to get through the darkness and Noah noticed that the sound of crashing waves slowly changed to something else.
The sound of crushing bricks and falling walls exchanged it as the light became stronger now making the shapes of their surroundings more apparent.
Burning houses in the night were all around them. They now stood hugging in the middle of the street of a ruined city that was ablaze.
People screamed and children cried as burning houses were falling to the ground with loud rumbles.
The sound of clashing steel was coming from all around them, drowned only by the loud roars of men in armor fighting to the death.
The girl hugged Noah even harder. Now that they were standing on the ground, Noah noticed that she was quite a bit taller than him as his face sank into the soft heaven valley of her breasts.
But it was not a time to feel pleasure as Noah felt the body in his hands trembling from fear as wet drops fell on him.
Noah lifted his hand from the small of her back and placed it on the back of her head.
"It's a dream." He whispered to her as he stroked her hair. "Just a dream."
"No." She answered through her sobs. "They took them. They took them all." She cried.
"Took who?" Asked Noah.
"Mother, sister, aunt." Whispered the girl in tears.
As Noah turned to look around the burning town he saw bulky warriors in armor fight against dark shadows with red eyes and wicked smiles. Town warriors put up a decent fight, putting down quite a few invaders.
"They killed them all." Whispered the girl looking in the same direction as Noah as her body began to shake from fright even stronger.
"Killed all warriors? But they fight back quite well…" Said Noah watching a burly warrior a few heads higher than Noah give orders to his comrades and killing dark shadows left and right.
"He is coming…" said the girl turning away and hugging Noah stronger.
A roar came from deep in the town and all of a sudden a building wall exploded as a massive figure broke through it.
"No. No! They will all die! Father and uncle. All the warriors. They will kill them" She started to wail.
"Who are they?" Asked Noah
"The Red Bull clan." Answered the girl. "They are the Red Bull clan."
Noah gazed at the figure that appeared from the ruined building. Unlike other invaders that looked like dark shadows, this one was looking quite human. Its form however was massive, far larger than any human could ever be. His body looked like a mountain of muscles with fists the size of Noah's head. With his giant-like height, slightly hunching back and his pectorals so ripped that he walked with his arms spread wide he gave an impression of an overhanging rocky cliff looking down at everyone from high above.
His neck, wide as Noah's waist was so ripped with muscles it seemed to be one structure with the shoulder and was unable to turn.
As the giant stepped with a heavy stomp, Noah could feel trembles spread through the ground. This warrior did not wear any armor and Noah doubted there was an armor in this world that he could fit in. Noah also noticed that his ears were similar to the girl in his hands. They looked long and far bigger than humans, sticking out to the sides. Two dangerously looking horns adorned the top of his head. The skin of this rock of muscles was entirely crimson red.
As the monstrous warrior appeared the commander of the town warriors took off his helmet gazing at the giant shape of his enemy without fear. Just like the girl in whose dream they were, the commander had very white skin. And the big horns that Noah previously thought were part of the helm's decoration, actually were left standing proudly on top of his head.
The warrior commander and the red giant-like warrior said something to each other and the commander prepared for battle. But Noah saw something strange from the red giant. He put his hand in some pocket and took something out, quickly throwing it into his mouth, crunching it with his teeth.
Noah saw the dark shadows all around the place doing exactly the same thing, all of them taking out some red pills and throwing them in their mouths.
Suddenly their shapes grew in size and the darkness around them deepened in shade as their wicked smiles grew wider.
"No. No. No!" Muttered the girl shaking her head from side to side
"It's ok. This is just a dream." Said Noah trying to calm her down but…
"No, no, no no." Kept repeating, the girl.
"Hey. Hey!" Called Noah loudly lifting her head and gazing into her eyes. "What is your name?" He asked, surprising her.
"Firria." Said the girl, watching him surprised. Only now she noticed that she was hugging a stranger and backed off releasing him.
"Listen, Firria. I will not let him harm them. You stay here and watch. I will save them." Said Noah and walked away.
The girl watched this human, tiny in comparison to the massive warrior, rush toward the battlefield and bit her lower lip.
"They will kill you too." She whispered.
"Hey! You, red cow!" Called Noah bringing the attention of monstrous shapes toward himself. "Get the fuck out of her dream!" He said and then a bright white flash filled the world blinding the girl.
*****
"This is just a dream." Said the strange human's voice right before the girl jerked awake, making a loud metallic rumble of a chain that was attached to her neck as she struggled in panic, not understanding why she was chained.
She looked around as if trying to figure out where she was, looking around the cage full of women. It took a few moments for her panic to cease as she finally remembered where she was. She bowed her head again and sighed heavily.
Noah floated above the cage gazing at the chained women with a frown on his face as the realization of why the girl looked so miserable in her dream finally dawned on him. She was enslaved.