The Forgotten Promised Land

Life went on as it usually does, the whole affair swept under the rug by Goodberry, the whole situation somehow turning out ok and in my favor. Goodberry had two guards return me back to my house that same day, them escorting me to the door and knocking, making sure my parents saw them. My father and mother were quite angered making a big uproar to the two guards about my disappearance, but Goodberry came up with a cover story, and the guards explained it to my parents. The story was that I came over to the orphanage at night to apologize to Desert Flame for all of the 'bullying' I did to her and that I decided to sleepover in one of the spare beds instead of risking being caught on the return home.

My father seemed quite suspicious, him quickly dismissing the two guards and pulling me inside, he then started to question me away from my mother, asking me things pertaining to the orphanage. Asking if they did anything inappropriate to me, or if the place felt off in any way, I knew I couldn't tell him anything that actually happened or his life would be in danger. Goodberry had the whole guard force stationed here in her pocket, and it would literally be him against the world, so I decided to lie. I told him that I didn't see anything out of the ordinary, that I did my own little investigation and couldn't find anything to prove that Twist said. I don't know if I convinced him or not, him walking away grumbling as Honeydew took over and started to badger me about the dangers of going out alone at night, and all the things that could have happened.

The whole time Twist was in the corner not saying a word, her eyes shifting from me to the ground, I could tell she wanted to speak up and ask something by all the fidgeting that she was doing.

"What do you have to say for yourself;f young man?" Honeydew finally finished her rant ending with a question.

Only paying attention to half of what she was saying I smiled at her putting on my innocent child look and answered her, "Yes mother, I'm sorry for worrying you, I didn't intend for that to happen at all, I'll try and not doing something so irrational again." Honeydew huffed and shagged her shoulders,

"I guess that's all I can ask for, your such an independent person at such a young age, it almost crazy to believe your only five." She sighed, "Just stay out of any more trouble." She finished giving me one last hug as she left the room to finish some chores. I started to follow after her when I noticed Twist becoming even more agitated, so I stopped and waited for my mother to leave the room before I spoke with her. When Honeydew left the room closing the door behind her it was Twist who talked first, asking me a very simple question, "Varian, why did ya lie to ma and pa?"

I didn't really have a grasp on what I lied about so I probed for answers, "What do you mean Twist? What did I lie about?"

"I saw ya being carried last night, who was those people?" I froze up, this mishap being a side-effect of Goodberries planning, and if this was told to my father would bring up a whole hep of trouble that we don't need. So deciding to be a little aggressive I put my hands to my lips and shushed Twist. "Shhh Twist, you weren't supposed to see that, and you can't mention it to anyone, ok?" I moved towards her until I was right in front of her, her fidgeting getting more fierce, and making me slightly nervous. "Twist you gotta promise me something, nod if you understand."

She nodded her head, "You have to promise me that you won't tell anyone what you saw last night, it has to stay between us ok."

She looked hesitant about agreeing, so being a bit underhanded I started to weave a false narrative to her, "Twist those people who carried me away last night were agents of the Princess," She looked at me shocked, her eyes sparkling, "So you gotta keep this between us Twist I'm on a mission for them that no one can know." I kinda felt bad for lying to her and taking advantage of her belief in me but I have to lie to save her. It seemed like she wanted to ask more questions, but I put a hand up to silence her, "Sorry Twist I can't talk about anything, Princesses orders."

Twist seemed offended that I wouldn't tell her anything and left without another word, closing the door to her room. Taking this chance I shimmied off to my own room to get some real rest, still aching a little from the day before I used the rest of my lay on hands to heal the rest of my wounds, getting rid of the bruising and evidence of what happened. Laying down in my bed was like heaven it had me instantly falling into a deep slumber, where once again I plummeted into a somewhat lucid dream. My mind flashed me back to the arena from the night before, showing a more gruesome scene in front of me, on the back of Glob riding him, but instead of punching him, the bone was sticking out the side of his neck, blood like a sprinkler gushing out everywhere, making me crimson as I basked in it. My focus then shifted to Blob who was still beating on Slob, this time instead of rushing him I snuck up behind him, grabbing a decently sized rock on my approach. I came softly up behind him, becoming like a shadow as I came right up and slammed the rock into the side of his head. Blob tumbled over, his head slamming into the ground, stunned and hurt he didn't react as I began my onslaught with the rock, hitting him until he fell unconscious.

I looked over to Slob and saw the life leave him as he drew his last breath, his chest no longer rising for air. Once again I was towering over Blob, this time I did deliver the finishing blow, my foot coming down and crushing his windpipe, but I kept kicking his throat as he gargled and choked on his own blood. Just like before after I finished the match I turned to the crowd to taunt them, but this time there was no one there to cheer, I started to spin to see if I saw anyone and didn't until I came upon Goodberries throne. There were two women there, one of them seated, and the other in chains. The one seated wore a dark purple victorian style dress that radiated authority, and a half-moon tiara adorned her head. I had a good idea who these two women might be and was slightly concerned as to why I was seeing them.

The woman in chains next to her wore nothing but a plain black dress with nothing distinguishing she also had her eyes cast down, she wore a chain around her neck, which the other women held the end of in her hand. Looking at her brought memories from a previous dream I had a few nights before and she looked rather similar to her. The other women's face looked eerily similar to hers like they were twins but it was slightly off, her eyes were sunken into her sockets them being nothing a void, with what looked like black mist trying to escape from them. Her hair was also a darker shade than the other girls giving her an overall just evil vibe.

The regal women leaned back in her throne as our surroundings started to fade away, the arena disintegrating and being replaced by what appeared to be a grand throne room, the cheap throne she was sitting upon being replaced with one made from pure obsidian, the bleachers being replaced with pillars and banners that adorned the walls every few feet, and braziers that littered the room under every banner, them lighting up the moon sigil that were displayed. The women spoke after everything had been revealed, and she was fully inside of her castle, when she spoke though her lips didn't move none of her face moved for that matter, it stood stock still, it seemed she used some kind of telepathy to communicate,

"Hello boy!" Her voice like a chalkboard in my mind, "We've been watching your dreams for a bit and we have got to say that they are delicious, so much violence and death, so many new devices to kill, all of them that we've never seen before. It almost makes our heart want to start beating again!" It was unsettling listening as she didn't move at all when she spoke, even when she sounded excited. "So in light of the fact that your so young, and seem to be quite infatuated with violence I have come to ask something of you, something that I believe you will find rather impossible to deny." She finished her face making the first expression I had seen so far, it, of course, being a sinister smile.