The Dreamer Part Five

A wave of loss swept over him at what had been. Tears again came to his eyes as he knelt by the rock.
It is I who have changed. Adialon folded his arms and bowed his head with the tears pouring down his face.
‘Oh my Father in Heaven…’
That night he dreamed of a small dwelling place. Before the dwelling’s front entrance, a tall, thin man sat. In his hand he held a small twig, its end glowing. He raised the twig and placed the end of it between his lips. After a moment, he removed the twig and blew a cloud of smoke into the air.
Adialon’s mouth opened in astonishment. This man can breathe fire!
At that moment a portal opened in the dwelling’s wall, and a small girl appeared in the opening.
‘Daddy?’
The man turned and screamed at her to get back inside. The girl, now terrified, turned and fled into the dwelling. The man arose and followed after her, a look of intense rage on his face. Though Adialon did not understand the child’s salutation, he could not allow this man to harm such an innocent soul. He followed silently after the man into the dwelling.
The child was cowering against the wall, tears running down her face, her small arm raised in defense.
‘No, Daddy!’
The man’s arm was raised to strike her. Adialon moved forward to stop him, but before he had come between man and child he felt an immense power of some kind rush past him. A brilliant light blazed before the man, who, much like the child had, cowered in sudden fear.
Adialon raised his arm instinctively to shield his vision.
Then his eyes were drawn downward by sudden movement. The child was reaching toward the light, her face aglow with rapture. From within the light he saw two shining arms emerge, which reached down and picked the child up from the ground. The angel held the child close, the child’s tear-streaked face now buried in the angel’s chest.
The angel suddenly turned his head and looked into Adialon’s eyes.
It was the boy’s face that he saw.
He awoke abruptly, breathing hard. He arose from his bed of grass and twig and paced back and forth, trying to grasp what he had seen.
The boy has become an angel? How is this possible? Has he died, thereby reaching the throne of God, and been sent from heaven to return to earth? The boy is dead!
He shook his head, disgusted with himself.
Perhaps Melorelah had been right. Perhaps my dreams, this time at the least, are nothing but dreams after all.
But it felt so real! It must be real! It simply must be!
He lay back down, battling within himself.
There is but one thing I can do, he decided. I must re-enter the dream world, and find the boy, wherever he may be. He laid his head back down upon the rock…

He was in the same place he had left, outside the dwelling- place. There the boy stood with his back to Adialon. The light that surrounded him before was gone.
Or hidden, Adialon thought.
‘I know who you are,’ said the boy.
‘Who am I?’ Adialon asked, curious as to the boy’s answer.
© 2010 by Adam Scott Campbell. All rights reserved.