The Dream


Ogres. Drooling, stinking ogres. One of them, one that seemed to have a higher rank than the others, stepped forward and spoke in a rough language:
“Ahrrg gruult hergl!!! Huhrl greulr aurlg!!!”, his fellow ogres howled wildly at the last words.
“Tamenius, what is he saying?”, I asked the old wizard.
“He is saying: “The gods protect us; Burn the village.””
“Can’t you stop them? With magic I mean?”
“No. Ogres have a natural resistance against magic, and these appear to have a magical guard in addition to that.”
“How will we stop them then?”
“We will have to fight, my young friend”, answered the lion-like Azfuer.
Saying this, he struck the floor of the palisade with his staff; he was instantly wearing silvery armour, with golden details. A helmet crowned with a scarlet plume rested on his head, and his claw-like hand no longer held a staff, but a double-edged battleaxe; his other hand held onto a great steel shield. I looked around and saw that the other magicians were clad in similar fashions; Radoc wore a dragon-armour that covered his breast, back, head and underarms, but left space for his wings to beat. Irlana, the fairy, also wore her armour, which covered her upper body, with holes on the back piece so that her wings could beat freely. The only one not wearing armour was the old human magician, Tamenius; his only weapons were a sword, and his old wooden staff.


The ogres stormed the palisade, the ground shaking beneath their mere weight.
“Hold the gate!!!”, Azfuer shouted as he swiftly jumped down onto the storming mass of beasts.
“Well, friends, we should not let him have fun alone, should we?”, asked Irlana, and she too jumped down.
Irlana fought as a goddess; her golden sword shone in the sunlight and ogre after ogre fell at her feet. A wave of air hit me, something scarlet shone in the sky; and as blue fire erupted from a pair of scaled jaws, an ogre was reduced to ashes. Radoc, the dragon, seemed to be making himself helpful.
But not even the great power of the magicians could stop the ravaging monsters; a battering ram hammered ceaselessly at the gate, and everybody who could, went down to help keep the gate closed. I stood paralysed until Marko, my friend, approached me, holding out a sword. I nodded and silently took it, and we both rushed down to the gate as the whole palisade shook with the restless hammering of the ram. As we descended from the palisade, the wooden gate gave up; a mass of green beasts poured into the village, wildly swinging their oversized weapons.
There I stood passionately fighting against the ogres like it was the only thing I had ever known; even though I had never held a sword before in my life. A gigantic beast, it must have weighed at least five tons, attacked me, relentlessly swinging his sword. But he was slow; I easily slipped under his defence and swiftly sliced his throat, killing him.
Then, I found myself surrounded by four of them, three axes and a Morningstar flail; they attacked, swinging their rusty weapons at me.
As it happened, I felt something inside me, an energy wishing to be let free; following my instincts, I let this energy flow. The ogres stopped dead in their tracks, as if they had hit an invisible barrier, their faces showing disconcert and confusion.
Concentrating the energy that I felt flowing out of me, I focused on the beasts; felt a burning feeling in my fingertips as they, one by one, went up in smoke, vanishing with the wind.
Realizing that I was not going to need it anymore, I dropped the sword, and started walking towards the gate to help retain the storming masses of monsters, as I suddenly heard a shriek; it emanated from one of the houses closest to the gate, black smoke rising from it as a pair of ogres put the roof on fire. The door was blocked, and I could hear the screams of those inside, desperately trying to get out. Fury caught hold of me, the energy came alive again; guided by fury and magic, I raised my hand, focused my power, and once again the ogres disappeared in clouds of dust. Reaching inside the burning house with my newly acquired powers, I saved a young girl and her grandmother from the inferno that used to be their home. As the girl looked up at me after I rescued them, I could appreciate her beautiful features; hair as dark as the night framed a face, whose skin was as fair as snow. Unexpectedly, her shiny, black eyes widened in fear; and I turned around to see a giant sword coming down on me. Reacting instinctively, I let the power surge once again; one second I stood in front of the attacking troll, the next, I stood behind it, my hand resting on the, by then dead, ogres head.
“Are you hurt?”, I asked the girl and the old lady.
“You saved our lives…”, said the girl, and they both kneeled. “We are in debt to you.”
“It was nothing, really. Now, we really should take you somewhere safe.”
“There is a place outside the village… But I cannot walk fast enough, not even with help”, said the woman.
Automatically, I knew what to do.
“Take my hands”, I said, and as they obeyed, I closed my eyes and concentrated on the fields at the other side of the palisade; an instant later we stood on the grass outside the village.
“Hide now, quickly”, I told them and walked away.
I could see the humans at the palisade bravely defending their homes, but it was not enough as the green army of ogres relentlessly attacked. I saw how the heartless beasts slaughtered whole families; saw a pair of small children cry by the body of their mother, as one of the beasts prepared to kill them. Once again, rage grew inside me, energy flowed out of my anger; my feet left the ground, and I soared up in the sky, blue light engulfed me. Wind started to blow, and everybody looked up as the shining figure that was me turned brighter by the second, until it was shining too intense to look at. All of a sudden, the attacking ogres fell to their knees, howling with pain as each and one of them erupted in flames; until every one of them was reduced to ashes, vanishing with the wind…

“Manuel, wake up!!!”
I come back to life with a jerk, accidentally poking myself in the eye with the pen I am holding; a sheet of paper, with the title “The Dream”, lies on the table in front of me.
“You know very well you are not allowed to sleep in classes! Now, pay attention!”, says the English teacher, Miss Cortés. “Well, as I was saying, before having to bring Mr. Olguín back from the realm of dreams, it is grammatically incorrect to…”

The End