Dreamwalker in the Snow

For a writing contest, I was challenged to create a flash fiction piece in under 1000 words. I have a really hard time fitting beginning-middle-end into that space, so instead I ended up with a bunch of snippets like this.

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Dreamer walk and children sleep,

Nightmare watch and starlight keep.

Bring the visions bright and new

For futures yet unknown to you.

The song was an old one and familiar, one of the Teaching Ballads they used to have the children memorize on long winter nights, when the world slumbered about them and the Others seemed so much closer than in the bright light of day. There was something about the icy stars on a night when one's breath clouded the air that seemed as close as the nearest rooftop. 

Jhett shivered a little and rubbed his arms, lowering his gaze from the stars overhead to look around at the rest of the little gathering. There wasn't a soul here over 12 winters, other than their instructor, the old bard Mathius. Each of the children, boys and girls alike, were staring upward, held by the spell of Mathius' deep, authoritative voice. 

Seeing into sleeping minds,

You never know what you may find.

Feeler, Fighter, Walker too,

Bring to Dreamers what is true.

Jhett watched the clouds of steam hand in front of the mouths of those around him, and turned his attention to the houses of the village, half-buried in snow. The world was a thing of silver and white, too vast to hold in one small place. But for this instant, all that truly mattered were the Dreamers Jhett could sense behind each dark window, each locked door. 

It is your duty, you who Dream

To choose and take the path you glean

From stars that keep and songs that stay

In mind from day to night to day.

He would help the Dreamers. He would study the stars as the master instructed. Mathius was a good bard, and taught all the children what he thought they needed to know. And it was enough. 

Mathius looked over the heads of the children and met Jhett's gaze. He smiled slightly, and started a new chant. It would be the last for the night. Jhett could feel a Nightmare moving at the very limit of his senses.

Deep in the night-time, stars spinning overhead,

Rain on the night breeze, children in their beds,

​Shadows keeping watch over little human hearts,

Eyes always guarding the pieces and the parts.

There's nothing in the slumber that to the danger calls.

Nothing in the sleeping that causes pits and falls.

But something in the night-time, in the darkness creeps;

Over hearts and minds, into dreams it leaps.

We call this thing the Jester, for he needn't do you harm.

You are just susceptible to his songs and wily charm.

He tricks you into seeing things you never saw before;

Opening dark windows, unlocking hidden doors.

Let the Walker guard the door, Feeler choose the way,

Fighter come do battle when the Nightmares choose their prey.

Make the Dreamers safe at night, learn to work as one

To show the Dreamer what we see the stars have said will come.

When the Dreamer's sleep you guard and paths illuminate

Be careful not to take the place of Destiny or Fate.

The Jester will make sweet the plans of Nightmare or of youth,

Whose gifts are often tainted with that twisted, Shadowed truth;

Control is sweet as nectar when its reins are in your hand,

But nectar turns to bile when control is in command.

Choose wisely then, young Walker, Feeler, Fighter, all,

And think of what will catch you when at last you fall.

There​ was a moment of silence after the old bard had finished his chant, while all of the children digested the lesson it contained. Jhett glanced around at their faces, and saw most of them staring contemplatively at their own toes. 

"Will you remember this lesson, when I see you again tomorrow night?" challenged Mathius, and the whole class jumped at the sound of his voice, too wrapped up in their own thoughts to realize he was still watching them. 

"Yes, sir." Jhett was the first to speak, and he lifted his chin stolidly to show he meant it. Mathius smiled. 

"Good. What is your duty?" His keen gaze swept over the group, and they answered together;

"To protect the Sleepers." 

"Excellent." The flash of Mathius' white teeth in the twilight assured them that they had answered well. "Now, your homework." The class groaned as one, which only prompted the old bard to laugh. Jhett listened with half an ear, but turned his head a little to look at the houses about them, buried to their window sills in snow. They looked at him like dark eyes in the night, and he could sense the Sleepers inside their walls, safe and secure. 

"Now, get out of here, you underfed hatchlings," chuckled Mathius as his class grumbled about their assignment. "The dawn will come early, whether you're ready for it or not." Jhett stuffed his chilled hands into his pockets and started to follow the others toward their shared bunk house. It would be warm, at least. 

"If we protect the Sleepers, who protects us?" One of the younger girls was asking the bard plaintively, and Jhett paused to listed to the answer. 

"I do, little one. Now off to bed with you, and I'll keep the Jester away." 

Jhett smiled. Yes. Protecting the Sleepers was worth it. He would make Mathius proud.