Dreamcatcher

by Christian Rosnell

  A Dreamcaster such as Lyght or Mikael, at fully-charged spirit capacity – as it was called – would get two hours of ability per six hours of sleep, but two hours spent at the natural strength of their body. In other words, a user could only manipulate energy and substance for the full two hours if they were willing to accept tasks that they could do naturally without powers, from the strength in their own limbs. However, if one wanted to increase their power (which frequently seemed to be the case), the loss in spirit as a result would be proportional to the rate of power increase.

  For example, to give himself the strength of two Lyghts, Lyght would lose spirit twice as fast – a proportional loss rate. If stocked at the full spirit rate of two hours, Lyght could operate at the twice the full strength of his body continuously for an hour – the full limit would essentially be lost twice as fast by the increase in power. Three times strength meant a three times quicker loss of spirit, and so on. Mikael was naturally strong physically, so his spirit capacity was very high, but that stunt with the wind had to have taken an enormous amount of spirit to pull off. By the First Law, he had to be about dry by now.

  Second Law of Dreamcasting – The penalty for using more spirit than your body has may be death.

  A Dreamcaster always knew when they were running low or out of spirt. They could feel it. So most wouldn’t even think of trying to use more spirit once they were out. As reckless and competitive as Mikael was, Lyght was one hundred percent sure that he wouldn’t push his spirt too far if he was running low. Both of them knew the consequences – and approaching the age of eighteen, neither had a death wish by any stretch of the imagination.

  Third Law of Dreamcasting – Nothing may be manipulated into an unnatural state.

  As powerful as Dreamcasting was, it was a force of energy manipulation, not creativity. Nothing could be changed to the point that it could not be found in nature. That was why Mikael had to blast the existing air particles into a furious gale, rather than just sprouting wings or giving himself bigger muscles with power to jump hundreds of feet. Strengthening your existing muscles was possible, of course, but it took a real subtle touch of energy manipulation at the cellular level that Mikael struggled with. He excelled more at sheer use of power; like blasting the air into such a fury it could literally lift his body weight.

  Lyght knew that Mikael’s primary limitation had always been his planning – he didn’t consider consequences as thoroughly or consider as many possible courses of action as Lyght. He just did things intuitively. That wasn’t a bad thing; it actually complimented Lyght’s style quite well. However, it meant he could be beat. Lyght could think quickly on his feet of manipulations that wouldn’t be unnatural by the Third Law. He could think of what was possible, given the defined limits of his world.

  Everybody said Lyght was highly intelligent. Some called him a genius. He didn’t know about that. What he did know, was that – in situations like this – he was intentionally strategic. He was creative. He could match Mikael’s natural strength and flair with his own wit and ideas. And above all, he didn’t want to lose. No, he wouldn’t lose. Not today.

  Jumping off of the final stone step, Lyght landed on the grassy knoll atop the cliff and hit the ground running, barreling towards the Dark pine wood. Though smaller than Mikael, Lyght was not unathethletic himself. He flew headlong over fallen pine needles; eyes narrowed on the twisting path ahead, arms pumping. Mikael had to be halfway up that mountain by now. Truth be told, Lyght had explored too many new land formations with Mikael to care about naming this mountain himself. He just wanted to win. He had lost four of these such contests in a row. Mikael was in for a surprise.

  After burning through the slowly lightening forest for about a minute, Lyght exploded out onto the rocky slope that curved gently upward towards the true mountain slope hundreds of yards ahead. Although the base of the mountain was large, the mountaintop was not far from them at this elevation. Indeed, as Lyght had suspected, Mikael was already within a hundred feet of the top. Lyght came to a sudden stop, heels throwing up gray dust and rock.

  Just in time, he thought, exhaling.

  Point his right arm up at the mountain peak in triumph, a tiny smile flashed in Lyght’s eyes as he steadied in on his intended pathway. He held his breath for a few moments, concentrating… judging, analyzing. Lyght stood there like a hunter, honing in on his prey.

  One… Two…

  Lyght ripped his arm downward from the top of the mountain, all the way to an angle pointing straight out in front of him on the gentle slope on which he stood. Sure enough, a deep, narrow stone slide carved its way instantly the several hundred feet down the mountain slope. Mikael’s cry of dismay was audible from Lyght’s vantage point as he slipped, a mere fifty feet from the top, and began to slide all the way down to the bottom slope where Lyght stood.

  Dashing forward, Lyght began to sprint up the mountain slope, passing Mikael about a third of the way up. Head down, he kept running towards the narrow peak. The move with the slide had utterly drained him. Lyght had had to ramp his spirit up to many, many times his natural strength to carve a pathway in the stone that large, that quickly. As a result, his spirit had nearly evaporated in the blink of an eye. Lyght knew he would have to rely on his natural running speed now.

  As Lyght was drained by now, Mikael was able to catch up significantly on his way back up. Lyght did make it first, but it was a close call. Mikael’s natural strength and speed kept him in the race until the end, only losing by about eighty feet.

  Alone atop the mountaintop for a few moments, Lyght put his hands on his hips, breathing hard, and turned again towards the horizon. Sunrise was coming soon. As Mikael crested the ridge, panting, Lyght turned toward him with raised eyebrows.

  “What happened there, champ?”

  “Shut up”, said Mikael through gritted teeth. “You know I had you beat with that flying trick. The one time I think I outsmart you, this happens. I thought of a way to naturally fly, and you still beat me.”

  Lyght snorted. “To be fair, you didn’t really fly, you just blasted your cloak with wind to make it float. Even though the seaside wind was already strong, I really thought that would’ve drained you instantly. Your strength is unfair.”

  Mikael shook his head. “And your sense of the Third Law is unfair. How could a stone slide be natural? That makes no sense.”

  “Well”, Lyght said with a note of pride in his voice, “stone formations can chasm and furrow, right? Really, I just aided them in that process, in a very… precise way that suited me.”

  “Whatever”, Mikael sighed, turning towards the opposite western horizon and the… thing that hung there. Ever present – silent – and yet… heavy. A swirling ultra-black mass, or blank space; it always strangely gave the impression that it just wasn’t there. That nothing was, really. The embodiment of the strange, the unknown itself, it covered up the land every other night. It had been retreating all night since it had some down from the sky at midnight, and had only recently jumped back into the sky from whence it came. Lyght knew it would be back again soon. Sure as sunrise, and surer yet.

  The Dark.

  The churning, ultra-black mass that came down to blanket the land every other night was now in retreat, running from the imminent sunrise – as always. The Dark tended to bring, in Lyght’s experience, a thoroughly unsettling feeling of vulnerability and unknown when it descended, constricting the mind and suffocating the senses. When the Dark came, things disappeared, shadows crept, and danger could be around any corner. When it finally abated, new things suddenly appeared in the daylight – like this silent, mist-shrouded mountain they stood atop now. Lyght never had been able to figure out how that happened.

  It was an experience that Lyght really had a hard time describing, but he could feel it… all too well.

  Most people didn’t have to experience the Dark however, for they were asleep whenever it came, safe and rejoicing in their own private fantasy worlds. The only one
s who experienced this force of unknown head on – who apparently faced it head on while the rest were asleep – were the great “Legends” of the land, as they were called. They were renowned as great heroes who had been gifted with the extraordinarily rare Dreamcasting ability. From what Lyght had heard, they patrolled every domain in the land as wardens against the Dark. They were few and far between – only about a hundred alive, active Legends roamed every domain, protecting the people they grew up with, and came to love. Every domain had its own Legends – except the Hope domain, Lyght and Mikael’s home. In the absence of any Legends to rely on, Lyght and Mikael simply just had to make do with themselves. As it was, it was barely enough, if that.

  It was a huge, tough job they had taken upon themselves; learning more about the Dark. It frustratingly enough, Lyght and Mikael had learned little enough over the past few years. A mysterious force that could somehow make everyone without Dreamcasting powers fall into a deep sleep at the same time was something that Lyght and Mikael felt they just had to investigate. The problem was, it was hard to investigate, much less understand, what was seemingly a force of nature. Lyght showed the stress sometimes, and he knew it. Nothing could ever get Mikael down, however. He just laughed everything off.

  That’s exactly what Mikael did now. Laughing at nothing in particular, he turned back towards the eastern horizon. Maybe he was just glad for the coming day. The Dark really made one appreciate a normal day, even though there were two days for every normal night and Dark night. The Dark only came every other night, each and every time. Like clockwork. Like a force of nature… but Lyght couldn’t help but feeling something was wrong with it all.

  Day was indeed coming now. Lyght breathed in deep as he listened to the sea roll in. He always seemed to get worked up about this strange force that put everybody in the land to sleep – Dreamcasters excepted – every other night. Lyght knew he just had to let himself unwind sometimes. Day was indeed coming, and they were going home. That was something he could at least be thankful for. A gust of sea wind kicked in as the pair of friends stood atop the misty mountaintop in the pre-dawn. Lyght felt his muscles relax as crisp wind whipped through his dark hair, which he pushed back with a casual hand.

  “Time to head back, you think?”, Mikael prompted. Without waiting for an answer he spun on his heel and fell spread-eagled over the edge, dropping like a stone past the near-vertical mountain face towards the shifting sea below. From this height, Lyght could barely make out a wooden raft tethered to a rock in the surf below. As he watched, it snapped its binding and spun over to catch Mikael. Lyght frowned.

  I really thought he would be out by now…

  Lyght was nearly out of spirit, that was for sure. If he jumped, he would have to place it perfectly to land on the pitching raft. He only had enough spirit left to slow his momentum before he reached the raft. It would still be a hard hit. Sighing, he lined up his angle, took a short step, and jumped off the edge.

  Salty air roaring past his body, shirt flying in the high wind, Lyght fell rapidly and closed with the raft, which was growing bigger and bigger as he fell. A stunt like this took the utmost concentration. One… two…

  Lyght ripped his right arm above his head, burning away the last of his spirit in one mighty heave – and reversed gravity.

  His speciality. It was a move that only he could do, to his knowledge. Still, he could only sustain it for the tiniest portion of a second; it wasn’t that he could literally reverse gravity, he just… redirected it upon itself. Changed its effects, if only for a second. Lyght thought he had been the first Dreamcaster to realize, at least to his knowledge, that gravity, as a force, could manipulated by Dreamcasting just like any other force or component of the universe. It did take a herculean effort, however, to manipulate a force of that magnitude, even across such a small area as his body.

  Instantly upon performing the move, Lyght’s vision swam and his head spun, the remainder of his spirit shooting instantly to zero. Feeling as if he’d slammed into an invisible wall, Lyght shot back up some forty feet. From there, it was still a fifty to sixty foot fall to the deck. He braced himself and landed seconds later with a jarring thud that rattled his bones. Lyght felt the familiar empty spot deep inside him as his spirit hit zero, along with the oddly vulnerable feeling he always felt when he ran out of spirit. He’d always hated it.

  Grimacing, Lyght stood upright gingerly. “You really couldn’t just wait and come back down the mountain the way we came?”

  Mikael laughed, “Nah. And be late for our own party? We gotta get back to the village.”

  Oh yeah, that’s today.

  Lyght just shook his head. He was just glad the currents would carry them back on their own – he was completely out of spirit for now, and Mikael had to be just about out as well. He felt the characteristic tiredness that one felt when completely drained of Dreamcasting spirit. Not only that, his sleep had been cut short by him falling off a cliff. These excursions never ceased to amaze.

  Slumping exhaustedly against the small, makeshift center cabin and closing his eyes, Lyght waved his hand, “Let’s get this party started then”.

  Wasting no time, Mikael slipped the trailing rope over the base of the flagpole, which flew a sea green standard with deep blue designs, the flag of their home. Knotting the rope tightly and jumping up, Mikael thrust his right arm toward the sky, and a warm, driving wind began to push the raft from behind. Apparently he had just enough spirit to kick them out into the current, and then let the “sea highway”, as it was known, do the rest of the work. Feeling a sudden warmth, Lyght rested his hands behind his head and opened his eyes.

  The morning sun had finally crested the horizon, dazzling the wide open sky with streaks of pink and gold. Lyght saw a flock of seagulls, perhaps the same ones they had scared off before, circle lazily over the open sea. Silhouetted by the sun, they dove in turns into the fish-rich waters of the southern coast. The waves rolled softly into the rocky bay – low tide. A comfortable ride back. Maybe he could get some sleep.

  Mikael looked back toward the mountain. “So what did you want to name that new mountain? It’s one of the biggest I’ve seen. You have quite the opportunity here”.

  “Hmmm… how about Iwin?”, Lyght joked lazily.

  Grinning typically, Mikael reached out his left hand in a fist, his eyes on the sky, “We’re ready, aren’t we, Lyght?” Sensing the obvious weight of the question, Lyght looked back towards the west, and the looming unknown, then east again at the rising sun. With a matching grin, and reached up his right fist to join with Mikael’s.

  “The question is, are they ready for us?”

  Chapter Two

  Warm green waves rolled onto the deserted beach south of the village of Kona. The only sign of last night’s storm were the few branches scattered here and there on the golden sands. The beach was deserted – the village’s fishermen had already departed well before the sun came up, and it was still too early to attract any families or playful children to the seaside. The sun hung low over the eastern horizon, casting dancing shards of light over the foamy sea surface.

  This light glared in the eyes of a young teenage girl as she snuck quietly up the beach path, dragging a lightweight boat behind her. With her arm shielding her face from the direct light, she emerged onto the beach and glanced around quickly for any bystanders. Seeing she was alone, a quick mischievous grin flashed across her face. She dragged the boat down to the tide line and into the surf, hopping in. It was only a small canoe-type vessel; she had “borrowed” it from the port storage warehouse. It would serve her purpose, though.

  They’ll never know what hit them, the girl thought with amusement. If all went as planned, she would really have one up on these guys for a long time. For sure, they were getting way too cocky lately for her liking. Well, it was her job to bring them back down to earth again, as always. And she had something especially good planned this time.

  Shading her eyes with one hand, the girl grabb
ed the double oar out of the bottom of the boat with the other. Course set, she began paddling out across the warm southern sea. She would have to go fairly far out to meet up with her friends. The arranged agreement was a half a mile off the coast, southwest of Kona. The half mile wasn’t the problem; paddling against the current was. She was in the relatively shallow waters off the sea highway, so the current wasn’t overwhelming here. Still, she battled a consistent riptide as she fought towards the pickup point.

  Most sixteen-year-old girls wouldn’t even attempt something like this, but it wasn’t for nothing that she held a reputation as one of the real troublemakers in the village of Kona. She had an unfortunate habit of doing the opposite of what the adults in her village expected her to do. She didn’t try to be like that, honestly, she just felt she was fundamentally different from the type of person everyone expected you to be in her hometown. She despised deadlines, duties, and rules on the whole. She couldn’t see why people weren’t just allowed to do what they wanted, when they wanted. As long as it wasn’t too out of line, where was the harm in living a little? She also felt, deep down, that she had to set herself apart as different, because she was the one in her family most often overlooked.

  She was Lyght’s little sister, after all.

  Sky was her name. Or rather, that was what she made people call her. Her full first name was “Skylianne”, an idiotic name if she had ever heard one. Too pretty. Too refined. She preferred to keep things simple. No use overcomplicating things – she did what was needed to get the job done. Problem was, the things she most often spent her time doing were not acceptable to her parents, or most of the village, for that matter.

  Sky was a troublemaker – plain and simple, that was who she was and what she did. Her mother and her teachers had wanted her to train be a medic. She apparently had something of a natural gift for it. Sky knew it hurt them that she just didn’t care enough to work hard at it. She would just much rather be out having some fun, actually doing something. She never could understand how people let themselves get trapped into their boring routines. That wasn’t going to happen to her, she had decided.