Nightmares

[»Míríel«]

You little matchmaker!" Neron shook his head. Then a smirk came to his face. " Looks like your little plan didn't get off to a smooth start."

As JAedon started remembering what she had seen Neron just respectfully listened. Even though what she had seen and been through may have been worse than his, he knew what it was like to be haunted. To hear the magnitude of pain that a telepath had to go through was astonishing. He had always known that they could listen to thoughts, but to feel anothers pain.. Neron could only imagine.

Miya in the other room began to pick up on her mother's thoughts. Her dreams grew dark, the air grew smoky. It seemed like her senses were getting swamped by every dis-tasteful smell on the planet. A young boy came to her mind, there was something about him that created a feeling of being bound to him. He was crouched in fear, backing against a wall, looking down the barrel of a gun. Miya's heart raced as her little voice muttered in her sleep, "Runnn. Run!" It couldn't be heard by anyone else clearly on the grounds that her mouth was pressed against Brighty. The boy didn't respond to her calls, instead a splintering pain seared through her stomach. The bullet burned, and it felt like all the blood in her body was seeping out onto her bed. "No!" She cried as she felt herself going limp. Why had this happened to the boy? Why hadn't he run? Guilt filled her heart as she tried to figure out a story that she knew nothing of.

Neron shook his head at his wife as another smirk came to his lips. "You are terrible you know that?"


Neron was more than happy to bring his wife closer to him and embrace her. Sometimes Jaedon was like a cat, pressing against anything warm. He didn't mind as long as it was against him. His thoughts foated back to Damion and Miriel. Could they do this? Could they really feel each other's embrace and enjoy it like Jaedon and he could? He pushed the thought away. Obviously they had. He was surprised having to constantly be aware of their temperature didn't put a wall between them.

Tears poured down Miya's cheeks as she sobbed into Brighty. She didn't know what to do. Opening her large emerald eyes she glanced around the room, certain that the boy would be somewhere in her room, bleeding. Blood. She leaped our of bed and looked at her sheets, pulling them up and down. Surely there was a scarlet stain somewhere. There had to be! She had been shot. She paused, or had the boy? Miya pulled Brighty close to her chest and took a step backward, a dazed look came to her face. Whirling around she opened the door and slameed it behind her as she ran directly across the hall, into Byren's room. Wimpers and sobs could be heard throughout the hall, coupled with the pattering of small, bare, feet.

Throwing Byren's door open she raced up his ladder. "Byren! Byren! Help!!" Crawling to the head of his bed she poked his cheek repeatedly. "Byren!!!" Tears continued to stream from her eyes. "I saw monsters!" Finished with her poking she crawled to the top corner of his bed and pulled Brighty in front of her as she squeezed him tightly. Her eyes were as large s saucers and her small frame rocked back and forth.

Neron was shocked to hear JAedon's response. Aeryn?! His countanace changed as he pulled away slightly to look into her face. Was she serious? "The man who caused me to go insane? What are-" Before he could finish a door slammed and the sound of feet and crying could be heard in the hall. Turning his head he sat up and ripped the covers off. "Again?" He could hear Miya's frantic calls to her brother from his room. Goign to the door he pulled it opened and headed over to Byren's room.

[saerwen]

"Hey, I never said anything about match-making, I said I had thought about it..." Jaedon then added with emphasis, "Briefly thought about it." She then looked at Neron with crooked smile on her face, "You never know, you and I didn't start out the perfectly happy pair, now did we?" She thought back to when she and Neron had first started to interact with each other. It had been perfectly awful. She had thought he was the worst jerk in the world, and had placed him in the category with all of the other useless, dishonorable men out there. She thought of him much differently now.

"Yes, I know I am terrible, but you are so easy to take advantage of, I just can't help it," Jaedon summarized.

Byren awoke with a start, nearly jumping out of his bed as he heard Miya's feet come pounding through his room and up the ladder to his bed. Groaning he rolled over and looked at his sister. It was as he had expected. Her face was stained with tears, and she looked as though she had just seen a ghost. He let out a sigh and nodded, "Alright, alright, Miya." He sat up put his arm around her shoulders. "Calm down, you're safe and sound here. I promise." He hugged his sister tighter. He could feel her little form quivering and her eyes still weren't telling him she was alright. He pet her hair softly and slowly, and asked her quietly, "Tell me what you saw." Byren wanted her to spill the beans quickly because with all of the noise that she had made, he knew their parent's wouldn't be far behind.

Jaedon cringed as Neron pulled away and began to ask her if she was crazy. Maybe she was, but it was either her or Miya, and personally, Jaedon would have chosen to go insane over her dear little girl. Aeryn was a very power telepath, and his skills were much more suited to helping a case like this than Jaedon's were. And plus, Jaedon had a feeling that she wouldn't have been able to diagnose the problem even if her powers had been suited to that kind of thing. She was attached to Miya in such a way that her mind would be too clouded to clearly see what was wrong. Sometimes, no matter how much control you had over your mind, it still decided to protect even you when you couldn't even make that decision yourself. Jaedon knew that her mind had probably already seen the problem and was just keeping her from seeing it too. That was what drove her crazy about the whole thing. It was an easy problem to solve, but she couldn't do it because it was evidently something extremely shocking or serious.

Jaedon almost let out a sigh f despair as Neron jumped out of the bed and headed towards Byren's room. Jaedon also rose from her comfy covers and walked towards Byren's room. No doubt they would find Miya and Byren curled up, with Byren telling Miya everything was okay. Sometimes Jaedon pitied her son because he got all of the brunt of the midnight arousal's. If Miya had a bad dream, he was the one that got woken up, not Jaedon and Neron, which Jaedon found strange yet again. Neron had been right. Miya shrank away from them instead of running to them, but why?

In Byren's room, she and Neron found Miya crumpled up near the head of Byren's bed in her brother's embrace and tear stains still on her face. Jaedon couldn't hardly believe that she was asking this, but she did anyway, "What's wrong, Miya? What happened?"

[»Míríel«]

"Women." Neron said with a laugh. He should have known. It seemed like women's world revolved around marriage sometimes. If they weren't trying to get married they were always trying to hook others up in a relationship. "No we didn't. Though if that is what Byren has to go through to end up like this. I don't think I would discourage it." He smiled slightly.

When Byren wrapped his arm over her shoulder Miya stopped rocking but was still quivering. "I....I..." She tried to think back to what she had seen, it jumped to her mind and in lightning fast speed the images flashed through her mind. Each flash caused her to wince, when the bullet pierced through the boys side once more she let out a little screech and doubled over. She started crying harder now as she clutched her side. "I don't know. Don't make me tell you Byren... Please!!" Her voice was desperate as she buried her face into the sheets of the bed.

JAedon jumped to talking before NEron could. Instead he started to observe what he was seeing. Byren was trying to comfort his sister, but it didn't seem like it was working. Miya was curled up into a ball sobbing into the covers. Neron drew closer and placed a hand on her back. "Miya?" Her body tensed under his hand before she snapped back and pulled herself against the wall. She looked around her wildly with eyes wide as saucers. "Why are you-" Her little body suddenly went limp. What Neron couldn't know is the fine line between dream and reality was beginning to be blurred. In a way of protection her system shut down until the barrier between what she saw and her consciousness was strengthened. Neron reached forward and smoothed the girl's wild curls out of her eyes. Then gently, like he was picking up sometime extremely fragile he cradled her in his arms. Looking at Jaedon he just nodded. "Take her tomorrow.." His thoughts reached out for her. Then he headed off towards her room.

[saerwen]

Jaedon crossed her arms over her chest, "Well, I would discourage it on the girl's part. You put me through enough heart break to traumatize me for my entire life and the length of whatever comes after that."

Byren watched his sister's actions, completely confused. She saw something, remembered something that terrified her to her very core, but what was it? As she doubled over in pain, he wrapped his arms around her even tighter. Even though Miya could be annoying occasionally, this was no time to hold a grudge. His little sister needed him to comfort her because fear infringed on her happy nature. Byren bit back a retort at her claim to not know what she saw, knowing that she understood the images if nothing else. Why wouldn't she tell him? It must have been too scary for her to recall. Perhaps her mind was protecting her from the thoughts. He simply sighed and continued to pet her hair, "Alright, calm down, Miya. Everything is okay now. You don't have to be scared. I'm here." As he finished speaking, Jaedon and Neron came into his room. Their nighttime rendezvous was over and Byren wouldn't get his answers.

Jaedon watched, shocked. What demon possessed their precious little girl? She wouldn't respond to anyone but Byren. At first, Jaedon's instincts told her that something didn't add up and that Byren claimed the guilt, but in her heart, Jaedon knew that her logic would prove wrong. Byren could never do anything to hurt his little sister. Much as he played at indifference towards her, Byren would always be an affectionate, caring brother who defended Miya until the end. Jaedon stood there, stone still, as Neron passed by with their conked-out daughter in his arms. She understood his thoughts the moment that they came. Even if Neron hadn't given her permission, she had already made up her mind as well. And if Aeryn couldn't tell them what ailed their child, then Jaedon would look until she found someone that could.

When Neron had left, Jaedon looked over at Byren, "I'm sorry you were woken up, sweetheart. Go back to sleep. I will see you in the morning." Jaedon turned to leave, but Byren's voice stopped her.

"You didn't wish me sweet dreams, mother."

Jaedon looked at the floor of the hallway, "I don't wish it because obviously, wishing has done this house no good. Wasting wishes would be a shame." Byren stared at his mother, the sorrow in her voice pierced his heart for some reason. He hardly ever heard that tone come from her mouth. Sometimes Byren wondered if that tone once dominated his mothers voice. That wouldn't have been a hard stretch to make for him.

The End

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