-Euripides, Orestes

He dreamt a dream that was not a dream.

Sometimes his dreams were of everyday, daily life. But others...other dreams he was a different person from a different life. In these dreams he forgot that he was Prince Arslan and remembered being someone else.

The Prince's Dream

A ~Shadow's Sacrifice~ Side story

by Karma

He was walking in his dream. The road unfolded before him, dark and covered with polished pebble stones. He followed it to where it would take him, down the windy path and through the woods. In the sky, the moon shone brightly. It was not a full moon, but only partly there- a thin sliver of silver. Far away, white birds flew across the twilight horizons.

He kept walking. He did not remember why he was walking, but such was the nature of dreams.

In the distance, he heard someone singing. It was a beautiful song, though he could not understand the words. The song was sad, mournful, and with each step he took he began to worry more and more. The song. The song was sad and he knew that something was wrong. There was a reason why someone was singing so sadly and he would find it soon. His anticipation of what lay down the path turned to dread.

The road forked into two paths. One went violently left, twisting, turning, changing, cluttered with large rocks that marred his path. In the distance, he saw the moonlight illuminated the path -- it would be one difficult to walk upon.

The other path was calmer, more tranquil, cut and laid out for him. It glided to the right. But when he looked to the distance, he could not see what was at the end of it. All he saw was darkness.

He started toward the right but stopped. And suddenly, he knew that if he walked that way, he would be free. He would free of his destiny, of his human shell, of everything that trapped him and that was tied to him. He would finally be free. Who cared about the Tenkai? If he took one more step, he could free himself of it, forever.

But from the other path he heard someone crying.

It was loud to his ears, and yet, at the same time, it was quiet. It was a cry not for help, but for the relinquishment of pain. It held such sorrow and sadness in it that he knew he could not turn it away. It was why he had come.

Sighing, he took the path to the left.

He stumbled over the rocks that the path now consisted of; large, uncut, unwieldy sharp things that jarred his movement and blocked his way. He fell over twice, scraping himself against many edges, and the short flashes of pain were as real as if he was awake.

He kept walking, stumbling, falling, until he finally overcame the last of them, and then he started running. And he ran and he ran and he ran. He felt himself weaken from the exertion, and yet he continued to run.

The crying got louder, and then...

The path ended at a door surrounded by thick stonewalls built to keep others away.

He took a deep breath and sighed.

The door opened into a dark, impossibly vast room filled with soft sand. He squinted his eyes and tried to see, but he saw only darkness. He listened for the crying, for the one whose heart was breaking. But he heard only silence. The room was as cold as a desert at night.

The silence weighed heavily in the air; a dark, oppressive, tangible force. He reached out and touched it, and felt the sorrow of the one who continued to grieve. Suddenly he remembered who had been crying.

He thought of /HIM/, and reached out...

...and found him, sitting alone, not weeping, just sitting on the mossy ground in the silence. As still as a portrait of a person. Huddled by himself, alone.

He looked at the one he had wed, so long ago. His match had not yet fully awoken, and was still trapped in his life, trapped by the problems he had as a human.

Sighing, he knelt in front of the one who had been crying out so loudly, though no one else could hear. He thought of what to call him, and decided that his human name was most appropriate, because that was who he was, right now.

"Greetings, Tsuzuku."

His match looked up at him, confused. Tsuzuku's face was streaked with tears, though he knew that such pain was never shone on his countenance when he was awake. He was young, perhaps sixteen or so, though he looked younger. His rich copper-brown hair was cut in a strange style, though his auburn eyes were the same as he remembered. Beautiful, like a never dying flame.

"Who are you?"

He smiled. "You don't remember me?" He paused and then leaned closer, revealing a secret: "That's fine. I don't remember me either."

Tsuzuku nodded, accepting his words. It was, after all, just a dream.

"I'm...the one that you hated the most, for cutting off your freedom and destroying the one that was most precious to you. I'm the one that you feared the most, for I am the one who brings you changes though you welcome them not. Hatred, fear, and loathe...all of those feelings describe how you felt about me. And I you."

His match watched him with weary eyes. "Go away."

He smiled in response.

"That, is something that we have been trying to do for a very long time. To break our bond. But just as we hate each other, so I feel something else for you."

He reached out his left hand and caressed Tsuzuku's cheek. Tsuzuku tensed, and then relaxed. The dragon liked the touch, since he received so little in the waking world.

"Why are you crying?"

Tsuzuku blinked, hard. "I'm not crying." Then he paused, and the tears started to slide down. He looked at a wet spot on the back of his hand. "I don't understand why there are tears. I'm not crying. I haven't cried since I was a child."

The other reached over and gently hugged him.

"What---"

"You are crying, inside. You have been crying with your heart for a while now, it is how you called me here. This, you see, is a dream. The masks you put on while you are awake are harder to forge here. Those take years of practice and perfection. This is just an moment of a dream."

Tsuzuku tentatively closed his eyes, allowing the other to hold him. He leaned against him and when his visitor did not reject him or push him away, his body began to shake.

The other held the dragon, cradling him to his chest, giving him the contact that others were afraid to in the day. He held him, shielding him from harm, shielding him from the pain, shielding him from himself.

Tsuzuku clung to him and cried. His tears fell, faster and faster, more and more, and his entire body shook with each sob and each release. He spoke his words slowly between each sob.

"No one. Can. Love. Me. Not even my friend. My FRIEND. I only have one. I was...I am... always. Alone.

"I tried. To die. But I can't. I CAN'T. I physically CAN'T!"

He hugged the dragon, offering what comfort he could. He held him for what seemed like an eternity, for time runs strangely in dreams.

When the tears and the shaking began to subside, he finally spoke.

"I had a chance to turn back, and away from us. It would have meant my death, but it would have meant my freedom. It would have meant that you would die, slowly, little by little, inside. It would have meant that I would die, peacefully, sleeping my way into sickness and never waking up. Both our deaths, at this time, before we have both truly awakened...it would have meant that we would both be free, do you see? Then as much as destiny calls us together, it would have been a long, long time before we ever saw each other again. Perhaps then we would never awaken and so our freedom would forever be ensured. I had this chance, and I threw it away by coming to you."

Tsuzuku pulled away and watched him, eyes full of uncertainty and trust.

"I had this chance, but I could not bring myself to do it. No matter how much your hatred to me, or mine to you...I could not. I heard you crying. I had to come."

He leaned over and pulled Tsuzuku back into an embrace.

"I cannot leave you, anymore than you can escape from me. We are bound together, you and I."

Tsuzuku rested his head against the other's shoulder, eyes closed.

"I can feel you, your pain, and it draws me to you, like a distant light, even from far away. I can feel you, your loneliness and it calls to me and my own."

He buried his face into Tsuzuku's hair, taking in the scent of fire and ashes. "I can feel you, and even though you do not remember what split us, I still love you."

Tsuzuku was silent, and then he spoke. "But you are only my dream."

"And you are my only dream."

And the dragon was comforted.

He held Tsuzuku as long as he could, keeping him close, then reluctantly let go. He did not have much time left. He studied the dragon's face, trying to take the memory of it with him when he left, though he knew it was impossible.

"I felt your anguish, and it moved me to cross many shadows and over to you. It has cost me more than you know, but I do so with no regrets. I am glad I to have seen you again, though later I doubt that you will be happy to see me." He paused and then laughed without mirth. "Later I may seem unhappy to see you. Just as you cannot wear masks now, so it is true that mine are gone as well. Later it may be different."

Tsuzuku pulled away and stared back at him. "So we will meet again."

He nodded. "We weren't supposed to meet right now. But though we are very, very far away from each other, you called and I could not help but come. When next we meet, both of us will forget this ever happened. Some dreams are truth and some are wishes. This was my wish, but next time... I will forget that. If ever we meet in dreams, the masks will be there. The ones we forged before."

Tsuzuku absorbed this. "Still, as of now I look forward to seeing you again." A pause. "Do you want to see me?"

The other smiled. "Yes."

"Good." Slowly, a smile spread across the dragon�s face as well.

He hesitated, and then watched Tsuzuku intensely. "Do you really want us to meet again?"

"Yes."

"Then you must take care of yourself and recover. You must be able to move on from your pain, otherwise we will never meet again."

Tsuzuku nodded.

He stood up. "It's too early and I won't see you again for another three years, at least..."

Reaching out, he pulled Tsuzuku unto his feet.

He continued. "You will be stronger then, as will I, strong enough to do what we must...to finish what was started long ago, to return..."

He thought of what was to come, but he had made his choice. "When my power regains, when you reawaken, when everything that has happened now will seem like a distant memory..."

He hesitated, and then reached over and embraced the one before him once more, and whispered in his ear his farewell: "When we meet again..."

Then he pulled back and met the auburn eyes with his own, speaking as formally as he could. "But until then, Kouryuu-ou, Red Dragon King of the South Sea..." He gently brushed his lips over the right side of the dragon�s face. "My husband."

Tsuzuku closed his eyes.

"My match." He brushed his lips over the left.

The dragon opened them again, auburn eyes glinting in the darkness, brighter than they had been for many days.

"My only..."

He leaned over and sealed the distance between them with one kiss. Then he spoke of his one wish, the promise that he needed to extract from the other to ensure that they would meet again.

"Wait for me."

And then he woke up.

Arslan was sick for a month. There was no reasonable explanation for his illness, one morning he simply woke up feeling drained and unable to move. Being a mere lad of twelve, this meant that he was able to skip his lessons and spend the rest of his time sleeping and recovering his energies.

Sometimes, he dreamed of someone with copper-brown hair and bright, auburn eyes.

And sometimes the other dreamt of him.

Disclaimer: "The Mystic's Dream" lyrics by Loreena McKennitt, from her wonderful album, The Mask and the Mirror. If you have never heard of her and are into celtic-new age music, give her a shot. she's a great artist.

A huge THANKS to Shrenee, who edited this.

for comments to Karma, send e-mails to: [email protected]

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