The Nomad Chronicles

I wake up from a nightmare.... cold, I am. in a wet forest? I have just a pair of pants on, no other clothes, no weapons, i feel sick, I try to stand, but collapse and vomit some dark green-black stuff. I feel a burning rage in my soul, and I sense something one the ground, a creeping dark, some kind of carnivorous slime mold crawling up my body, digesting my flesh on contact, i scream in horror, and a thunderclap booms overhead. A portal explodes and Raven flies out riding a winged white tiger. The tiger roars and the ground quakes. Raven raises her staff to the sky, and charges it with lightning. She casts the power transmuting it into violet flame, burning the sentient muck eating me. Raven rushes down to me, as some strange flying crab like parasites latch on to her. She rips them on in a fury, then stands at my back. Two blades come out of her staff, and I see them, the Archons, walking out of the trees which they had possessed, as the trees wilt and die.

"You will all pay," Raven whispers hoarsely. The Archons rush at us with one mind. Raven slams her staff into the ground with a subsonic boom, knocking the demons back. Then, she summons lightning to strike them. She slings me over her shoulder like a backpack, and mounts her Tiger. We ride into the sky. Raven giggles. "I summoned an invisible army of Assassins to take care of them."

She opens a portal and we ride to The Healing Glen of the North. We fall to the ground. Angels come and sing over us. The Frost Giant says we are both sick, and Raven is injured from the battle, she has a dark shard in her right shoulder. The Frost Giant carries me to his cave, and Raven and her tiger walk beside him.

I fall asleep in the cave by the fire. Raven and the Frost Giant are talking about who he is, and where he came from, and the nature of the dream plane as I fall asleep.

***

I awake in my inner world. I see myself as a child playing with raven, playing with Koomo, playing with Michael my spirit guides, and then becoming confused and thinking they are not real. My adult self wants to hug the girl Raven and the child versions of my spirit guides, and say I am sorry for believing that you are imaginary.

I see my child self on display behind glass, like in a strange wax museum. I say, fuck this, break the glass, and take my child self mudsliding down the chocolate volcano. hail eris. mahalo. 23.