Aspen's Disjointed Dream

Parvil snapped awake, still in the infirmary of the Administration of Magical Applications. He could feel his clothes stuck to his skin with sweat, he worked his fingers pulling the fabric away from his skin only to have it stick again. He sat up again sliding back so he was upright against the headboard, looking over to see Aspen asleep in a chair, head against her chin, breathing slowly and softly. Something odd sat in her lap. It looked like a strangely shaped bowl, made of something bronze in color, but it couldn’t be metal, it looked like melted wax. But who ever heard of a wax bowl.

–

Aspen opened her eyes to a crackling fire, sitting on a fallen log. She rubbed her hands together and blew into them before holding them out near the fire. The sky was odd, she couldn’t tell if it was dawn or twilight, as which direction she looked changed what it could be. But before she could dwell on the weirdness of the sky she heard a rustling in the trees. Loud and not attempting to be quiet, she quickly grabbed her staff and was on her feet when Parvil’s back appeared in a semi crouch pulling something out of the woods. A large branch.

“A bit jumpy?” He asked without looking.

“Sorry.” she said. “I think I nodded off and…” Aspen stopped. “Don’t you think that’s a little big?” she said pointing to the branch Parvil had dragged into camp.

“Too big?” Parvil asked.

“That is what I asked, yes don’t you think that branch is too big for this tiny fire?” Aspen questioned him.

“Sure it’s too big now, but I wasn’t going to just throw it all on at once.” he said, “I was going to break it down. And have a fire for cooking.” he added.

Aspen watched as Parvil broke the branch into usable pieces. “Deja vu.” Aspen whispered.

“What was that?” Parvil asked. “Did you say something to me?” he was stacking the wood now.

“Nothing, just thinking how it feels like we’ve had this conversation before.” Aspen said.

“Huh…probably,” he said. “We’ve made the same jabs a hundred times before so I imagine we’ve had a talk like this before. Stands to reason right?” Parvil asked.

“No. I assume you’ve said something like that before…but…” Aspen paused. “Feels…like a repeat.”

Aspen shook off the feeling and stared at the fire for a moment. Out of the top of her vision she watched Parvil sit on the opposite side of the fire, and take a cast iron pot from his pack. He started poking at the fire with a stick to make the surface more even and flat for his pot to sit on.

“You know you can tell me if I have something on my face, right?” Parvil said, pushing some of the embers with a stick.

“No…no…I just noticed how long your hair is getting.” she said. “No..no..that’s not right. Is it?” she asked herself. “His hair is…short…or was it long…” she felt off kilter for a moment. She tried to think chewing on her inner lip a bit.

Before she could even think, she blinked and she was holding a bowl of soup, her mouth slightly warm with having just swallowed a spoonful. She could hear Parvil’s usually mumbling with a mouthful saying “Hot.” over and over until he was able to swallow it. He always ate too fast, nothing out of the ordinary there. So why did everything feel so…off? It felt like… But before she could snagged the thought, it was yanked away.

Parvil looking up at the sky. “It’s getting pretty late,” he said. “Should I throw down the Portable Home.” he asked, not a hit of joking in his voice.

“You mean Portable Hole?” Aspen asked, the words felt stodgy on her tongue. Wrong somehow, like what was said was out of order.

“You call it the Portable Home. Why shouldn’t I?” he asked.

“Yeah…” Aspen said, watching him do his normal song and dance of putting the Portable Hole down.

“Should probably get changed for bed.” he suggested, but didn’t hesitate to start taking his shirt off in front of Aspen. The second he held his arms across himself and pulled the shirt off on one move like one of those old Madam Jocelynn books Aspen’s cheeks flushed with heat, and her skin did a rapid shift from soft pink to a berry red.

“Ahh…Parvil…” she managed to say though it was more of a squeak, covering her eyes with her hands. “What are you doing?!”

“Changing?” he answered as more of a question. “What’s it look like?”

“It looks like you were about to get naked in front of me!” she snapped.

“You’ve seen me shirtless before. And I’ve bathed in a river with you not ten feet away. I’m sure you’ve seen enough.” Parvil said.

Even with her hands over her eyes she could feel him walking forward. She put her hands out in front of herself, keeping her eyes shut tight. “Don’t come closer.”

When she opened her eyes again she was in bed, in the portable hole with Parvil next to her. “Wait, this isn’t how this happened.” she thought. “Right…?” she wasn’t sure. It felt right, but it didn’t seem right. Not how it happened…she was sure of it…wasn’t she?

The next thing she knew she could smell rain, Parvil suddenly getting up in a panic, hitting his head on the lower part of the ceiling, he muttered something under his breath and was half way out of the hole. “Get changed I’ll get things packed. Just leave anything you don’t need right now in the Hole. I don’t want it flooding.”

That was right he did say that, she remembered that…that was when… “Oh no…” she thought, changing her clothes quickly.

She stepped out of the hole and Parvil was holding her wrist, begging her to teleport away. Reinhold was casting some spell, Parvil threw a metal pan at him. The throw missed. And before either of them could react Reinhold was bearing down on them. Before she could react Parvil shoved her out of the way hard. She watched Reinhold raise a hand and felt pressure on her chest making her unable to move, all she could do was watch as Parvil dove away from attack after attack barely managing to escape before the spell landed just a breath away from where he just was, she watched him grab something from his pack and roll just in time to avoid an attack. Parvil held up what he’d grabbed, the broken staff piece, slapping the orb against his palm, a small sputter of light and a few purplish sparks tried and failed to come from the staff. Reinhold laughed. “Watch.” he told Aspen, as this attacks finalled landed, She watched volley after volley of arch mage level attacks hit Parvil. When the assault finally stopped Parvil stood there and raise the staff head with the last of this strength and a beam of solid purple light slammed into Reinhold sending him flying. And Parvil collapses to his knees, and as he fell forward towards the mud he vanished like dust.

–

Aspen shot awake. Chest heaving with anxiety and fear, she looked around confused for a moment as to where she was trying not to hyperventilate. When her senses came back she looked quickly to the bed to make sure Parvil was still alive. To see him sitting there up right. Looking haggard but alive.

“Hey sleepyhead.” Parvil said, voice cracked with the sound of unused vocal cords.

“Parvil…” she said, quickly hugging him, burying her head in his chest to not let him see her cry.

“Ow…I…” he was going to quip but felt her sobbing. “Nevermind.” he thought, pulling her closer.