The Child Prince

Posted on Sat Jan 12, 2019 @ 11:07am by Civilian Jason Haines

1,025 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Doors of Perception
Location: Jason's Quarters & Brain
Timeline: MD 4, 0300

[ON]

The sound of emergency vehicles caused Jason to open his eyes. The acrid smell of smoke assaulted his nose and made his eyes water. His head pounded in pain. Looking to his left, he saw his mother slumped against the control panel of the hover card. Blood flowed down her face.

“Mom!” Jason yelled, reaching out to her. He had been here before, many times, this dream.

They were in his mother’s homeland of Ireland. They had gone there while his dad was tied up in an extensive multi-day training program at academy. He had agreed to help their family friend, Captain Lyle Goodwin, an Assistant Commandant of Starfleet Academy.

The drive across the country-side was nice. It had started out foggy, but slowly a light wind and the sun had brushed away the fog, like opening the curtain of a window to reveal a beautiful, fateful day. As the fog had cleared that day, a team of horses had appeared out of the nearby underbrush, spooked by something. His mom, who had disengaged the auto-pilot, had to swerve hard to miss the horses and they crashed into a tree. His mom’s restraint harness gave way and she went face first into the control console.

Today was different. It hadn’t been a team of horses, it had been one dark horse that crossed their path. The horse was ridden by a headless man in dark clothing punctuated with a black cape. In his hand, he held his head. He was no mere man, he was a Dullahan, a dark omen and servant of death. As they came out of the fog, the headless man lifted his head and turned it towards his mother, its eyes opened and his mother fell forward, lifeless, and the hover car careened into a tree.

“Mom!” Jason yelled again, shaking her shoulder some as he unlatched his restraint. He was surprised when she moved, her hands reaching down and unbuckling her restraints. She got up and got out of the hover car and started walking into the underbrush.

Jason followed. Many times, he called to her to stop, but she wouldn’t. Many times, he tried to get ahead of her to look at her, but as hard as he ran and as hard as he tried to get in front of her, he always wound up looking at her back as she walked along.

They seemed to walk forever and by the time the sun was setting, he could see a castle coming into sight. It then didn’t seem long at all and they were upon it. Ahead right before the castle there was a large hole and his mom seemed to be intent to walk right into it.

“Mom, stop”, Jason called out to her.

She didn’t stop. Jason grimaced a bit as she fell into the hole. Jogging up to it, Jason stopped and looked down into the hole. What he saw horrified him, the hole was really a wide pit. In the pit were numerous skeletons and his mom’s body lay on top of them. Jason scrambled down the side of the pit to his mom’s body.

Jason knelt next to his mom’s body and as he did, he heard a child-like laugh. Looking up, he saw a tunnel dug into the side of the pit. Standing in the mouth of the tunnel was a pixyish figure. It stood about two feet tall, had red hair, and before Jason could see any facial features, it turned into the tunnel, waved for Jason to follow, and then disappeared into the dark tunnel.

Jason followed into the dark tunnel. Once inside, the tunnel was somewhat lit by glowing fungus. Dirty roots hung from the ceiling and brushed through his hair occasionally as he moved forward into the tunnel. He couldn’t see the creature that had beckoned him, but its child-like laugh echoed in the tunnel and Jason stumbled through the dimly lit passage, guided by it.

After what seemed like an eternity, Jason saw bright light ahead which seemed to be the exit on the other end of the tunnel. Jason slowed down and cautiously stepped out of the tunnel. He was amazed by what he saw. He was in a beautiful wooded glade. The sun beamed down into it. Birds sang, butterflies flitted about, squirrels darted here and there. There was a crystal-clear pond with a small island in it and a land-bridge crossed to the island. On the island stood a pure white unicorn with a long flowing mane. To the right of it stood a large brown stag, its large antlers looked like they could be swords or spears. Lying between the two was a large black mastiff, its eyes glowing red.

Darting across the land bridge was the pixyish creature Jason had been following. It stopped before the unicorn and bowed.

“Your highness, I have brought the prince as you requested”, the creature said.

“Thank you Haelik”, the unicorn replied.

Jason shook his head, shocked at the scene. Looking about he saw little faerie creatures flitting back and forth in the air and he could swear he could hear whispers of,” The prince has returned.”

“Come forward child”, the unicorn called to Jason.

Jason slowly approached the unicorn, compelled by its voice. He couldn’t believe what was happening.

As he made it across the land bridge, the stag spoke, “He still is not ready.”

The unicorn sighed and replied, “Alas, you are correct.”

The mastiff growled, the glow of its eyes brightened, it let out a howl, and then breathed a cone of fire, engulfing Jason.

Screaming, Jason bolted up in bed. He was sweating and breathing hard.

“Lights”, he called out and was relieved as the lights in the room came on.

Walking to the replicator, he got a glass of water and then flopped down in the chair in the main room. He had dreamt many times of his mother’s death in Ireland, but this dream had been the strangest ever.

[OFF]

Lt.(jg) Jason Haines
Chief Intelligence Officer
DS5

 

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