As night fell we were ready at the place of turning with the wells bubbling at the sides at the hedges forming a square with exits north and south.

I was perched in a tree behind where the priest will be doing his ceremony before they leave.

Footsteps are heard coming from the north corridor and soon the ogre like beings drudge forth cloaked in red. The priest had ornaments around his chest and a pattern on the edges of his hood.

“Here we are once again. Turn the one over along with the one you have taken from us so we can be done with it. Another one in our army grows as you become weaker. And do not think you can trick us for we have grown one in number!” The priest spoke out loudly.

From the shadows a bellow roared and a beast ridden by another priest made it through the maze, leaves bustling on the monsters sides.

This was not in the plan. I had to wait for an opportune moment and figure out what to do. I was powerless unless I found some way to overcome the two priests on my own.

The high perched second priest was easy to subdue, but getting to the first was the mission.

The elder pushed the former nightmarish into the centre of the square they were in and announced that he will be getting the one they were to surrender.

A young man stepped forth and said: “Do unto me as you wish, I have no fear of what is to come.”

The priest forced some kind of edible down his through and in a seizure the young man feinted.

Then the priest announced: “As you are in nightmares now you shall be for the rest of your existence. May your depressions guide you along a path that has no more need to be anything you cannot be.”

He then poured a liquid onto the young mans face and went on to drench him in the substance.

Jumping onto the rider I rubbed the magic potion into his eyes from behind him and he screamed. The beast roared and the allied men of mine surged onto the guards with numbing poison in their gags.

The guards struggled and maimed some of the assailants but soon only the priest was left alone with the rider on the animal falling to his side and I lunged at the protesting priest from behind.

I cut open his cloak from the back with the sickle and poured the rest of the potion onto him. Blood mixed with the green ooze and he cried out and fell to his knees.

“What is this – you have never hesitated to follow our demands before – our will shall live. You will regret this manoeuvre!” He cried.

His eyes glistened in the moonlight and one could see the morphing of his soul throughout his body. Wreathing in pain and pleasure he contorted as his hands met the floor.

“Long have I suffered. This curse of the mundane life, yet this what you have done to me will not end it. It is torture as painful as living a lie to yearn for yet another accomplishment every day.” He muttered before passing out.

The bodies were dragged into safe haven where they would be nursed back to health through residual nightmares.

The elder promised me a safe trip home and since I could not sleep I asked him to show me there that night still.

He assured me that their plans would come to fruition and that their culture would once be as great as it was once more. On the way to a doorway through the jungle he thanked me many times and explained what I did for them was the cornerstone in a great plan. He did not have to spare any detail as the trip was long, but eventually we reached some stairs that lead underground to a gate that he unlocked.

“From now on you may travel between our world and yours – make a conscious effort to keep the pathway open.” The elder asked benevolently.

He pushed the wooden door open and the light from my mind shone through in a welcoming way, obscuring their vision of my home.

I stepped through and as I turned around to say good bye the door was already closed. Around it vines grew into the stone and it sank in as if becoming a permanent fixture in my world.

I climbed steps until I found a door ajar and walked in to find an apartment that was long forsaken. There was linen covering every furniture and I threw myself onto a couch, weary from the battle and the walk. A cat meowed and sprang onto the sofa into the space where it was empty in front of me and cuddled in.

Home again.