2 Chapter 2: The man who catches dreams

Theos heard them even before they came into his sight. There were five of them. He could see that the horses they were riding were not from around here.

There have been many sightings of these foreign horsemen in the past few months. The villagers, who normally did not pay much attention to strangers, were now even talking about these horsemen. They said that these horsemen seem to be looking for someone, but no one knew whom they were looking for. According to the villagers, the horsemen themselves were not sure about what the person they were looking for looked like.

Theos hide as they soared past him. None of the horsemen was aware of the nine-year-old boy staring through them- and Theos knew that. Theos knew that when he wanted, he could make people believe that he was not there. He knew there was something about him that his mother was not telling him. His mother was not his actual birth mother and most of the villagers knew about it.

He heard that he was a child of war. He was found by a soldier named Ischyros when he was about one. Ischyros then brought him to this village where a woman agreed to look after him. And so, the women, Roselin became his mother. Roselin was kind. She had lost her husband during the war. And when Ischyros brought the young Theos in the village, she immediately decided to raise him as her son. Theos was glad that Roselin was his mother. While he did not want to know about his biological parents, as he grew up, he slowly realized that something about him was different. And his biological parents may be the only one who could answer the questions he had.

There were things that he could see, hear and do that he knew was not normal. He could at times hear people from far away. And at other times he felt that he could even stop time. People often came to their house to get medicinal herbs since Roselin was an expert in treating wounds and sickness. And whenever the sick villagers came to their house, Theos would help his mother to nurse them back. He was about five years old when he first became aware of his powers.

It was a rainy night. The old man who lived in an old house near the edge of the village collapsed suddenly. His neighbours immediately brought him to Theos house. The old man was muttering in his dreams. He had a high fever and sweating heavily. As Roselin started to prepare the medicine, Theos wanted to help the old man. So, he went near the bed and held his hand. The moment Theos held the old man's hand, his vision became fuzzy. He could hear screams around him. He felt that he was running and running. Then he heard himself saying, "Stop, stop." But it was not his voice that he could hear but the old man's.

Theos opened his eyes. He was still holding the old man's hand. Roselin was still preparing the medicine at the corner while the neighbours who carried the old man were talking among themselves. Nobody saw Theos dark eyes change into blue when he held the hands of the old man. Theos did not understand why but he knew exactly what he had to do. He slowly put his hand on the forehead of the old man. The old man was having a nightmare and all he had to do was stop. He didn't know how he did it, but the old man started to calm down. The sweating also slowed down. Theos' felt warm as he withdrew his hand from the old man's forehead.

"Move aside, Theos," said Roselin as she brought the medicine. Theos immediately did as he was told and watched as Roselin treated the old man.

From then on Theos started to become aware of people and their suffering. Sometimes he would even enchant some complex incantations he wasn't even sure he knew. And it helped him heal people or stop their suffering. Whenever people would come to their house, he would heal them in some way and leave the rest to Roselin. The villagers all assumed that Roselin had the god's healing hand. And Theos was happy that no one was aware of him doing anything.

But for the past few months, he himself had been hearing people too much when he slept. They did not appear like a dream. It was as if the things he was hearing were happening. And that is why he had started to keep an eye on the road for any strangers that were passing through his village. This is when he started noticing the horsemen. Theos had a nagging feeling that they were looking for him. But he did not know why.

After watching the five horsemen pass through the village market, Theos slowly made his way to the market as well. The old man from the bakery was talking to one of his customers. Theos stopped a few blocks away from them and closed his eyes. He led his mind to roam near the two to hear what they were saying.

"…they have been asking about it everywhere," said the customer to the baker. "I heard from the village down the river that there have been lot of strangers that are asking the same thing."

"What were they asking there?'' asked the baker.

The customer looked around to make sure nobody was near them.

"They are looking for someone with a mark of a blazing sun on their body," whispered the customer.

"Blazing sun?" The baker was surprised. "I haven't heard of anyone with that kind of mark in any of the five villages around here."

"Yes," agreed the customer, "everyone from other villages is also saying the same thing. But they kept searching around these villages."

Theos opened his eyes. So, they were looking for someone with a blazing sun mark on their body. But as far as Theos knew, he did not have any such mark on his body. Were they really not looking for him? Something was definitely not right with everything that was going on. He must ask someone.

Theos then decided to go to the head priest of the temple.

"Theos, my boy," said an old priest when he saw Theos enter the temple. "What brought you here today? Did Roselin send you to get something?"

"No, master Erasmos," said Theos, "I came to see old master Azarios."

"He must be inside the main hall," said master Erasmos showing where Theos need to go. Thanking the old man, Theos made his way into main hall.

The old priest was sitting on a chair near the window reading some kind of letter when Theos entered the hall. He looked up and smiled when he saw Theos.

"Theos," called Azarious as he smiled and signalled Theos to come near him. "What brings you here?"

"Old man, Azarious," Theos was never able to sugar coat anything and would always get straight to the point, "There are many horsemen who have been asking the villagers some questions for the past few weeks."

"You have noticed, Theos," said the old man. Theos nodded his head. "And what do you think about it?" asked the old man again.

"They are looking for someone with the mark of a blazing sun."

"So?"

"But I do not have any mark," replied Theos.

"And how is their search related to you not having the mark, Theos?" asked the old man again.

"I don't know," Theos was confused.

Azarious looked at the young boy.

"Do you want them to find you, Theos?" asked the old man again.

Theos looked at the dark eyes of the old man. Somehow, he immediately knew the answer to the question.

"No," answered Theos.

"Well, then that should solve all the problems," a soft voice spoke behind Theos.

Both Theos and Axarious turned towards the voice.

There he was- a man standing near one of the chairs in the room. He was neither young nor old. He was just there. Theos could not sense anything from the man. Usually when he met people, he could hear or sense their thoughts. But with this man, he could not sense anything. And there was this feeling of immense calmness that Theos felt towards this man. Why was he feeling like this? He just had to touch the man's mind and he can find out.

"Do not think about doing anything, Theos," said the man to Theos. He was staring at Theos as if he could read what Theos was thinking. "Your plans shall fail to affect me." The man then turned towards Axarious and said, "I am here to collect my payment. I assume you have been informed?"

Theos looked at Axarious. The old man seemed to be even more shocked to hear from this newcomer. He looked more frightened.

"They did say someone will be arriving soon," said Axarious.

"Yes, and that would be me," said the man. "But I will have to wait for another person to join me before I could take my payment." He then looked at Theos. Theos stared back at him. This man felt like someone Theos had known for a long time but he was sure that he had never seen him before today.

"I would like to talk with young Theos here," said the man to Axarious. The old master stood up, placed his warm hand on Theos' head and then walked out of the room.

As soon as Axarious was out of the room, the man took a step towards Theos.

'Don't move,' said Theos but there was no sound from him. Somehow Theos knew that even if he was saying it within his mind, the man could hear him. The man stared at him. 'Who are you?' asked Theos to the man.

The man smiled at Theos.

"I am known by many names, Theos. Perhaps the name Dream Catcher would answer many of your questions," said the man.

Theos stared at this. So, this was it! It became all clear to him. How did he never think about it? What he was doing with people when they came to their house to get treated was catching their dreams or perhaps their nightmare.

"Am I one too?" asked Theos to the man.

"Perhaps or perhaps not," answered the man. "It will depend on what you want to be."

Theos stared at the man again. Theos always knew that he was special but all he wanted to be was just a normal person. As he grew up, he started to realise that his powers were growing and it would be difficult for him to hide them from everyone in the village. He had thought about it- a lot. But he did not know what he had to do to become normal. And that is why he wanted to know about his biological parents. So that he would be able to get some answers.

"I want to be nobody," said Theos.

"That would be a problem," replied the man.

But before Theos could say anything, the door opened and Ischyros walked in.

"Ischyros," exclaimed Theos when he saw the familiar soldier. He ran towards the soldier to hug, but as he neared him, he noticed that Ischyros was not looking at him but to the man.

"YOU…." Shock was visible in Ischyros' eyes.

"I have been waiting for you too, young child," said the man smiling at Ischyros. "Now I have both, I shall start. I am afraid we do not have much time…"