Maghai's Dream

Maghai slipped into a deep sleep; seemingly unaware of the moving horse he was riding.

A gray pale mist swirled around the elf; his feet stood upon nothingness. Beneath him and all around him, he caught glimpses of the dim twinkle of stars through the mist.

A silhouette of a small short figure approached him through the mist; stopping just out of reach, just out of sight, only the shadowy image could be seen.

"Papa? Papa where are you?" a childs voice cried from within the mist.

"I can't find you Papa. I'm scared. Can't we just go home now?" Soon the sobs of a child filled the ears of the dalish elf.

Mist? Where did the mist come from? He hadn't ridden all the way back to the Kocari Wilds had he? No. It felt strange as if he was somewhere else but he couldn't put a finger on it. Stars. Oh! Stars were fun!

Maghai bounced about on the balls of his feet trying to grab a star or two for fun, knowing it wasn't possible but having a great time doing it. He smiled as he played around then a voice caught his attention. A child?

"Where are you little one?" He cried out at the child as he walked towards the voice, "I can't see you. Keep calling and I will help you find your papa."

"Where are you little one?" He cried out at the child as he walked towards the voice, "I can't see you. Keep calling and I will help you find your papa."

The swirling mist parted and laying on the ground, curled up in a ball was a blonde haired elf. His clothes were muddy and tattered. His dirty face was streaked from tears; his small body trembled with each sob.

"Papa, please help me." the elven boy looked at him; his eyes milky with only the faintest of blue within.

The child reached out, "Please Papa, take me home."

"Papa, please help me. Please Papa, take me home."

"Pappa?" Maghai tilted his head as he looked at the little boy and smiled at him as he picked the child up, "I'm not your Pappa but I will bring you home. Where is your clan? Maybe I can find them through the path lights. Path lights are never wrong."

As he thought of lights a path with shining flowers glowed revealing the direction of the child's father, not even realizing that every time he had ever made this small thought it had been magic which brought his feet to where he needed to go. Why it had not worked with Jezarine was beyond his comprehension but he knew it always was right.

"Why can't you be my papa?" the elven child looked up at him, tears in his eyes.

"I will be a good boy. I will eat my vegetables and go to bed when I am told" the boy pleaded.

The boy clung tightly to the elf, wrapping his arms around his neck and sobbing into his shoulder.

The path of lights that Maghai followed led through the mist and exited out into a field of tall grass

The golden grass sparkled; yet no sun shone on this field as the sky was as black as night. The wind gently pushed against their thin stalks, bending them ever so slightly. It was a mothers touch; gentle and forgiving. Yet she tested her child, pushing them to their limits without breaking them.

A large tree stood in the centre of the field, towering above the ground. The branches swirled around the trunk of the tree; circling it, almost as if the branches were being pulled back towards the centre. The colors of the leaves cascaded along the branches; bright leaves circled the outer most part as the colors darkened one shade at a time until the leaves were as dark as night long the branches closest to the centre.

A thin man stood facing the tree; his back to Maghai. He wore a long coat; its color that of the sky on a cold winter morning. The collar trimmed in white fur; with the cuffs of the sleeves to match.

A soft whisper on the breeze could be heard. It was as if someone was talking yet was so quiet that the voice was carried away.

Maghai chuckled as he ruffled the boy's hair, "That would be splendid but I can't steal someone else's child. That would be kidnapping and I may steal but I don't kidnap, oh no that is really really bad."

As they went along in the glowing grass he started to dance about, swinging back and forth but holding onto the boy tightly yet gently so as not to drop him. Maghai may have been crazy but he adored children and he knew how to take care of them. It was something he'd learned when young. He and Jezarine took care of other kids for the clan and it was so much fun.

Finally he saw the man near the tree and went towards him, "Hi! I'm Maghai and this must be your son? Right? This is your Papa isn't it?" He was as cheerful as ever, still almost dancing, moving back and forth to calm the boy.

The elven man turned to greet Mahai; His skin was sunken and shriveled. His eyes were milky, as they had lost their sight some time ago. The clothes he wore were once elegant robes; now they were tattered, smelling of mold and rot.

"I can no longer care for him. Please, you must protect him. You must keep him close, as there are those who would wish to see him harm."

With those last words he crumbled, but before his remains could hit the ground, a chilling breeze carried his ashes away.

"Uhm. Ooookkaaayyy." He looked at the boy and frowned, "Looks like your Papa wants you to be with me. What's your name? I'm Maghai."

He hoped that the child had not seen the man crumble but if he had then that was going to be really sad. Maghai waited patiently to give the boy the chance to tell him his name and to get over any upset he had.

The little elven boy wrapped his arms around Maghai, giving him a nice tight hug.

The boy seemed unaffected by the decay of the other elf, as he looked up at Maghai with big round eyes and a happy smile on his face.

"I knew you were my papa. Can we go home now papa? I have not seen home in so very long."

The boy began to skip and dance around the elf, humming an enchanting tune.

Maghai watched the boy for a while, a smile upon his face then put a hand on the boy's head and looked into his eyes while unknowingly casting a truth spell, "I don't have an actual home. I travel a lot so we have to be careful but I have to know some things so I know what we can do. What is your name and why are you here?"

He was curious about where this child came from, why he was so anxious to be with him and not his clan and what exactly was going on. The elf may have been crazy but he also had a curiosity which was very strong.

The boy pulled away from Maghai, "Why are you trying to hurt me?? Why can't we just go home?"

Tears were streaming down the elven boys face, his shoulders trembling as he sobbed.

"You don't want to be my papa do you? You are just like all the rest, leaving me here all alone."

His face turned from sad to angry, "If you won't bring me home, then I will take myself there"

The the child's voice turned from that of a little boys, into a deep guttural empty voice.

The skin of the boy seemed to stretch and tear as a large demonic creature tore its way out.

"All you had to do was take me home Maghai. Now I have no choice but too force you!"

"But I don't have a home. I don't even have an aravel." He pointed out to the child as he got more and more upset.

His eyes caught sight of a pretty flower and he clapped his hands and pointed, "Hey, there are pretty flowers here and ... oh." Maghai tilted his head as the child changed into a demon. He blinked at the creature then tilted his head the other way, "So that's why you didn't want to go back to your clan. You want a home in me. Well that's just silly. I'm not a mage."

He hopped about looking at the creature and clapped his hands again, "Oh! I haven't seen one of your kind! Let me see let me see." He put a finger to his lips and tapped them like his sister did with her little knife, "No you're not a rage demon. Too easy too easy."

For a moment he stayed within the range of the creature's arms then when he saw movement he seemed to disappear and reappear over by the flower which was about ten feet away, "It's so pretty!"

"With such a frail mind you should be easy to take. I will happily wear your skin and see the mortal realm through your eyes."

The demon flew towards Maghai, and with inhuman agility it spun around him, landing on the flower he was looking at.


"If you do not cooperate I will destroy all the pretty things that you like."

"You can't do that!" Maghai pouted as the demon spoke to him, "No no no no no! You can't get rid of all the pretty things because my sister would stop you. Yup she would you you meanie meanie go betweenie! Hey that rhymed."

He looked up at the demon and blinked, "So if you looked out from inside me would I see what you were seeing?"

"Yes, if I am inside of you, you will see what I see, because you will still be there." the demon said as he circled the blonde haired demon.

He reached out wanting to touch him, but stopping inches away, its hands trembling.

"Think of all the fun things we can do together Maghai. Think of the pretty things we will see, the places we will go. We will have so much fun together."

"All you have to do is take me home with you and everything I just said will happen, I promise."

Maghai turned around as the demon flew about. This was interesting and impossibly new to the elf. The words seemed fine enough, "There are a lot of fun things to do and I'd really like to be able to fly like that. That is really really neat. How do you do it? Do you fill yourself up like a hot air balloon? Thinking of hot air balloons, I've never been up in one of those either. That should be interesting, what do you think? Yes, a hot air balloon ride would be wild. I'm sure I can talk the wardens into making one. That would be really good for them and would help. Oh yes and they could see far distances like that with one of those long distance viewer things they say the Qunari have. I'm sure they would love to do that. You might like something like that too but I'm not sure what you demons do for fun. What kind of fun do demons like? I'm not into slaughtering bunnies or anything so horrible and it's just so ..."

He stopped mid sentence then ran off towards a sloth demon he noticed. Maghai bounced around the creature and yelped, "Oh! Slothy creature is really different. Can I have a sloth pet? He's such a good boy isn't he? He looks like some kind of prickly bear. Maybe he is a porcupine bear but he's got pretty sparse quills to be one of those. I wonder if those points hurt. They probably do hurt and I don't want that. Oooh pretty flower."

Maghai then rushed off to another flower and stood there poking at it, "Night Herb would love this one. I wonder if it is good for healing. It has to be something she could use because she is so good at using plants for almost anything."

The demon gave Maghai a bewildered look, "You do realize that your very soul is at stake here right?"

It snarled at the sloth demon, "THIS ONE IS MINE!!!" And out of nowhere a flaming blade emerged in it's hands and sliced through the sloth demon. It didn't even have a chance to defend itself as it's body was cleaved in two.

"Look at me Mage. You will give me your body mind and soul and I will be nice enough to let you experience everything that I Do. That is more than most would get."

Maghai was caught up playing with the flower's petals while the demon became disturbed about him not taking his soul seriously but flowers moree special than words. Jezarine made potions out of them and some could be usedd as "special" drinks with the right additives. This particular one was darrk purple that was almost black with red accents around the petals. He cut the stem and put it in his hip pack when he heard the attack on the sloth demon.

His head turned and he gasped at the sight of the halfed sloth demon. He ran over to it and petted its fur even though he did get pricked by a couple of thorns, "You meanie! You killed your friend. That was not nice at all. I don't think even Jezzie can fix that." He lifted a paw then let it fall back to the ground and gave it a sad look, "Now you have to come say you are sorry for killing him."

The elf got up from the ground and tthen skipped in behind the demon and tried to push him towards the dead demon, "Come on now. You were mean so you have to say you are sorry so his soul won't hate you now."

The demon was taken off guard by this, "You...want me to apologize to a corpse?"

The demon scratched its chin in thought, "Ok, I will apologize. But only on one condition. You let me in so we both can exit the fade and enter the real world once again."

The demon crossed its arms and waiting for its answer.

The demon's confusion at being told to say sorry to the sloth demon did not even phase Maghai as he was used to others being confused by him. He often wondered just how stupid others were because he felt he was only being reasonable with what he said most of the time. Maybe people were just too full of themselves to actually listen.

Now it wanted inside him. His brows moved as he thought about the request, or the exchange as it were, "Jez tells me to never let strangers in and you are a stranger, that's for sure. Now how do I know you're not going to do something nasty and maybe hurt her? Thaat wouldd not bee nice and I wwould not like that at all."

"Stranger? I thought we were friends Maghai. How can I be a stranger if I know your name? hmmm."

The demon circled Maghai, rubbing its hands together, licking its lips as if it was looking at something it was going to devour.

"We can be good friends Maghai. We will do everything together. All you have to do is let me in and then we can go home. There are lots of flowers at home aren't there? You like flowers right Maghai? How would I know that unless we were friends?"

Bright blue eyes squinted as his nose twitched and he grimaced, "There are no flowers at home." He huffed as if the demon was stupid, "'Cause I don't have a home. How can I take you home with me with no home to take you to?"

Maghai pouted, his arms over his chest then ran past the demon to a rock, "Oh what a pretty rock! I'm going to take it with me and call it Thadeus! Yup that I am. Hey." He tried to touch the rock but it moved, "Why is it ... is that a turtle?"

The demon growled in frustration as Maghai kept bouncing about, it was starting to give him a headache; that is if demon could even get headaches.

The demon circled around the golden haired elf, trying to figure out how best to approach this unique individual.

"I see you like turtles. If you stayed here and let me out you could play with all the turtles you wanted, and every flower imaginable. This place can make even your wildest dreams come true. Turtles do not exist here, this place read that from your mind and created it for you."

"This place will show you wonders that only your imagination could think of. What to you say my friend? Do we have a deal?"

The demon was clearly losing its patience, its voice wavered slightly, as if it was trying extra hard to keep its calm.

Maghai looked up at the demon then stood. He tilted his head from one side to the other while it tried to give him ideas of what he should do. His eyes were wide open as if he were trying to figure something out and he probably was because he kept doing the side to side tilt like a child trying to choose candy.

"Are you drooling?" He asked as if he had not heard a thing the demon had said, which he hadn't.

There was a bell sound and he turned his head quickly then ran off towards nothing and waved back, "I think they are stopping for supper so I have got to go now. Jezzie would be real upset at me if I didn't help her out. Nice meeting you!"

The demon couldn't hold it in any longer.

It bellowed in rage, and leaped at Maghai, its arms outstretched in hopes that he could wrap his arms around him, and prevent him from going.