The Daughters of Merlin
Chapter 2: Nightmares

Merlin headed into his daughters’ shared room to wake them up. Despite being ten and eleven, Grace and Zana tended to sleep in unless someone were to wake them up.

Merlin grabbed a hold of the doorknob to open it, but found that the door was locked. Confused, Merlin uttered an unlocking spell and then opened the door. He gasped at what he saw.

It was cold.

It was hot.

The darkness faded away and was replaced by a clearing. There was a village around Her but Her eyes were only on the girl in front of Her. The girl had long, curly red hair and bright forest green eyes. She was wearing a green dress with a brown corset. The girl was so close that She could see her freckles on her nose. The girl was looking at Her worriedly. But then her worried expression became one of surprise.

The darkness faded away and was replaced by a clearing. There was a village but Her eyes were only on the large yellow dragon. It was covered in yellow scales with a tail, wings, and horns that were curled like a ram’s. It stood in a defensive stance, as if it was protecting something. The villagers tried to fight the dragon but failed to hurt it. As the dragon shifted, She got a glimpse of what it was protecting. A girl who was covered in flowers and grass.

They looked down at the same time and saw the spear protruding from the Ginger’s chest. The girl’s brown corset and green dress began to stain from her blood as she pulled the spear free from behind. The girl brought her green eyes to look into Hers. The girl had tears in her eyes as she uttered one word. “Run.”

They were gone. That was Her only thought. They were gone. What was She going to do? She hadn’t been able to protect them. She failed Her family.

Zana moaned in her sleep. She rolled off of her bed, stumbling to her feet despite the fact that her eyes were closed. Grace climbed out of her bed much more gracefully than Zana had, her also sleepwalking towards Zana who did the same.

As She turned around to run into the forest, the scene changed again. She was standing outside the cottage. There was a gorgeous brunette with mocha-colored skin wearing a plain dress that ran past the garden next to the side of the cottage to catch a little boy with pale skin and curly red hair.

The boy squealed as the woman caught him, sweeping him up in her arms. The woman turned around as if sensing Her presence. The boy’s eyes widened and his smile grew. The woman set the boy down and he ran towards Her.

As the woman turned around, She was struck by the woman’s beauty. Despite the plain clothing and the setting, the woman looked like a queen. Despite having no makeup to accentuate her features, the woman’s brown eyes sparkled as they met Hers. The woman was so gorgeous, and as her lips tilted up into a smile, she became even more so. She tucked some strands of her brown hair back behind her ear as she straightened up after putting the boy down.

“Papa, Untle!” The boy shouted as he ran towards Her. As he got closer, She recognized his ice blue eyes. They were the same as Jynx’s. Sᴇaʀ*ᴄh the (ꜰind)ɴʘvel.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Grace and Zana met each other perfectly in the middle of the room. Grace raised her right hand while Zana raised her left one. The girls placed their palms against each other’s and spoke in unison.

“Waters of my soul;”

“Fires of my heart;”

“Surface.”

“Ignite.”

At first, a dark green triangle appeared on Zana’s forehead but then it began to glow, turning purple. For Grace, the upside-down triangle first appeared black on her chin before glowing as it turned blue. The glow spread throughout both of the girls’ bodies until it enveloped them. Outside of the glow, frost began to cover Grace’s side of the room while black scorch marks began to spread along Zana’s.

It wasn’t until the room was either covered in frost or scorch marks that the glow and triangles suddenly disappeared and both girls fell to the ground, still unconscious.

This was what Merlin saw when he opened the door to the room. He looked at the perfect line where the frost met scorch in fear. He rushed over and knelt in between his daughters. He gently shook their shoulders.

“Grace? Zana?” Merlin asked worriedly.

Grace yawned as she opened her eyes. She winced slightly as she sat up. But then, as her brain woke up and she realized that her room wasn’t in the same state as it had been when she fell asleep she looked around scared.

Zana, on the other hand, woke up with a gasp, quickly sitting up and looking around at the room. She didn’t remember her nightmare from the night before, but she knew that it had been bad. And her eyes widened in fear when she saw the state of her room.

“Girls, what happened?” Merlin asked, becoming even more frightened by his daughters’ reactions.

Instead of replying, Zana scrambled back frantically until her back hit the wall. Her green hair began to spark with purple flames as her chest rose and fell rapidly.

Zana knew that she couldn’t control her magic perfectly, but she had never lost control like this before. She always prided herself on remembering her dreams, always dreaming of herself as a Mage like her dad. But for a moment, she couldn’t remember her dream. But then she realized that she had dreamt that she had set fire to her room. This realization didn’t calm her down however.

“Grace, what happened?” Merlin asked, looking at Grace. He knew that if he tried to approach Zana, she would most likely lash out or push him away. Despite being his daughter, Merlin knew that she was more powerful than him.

Tears began to spring to Grace’s eyes as she replied. “I-i-i dreamt that I froze everything.” Grace replied. For a moment, Merlin felt as if there was something she was hiding.

The truth was that she had. Grace didn’t tell him that she had had a dream before that. A dream of a Ginger girl, but Grace was used to that dream. What made her cry was the dream of the brunette. She had never had that dream before, and though Grace didn’t recognize the woman, she felt an enormous sadness fill her soul at the thought of her.

Merlin grabbed Grace and pulled her close. “Oh, Grace, it’s okay.” Merlin held Grace for a little bit, unable to help but look over at Zana and watched as his eldest daughter pulled her knees close to her chest and buried her head, her hands gripping her hair as it burst into flame. Merlin stopped rocking gently back and forth as he looked down at his youngest. “Grace, I know you’re scared right now, but Zana is too. Can you comfort her for me, please?”

Grace bit her lip, looking away from her father and over at her sister. Her eyes widened at the sight and she couldn’t help but feel a bit selfish as she had been focusing on her feelings. She hadn’t even thought about what Zana might have been feeling.

Grace scrambled to her feet, running over to Zana, who at the sound of movement, looked up and saw Grace heading towards her. Zana relaxed her legs holding her arms out to Grace.

Zana allowed Grace to sit on her lap, holding her younger sister close. She reveled in Grace’s cold skin, which cooled off her own. Without meaning to, Zana spoke. “Angel, I’m scared.”

Grace glanced down at Zana who rested her forehead on Grace’s shoulder. Grace was kind of grateful for this so Zana failed to notice her look. Grace had always looked up to Zana, for many reasons. Zana was stronger, braver, more confident, and better at her magic than Grace had ever been. But now, here was Zana, holding onto Grace like she was the stronger one.

“I am too.” Grace replied, truly meaning it, but she got the feeling that Zana was more afraid. “But . . . you know . . . it was just a nightmare, Zanie. You may have burnt your room and I froze mine . . . like I always say, exact opposites, . . . but we didn’t hurt each other . . . or anyone else. We’re okay, Zanie.”

Zana looked up at Grace. She saw that her younger sister was right. She usually was and this calmed Zana down. Zana noticed Merlin out of the corner of her eye and saw him smiling comfortingly at them. She expected fear in his eyes but there wasn’t any.

While Grace ran to comfort Zana, Merlin got up and he backed up til he was standing in the doorway. He looked down the hall and saw a black raven with black feathers that sometimes looked indigo when the sun hit it right and unusual purple eyes waiting on the rafters, looking down at Merlin.

“Care to explain?” Merlin whispered so he didn’t draw attention to himself and disturb his daughters.

The raven shrunk down into a fly and flew over to Merlin, landing on his ear so that the mage would be able to hear him.

“We locked away their powers to protect them. We think this was just a side effect of that. It won’t be happening again. They’ll be fine.” The creature assured him.

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