Dream Worlds: People of the Mountain

So I get a lot of complex dreams. Lot of weird ones. Lot of dark ones. But sometimes very complex ones with plots of their own. I am a character in a story. It can be fantasy, sci fi, or a mystery or a bit of a mix.

I generally think people are not into hearing about people’s dreams but when I tweeted I had one of these dreams that inspired another story someone was interested… yet it is hard to tweet all that in there. Thus this post. My last series with my sorcerer, Irelynne was from a dream. My new WIP about reincarnation… a dream. And this one, a dream. Now it doesn’t get me all the way… it is the Fire that starts the story. Molds my plot and character.

So here is my dream. People of the Mountain

Backstory

The backstory are things I Know in the dream already to be true and just Are. Like there was a plague a long time ago. And the people who lived in the area isolated themselves in the mountain they mined until the fire of the plague burned out. But then by the time they did other people had come to their land and settled. There was a conflict and they wouldn’t allow the people of the mountain out at night and during the day, only to hunt, fish, gather in designated areas. This was because the people of the mountain… were abnormal to the city folk. Witches. They could do things with their mind. Knew things no one could know about a person. Twist someone’s heart. But the city folk were warriors and they were many and the mountain people were few and they needed peace, so they remained prisoners in their mountain.

Although trade goes in and out with the city and surrounding islands.

The main character

Who I played in this dream was one of the mountain people but a strong. So strong I lived deep in the lower levels in rooms designed for meditations to center oneself, created to be utterly silent of any mental chatter. Because she was so strong even though her people had exceptional mental shields she picked up on a lot of mental chatter. It was all so painful to her. So she self-isolated most of the time. And they protected her because of her strength. She was valued and treasured. And feared.

The plot

So the main character wakes up but not to silence. To this mental hum in her head that is annoying and she cannot pin it down. For the first time in a long time she begins to move to the upper levels and as she does the minds of those around her spark up and the hum gets more insistent… and not close… not in the mountain at all but from the city. (interactions occur with her people here as well as she leaves)

And so she begins to make her way to the city. Down the mountain path and to the main road. People do not just stare, they are hostile. However, she is not afraid. She is focused on this hum. She simply bats them away with her mental attacks (no need to get into that suffice to say… she gets through).

She makes her way to a villa and into the house where the servants do not try to stop her. Into a room where there is a man meditating. And he is the source of this immensely loud mental hum overpowering her mind by then.

She stalks up to him and crouches down. He is oblivious to her. She opens herself to his mindscape and is flooded with image upon image of timeline and possibilities. She jerks back and knows what he is. Something she has no seen at all since the plague wiped out most of her people. He is a prophet.

His eyes snap open and they are a solid white but slowly the whiteness fades back to his dark blue. He tells her he knows she would be there. That she had to be. That there was about to be a massive earthquake. Even as he spoke the earth rumbled slightly. He says it will destroy the mountain caves, and her people, and his. Unless she acts immediately and shows her true strength.

The earthquake does happen. And it is violent. And she does stop it like sealing a wound.
She asks him how he knew for certain since Prophets dealt only in possibilities. He says sometimes possibilities become facts. He knew they would be destroyed. He also knew the only possibility of their survival was in making her stir from the mountain. So he did. And he knew it would lead to problems between the city and the mountain in the future but at least they would be alive.

Scene end- I wake up

Anyway, I cannot use it all. Like the last bit. The flaw in a story is making a character too powerful. Unless I made it a short and sweet short story with the ending that occurred to me just as I woke up but I’ll keep that to myself. But I will use her people and culture and the city people and culture as a lift off for a story. A world as it were. And a good solid character for that world. And I have already designed an obstacle for her… with that prophet… instead of the earthquake should I go with a novel.

It is very much a story of colonization and control. And her fearlessness that could end up with the slaughter of her people.

Anyway, it was vivid in the cultural details on both sides. And I think a very good lift off point for a novel or I could make it into one fine short story with a twist. One or the other. Haven’t decided yet.