Dream Spinner
I started to nod, then shook my head. Rage began to build again. “You won’t take my beard,” I said, my hands shaking. “Before you do that, I’ll…”
“You’ll do what?” she snarled. “You dare make threats against me? Some type of nasty mite is crawling around in there, you old fool. That gnarled bush needs to come off.” She moved the scissors toward my beard.
My rage burning out of control, I slapped the scissors from Geldra’s hand.
She gasped. “Those mites are controlling your mind! They’re making you do crazy things!”
“Maybe they are,” I said. “And maybe that’s a good thing.”
“What are you saying?” Geldra cried. “Challenging my authority is not a good thing. Without me, you’d be done for. You couldn’t even keep yourself fed.”
“That might well be,” I said. “But at least I’d be a free man and not a slave.”
She raised her hand to slap me, then lowered it. “I’m done arguing. That beard has to come off, right now.”
Again, the rage erupted. “Try it and you’ll be sorry!”
Geldra laughed. “We’ll see who’s sorry, little man.” She bent to pick up the scissors but I kicked them away.
“Scum!” she shouted. She seized my beard and yanked it.
My rage boiled over. My blood was boiling too. I could feel something awaken inside me. “I’ll kill you for that!” I seethed.
My vision darkened, and the room began to waver. A sense of unreality washed over me. I tried to move, but something was holding me fast. I could feel thin strands like ropes all over me, binding me tightly.
With a roar, I tore myself free of the invisible bonds. I lunged forward and seized Geldra’s throat. I was suddenly strong, like the roots of the mountains. A fire raged within me, and in my mind old memories sprang to life. I could hear hammers falling on stone, and smell iron from the forge. Battle lust gripped me, and I squeezed her throat with the single-minded desire of choking her head right off of her neck.
Making hideous gargling noises, she fought back in a panic. Two more arms sprouted from her sides, and four new, crimson eyes opened in her forehead. She continued changing until she became the creature from my nightmares, as my vision darkened until it finally went black.
My eyesight cleared, and I found myself standing in a torch-lit stone cavern draped with thick webs. I stood on a web above the cave floor, and a chest full of shining treasure caught my eye from below. But my focus was on the giant spider I was strangling. Her eight legs were wrapped around me, trying to crush me before I could throttle her. But my back was protected by stout armor, and she couldn’t break it.
At last her legs grew limp around me, and I shoved the dead spider away. My hands were covered in her black blood, and I wiped them on my trousers. The stench would remind me of my victory in the hours ahead.
“You wanted my beard,” I said, kicking the bloated carcass. “You knew if you took that away in my dreams, I was beaten in life and you could have finished me off easily. But you underestimated me.”
Ripping the last of the webbing free from my legs, I grabbed my axe — which was hanging suspended nearby — tore it free, and jumped down to the cavern floor. The treasure chest still stood open, the gold and jewels sparkling in the glow of the torch I had dropped when the spider descended on me.
How long had I been snared in her web? How long had she kept me prisoner in that dream? Considering the torch still burned, it couldn’t have been very long. Yet it seemed like I had lived a lifetime trapped in that nightmare as a spineless man married to an overbearing nag. I struggled to remember, but already the dream was growing foggy in my mind, being replaced with memories of battle and adventure.
Chills crept down my spine, as I realized how thin the line between reality and fantasy could become. For a moment I lost focus, feeling vulnerable. But then I shrugged it off, my eyes lighting up at the sight of the treasure. I was a stout fellow, not given to dwelling on strange fears or doubts. Rather, this was a moment of celebration. I had slain a mighty foe, found my fortune, and my beard was still intact.
What more could a dwarf ask for in life?