still pudgy. He paused to wipe the sweat off his face with his tee shirt, not that it would do much good, since his shirt was already totally saturated.
David started crying. 'I can smell Mom's cooking. Camp's right there. Can I go sit down now?'
'Yeah, go,' I jerked a thumb back toward camp. I could smell it too, and my stomach rumbled. 'And don't be such a baby.' I felt like a complete asshole as I said it, but I had started having the dream again, at least once a week now. Some nights I couldn't sleep at all, even when the dream didn't come, just because I couldn't get it out of my mind. I didn't pretend to understand the dream, but I knew it was true. My children couldn't afford to be weak.
'Dude, drop your pack. I'll take it,' Owen offered to his brother as he glared at me. Yeah, the boy may be chunky, but he'd inherited my mean streak. Good. Let him be angry. It gave him something to focus on. David shrugged out of the pack and handed it to his big brother. Owen cradled it in his arms as David ran for our campsite.
'This was supposed to be a fun weekend,' he said.
'Fun is relative,' I answered. 'Having the strength and the knowledge to survive anything the world throws at you isn't supposed to be fun. But it makes you a man. So man up and quit your crying.'
'You don't always have to be such a jerk.' Owen spat as he walked away.
If only you knew, boy… if only you knew.
I took my time following them into camp. The forest was actually very peaceful as sunset approached. He was right. This was supposed to have been a vacation. I had retired from the Army a few years ago, and was now working as a bookkeeper, of all the idiotic things… So it wasn't like I got to spend a lot of time in the great outdoors anymore.
My wife was waiting for me, arms folded, scowling, her blonde hair pulled up underneath a handkerchief. She smelled like wood smoke.
'Keeping the home fires burning, huh?' I joked.
She didn't think I was funny. 'Ten miles? You made them walk ten miles, and after skipping lunch?' She had grown up in a home where they often went hungry because of Communist ineptitude. To my wife, missing a meal as an American was a serious offense, because this was the Land of the Free, damn it.
'I have to do stuff like this… You know it.'
God bless her, she at least believed me. 'You've been distant lately. The dream again?'
'It's been bad.' The sound of an acoustic guitar started back at the tent. It was actually rather good. David certainly had a gift for that silly thing.
Ilyana nodded slowly, understanding. She was as pretty as the day I had first seen her, sneaking her dissident family over from the wrong side of the Iron Curtain. 'You know that I trust you, but what if you're mistaken? Your children think you're a beast, you know. You push them too hard. And what if you're wrong?'
'I pray every day that I'm wrong.' I bit my lip. Saying this made my voice tremble and break, and tears welled up involuntarily in my eyes. 'But I know I'm not. I hear the war drums. Some day one of those boys will be known as the god slayer and that's before it even gets really rough.'
No father should have to know that it is his son's job to die saving the world.
Dad can cry?
I was back in the room, still clutching Dad's arm. I let go, shocked by how hard I had been squeezing. There was an imprint on his forearm and he looked at me, stunned.
'Son, what's wrong?'
It was the same thing that had happened a few days ago with Agent Myers. Somehow I was seeing other people's memories. I shook my head. Only a few seconds had passed. I was nauseous and dizzy. When I closed my eyes hard I could still see the lightning shapes moving in the corners. They slowly dissipated. Stupid artifact. This vision brought to you by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Forces of Evil.
One of his sons had to save the world? I already had. Mordechai had told me that I had been picked before I was born for that job. How had Dad known so long ago? 'You had a dream?' I asked. 'What's this dream show you?'
Dad was confused. 'What are you talking about?'
I began to babble. 'All these years, the way you treated us, the stuff you taught us. The shooting, the fighting, the survival skills, it was all because of a dream? God slayer?'
My normally imperturbable old man suddenly looked like he had stuck his finger in a light socket. 'How do you know about that?' he demanded.
'Tell me!' I shouted. This startled Mom and Julie.
Dad shoved himself back from the table and stood. 'No!' he bellowed. 'You can't know about that. You can never know.'
'Calm down, dear, remember your condition,' Mom scolded.
My father began to pace like a caged bear. It was almost like he was nervous. But that was impossible. 'I kept it from you, because.. I was scared.' He had never said that phrase ever before. Auhangamea Pitt was scared of nothing, or at least that's what I had told myself my entire life. 'I was scared for you, even before you were born. I didn't want to believe the promise. It was just too terrible, but in the back of my mind, it was always there, so I tried to get you ready. That was my duty. The dream taught me what I had to do. Preparing you boys was my calling. That's why I've done what I've done. That's why I got so mad at David when he ran away. I was so fixated on this that I chased my own son away, and when that happened, I swore that I would forget about the damn dream and never talk about it again. You were grown, and I'd done my best, so my job was finished.'
I placed my hands on the table to steady myself. 'Dad, listen, it doesn't matter now, but I need to find out what you've seen.'
He shook his head. 'I'm… I'm not ready.'
It was my turn to be the bossy one for once. 'Well, you damn well better get ready then, because some serious shit is going down.'
'Don't cuss,' Mom snapped automatically.
Dad quit pacing, returned to the table, and slowly sank into the chair. He seemed to shrink. That scared me. 'I've had this dream for decades. In it, one of my sons has to die to save the world from something terrible…' He sounded tired as he revealed his burden.
This whole thing was so damn shocking that I actually laughed out loud. 'Dad, it's okay! The stuff you taught me paid off. I've already saved the world. It's okay. We beat the terrible thing last summer, and I'm still alive.'
'No,' he stated solemnly, like a man who knew his torment wasn't yet over.
'Mr. Pitt, really, it's okay,' Julie said soothingly. It was weird to hear her call my father 'Mister,' but it wasn't like she knew him at all, and she still didn't know how to pronounce his first name properly anyway. Too many vowels. 'Owen's telling you the truth. I was there. He did what he was supposed to, and we all lived.'
'No.' Dad shook his head. He looked like he was going to cry. I had never seen that before. It was making me very uncomfortable. 'What I've seen hasn't happened yet. What you've seen so far is nothing. There are still a few signs left.'
'What are you talking about?' I had done my job. I had stopped the Cursed One. What else did they want from me? 'Signs?'
My father began to speak, but there was a commotion out in the hall, and a sudden banging on the door. The door flew open, revealing Trip Jones. He was really excited, and his appearance indicated that he had run here. He must have just gotten back from exterminating trolls. 'Sorry to interrupt, but you guys need to come with me right now. Z, Julie, you've got to see this. It's really important.'
'Damn it…' I muttered. Mom scowled. 'Sorry.' I stood and pointed at my father. 'We'll talk later.'
Dad pushed away from the table. 'Owen, son…' And then he surprised me. He grabbed me awkwardly by the shoulders, pulled me close, and gave me a hug. He had never actually done that before. I was 25 years old, and had never actually been hugged by my father that I could remember. I was too shocked to respond. Finally I patted him on the back.
'Ahh… how nice,' Mom said.
After a brief moment, he let go. 'Give me time to think, then we'll talk. I didn't know if this time would ever really come. I'll tell you everything.'
Trip jerked his thumb down the hall. 'We've got to get to Milo's workshop.'
