It wasn’t until the fire waned and was reduced to embers that Erin the Prophet finally collapsed from exhaustion. He’d been thrashing from side to side most of the night - his subconscious awash in despair and guilt at being the one responsible for bringing Bea into his realm. He had brought her to help stop Una and Obsidian from altering Grandma Rose’s fate and had promised her his guidance and support. But he had failed, not only in that task, but in his promise to find Aran and bring him back to her.
As Erin looked back on all that had happened, he did his best to understand his failures, but it was difficult for him. After all, he was the High Priest of his people and the ultimate Druid Prophet of his time. His connection with Earth’s magic had always been prodigious, and he could never recall a time when he felt helpless or unable to act on someone’s need. But now, not only had he failed Bea, he had become consumed with confusion and feelings of inadequacy. Something that had never happened before.
However, despite all of the upheaval within him, Erin never awakened. In fact, he sensed himself sinking deeper and deeper into a troubled slumber, even as other questions seethed up and pounded hard against his skull: How was he to reach out to Bea and help her with her current dilemma? How could he fulfill his promise to find and bring Aran back to her? How was he going to stop Una and Obsidian now?
His remorse grew and expanded into the early morning hours until he arrived at what he knew to be a significant juncture of this dreamscape. He felt his mind quiet somewhat, and he sensed that he would either be ushered back towards reality and find himself once again gazing into the soft embers of the fire inside the Cave of Dreams, or…he would sink ever-deeper into this hellish nightmare, caught between slumber and the plethora of difficulties boiling up within his subconscious.
He did not have to wait long for an answer. He remained asleep, still carried along by dreams, but no longer fraught with anxiety and confusion. He was now enveloped in an all-embracing calm. His body eased its flailing movement, and the myriad questions firing within his mind fell away. It was as if he now lay upon a cushion of air, floating lazily on the soft waters of tranquility. Then, in whatever state this was, he was able to open his eyes. The sky above was ink-black and filled with bright pin-pricks of light - a billion stars set against the vastness of space. Whatever remained of his anxiety and guilt melted away, and without actually making a conscious decision to do so, he rolled over and gazed downward. Directly below, he saw on a massive orb. It hung, seemingly unsupported, against the backdrop of the night sky – a blue ball with various shades of colour brushed across its surface. He had never seen such a magnificent sight. It humbled him and took his breath away! Then he noticed a second smaller orb, hovering farther in the distance, awash in an effervescent, white light with patches of grey scattered across its surface. This he recognized. It was the moon – the same moon that he had gazed upon all of his life as it crossed the skies of Alba. Then it hit him: Could the other more massive orb be mother Earth?
With that astonishing thought, Erin then began to feel his body more concretely. He became heavier and no longer floated easily above the huge ball in the sky. He began moving downwards towards it. At first, his descent was imperceptibly slow, but as he progressed, his momentum increased. He began to panic. His arms and legs flailed for purchase where there was none, in an effort to somehow slow his progress, as his plunge downwards towards the huge orb persisted at an even wilder, mind-numbing pace. His heart pounded uncontrollably, and he gasped at the horror flying up towards him. Then he did the only thing left to him. He screamed and yelled over and over, venting his wide-eyed terror at the gargantuan sphere rising up to meet him!
Erin’s mind fought against the inevitability of his fate. He closed his eyes, knowing that only seconds remained before he would meet a horrible and violent end, but…the seconds passed, and he was still alive.
Erin opened his eyes. He lay, still frightened and trembling but unharmed, in the damp, tall grass of a meadow on a cold, cloudy day. He sat up, doing his best to grasp what had just happened. Was he still asleep in the same traumatic dreamscape, or was he now actually and truly awake? The truth…he simply had no idea.
He checked to make sure that he was still in one piece. It seemed he was, so he studied the area around where he’d landed. It seemed familiar, like he’d been there before. A small hill lay in front of him only a short distance away. He felt a need to see what was on the other side, so he stood and walked towards its crest.
Once there, he looked down. The feeling he’d had of somehow knowing this place was confirmed. Sprawling out in front of him lay the city of Edinburgh. It was the Edinburgh, not of his time, when it had only been a small village, but of a time in the future when he had traveled there by Vortex, when it was a much larger, walled city with a castle at its center. He walked down the hill, weaving his way along its streets and narrow alleyways, as if he knew his destination. He ended up in front of an old inn. He read its name. It was called the Sheep’s Heid Inn. Walking through the front doors, he saw people sitting at rough-hewn tables eating, drinking, and talking. No one looked in his direction or paid him any mind. It was as if he was invisible. He ignored them as well and moved in the direction of a narrow stairway. Looking upwards, he felt the need to see what was at the top of the stairs. Reaching the landing, he walked straight ahead down a hallway, staring at several doors as he passed, wondering who might be within. Then he turned and looked back in the direction he had come. As he did, one of the doors opened. Voices could be heard emanating from inside the room.
