Deep in the depths of the Aalen forest,
a stone's throw away from my village home,
there sits a shallow, tranquil lake
where the wild deer and rabbits roam.

And one warm day, on an absent stroll,
I sat upon its verdant bank.
Threw a pebble at the rippling surface
and watched it as it slowly sank.

And after turquoise water stilled,
my shifting reflection, i did see
with skin so pale and ashen because
dreams were recently plaguing me..

With each moment that i slumbered,
such graphic visions came to mind
horrible, oblique, and terrifying,
with no meaning that i could find.

A obsidian soldier that i respected,
marked as a silent Infernal knight,
now unsheathing gleaming swords,
to kill my companions in a bloody fight.

A gaunt and bony beggar child,
so obviously hungry and very ill..
blue eyes revealed her heritage:
her father, the mhun guard i had killed.

A vivid angel of the heavens
She sparkled so very brilliantly,
but dropped me between good and evil
to taunt my perpetual neutrality.

An idyllic field that houses a viper,
possessed with random intent to slay:
this method so remarkably familiar
of long-lost days as Serpents' prey.

My dear ones with their gleaming knives
ready to plunge into my startled chest
not even a vision from my imagination
just old memories in swirling unrest

Every night, my soul is haunted.
I dare no longer to close my eyes
The reason for my singular torture,
i can't begin to identify.

So now I implore of She of Sleep,
there's just one thing i wish to know.
Valnurana, Goddess of Dreams,
why do You deign to punish me so?


-Naiad Episte

Penned by my hand on the 19th of Lupar, in the year 247 AF.