The Sleeping Beauty - Book 1 - Chapter 33
I rested for the rest of the evening on a bed of hay. By the next morning, I regained my strength
Fairy tales are real.
Rose Briar is a diabetic college student without insurance. She’s been scraping by through a combination of maxing out credit cards and relying upon the kindness of strangers.
Unfortunately, she’s spent every dollar at her disposal. There’s no money left to buy her life-saving insulin.
Without her medication, Rose falls into a diabetic coma. She tumbles into a deep slumber and wakes up in a fantastical place called the Dream Realm, where fairy tales and legends of old are still very much alive.
She has one chance to wake up.
She must trek across the world, visit the most powerful object in the land, the Obsidian Spindle, and entreat with the fates; the only beings powerful enough to send her soul back to Earth.
But evil forces don’t want her to leave. They will stop at nothing to capture her and make sure she never goes home again.
Now, with the help of her half-gorgon girlfriend and a mysterious red rider, Rose must race across the land fighting dragons, monsters, and the forces of the Wicked Witch, Nimue, in order to reach the Obsidian Spindle before her body dies on Earth and she’s trapped in the Dream Realm forever.
Will she be able to wake up? Can she survive? Find out by reading The Sleeping Beauty today. If you love mythology, fairy tales, and dark fantasy, then you’ll love the first book in The Obsidian Spindle Saga.
Paid subscribers can access the entire archive of this series from the beginning, along with other series and every article I’ve ever written. If you aren’t a paid subscriber, you can access the archive for free with a 7-day trial.
I rested for the rest of the evening on a bed of hay. By the next morning, I regained my strength. I picked myself up and walked out of the thatched-roof hut to find a little village. The houses were all made from mud and covered in the same kind of hay that I rested on in my infirmed condition. There were no paved roads in the little town, just dirt, but the people passing by looked happy enough, even if they were a little dusty. A couple sat over a black kettle as it cooked, while children ran around and played with sticks, rocks, and kites.
“Over here,” I heard from behind me. It was the red-haired woman, now with a much thicker Irish accent than I remembered her having in the woods. She was sitting under a tree sewing a bag.
I walked over to her. The wind was light against my skin, and the air smelled of fresh grass. I hadn’t noticed the smell the whole time I was in Urgu, but for some reason, in that moment, every scent felt more vibrant.
“This is a far cry from fighting,” I said, sitting down.
“Fightin’s not all we do. It’s just a piece of what we do, when we have to.” She glanced at me, then focused again on her work, pulling the needle through the burlap. “You use magic. Not many people here can use magic.”
“I’m not most people.”
“Yes, I’m aware of that.” She placed the half-finished bag down and looked at me. “What god do you serve then?”
I chuckled. “I don’t serve a god.”
She leaned in and whispered hoarsely, a knowing smile on her face. “I don’t believe you. The only ones who can use magic here gave their souls to one of the gods trapped in this place.”
“Like Hypnos or Hera?”
She nodded. “That’s two of them, except Hypnos isn’t trapped here. He’s here by choice. This is his domain.”
“And he’s lost.”
“Aye, that too.”
“What other gods are there?”
The woman used her finger to draw what looked like a kidney bean on the ground. Above the concave part of the bean, she drew a little circle.
“Up here,” she said, pointing to the circle. “That’s the Obsidian Spindle. The most powerful object in Urgu, maybe the whole universe.”
I nodded. “I’ve heard of it.”
“Good. Back before the universe existed, there was nothing but darkness.”
“We can skip that part, I think.”
“Fair enough. But you should know that for a time, this land didn’t exist. It wasn’t until Zeus gave humanity the spark of life, that this place was created.”
“Why then?”
“Because while we are all born with the spark inside of us, our bodies are too brittle to handle it. The charge keeps building up, and we needed a place to disperse it.”
“Like a battery.”
“I dunno what that is, but…sure. If that helps you, then yes. That’s when Hera decided that dreams would be the perfect place to keep the excess energy. The gods created the Sleep Realm and granted Nox, goddess of Darkness, dominion over everything there. In turn, Nox broke this land in half, into the Dream Realm, and the Nightmare Realm. She gave control of the Dream Realm, this realm, to her son Hypnos, and the Nightmare Realm to her son Epiales.”
“I’ve been there, it sucks.”
“It is home to the most fearsome things in the universe. If Nox had not separated them, then the Nightmare Realm would have overrun this place eons ago. The fact that you survived being there says a lot about you.”
“Well, I had help from my mother,” I replied. “But this doesn’t explain anything about what’s going on here, or the gods trapped here.”
“I’m getting there. I’m getting there. I’m sorry. I get lost in my own stories, but I promise I’m getting there.”
“Fine.”
“So, in the beginning, there was only Hypnos in this realm, y’see? He bent this place to his will and created the continent of Urgu. For a time, things were good, though he was lonely. That’s why he allowed humanity to settle on Urgu—certain parts of humanity, at least. Those without bodies and those without consciousnesses.”
“Right. People in a coma and people who died in their sleep.”
“The gods would not allow him to take everybody, but they granted him some leeway as to those who were allowed to inhabit his land. Again, things thrived.”
I pressed the bridge of my nose with my hand. “I’m on my last nerve with this story.”
“You have no respect for the art of narrative.”
“I’m a product of my generation. We like things quick and easy. Unfortunately, I have a feeling there’s not a Wikipedia entry about this.”
“I don’t know what that is.”
“I know. Just keep going.”
“Over the centuries, Urgu thrived, even though it was cut off from the outside world.”
“Why was it cut off?”
“Ah, see. I would have told you if you didn’t force me to go faster.”
“You got me there.”
“It was cut off because the realm of dreams cannot cross over to the realm of man. The dreams we store here, the ones that power everything, are volatile and unstable to humanity. If anything were to happen, and the dreams were to reenter the world, well, humanity would…it would not be good.”
“Explosions or something? People exploding with too much of the god particle?”
“We don’t know for sure, but yes, we assume something like that. That’s why the Dream Realm and the Nightmare Realm are cut off from the outside world through barriers which lock them away from the rest of the universe. And it’s why they make excellent prisons.”
“Prisons?”
“For the only type of being that cannot be imprisoned anywhere else.”
“Gods.”
“Exactly.”
“Epiales refused to act as a jailer, but Hypnos, the ever-dutiful son, accepted the burden.” The woman drew a line down the center of the bean. “First, it was Hera. She and Hypnos battled for control of Urgu, and eventually split the land in half.”
The woman drew a line from the middle to the right side. She pointed to the top left. “Then, Loki, trickster god.” She pointed to the top right of the map. “Agrona, goddess of slaughter.” Then she drew a second line down the middle. “Eventually, Hera and Hypnos were relegated to the middle of the land, closest to the Obsidian Spindle, with Hypnos in control of the island that housed the Obsidian Spindle, and the bridge which spanned between it and the mainland. This was where he set up his great city, Oz, and blocked Hera’s minions from his land by the Great Wall.”
“Why were they locked into the middle?” I asked.
She pointed to the bottom right. “Because Sekhmet was sent here, and needed a place to rule, so Hypnos ceded some of his land to her.” She pointed to the bottom left. “And so was Anansi, which meant Hypnos lost more and more. He is a kind god, but Hypnos is not a warrior. He could not fight six gods. Six gods vying for the same land, which is why I ask you: What god do you serve?”
I looked at her. “What god do you serve?”
“I don’t serve any, thus why I am destined for a life of poverty. I do have an affinity for Agrona, though, being a Celt myself.”
“And who are you, exactly?”
“They called me Deidre in my old life.” She shook her head and shifted her eyes to the ground. “The woman who started a war because she pursued the love of her life and humiliated a king.”
“What happened to him?”
Diedre sighed. “He died in battle, not in his sleep, so I’ll never see him again.”
“That sucks,” I said after a long silence. I was never good at emotion, but I knew enough to understand that to get Diedre to help me, I needed her to like me. “My girlfriend, the love of my life, fell into a coma, and I came here to save her. That’s why I can use magic. I’m not from here. I didn’t wake up here. I’m just here. But you are from here, so maybe you can help me.”
Diedre stared at me for a moment, sizing me up. “I’ve already done my bit for you, but I will try to do more if I can.”
“Do you know the Happy Dragon Inn?”
Diedre nodded. “I’ve heard of it. It’s not far from here.”
“Can you take me to it?”
She nodded again. “Of course, but I was hoping you’d help me first.”
My eyes narrowed at her. “Help you do what?”
A wry smile crossed her lips. “A job that is particularly suited for your expertise. The Wicked Witch has a group of my men held prisoner. They are being guarded by a giant. We can’t fight it alone, but with your help, we stand a fighting shot.”
I stood up. “No way, I almost died once today. That’s enough.”
“Fine. I guess you could find that inn on your own.”
“Are you kidding?” I asked, flailing my arms in frustration. “I saved your life on the road earlier. Or don’t you remember when I fought that dragon?”
She stood. “And we saved yours. Now, a favor for a favor. Help us, and we’ll bring you to your beloved. I swear it by the old gods.”
I snorted. If I could have breathed fire, I would have, but instead I just snarled at her. “Fine. But I don’t have to like it.”
She shook her head. “No, you don’t. You just have to do it.”
Fairy tales are real.
Find out by reading The Sleeping Beauty today. If you love mythology, fairy tales, and dark fantasy, then you’ll love the first book in The Obsidian Spindle Saga.
Paid subscribers can access the entire archive of this series from the beginning, along with other series and every article I’ve ever written. If you aren’t a paid subscriber, you can access the archive for free with a 7-day trial.