Kayel woke up with a shock, then begrudgingly laid back down. Another nightmare. He’d had too many of them lately. All terrifyingly similar, all featuring the same horrific, antlered monster. All these dreams hurting and tormenting him. Really, he just wanted one night of uninterrupted sleep.
“You alright?”
“Kayel?
Both Ksiel and Thitel were awake. Either he’d woken them up or they were awake before he’d woken up. Worse, he spotted Veeyel turning over. Whether he was awake as well, he had no idea, but immediately, Kayel felt bad about disturbing them.
“Just… a bad dream.”
“That’s what you always say,” Thitel moaned. “Every night the same thing. Bad dream after bad dream. Do you actually sleep?”
Kayel shifted, trying to find a new, more comfortable position to lie in. “Sometimes.”
“You mean never…” Veeyel muttered. He was definitely awake. Now Kayel felt even worse. His bad dreams were bad enough, but now he was keeping everyone else awake. They needed their sleep too.
“No, some-”
“You told me you rarely slept,” Veeyel grunted, struggling to sit up. “Either you’re lying about your bad dreams or you’re lying about how you sleep.”
Veeyel was right. As always. Kayel never slept. And he’d never done anything to really try and fix it. After all, Thanatian doctors always prescribed horrible sleeping medication and any other medic would want to know his long and complicated past. Kayel had no idea how he could explain what he even was to most other beings. A Threan-type Rethan with ties to the Thraki and the now-extinct Trehavok, who had been used and abused more times than he could count and was now infused with weird, death-related energy? Even that didn’t cover everything.
“It’s… it’s been far worse lately. Since Ksiel’s… suicide attempt. That was when the dreams started… I don’t know. It’s as if they were all bad omens. All around the same thing. I’m certain it has nothing to do with any of you, it’s probably just a phase.”
Thitel smiled as he glanced at Zitel, who was still fast asleep. “Maybe you just need to stop eating all that Thanatian cheese. I’ve seen you in the kitchen before bed time, snacking away.”
“That’s just a myth,” Veeyel butted in. “Cheese doesn’t give you nightmares. There’s a handful of studies that sugar can made Rethan dreams more intense but it’s hard to prove.” After a little more struggling, Veeyel gave up on trying to sit straight and decided to just turn over and go to sleep. “Either way, you need to fix this, brother. Because it’s starting to affect us.”
“I know…” Kayel sighed. “Maybe we’ll go to the library tomorrow and I’ll have a look while you all do your study.”
“You’ll go do that tomorrow. No maybes!” Veeyel snapped. “And maybe try eating less sweeties. I’m going back to sleep.”
Veeyel turned over again, huffing and puffing. Ksiel glanced at Kayel and Thitel then shrugged.
“I think he’s overworking himself.”
“Probably,” Thitel sighed as he too turned over, pulling his sheet over him. “Maybe we’ll get him to have a lie-in or two or something. He’s more tired than the rest of us.”
“Actually,” Ksiel was still shrugging. “I was going to suggest that we take tomorrow off. Veeyel gets to sleep in, we can stock up on supplies and maybe clear our heads a little bit.”
Thitel yawned. “Sounds like a plan to me. I’m happy to stay and chill here, but you two could head off into town. I’ll give you some money and you can get me some of those nice Cassid energy drinks.”
“Sure!” Ksiel smiled, then yawned, Thitel’s own yawning being rather infectious. “Let’s all get back to sleep then.”
Kayel nodded and laid back, tucking himself in. “Sleep well, brothers.”
“You too, matey.”