Chiffon’s body shook uncontrollably before bolting upright. Sweat formed on her forehead as she panted for breath. She raised her hand and placed it over her chest, to calm her wildly beating heart.
“Chiffon?” William asked. “Did you have a nightmare?”
Due to their current circumstance, William didn’t dare to sleep deeply, so he was immediately woken up by Chiffon’s sudden movement. At first, he thought that they were under attack. However, after spreading his senses, he didn’t detect any threats in their surroundings.
Just to be on the safe side, he asked the System to do a detailed sweep of the area to ensure that they were indeed safe from harm.
“Big Brother.” Chiffon buried her head on William’s chest as her body shuddered from time to time. Clearly, she still hadn’t recovered from the nightmare that she had experienced.
“Don’t worry, I’m here,” William said softly as he patted Chiffon’s head. “You’re safe.”
A few minutes passed and Chiffon finally regained her calm. She leaned her body on the Half-Elf as if she was seeking whatever warmth and assurance that William could provide her.
Usually, when people had a nightmare, they were afraid to go back to sleep. William understood this, so he firmly hugged the girl in her arms to let her know that she was not alone, and it was going to be alright.
In time, the shivers that plagued the girl stopped, and her breathing had also returned to normal.
The two were currently staying inside the room that was provided to them by Xavier. Although the son of the patriarch offered to give them a room each, William decided to let Chiffon stay with him because although they were siding with Xavier, he still didn’t fully trust the man.
Besides, it would be easier to coordinate on the battlefield if Chiffon was with him, rather than away from him.
William looked at the clock on his status page, and saw that it was only three in the morning. They had rested early during the night, so the Half-Elf didn’t think that it would be a big deal if they were to not go back to sleep again.
Since that was the case, he decided to ask the little girl what she dreamed about. William hoped that he would be able to give her counsel and assure her that it was only a dream.
“What did you dream about?” William inquired. “Can you tell me?”
Chiffon didn’t answer right away. It seemed that recalling her dream was something that she was not too keen to do. Several minutes later, the pink-haired girl looked up at William and told him what she had dreamt about.
“Big Brother, in my dream, someone tried to kill you,” Chiffon said. After saying those words, her body shuddered as if the mere thought of it scared her.
William didn’t comment and waited patiently for Chiffon to tell her everything that happened.
According to the girl, William and her were in this strange dark forest that was covered with snow. The trees were over ten meters tall, and the surroundings looked grim and inhospitable.
At the center of that vast forest, was a mountain that reached high up to the sky. It was so high that Chiffon couldn’t see its peak, similar to the Tower of Babylon whose height was immeasurable.
“There are very tall people living inside that forest. They were as tall as the trees,” Chiffon said as she moved her hand upwards as if to point out how tall they were.
“I wasn’t as tall as them. But, I was still bigger than Big Brother.” Chiffon looked at William and her eyes turned into crescents. It was as if her eyes were laughing at him. “Big Brother was so small, and so cute.”
William smiled. He noticed the slight curl at the corner of Chiffon’s lips, which meant that the girl was feeling happy. Although the pink-haired girl called him small and cute, it didn’t matter as long as she was happy.
“Big Brother was injured, so I decided to take you to my favorite place in order to nurse you back to health.” Chiffon continued her tale. “The tall people eat humans, and I was afraid that they would eat Big Brother if they discovered you in our land.
“I would visit you from time to time after I scavenged for something edible to eat. That winter was harsh, and there was very scarce food in the forest. Fortunately, Big Brother was small, so he didn’t need a lot of food to eat.”
William lightly patted Chiffon’s head and asked the question that was nagging in his mind. From the beginning, she kept on calling him small, which meant that she was quite big. Now, the question was, how big was she in her dream?
“How tall were you in your dream?” William inquired.
Chiffon pondered for a while as her expression became serious. She was seriously trying to estimate her height in the dream that she had.
“Around five to six meters,” Chiffon answered. “I was the smallest in the forest. Everyone was three to four times taller than me.”
William smirked. He thought that the girl was very conscious of her height, so he assumed that the dream she had, made her a giant to compensate for her height in real life.
“Big Brother had almost recovered from his injuries, when my hiding place was discovered by one of the giants that roamed the forest.” Chiffon’s expression became serious when she reached this part of her story. “Big Brother tried to run away, but you couldn’t outrun the giant. In the end, you got caught and were about to be eaten.
“That was the scene that I saw when I arrived after scavenging for food. I immediately ran to your rescue, and bit the leg of the giant that was holding you captive.”
Chiffon started to pant and William patted her head in order to help her calm down. A few minutes later, she regained her composure. The pink-haired girl wrapped her arms around William and held him tight.
“The giant screamed in pain and released his hold on you,” Chiffon said while her head was buried on William’s chest. “I was able to catch you, and was about to run away when the giant grabbed hold of my hair. He then grabbed a nearby tree and used it as a wooden club to beat me up.”
Chiffon’s body shuddered and she started to sob. “In the end, I collapsed and he pried you from my hand. The last scene I saw was the giant putting you inside his mouth. That is the time that I woke up.”
William coaxed the sobbing girl and whispered words of assurance in her ear that it was only a dream. After a quarter of an hour, Chiffon’s body grew lax as her tears stopped falling. Clearly, her dream had scared her greatly, especially the part when William was about to be eaten by the giant.
“Don’t worry,” William whispered. “Your Big Brother is so strong that even a giant can’t eat me. You should have seen me fight against a Giant Golem and a Phoenix! It was two against one. One was a Pseudo-Demigod, and the other was a Demigod. However, they were no match to me. If I can beat those two weaklings, how can I be eaten by a mere giant?”
William tooted his own horn and bragged about the exploits that he didn’t do. However, his bragging had achieved its intended effect. Chiffon, stared at him wide-eyed as the Half-Elf spun a tale of epic proportions.
A tale where he single handedly fought an army of Elves, using his bare fists.
