The First Ones

Date: 3/4/2022

A man in his 60s or 70s somehow awakened 3 ancient, powerful magical creatures. These creatures could transform between their huge elemental beast forms and humanoid form where they more or less looked like regular women in cosplay. This trio was amused by the man, especially after seeing how he interacted with his young grandchildren (the oldest was around 12) without patronizing them. So, the powerful beings offered a contract where they would serve then man as their master and he agreed. This led to a peaceful arrangement for awhile, the creatures mostly doing their own things within the man's rules but also helping him to build some things. A library in his basement and something else in the attic of his other house. The man had two houses next door to each other because he wanted to give one of them to his grandchildren when they were old enough -- he saw potential in them to create things the same way he did and they would need a place for those creations even if they didn't live in the house itself. His plans for these houses were excessive -- so were his creations and experiments that were already happening -- and they started to get the attention of his local government. After sending some people to inspect his work, the government officials decided it would be a smart idea to stay on the man's good side. They gifted him some empty land on the edge of town, which looked like either a natural crater site or an abandoned mine. He agreed to take the land and took his grandchildren and contracted creatures to check it out. In the crater itself, which they had to use old wooden platforms and stairs to access, there was a large boulder halfway buried into the ground that almost looked like a skull and had crystal-like protrusions coming out of it in random places. When one of the creatures went through one of the skull-like openings, she found an underground pond filled with things the creatures loved -- including piles of gold coins and shiny jewels. The man and his grandchildren didn't think of profit at all, they were just happy their creatures had a nest. One of the grandchildren also treated the gold and jewels themselves as a nest and celebrated their shininess with the creatures. As it got dark, the humans went back home and the creatures chose to stay. They promised the man that they would be fine, and that through the pond (which they could somehow turn into a portal to the basement) they could easily defend both this place and his home. He agreed and left them to settle into their new space. One of the creatures volunteered to stand guard for the first night, and the others were appreciative but unsure if anything worth guarding against would actually happen. They were proven wrong in the middle of the night, when a group of people riding horses and dressed as Assassin's Creed style pirates showed up. They were from the government, at a higher level than the local government the man had been working with to get this place. They had heard rumors of this town and were looking for the source, eager to find some kind of magic. They were pretty clearly the bad guys. Still, the guard creature transforming into her beast form and killing as many of them as she could see in a vicious bloodbath was a bit of an excessive response. Two or three of them hid and got away, being less sad about their lost coworkers and more giddy that they had found actual First Ones, which is what they called the ancient creatures. After the fight, the boulder was partially destroyed and several areas of the crater were on fire and there were violently dismembered corpses everywhere. Two of the First Ones said they should go tell their master about this, but the third argued that he only needed to know if there was a threat and these humans were killed too easily to pose a real threat. In the end, they agreed to only bring it up if more of these pirate-like humans showed up. I never got to see whether they showed up or not, because at that point I woke up. It's been awhile since I've had a story-like dream like this, but I almost wish it had been more plot-heavy. There was a bit of worldbuilding, but aside from the one action scene not a lot actually happened. Hopefully that doesn't reflect my actual writing in the waking world, and it's just my dreams that lack concrete momentum. Until next I wander.