Lightning cackled over Castle Camelot, the silhouette of Knight Aubriet stealthily moving across the Great Hall. He was making good time across the Courtyard, and towards the Castle Gate. He had set his heart on recovering Excalibur, and nothing was going to stop him.
Or so he thought.
Just as Knight Aubriet stepped out of the Gate, the shrill sounds of an alarm bell crashed the scene and modern day Aubriet, a relatively senior executive of Eureka Pharma Global jolted awake. Groggy and somewhat startled, Aubriet shifted from his current sleeping position. Mumbling, he stretched sideways and using the weight of his left arm, hit the large snooze button of the alarm clock and got up.
Not again.
Aubriet has been having this recurrent dream for days in a row now. Pushing himself to sit up, Aubriet rubbed his face with hands and shook his head. Unlike most dreams, this one was lucid and vivid. He can remember details which would have evaporated the minute he woke up. And somehow, he knew this scene well. It was as though he had been living there all his life.
Castle Camelot. Heck – it’s not even a real castle, is it? And why am I dressed as a knight?
Shaking these thoughts aside, he hobbled and stumbled towards the bathroom. Today is going to be an important day for him at the office. Aubriet mused. He had composed an email to apply for the position of General Manager at the Pharma’s joint-venture company in East-Asia, a province he never knew existed in a country he has not visited in his life. All that was left was to hit the ‘SEND’ button.
Twenty minutes later, Aubriet was in his Renault MPV, driving to his office. The roads were empty. Due to the CoVid-19 pandemic, Work-from-Home has become common-place and the commuting had shifted for most people – himself included. He was going into the office only because his Managing Director wanted to have this conversation with him in person.
Aubriet had been steadily climbing up the ranks in the Pharma company over the last decade and was making good career progress. However, fifteen months into CoVid, he figured he was suffering what was termed ‘brownout’. In technical terms, a brownout means a reduction in electrical voltage, causing lights to flicker. In the context of the Workplace, this situation essentially manifests itself as a gradual loss of interest in one’s work or assignments. Although there is no perceived drop in performance unlike a state of burnout, nonetheless – Aubriet was clear that he needed a change in environment if he were to be thriving, again.
Turning the volume of the radio down, Aubriet tried to remember the dream. The Camelot sequence was prematurely cut off this morning. There was more from earlier replays, he frowned… what was it?
Ah… the hydra.
Aubriet began stitching the dream sequence together.
No sooner had Knight Aubriet stepped out of the Gate, instantly – a three-head Hydra appeared before him ephemerally, coalescing rain and fog as the beast took on physical form and shape. As Knight Aubriet walked wearily towards it, hand on his sword hilt, the first Hydra head slithered towards him from the left.
“What do you think you doing Aubriet? You will be slaughtered by dawn tomorrow if you left the castle. You are simply not good enough for this! King Constantine ‘s finest knights have gone forth and never came back. You will face the same fate!”
Aubriet’s Covenant Awakening – YouTube
Knight Aubriet froze, and the thunderous boom of the storm could not cover the deep bellows of the Hydra. Another head swooshed in from his right and sneered at the now quivering knight. “I am doing this for your good Aubriet. Listen to my voice of reason!”.
The third hydra head closed in to face Aubriet directly. “If you leave now, what would happen to your father the King? Your Queen mother would be heartbroken! Turn back now!”
Hydra is right. Thought Aubriet, dejected. I can’t do this. It’s beyond me.
All three hydra heads nodded in successive agreement, satisfied at their successful attempt to turn the young knight around from this fool’s errand.
Defeated, Knight Aubriet had resignedly retraced his step back into castle courtyard.
That was as far as the dream went, thought Aubriet as he parked his vehicle. Stepping out, he put on his mask, looked up and breathed in the cool air of the morning. The sun was up, bringing warmth to his face. He rubbed the fingertips of one hand on the palm of the other and repeated the action for some moments…
Aubriet had made a Covenant with himself – that he will live his own dreams and not that of another, nor accept the life of a lesser self.
This day will be a turning point of his life.
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