Convection seared her, eyes burning, and she screamed as the heat engulfed her. The molten mess gave way to faint rocky brown walls and a blur of orange moving toward her scale model of Castelia. The burning pain remained a moment as reality set in.
"Emyr! It's ok! No one's here, unless you heard the doorbell!"
It turned its head to look at Carly, torso still leaned forward, helical arms still reaching into the entry.
"I was screaming because I had a nightmare."
It stared at her with blank black eyes, unmoving.
"When humans sleep, we dream. We see things that aren't necessarily real."
It lowered its arms and hovered, closing its eyes for a moment. Then it extended an arm, unzipping the helix just a little at the ends. She took hold and let it pull her to her feet.
"You dream, too?"
It nodded, the first gesture she taught it.
"It's funny we can be so different and so much alike." Carly smiled. "So how did you like my bed? If it was comfortable, I can get a second one for myself."
It looked back behind it, at the mattress recessed into the nook of the cavern, and started pulling on her hand again.
"I just woke up, I don't need to-"
It put two tentacles on each shoulder and pushed downward until she unlocked her knees and sat on the mattress.
She growled, and it let go.
"The ground was fine. That mat is softer than it looks. And it's not like sleeping on hard surfaces prevents nightmares anyway."
It gave her that blank stare again, seeming to peer into her soul, and she wondered what it was thinking.
"That thing with you flying through space? That was not my first rodeo. It was not even my first rodeo of the week." She slumped, still sitting. "I am exhausted, and not entirely in ways that sleeping is going to help."
It spun on one pointy leg and folded its body, sitting beside her on the soft mattress, triangular legs sticking out. And it stared.
"I did this grueling Pokemon gym circuit thing to impress my dad. And then I had to stop Team Magma from destroying the planet with Groudon. And then I went after the Pokemon League, because everyone said, 'you've come this far, Carly, why not?' Then my parents started setting me up with every boy in Hoenn except the one I like, and I had to run all over finding stones to bust that comet you were in the day after I won the League, and I got shunted to that so-called resort, and-"
Something slimy touched her lips, and she stopped talking, startled. Then the tentacle left her face and wrapped around her, another rising to stroke the top of her head.
"Stop that. I'm supposed to be taking care of you."