Avibli sat in the corner of the dark room, shivers sprinting down her spine. The walls were smeared with multi-colored words, the colors of her friends. Olive tinted tears ran down her face and down her legs, though she hardly noticed.

The door to the room opened and a belt of light was cast upon her face. The light soon disappeared. She looked up to see a messy haired silhouette in the doorway. The troll had long, wavy horns, glowing eyes, and a sadistic grin on its face. A bloodstained club was held in its hand. The figure moved forward slowly and steadily, and she just sat, frozen in fear.

"Avibli! Avibli! Wake up!" the figure suddenly began calling her name out, and before she knew it she was on the floor of her respitblock.

"Thank Gog, Avibli!" Her eyesight was blurry and she was covered in Sopor, hanging out of her Recoupracoon. She rubbed her eyes to be greeted by the sight of her best friend Meceng looking down at her.

"Ow. What was I doing? I'm so confused." She groaned, sitting up.

"Well, You were sobbing uncontrollably, shaking, all that jazz. Dunno why though. Nightmare?" Meceng said, looking more concerned than she sounded. The long haired troll hung onto the handle of the sword she carried.

Avibli rubbed her head and shook some sopor slime off of her hand, and attempted to brush a swath of it off of her forehead. "Yeah, nightmare. The unidentifiable crazy troll again. Why do I keep dreaming that?"

"Blood on the walls and everything?" The other troll said, her goggles atop her head.

"Yeah. That question was sort of rhetorical, by the way." She said, fumbling around on her desk for her glasses. "I saw their sign too. Same as yours."

The yellowblood looked at her semi-apathetically, and responded, her voice lower than usual. "Yeah, my sign tends to be pretty loony."

At that moment, Avibli's lusus walked in. The giant cat sauntered over to Avibli after sniffing Meceng and pawed her arm, emitting a low growl, akin to a purr, but more urgent. "What is it, Catmom?" Avibli said, scratching the cat behind its ear. "Is something wrong?" the cat pulled away and nodded, her ears pressed to her head. Her white fur bristled slightly and her tail was fluffed up. "I'll be right there Catmom. Just let me get cleaned up, okay?" Avibli said, rubbing the cat's chin.

The cat walked out, her extravagant tail streaming out behind her. "I wonder what that was all about." Meceng said, looking down the hall after the large cat. She pulled her goggles onto her face, and adjusted the turning rings. After a moment, she took them off and turned to Avibli who had changed her shirt and pants, and was pulling her scarf on. "I'm detecting actual distress, not just an empty food dish. we should hurry, Av."

"Fine, fine. For the record, Meceng, I know my lusus. I know distress when I see it." Avibli replied, more sharply than she had intended. She had always empathized with her lusus and shared many of the same feelings as the cat. Their relationship was more like that of twins than mother and daughter, and this showed through in their interactions. Avibli tied her shoes and grabbed her pistol holster from the hook above her desk. She didn't like the firearm, but not even she could say that it wasn't useful. she strapped it around her waist and turned to Meceng. "Let's go!"