Dark pine trees littered the landscape that was cloaked in feathery snow; the cold air bit like pinpricked teeth around Roxas.
But he wasn't freezing, as he would have thought he would; he felt warm against the still air. He observed this empty place, seemingly devoid of life, but he knew that there was life...hiding. He could smell them. Roxas, confused, sniffed the air again, and realized that he was on all fours. The confused boy turned around in a circle, and caught a glimpse of a yellow-white tail. He looked down; large paws were in his line of sight. His paws.
Roxas realized he was trapped in the skin of a sort of wolfish beast.
He licked his lips, accepting how the dream set itself up for him. Roxas clumsily padded forth in the snow and nosed an old animal set near some tree roots nearby. The knowledge was in his head -and his nose- that the animal who had occupied this had left only a few minutes ago. Roxas suddenly felt a stirring in his belly as his jaws slavered ever so slightly. Placing his nose to the invisible trail, Roxas began nosing, sniffing, and following his way to the animal.
There. Roxas hung back in the shadows of a small clearing, eyeing the rabbit in the middle. He knew to stay downwind of the rabbit; it wouldn't catch his scent this way. Roxas slowly began to creep forward when the rabbit suddenly flew into the air, a sort of noose around its foot. A hunter's trap, Roxas realized somehow.
He padded up to the rabbit and snapped at it, the rabbit dangling just out of his reach. The Key Of Destiny licked his jowls and opened his jaws wide, the rabbit seeing Roxas's throat perfectly clear. It's eyes widened frightfully as its heart pounded thunderously in its tiny frame.
Roxas's ears suddenly pricked in the opposite direction. He could smell as well as hear someone coming. He ducked quickly into the bushes--
--and ran smack into another human who was coming from the opposite direction as the first.
Roxas stared up wildly at the hunter, who was dressed in animal skins, beads adorning his face and ears. The hunter called something quickly to his partner, his eyes never leaving the yellow-white wolf that was Roxas. For a fleeting moment Roxas was paranoid. The feeling evaporated like dew in the morning when sudden rage bubbled over; Roxas's heart tightened when he found that he was also feeling bloodlust...
The young boy couldn't help himself. Roxas snarled like a rabid beast, his ivory fangs flashing with the pale moonlight... His own blood sang powerfully in his ears, his being pumping with hunger and the craving for blood... Without warning, Roxas found his body leaping at the hunter in front of him, closing his vice-like jaws around the man's throat. Roxas was screaming in the core of his being; his vision was red and dotted with black as he saw what he was doing. This was not what he was doing; this was not him. This was some beast whose eyes he was seeing through; it must be!
Roxas cringed inside when something hot and metallic flooded his mouth. He screamed painfully, begging for himself to stop. The eyes turned to the other hunter, who was charging toward him with a hand-crafted spear. NO, NO! Roxas cried out frantically as he and the hunter drew closer to each other... I HATE THIS! Roxas caterwauled as more of the hot liquid spilled into his throat; but this beast loved it. This beast wanted more as it approached the fallen hunter and pressed its paw onto the hunter's throat, snarling loudly.
Roxas didn't know how he did it; he surged forward internally and regained control of himself. He could see clearly now as the hunter lay gasping feebly at his paws. Roxas whimpered; inside he was snarling. The scared boy turned tail and fled the way he had come, with the warm, rustic taste of blood in his mouth still. He stumbled when the inner beast struggled furiously to regain control, to feast on its catch. PLEASE STOP! Roxas yelled in his head. The beast only snarled as it wrenched its way back into control; Roxas clutched his head inside as the beast charged back to its prey, saliva mingling with the blood...
He couldn't take in the sight of the beast plucking from the hunter's throat any longer, but he was forced to see what this beast was seeing. It was maddening, anguishing to see this man being killed by him.
Roxas tried so hard to tell himself to wake up. Nothing would work; he felt numb with dread and fear. Roxas was being torn asunder inside, his inner being trembled violently, while the beast's body trembled with delight.
LARXENE! Roxas screamed; the beast howled eerily at the same time.
"Roxas! Roxas!" Larxene called tersely as she shook his shoulder.
The Key Of Destiny awoke with a violent start, sweating and panting profusely as his pupils dilated to their normal size. "L...Larxene...!" he gasped. He took in her face, her features, her familiarity in general, just to tell himself that he was back and not in the bloody dream anymore.
"It's me, kid," Larxene said flatly. Tilting her head to the side, she stated, "You had a nightmare."
Roxas nodded dumbly, the rest of him still cold and numb from the dream. "I...I was...I killed somebody...!" he stuttered. "They were...I mean...I literally couldn't control myself! I...I-I...I--" Roxas was cut off by Larxene's finger on his lips.
"You don't have to talk about it," she stated firmly. "But it can help. However, if you don't feel comfortable talking about it with me, or anybody else for that matter, you don't have to say anything."
Roxas was barely beginning to settle down, and he wanted everything from the dream to go away. Before he could help himself, he threw himself into Larxene's arms, holding her, shaking with suppressed sobs.
Larxene did not return his action; she merely put her hand on his head. "Sweet little boy," she murmured in a sing-song voice that sounded like sweet venom to Roxas.
Roxas only hugged her tighter as he felt her slender hand begin to stroke his hair.
A/N: I know: poor Roxas.