NiGHTmare
Night 6
Blackness… Empty space…
I couldn't move, couldn't see. I could hear voices… whispers… gibberish, really…
"Babi hippi doo?"
"Nai, malama ni cha ku…"
I then felt something poke my cheek softly. Twice, thrice. I groaned in response, groggy and tired.
"Kama chi ka mali de."
"Nai nanu, cha ji himu."
SMACK! A sharp pain shot into my face. I sat up immediately.
"Owch! What the hell was that for?" I muttered bitterly, rubbing my cheek from the assault. My vision was still a bit cloudy; I was only able to make out various shades of green ahead and blue above. I rubbed my eyes to clear my vision.
Standing, or rather floating, in my line of vision were two floating pink creatures, resembling babies with fairy wings.
"…Nightopians?" I raised an eyebrow. Their sudden appearance could only mean that I was once again in the Dream World, or Night Dimension or whatever NiGHTS and Owl ca-
"NiGHTS! Owl! Oh My God, I completely forgot! Quick, where are they? What did that one guy do to NiGHTS? Are they ok?" Questions poured from my mouth as I knelt down and started desperately shaking one of the Nightopians. Its eyes began to swirl around like that of a cartoon character as its head was forcefully knocked back and forth while I shook it.
KLONK! I let go of the little creature and doubled back, another pain shooting through my head. I opened an eye while the rest of my face was contorted in pain. One of the Nightopians hovered in the air, holding a thick branch in its stubby hands, while the other was trying to bring its friend back to consciousness.
"Ow… sorry…" I rubbed my head to soothe some of the pain. For being in a dream, there's a lot of pain here…
"Alright, let's start over. I'm Leon, one of NiGHTS's friends…" The little creatures simply looked up at me with a look of befuddlement. They then began to converse between themselves in that babbling alien speech, most likely trying to figure out what I was saying.
"Er… NiGHTS? Purple floppy hat? Tight outfit? Invisible flute?" I imitated the appearance of playing a flute to get my point across. At this gesture, the Nightopians appeared to understand as they shouted in glee and flew about.
"Awesome! Have you seen her?" I gestured more. The Nightopians suddenly stopped, and then two flew away while one pulled at my jacket, most likely trying to lead me to where NiGHTS was.
I followed them across the plains that stretched everywhere and into a misty forest. It was dark, but there was still luminescence on the ground and occasionally above me, light floating from… mushrooms? No… crystals shaped like mushrooms… A low humming echoed throughout the forest. It was strange; I felt calm and yet nervous at the same time.
We stopped just before a clearing. Surrounded by those crystalline mushrooms was a chain extending into the air, at the tip being some sort of cage-like structure that resembled a crudely-built gazebo. Inside that cage was…
"Ni-MPH!" Just as I had cried out to NiGHTS, the Nightopians had covered my mouth. As I began to pry them off, a moderately-sized creature scuttled past our line of vision. It resembled a scorpion, but with bright plates and scissor-like claws rather than classic pinchers. Its tail was a barbed dagger with a liquid dripping out; I noted that it was most-likely corrosive given that there were blackened areas where it had dripped.
"Scaropion. Nu Scaropion." One of the NiGHTmarens whispered. After it had passed, I scanned the area again. There was another creature floating about that looked like a seahorse, but distorted. Its mouth was more open-ended, like a bike horn, and it had butterfly's wings, its body painted a sickly green. A large bird with a small, black creature on its back stood on a rock, preening its brilliant magenta feathers. The little creature on the bird's back was tossing a key back and forth.
'That's gotta be the key for that cage NiGHTS is in…' I sat against a tree, facing away from the clearing. "Three enemies: a scorpion, seahorse, and bird. That bird's got the key for NiGHTS's cage. But I can't get that bird just yet, I've got to take out those other baddies… But how…" I pondered the thought. Sure, in the real world it would be easier since I would be in my own environment. Here, however, I was just as unfamiliar with my area as I was to those Nightopians. I had no idea wha-
HIIISSSS! VISSITORRRR! I jumped up at the threat I had heard as the Scaropion jabbed at me with the barbed stinger. I narrowly dodged the attack, with the stinger plunging into the tree. The tree quickly turned from a healthy brown into a dead black-green and toppled over. The Nightopians flailed about, squealing in their gibberish language. The large bird and floating seahorse perked at the sounds of intruders, and leaped into action. NiGHTS perked up from in her cage and peered out the gaps to see what the ruckus was. She gasped. "LEON!"
I grabbed a nearby branch in an attempt to try and scare off the Scaropion. "Ha! Not so tough when you're not being all sneaky, eh?" I spat cockily, feigning assault after assault to drive the Nightmaren back. The Scaropion gave an exasperated hiss and snatched the stick with its claws. It then promptly snapped it in half and cast the pieces aside.
Hiissss… Givvve up, sssmall fry. The Scaropion jabbed several more times at me, barely missing each time. The seahorse Nightmaren was busy chasing the Nightopians about while the bird and its master cackled at our evasive dances.
"Leon! Seapo! Seapo!" The Nightmarens screamed as they flailed about to escape the beast. Obviously, I was a little busy at the moment dealing with my own problems, but I couldn't leave them alone with that thing.
The Seapo then inhaled deeply and sucked one of the Nightopians into its proboscis. The Nightopian squealed in protest, but was promptly silenced with a CRUNCH! I was frozen, horrified at the action that had just occurred. NiGHTS gasped and put her hands to her mouth in shock. The proboscis of the Seapo now dripped red fluid as it howled in laughter. That was the final straw for me.
I backed up toward the Seapo while it was distracted with its ego, all while leading the Scaropion. The Scaropion reared its ugly head, snapped its tail back, and shot forward. With a timed leap, I dodged the giant bug once more as it plunged its stinger into the Seapo.
The Seapo writhed in pain and promptly began to bite the Scaropion. It retched and vomited. The Scaropion tried and tried again to remove its stinger, but only ended up pumping more viscous poison into the Nightmaren, all while taking hit after bloody hit from the Seapo. Finally, the Seapo crunched down on the Scaropion's head and died, its body dissolving in a thick mass of rotting flesh. The Scaropion then keeled over as well from taking several hits from its comrade.
I was exhausted. The consistent dodging and leaping out of danger from the Scaropion had brought me to a heaving stop. I knelt to catch my breath.
"Leon! Look out!" NiGHTS warned.
Blunt force smacked me in the side and knocked me down. My lungs caved in and expelled all the precious air out. I grabbed my abdomen.
The large bird towered over me, looking down menacingly at my contorted body. The master chuckled and dangled the key in front of my face to taunt me.
"Looking for this, fool?" said a voice. I looked up in confusion. It wasn't the jockey talking, but rather the bird itself. It sneered.
"Sorry, no Visitors allowed," the bird kicked me, knocking me a bit of a distance. It trotted up to me once again.
"Goodle! Hao naj mali ka ku erena!" The Goodle turned its head to the source of the childish outburst.
The Nightopians flew at the Goodle and slammed into its jockey. The Goodle screeched in surprise while the jockey dropped the key. With air finally rushing back into my lungs, I snagged the key and started up the gravity-defying chain.
"Hold on, NiGHTS! I'm coming!" I shouted. The Nightopians flitted about and distracted the Goodle as it pranced about crazily. It squawked in fury as the little fairies dodged every attempt at a kill, laughing the whole time.
I reached the bottom of the cage and shoved the key into the hole and turned it. With a click and a bang, the cage crumbled apart. NiGHTS flew out of the cage and grabbed the Goodle, then flung it into the air. It squawked and screeched in panic.
NiGHTS then flew around the Nightmaren in a circle, and a type of hole in space formed. It sucked the Goodle in, both the jockey and bird screaming. With a pop, the Goodle was gone and glitter rained down upon us. I smirked.
"Nice job, NiGHTS!" I complimented.
"Of course! What did you expect?" NiGHTS soaked up every bit of praise. "Though I can't exactly say the same about you. You should have seen the way you were flailing about down there! Priceless!" She laughed and smirked at me.
Wow, I save your life and you make fun of me? Next time I'll let you do the work…I held back my anger behind an irritated smile. I then noticed something was missing…
"NiGHTS, where's Owl? Did he go back to the Dream Plaza?" I asked. "I didn't see him when I came to the Night Dimension, and I didn't enter through the Dream Plaza."
NiGHTS was troubled at that point. She looked away with a upset look. "Owl… They took Owl, Leon. We need to get the old bird back."
I firmly nodded. Owl was just a much of a friend as NiGHTS was here, so we wouldn't leave him behind. The two Nightopians fluttered up to us, apparently ready to assist us in our journey to save our friend.
"So, where did they head off to, NiGHTS?"
"Deeper into the Misty Mire. A couple of Reala and Wizeman's goonies took him while they took me down." NiGHTS explained. "I'm not sure what they want with him, though. Wizeman sends his henchmen after me…" She flew through area ahead of me as I ran after her with the two Nightopians following up.
"Well, whatever the case, we're gonna get Owl back, one way or another."
The scenery had grown dark and more grotesque, lifeless stumps and shattered trees replacing the once-healthy overgrowth of the forest I first entered. The overgrowth of vines and moss had clawed its way up the remaining trees and blotted out most of the light. There were no longer any crystalline mushrooms dotting the ground to provide much ground visibility, so I found myself stumbling about.
"You know, it would be a lot easier if you would just dualize with me, Leon," NiGHTS piped up, noticing my struggles.
"Yeah, I know. But I can't remember?" I responded, tripping over another hidden object. The ground had appeared to become less solid with every step.
"Well, why don't we try again? Maybe we can now that we're out of the Dream Plaza." She flew down to me and held out her hand, awaiting my acknowledgement. I brought my hand up and touched it to hers, palm-to-palm.
…
Nothing...
I sighed as NiGHTS took my hand and pulled me up out of the mire that had sucked my leg down. Thick black gunk coated the lower part of my left leg.
"Well… at least these aren't jeans I actually care about, or my only pair, at least," I tried to make light of the situation.
Another clearing began to appear. A large chunk of the land was liquefied into a vat of thick, black mire. A handful of rotting trees were toppled over at least broken. Stringy moss decorated the carcasses, drooping down over the edges and twisting with devilish curls. There were four guards stationed around a log angled over the mire pit, with Owl suspended over the pit by a crude vine loop tied around his bony leg.
"There he is. We gotta get him down from there." I muttered, but then stopped. "But what are we going to do about those guys?" I pointed at the guards. I recognized a Goodle and a Seapo, but the other two were just as alien to me as everything else here I had run into.
They were strange bipeds with no arms and white bodies that seemed to bounce around and shiver, resembling a mouse with some sort of disease.
"Snips. Nasty little buggers. They're quite cold, if you catch my drift" NiGHTS muttered to me. I took note of them, casting aside NiGHTS's comment as some sort of Nightopian way of telling a joke.
"Ok, I can probably take out that Seapo easily. You little Nightopians can distract the Snips. NiGHTS, since we can't dualize yet and you're the only one that can fly right now, you head for the Goodle and get that key." Our team broke and we charged into the clearing.
The Goodle, tried to fly off, just as predicted. NiGHTS flew after the lanky bird. The Nightopians distracted the Snips the same way they distracted the previous Seapo: flailing about and screaming.
The Seapo here, though, was my job. I dashed forward and tackled the beast, grabbing its proboscis to prevent its suction attack. Spinning around, I twirled the terrestrial seahorse about to try and make it dizzy. It slipped out of my grasp and tumbled across the clearing.
KRACK!
The Seapo smacked into a rotting tree and bounced into the black mire pit. Groggily and somewhat cartoonishly, the seahorse's head nodded back and forth as the decayed tree it slammed into crashed on top of it.
I then turned my attention to the Snips. Obviously, the Nightopians were not fighters, so I had to help them out. I didn't want to risk another incident like the one before. But these things were just bouncing around; how could they do any kind of damage?
I ran after the Snip closest to me and brought my hand down to try and grab it. My hand was met with a blade of cold feeling piercing through my skin.
"YEOWCH!" I yanked my hand back instinctively as the Snip turned its attention to me. It squeaked and shot icicles into the air, one shooting just past my head. Soon enough, I was the one running from the Snip as it chased me about, shooting icicles.
"Stay back! Get away!" I yelled at the mouse creature as it bounced after me.
Closer.
Closer still.
With my good hand, I picked up another stick and swung at the beast in a back-hand motion. The stick collided with the Snip's skull. It went sailing off into another tree and exploded in a sea of glitter.
"Alright! This should work just…" I looked at the weapon I just used. It was now broken in two, the tip dangling from a thin piece of string moss. I cast aside the broken stick and dashed after the other Snip chasing the Nightopians.
With a great charge, I punted the furry icicle beast into the air and another tree, another glittery pop sounding through the forest.
"Hoo! Thank goodness you're alright, Leon! I thought something terrible happened to you on our last encounter! Hoo!" Owl called to me, apparently conscious now. I scuttled up the tree and reeled Owl to safety just as NiGHTS reappeared from the sky.
"You ok, Owl?" She inquired as she brushed debris off him.
"Yes yes, I am quite alright. Leon here proved himself to be quite the fighter in dispatching those horrid Nightmaren," Owl patted me on the back with his feathery wing. I smirked sheepishly.
"You should have seen him back when he came to get me! He was just as bad at fighting as the Nightopians were!" NiGHTS giggled again, spinning in the air. The Nightopians were giggling as well. I glared more daggers at them.
"Anyways, why did Reala and the Nightmarens take you away too?" I asked him. "NiGHTS said they never usually bothered with you before…"
Owl opened his beak to explain when suddenly the forest shook. I looked up as more tremors sounded, getting louder and louder with each shockwave. A dark shadow rose from behind some of the dead trees surrounding the clearing, then knocked them down completely with a crash.
Standing in the new opening was a large, bear-like creature with the head of a lizard. Its arms were long and tipped with two razor claws at each end. A loose flap of skin dangled from around its neck as its chest glowed red from an embedded jewel. Spikes rose from its upper arms and spine, running along down to the long tail it dragged across the ground. Its eyes burned with fury. It opened its maw to reveal row upon row of thin, pointed teeth. The skin around its neck flared up to a stiff frill, and the creature roared.