Episode 3: I Dream of Beavers – Part 3

Ethan saw nothing but crushing blackness. He was unsure what was more frightening: The darkness around him and what could lurk in it, the thought of Dark Beaver finding them in a few moments by ripping the door off, or the feeling that he was about to pass out from exhaustion. Why do I feel like this? He turned to where he hoped the others were. "Guys, I don't feel so good." He warned.

He could hear Kaela's voice near his ear, but still could not see her. "I don't either. I feel like . . . way more tired than I should be." Ethan nodded, but then realized that she couldn't see that and gave up. He didn't have the energy to agree with her right now. They panted in the dark and Ethan began to feel a burning desire to open the door again and go back out to confront Dark Beaver. Standing in the dark forever sounded much worse.

"Mikey?" A voice echoed through the darkness. It was almost cartoony, the tone: child like. A male, Ethan deduced. The sound had come from behind them – or in front of them. Ethan couldn't tell.

A click sounded and suddenly, as if someone had turned on a stage light, an expansive beam of light descended behind them.

Like a spotlight, it rested circularly on what looked much like a bird cage, rusted, bent and broken like a crushed rib cage. Huge chains, not unlike the ones that Jess had touched and had broken were strapped around the bars. Something large stirred inside. The thing that had said that name moved. Jess inched forward and Ethan reached out to stop her, but she was already well on her way to the cage. "Jess!" He hissed and followed after her. Trusting anything in this nightmare was not something he was prepared to do.

Kaela shrugged and followed on Jess' heels.

Grumbling and with his weapon out and ready, he followed until they stood at the edge of the giant cage. It towered over them, at least another six feet before doming out. The light seemed to be coming from nothing at all. In the darkness, the shadow moved again. Large blue eyes appeared, then long yellow claws and two buckteeth that looked more like daggers. From the shadows, Ethan was horrified to see –

"Another monster beaver!" Ethan complained, "I knew it! We're leaving."

"No!" Cried the giant beaver, "Don't leave me!" His voice sounded pitiful and child-like. He appeared out from the dark through the bars. He was quite a bit different than the others. His baby blue fur was less mangy and the symbol on his chest as a colorful pink heart, covered in rainbows. His claws, buck teeth and paddle tail still were just as frightening and violent looking as the others, but other than that, he looked much more like a teddy bear that had been thrown around and put in a washer too many times than like a monster. Ethan, taken aback, couldn't find enough energy in his feet to move. Sadness bubbled up in the beaver's eyes like tears.

"Aww!" Kaela simpered, "What is your name?"

This made the big blue beaver smile instead, showing his pointed teeth. "I'm Dave Beaver. I'm supposed to scare you!" Ethan coughed to make sure he didn't laugh and was sharply elbowed in the ribs by Jess to silence him. Dave Beaver obviously didn't notice and then, his paws clutched around the bars said, "Will you help me get out of here?"

"Yeah!" Kaela said quickly. She began to look over the cage and the huge black chains that surrounded it. Her fingers touched the heavy links and they rattled nosily, banging against one another.

Ethan quickly threw his hand out and stopped Kaela, "Wow, wow, wow." He said. "I want some questions answered first before we help you,Dave Beaver." Kaela seemed to have realized her error as she shook her head and backed away from the cage and Dave Beaver's huge, blue, furry hands, tipped with yellow blades. Ethan was determined that they were not going to be gored by those – even if it meant abandoning this strange creature to it's fate. "First off, why are you in this cage?"

Dave Beaver's grin disappeared, which was a relief, because it was staring to creep him out. "My brothers put me in here for no reason!" He pouted. "Just 'cause I liked playing with Mikey." he paused for a moment, "You guys have bandana's around your face, just like he did!"

Ethan could guess that Dave Beaver was talking about both Dark and Dread Beaver. He did not let his guard down, but watched as Dave Beaver stared off into space and then his grin returned, "Right now they are draining your life-force!"

Jess hissed through her teeth, "What?"

"Yeah," He slurred, "In the dream world, we can eat life force. Yum! But if you let me out, I can show you guys out!" His voice was eager.

Ethan turned to the other two of his siblings. They looked back at him blankly. Jess finally shrugged, closing her eyes and with a sense of condescension said, "You're the leader."

Ethan sighed, but then turned back to Dave Beaver. "Kay," he said, "How do we get you out of these chains?"

Dave Beaver turned to look out into the darkness. Kaela and Jess turned that way as well but there was nothing but darkness to greet them in the direction that he stared. "Uh, keys are over there – I think." He said uncertainly. Ethan was starting to get really annoyed with this third beaver. He almost preferred fighting his two monstrous brothers.

"Well then," Ethan said smiling back at Jess, "As leader, I ask you to go get those keys from over there." he pointed into the darkness.

Jess snorted. "No thanks."

Kaela rolled her eyes, "I'll go do it." she finally said.

She vanished into the darkness, leaving Jess and Ethan standing awkwardly next to the cage with Dave Beaver. He watched them curiously, his big blue eyes going from their tennis shoes, up to their messy hair. Ethan half considered asking who Mikey was, but decided against it. "Kaela?" Ethan called after hearing her footsteps fade into the darkness.

After several frightening moments of silence, and then another sound of jangling metal, Kaela said, "I found them! They weren't far over here." She returned from the darkness carrying a metal ring. A single key was strung on it. It was the size of her entire hand, jagged and black as night. Dave Beaver clapped his hands excitedly, his eyes getting even wider with his grin. "Yay!"

Ethan and Jess both readied their weapons, just in case Dave Beaver turned on them as Kaela slowly placed the key into the lock and then with a twist and the sound of tumblers, the chains fell away and landed on the ground, dust billowing in every direction. "If you do anything, we will attack!" Ethan warned. Poising his weapon at the cage door and not allowing himself to blink, Ethan watched as Dave Beaver slowly opened the creaky door which immediately snapped on it's hindges and fell to the ground, orange rusty dust poofing up in clouds. The booming noise of the door against the cold floor echoed around them for several long moments before Dave Beaver cried, "Yay!" as he skipped out of his cage.

"Now." Ethan said firmly, "Get us out of here."

"Thanks! Thanks!" He said gratefully and put out his huge furry arms to hug Kaela, but she immediately backed away, teeth clenched, her hands up to defend herself. "Oh, sorry!" Ethan was beginning to notice a lisp in his voice.

He got onto all fours, his vast weight shaking the ground and Ethan was forced to keep himself up with his staff. Dave Beaver scampered towards the door that led back out into the dark, clown infested streets. "Wait." Kaela said, pointing down at the chains. In her other hand she was holding the jagged black key. "Maybe we could use these to chain up the door again. We can't let those things out!"

Jess and Ethan blinked at her.

Kaela leaned down and with a heave, pulled the chains up from the ground. "You guys need to help me." She said, sweat beading on her forehead. Ethan placed his naginata back in it's holster on his back and heaved the huge, black links onto his shoulder. It was much heavier than it looked. Jess shook her head disapprovingly and brushing the green tail ends of her bandanna over her shoulder, she helped pick up the chains and they followed the shadow of Dave Beaver.

The door opened and Dave Beaver, with a giggle, vanished into the alleyway, apparently not aware that his companions were slowly sweating and grunting their way through the doorway still. Ethan was upset to see that the solitary clown people still stood in random spots across the roadway. The street lights cast shadows across their bloodshot eyes, frizzy hair and leering painted, plastic faces. Ethan gazed at their arms closely as they passed to try and see if they were really mannequins, but he was wrong. They very much looked like they were made of flesh.

"Dave, where are we going?" Ethan snapped, wiping a fountain's worth of sweat from his forehead. His shoulder was sore from the chains. It felt like he had been dragging an elephant behind him.

"The exit dummy! Wait – is that where you wanted to go?"

Jess slapped her face, "Yes." she grumbled.

"Oh, good!" His big blue eyes seemed to go brighter as he grinned with razor sharp teeth and then he continued to weave his way through the clown statues down the long, dark roadway. The whole idea of stealth had completely left Ethan's mind as the sound of the chains they dragged was similar to tugging a complaining bull behind them.

"There!" Dave Beaver pointed one of his long yellow nails at a doorway that looked all too familiar. It was huge, triangular, and made of metal, but luckily, no chains wrapped it closed. It sat in the middle of the road, as if someone could drive straight into it.

"I'm so done with this nightmare." Ethan said.

Before they could take another step, the ground began to rumble as if this dream version of New York had been hit by a massive earthquake. The chains dropped to the pavement as the three tried to find their footing. "What's going on?" Kaela cried, grabbing onto one of the statues before squeaking in fear and jumping back away from it, wiping her hands on her t-shirt as if she had touched something slimy.

"Uh-oh." Dave Beaver whimpered.

The asphalt in front of them melted away, as if it had become a pit of liquid tar and a giant paw burst from it. Yellow claws raking at the road as a beaver began to drag itself out from nothingness. And this was another new one. "Nooo!" Ethan groaned, wanting to fall to his knees. "How many brothers do you have."

Eyes as red as blood, a grin that showed off two huge blades for teeth and a spiky tail appeared from the pit in the earth, but the fur of this beaver was a deep, purple color, the symbol on it's belly was a skull like the others, but in the shape of a bomb with a lit fuse.

"Is it just me," Jess began weakly, "Or does this one look a little bigger?"

The beaver seemed to have heard because it turned it's massive head to her and grinned all the wider. "I am Dire Beaver. I am everything you've ever feared in one convenient package." He then turned to look at Dave Beaver, "And I'm about to teach you something about pain."

With a quick fling, Ethan's naginata appeared. Kaela was already clutching the blue ribbon in her hands, the glimmering dart at the end shining the yellow lamplight. Jess' kama's spun out from their holsters, and she moved into attack position, her stance low. "Get out of our way and we won't have to hurt you." Ethan said as bravely as he could muster.

Dire Beaver laughed at that and then turned as if acknowledging someone in one of the nearby alleyways. "Boys!" The ground rumbled again, shaken by an unseen force and one of the buildings melted away into a puddle of nothing, brown fur emerging from it – Dread Beaver, the brown beaver they had met in their dojo had reappeared.

And crawling from behind like a lurking shadow, Dark Beaver appeared, his high pitched giggle echoing down all the nearby alleyways and bumping off the clown people like a pin ball. His red fur was like blazing fire. "Mmm, sweets!" he smiled.

"Well, life sucks." Jess said, turning with Kaela so the three were back to back.

"You guys were mean to me!" Dave cried at them, his expression changed with a glare. "I liked those turtle guys!"

Turtles? Ethan's heart lept in his chest.

In unison the three demonic beavers cried, "SHUT UP, DAVE!"

"Let's get out of here guys!" Ethan cried.

Dire Beaver pointed at them with a long yellow nail, "DESTROY THEM!"

Dread Beaver burst forward, his huge legs propelling him forward towards them, but before they even had to use their weapons, Dave Beaver had jumped in front of them and with a slam, the two rammed, paw to paw, shoving at one another. "You guys get out of here!" Dave Beaver cried.

"Aiding humans?" Dire Beaver grinned, "I'll make you and them pay for that." As if his sentence had flipped a switch, the heads of the clown-masked people turned towards the three.

"So, getting out now sounds good." Jess whimpered.

"GO!"

The masked people began to shift on their feet and suddenly, as if they had just appeared, they were each holding an array of knives – from butcher to steak knives, and with their burning mask eyes aimed at them, they began to walk forward. Some raised their blades above their head. Ethan slammed one in the stomach with the butt of his weapon and skidded under another's swipe. Kaela screamed, jumping out of the way of a butcher knife and she let the dart of her weapon fly, smacking one of the attackers square in the face and they toppled over without a sound.

Picking up the chains, Jess began to drag them towards the iron door several feet away, adrenaline seemed to have kicked in as Ethan could see she was keeping up a jog while moving the massive dead weight. "I'll cover you!" He called to her and he sprinted behind her.

Following the momentum of his weapon, twisting as his staff spun, caused several clowns to step back for fear of being cut in half. "You aren't going anywhere, clever, clever, sweet boy!" Ethan was sure that Dark Beaver wasn't talking about his personality when he said the word 'sweet'. The red beaver had stampeded ahead of his screwed up army of clowns and slashed at Jess. She ducked, but didn't have to as Ethan's naginata took the brunt of the force and his sneakers skidded against the pavement from the force. He twisted himself around and, with a shout, slashed his blade across Dark Beaver's lower jaw.

The bottom half of his mouth tore clean off and bounced across the street. Before Ethan could celebrate his victory, he felt a force hit his body and everything went dark as Dark Beaver's paddle tail slammed him into the ground. "Ow." Ethan groaned.

Jess finally reached the door. Dark Beaver retrieved his jaw and slammed it back onto his face, twisting it back into place with a sound similar to someone biting through a carrot. Ethan winced at the noise, feeling his stomach go sour. Or maybe that was from feeling like he was about to pass out from exhaustion. "Ooo, your life force is more delicious than those turtles. More ancient though, a little tougher to digest." he grinned and raised his blood colored paw to rip Ethan in half.

"I don't think so, creep!" Kaela's dart shot over Dark Beaver's head and wrapped around his throat and with a sharp jerk and a cough, he fell onto his back, Kaela spinning expertly and landing on his stomach before lunging off of it. Kaela smiled as she stuck her landing, "I bet that looked awesome." She said, striking a pose. Her smile vanished as she looked past Ethan's shoulder. "Jess!"

She had dropped the chains by the door as she brandished her kama's at Dire Beaver who had gotten in her way.

"YOU TRAITOR!" Dread Beaver slammed Dave Beaver to the ground, blue flames leaping from the cracked pavement. "Maybe we'll drain your life force next!"

"I've got Jess. You get Dave Beaver." Ethan said, running. Kaela moved like a gust of wind and threw herself in a twist, the metal dart whizzing through the air and meeting it's mark as the metal end hit Dread Beaver in the buck teeth with a sharp crack! Ethan, sprinted as hard as he could towards Dire Beaver. He had thrown Jess like a rag doll against the steel door, but she had rolled as if she were on fire to dodge the huge claws that sunk into the asphalt like it were made of clay. Ethan brought his arm up and with all his strength, guided by a yell, he slammed the blade of his naginata into the fleshy blackness of Dire Beaver's tail.

He choked on his agony and spun with his paw balled into a fist.

Ethan felt himself bounce like a rock thrown against water and he landed on the bruise that he could thank Tigerclaw for. The breath left his lungs, but the attack had given Jess just enough time to throw open the metal doors. White light exploded through the street, throwing the oncoming army of clowns off their feet, their butcher knives sliding against the pavement. Dark Beaver was slowly getting up again, "SLAVES, BUTCHER THEM ALIVE!" The clowns jumped back to their feet and this time, they were sprinting at them, their frizzy air blowing behind them.

Ethan blocked another attack from Dire Beaver and fell hard on his butt at Jess' feet. She reached down and picked him up. "KAELA!" Jess cried, but Kaela didn't need telling twice. She spun like a dancer through the air and landed on her feet, stumbling for only a moment and then she sprinted, sliding under Dire Beaver's legs. Ethan, feeling adrenaline throw his body into high gear, grabbed the chains and with a fling, threw them into the white light.

Dread Beaver had pinned Dave Beaver down again and he turned to them with his baby blue eyes. "If you see Mikey, tell him hi!" he said. Although he was smiling, his voice sounded sad. Ethan nodded, still having no idea who Mikey was.

"NO!"

Before Dire Beaver, Dark Beaver or the onslaught of demon clowns managed to get them, the three vanished into the white light.

They were in the strange dimensional hallway again. "The door—." Jess said, as she stood up and with finality, slammed the metal doors shut. Ethan and Kaela grabbed the rusty chains from the ground and, as quickly as possible, circled the door with the links and with a cry of desperation, threw the chains up over the top. Kaela slammed the padlock on and using the black jagged keys she had taken, locked it with a click.

For several seconds, the three stood there, panting, the strange cosmic lightening flashing and crashing around them as they tried to get their breath. Sweat was pouring down their faces and Ethan could feel Tigerclaw's attack had flared up again. His heart was racing.

Walking back down the hallway, they ignored the other dimensions until they walked through the pink portal and found themselves back in their own dojo. Jess immediately turned around and hit the little metal disk's glowing pentagon and the portal retracted and she snatched it out of the air. "Well, that was horrible." she said.

Ethan looked at his watch, "I guess that dream dimension or fear world or whatever has different time, 'cause we've been gone for only about a minute."

"Weird." Jess said.

Kaela held up the key ring. "Well, we have a consolation prize for our trouble." She slammed the jagged piece of metal down on their dresser.

"Yeah, let's not let anyone else let those Beavers out." Ethan said, leaning his weapon carefully against the wall before falling backward and sinking into a beanbag.

Kaela took the metal disk from Jess' hands and looked at the three pentagons on it. "Hm." She muttered, gazing at it before finally putting it down next to the key. Jess sat down next to Ethan. The three ignored their homework that sat on their beds and with a click, the TV went back on.

The blonde boy was on the screen again and he turned, "Those dream monsters were deadly," He said grandly, "But they were no match for this attractive face." The character turned and looked out the giant glass window behind him.

"They could return!" One of the red haired boys cried out.

SLAP!

"Never!" The blonde kid said, his eyes twinkling as the red haired boy nursed his cheek where he had been back handed. "And if they do, I will defeat them." The boy looked out the window to see a pink haired girl with eyes that expanded her face. "Now . . . to date Sakura!" He then jumped and shattered through the window, flipping gracefully down to the courtyard below.

Ethan, Jess and Kaela glanced at one another and burst into laughter, forgetting all about the odd experience they had just had.