Chapter 10: Dream Lit Sky
Logan pushed away some low hanging branches for the Bear and its Rilou back pack to get through the narrow trail way, never letting go of Rilou's tiny hand. They walked up a steeper hill, the bear grunting a bit when Rilou would almost slip off. But Logan would right her again. A small smile was finally grazing her small mouth. His fur was soft, not bristly like she thought it would be. Her rainbow kaleidoscope like eyes literally glowed in the dark, wandering around to the surrounding trees and rocks. Not far away, a stream could be heard, slowly and calmly running parallel to the trio.
"I'm gonna name him Carrot." Rilou said calmly, bending down to kiss the bears head. The bear, now named Carrot, growled in slight approval. Logan gave her a 'you're kidding' look.
"Why? Because 'Carrot' means bear in some language? Or pony?" Rilou laughed halfheartedly.
"Not at all. I just felt like calling him Carrot." She mused.
"Oh."
"Logan?" Rilou's eyes went to her friend.
"Yeah?"
"Where are we going? The sun will be coming up soon." She looked up to the sky to see a light purple tint in the sky.
"We're almost there." Logan said. There, happened to be a small cliff edge that showed the whole forest. You could see the school clearly from that high spot. The horizon was in plain view, and the forest looked like tall grass from this bird's eye view.
"Wow!" Rilou gasped, nearly falling off Carrot, who was looking up at the still starry sky. "This is pretty. Like really pretty!" She said happily. Logan smiled at her.
"I like to come up here when I wanna be alone. It calms me down." She sent him a beaming smile. She slid off Carrot and sat next to Logan's shoe, hugging his leg. Logan sat next to her a minute later, so Rilou wound her tiny arms around his upper arm instead. The bear lay to the right of them, his head resting calmly on his large palms.
Smiling a bit, Rilou blew out a puff of gold dream dust, forming what became a bear cub. It ran around the air and hopped onto Carrot's back. It made a little 'Maow' noise, and jumped onto the bigger bear's head. Carrot shook his head, knocking the shimmering gold bear off onto Carrot's large paws. While the animals played with each other, the mutants sat calmly next to the cliff's edge, watching the dimly lit yet starry sky.
"Hey tiny." Logan hummed after a moment, making Rilou look up at him curiously.
"Yes Fur-Face?" He gave her a snide look at the nickname, but continued the conversation.
"How does your power…work exactly?" He continued to look at her, using his heightened sight sense to see her. Rilou's face was still and strait, then almost immediately, she yawned and gave a shrug.
"It's not really a secret or anything. You could have asked earlier if you were curious you know." He snorted at her reply. "Basically I can take dreams people have, including my own, and make them real."
"Like when you took the dream bunny Rouge's brain generated?" He asked, thinking back to when she had first shown her unique power.
"From her dreams, yes. No one part of the brain "generates" dreams. Dreams are best viewed as a whole brain phenomenon - or at least a "whole cerebral cortex" phenomenon." Rilou huffed, confusing Logan significantly. "…Yes Logan I made the bunny with her dreams." She said in a 'you're a simpleton' tone. "It takes energy to make things. The more complex takes more energy. Like the serpent took a lot out of me. I usually don't make things that big."
"It didn't make a noise like that creature the Nightmare guy had."
"Mine's made of dreams. It's not supposed to scare you." Logan thought back to the serpent and the chimera. The chimera's roar sent chills through him, and put him on edge. But her serpent's bell chime like roars calmed him and made him feel at ease.
"Cerin makes his nightmares really complex, that's why they're so good at doing their job."
"Job?"
"Scare the living crap out of people. He lives to bring darkness and terror to the world. That's what he was made to do." She shuffled closer to the bigger mutant, tightening her grip on his arm a little. Carrot and the dream bear cub were now lying next to them. The cub on Carrot's large head, chewing on the larger ones ear.
"And you were born to bring light and joy to people, to stop him, right?" Logan laughed jokingly. Rilou chuckled.
"Born? Theirs an idea." She mused. Logan gave her a look. "The suns coming up." She used her free hand to point to the horizon. Sure enough, a sun was beginning to show its face. The sky was now a vivid purple and orange color. The stars were dimming a bit. Still wanting the stars out, Rilou drew a ball of dream dust from her palm, and lazily tossed it into the sky, where it became a small flock of birds. They flew up into the sky, and exploded into extremely bright stars, covering the entire sky.
"Cool." She heard from her clawed friend. They stayed like that for another hour at the least, the sun coming almost fully over the horizon. Once and a while, Logan would make a sarcastic comment, or Rilou would ask a ridiculous question, but besides that, there was a friendly silence between the two. Carrot had dozed off, the dream cub had dissipated over twenty minutes ago.
"Hey Logan?" Rilou nudged her friend who had been really quiet for a good ten minutes strait. He blinked a few times, having nodded off, and looked around.
"I'm up, I'm up. What's up?" He yawned. Rilou giggled.
"I think we should go back. It's dawn." She swung herself up into a standing position. She was short enough to the point where, when standing, she just barley came up to the top of his head when he sat there. He smirked as he noticed this and stood as well, towering over her. Rilou went to Carrot and pat his head. He woke up with a loud yawn and a sneeze. His light brown fur seemed to glisten a bit in the dawn light. He looked at Rilou and gave her a happy growl. She kissed his nose.
"We're going back to the school Carrot. You gonna walk back with us? You can stay here and nap if you want." Even though the bear couldn't understand English like one might in a cartoon, it seemed to understand that his friends were leaving. He gave a snort, and stood on his four paws, moving to the trail they had used earlier. Rilou walked to Logan and took his hand as they walked in the same direction. "Carrots a cool bear." Logan laughed a bit, still not able to think of the bear as Carrot with a straight face.
"Aww how cute. When's the adoption?" A very familiar hiss seeped through the wind. Logan glared, Rilou rolled her eyes.
"Go away Cerin." She hissed. There was a chilling laugh, then he appeared before them in a void of shadows and shrill cries.
"Aww…now that's just rude." His Russian accent smooth with the hiss tone he held. His pale skin was about the color as the moon had been earlier, a hand on his hip while the other held a glass of what smelt like blood. "Nice to see you again, Logan. I must say you need t quit destroying my creations, it hurts my feeling."
"Which feeling would that be, Nightmare King?" Rilou ground out.
"I dunno. Just a feeling." He shrugged.
"You make up so much nonsense it gives me a headache." Logan mumbled, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"It's a hobby." Cerin chuckled. "Now, Dream King, if I may have a word, we should really turn the page in our story. This is becoming boring on my end."
"I'm supposed to care about your entertainment?" Rilou said with venom in her words.
"I want to play a simple game with you two. See? I'm even letting your new buddy play on your team." He hid a smirk behind a false innocent smile.
"This is gonna be bad." She sighed, then looked up at Logan.
"What's the game?" He barked at the Russian nightmare man, who grinned, showing very sharp teeth. Not just his canines, but all of them. It was a feature Logan had failed to see their first meet.
"A mix of hide-and-seek, and I spy." He mused, crossing his arms and leaning against a tree. Rilou noticed Carrot was gone. He must have one ahead. "I've hidden things around different places around the world. Simple enough, I'll take you a place where I've hidden something, and you'll have a certain amount of time to…find it. Once you do or when the time runs out…I'll take you to the next place. Once the game is over, we can flip another page, and begin a new chapter. Simple, yes?" He blew on his nails, puffing out a stream of shadow dust, it was more see through than it was the last time Logan had seen it last night. "Cursed sunlight…" Cerin muttered.
"Sounds too simple for a snake like you Cerin." Rilou spat. "What's the catch?"
"No true catch. The only rule is the time limit. Oh and you can't split up at all times. Gotta stick with your travel buddy, don't you?" He waved his finger in a 'no, no' gesture.
"And if we say no?" Logan asked, purely irritated with this man. He was an ass. And way too full of himself. Cerin began laughing.
"Oh I don't think you want me to do that, Guardian boy." He chuckled. "Trust me, you're going to wanna find these things I've hidden let me assure you."
"Guardian?" Rilou questioned the name calling. "Explain Cerin."
"Nu-uh little King. That's for another time. Now, are we going to play, or should I cut the game out and not give you a chance to save-find, the things I've hidden?"
"Save?!" Rilou gasped. "What did you do?"
"You'll see. Can we play?" Logan looked between the two, and couldn't help but think he was going to regret this.
"Alright. We'll play your fucking game."