Dreams, no matter what causes them, are often foolish. Sometimes the things that shouldn't make sense do, or sometimes the reality is distorted. But no matter how foolish the dream . . . could there be a reason someone's having them?

What happened? I see blood . . . everywhere. I'm in a house, the boards creek ominously with every step. Images are running through my head . . . I remember a man screaming, screaming as . . . something attacked him. I remember a woman holding a bow and arrow. I remember . . . something attacked her? Yes, that's it. Why is there an arrow protruding from my side then? Ugh, my head is throbbing . . . why are my hands covered in blood?

I limp through the house, my leg not working well. Something happened here, something bad. As I walk past my bedroom . . . wait, how did I get out of my bedroom? Whatever. My father is there. He no longer has a head on his shoulders, something decapitated him.

But why was he here? He was kicked out years ago, right? I suddenly hear a gasp from the living room, and I turn to see the woman there. She's looking at me, her eyes wild with fear. Isn't she my mother? Why does she fear me?

"Do you know what you are?"

I turn to find the source of the voice and see a shadow coming from the bathroom. The light in there flickers for a moment, and the shadow is gone. I gulp as I head towards it, wondering . . . what happened?

"You are not my enemy."

"Who's there?"

I gulped as I entered the bathroom. The light flickers again, and I see something in the mirror, out of the corner of my eye. But as I turn to face the mirror, the thing disappears.

"You are not a threat to me."

I walk over to the mirror, looking at myself. My silvery hair is a mess, and there's a strange look in my red eyes that I can't understand.

"You"

The lights flicker, and for just a moment I see the reflection of a strange, shadowy creature behind me. I quickly turn around, but it's gone.

"Are"

Where do I know that voice from? Why is it so familiar? "Do I know you? Who are you? I am what?"

The lights flicker again, and I quickly turn around to face the mirror. I pale as I see that my reflection is no longer acting like me. It has an evil smile, and it places a hand on its side of the glass as it opens its mouth.

"MY"

That's it. It's my voice! But what's going on? What . . . oh god. My reflection's changing, four spider-legs grow out from its sides as its hands and feet quickly change as well. Its waist shrinks down to almost nothing, and its abdomen grows. In mere moments, my reflection is a massive spider! The spider grins as one long, spindly leg reaches out from the mirror.

"PREY!"

The leg catches the back of my neck, and soon I'm flying towards the mirror as the spider's mouth opens wide. Everything goes black, and I hear a disgusting crunch.

Zacyr bolted upright, not realizing until too late that Sarysi was leaning over him. A searing pain shot through Zacyr's skull as he unintentionally butted heads with Sarysi, and the two of them swore as they both put hands to their heads. "Oh damn it that hurt!"

For a bit, Zacyr couldn't think through the headache. He looked up, and was blinded by the sun. Wait, the sun? Zacyr forced his eyes open and looked around. He was surprised to realize it was morning. "Morning already?"

He was surprised to see Tachine and Kshtsi both up, looking rather amused as Zacyr rubbed his head. "Well, you look like you're feeling better. Maybe yesterday was the worst of the withdrawal."

Zacyr yawned as he got up, shocked when he realized his balance was shot. At least he was shocked until he remembered how he and Sarysi had put their heads together . . . ugh, his head was still throbbing. He looked up and almost grinned when he saw Sarysi wasn't faring much better. The two of them stumbled around for a little bit before they recuperated, then Sarysi grinned at Zacyr.

"Okay, lesson learned. The sleeping beauty technique doesn't work when the person bolts upright. And here I thought you liked me."

Zacyr didn't even see the little gleam in Sarysi's eyes when he immediately spoke. "Of course I do, it's just-"

When Zacyr suddenly realized Sarysi was joking, well . . . Zacyr couldn't have blushed more if he tried. Sarysi burst out laughing at Zacyr's immediate defensive reaction, and both Kshtsi and Tachine chuckled. After a few more shenanigans, the group packed up and continued their journey through the plains.

Not much really happened that day. Even though they could still see the mountains in the distance, they never seemed to get much closer. Admittedly, that may have been because the group was in a much more light-hearted mood from yesterday. Overall Zacyr had to say that it was a good day.

When it came time for supper, both Zacyr and Tachine went a bit away from the other two and Tachine continued where they had left off, having Zacyr spell different words in the dirt. Zacyr had fun, and Tachine made sure to choose words that were not too difficult but not too easy. Zacyr still had trouble remembering which vowel had which shape, and his A's often looked like O's because of it.

The last word Tachine had Zacyr write was his name. Zacyr grinned when he put 'acyr' in the dirt. Tachine smiled as she told Zacyr he had forgotten to capitalize the A, but Zacyr could only blush as he put a large Z in front of the word, correctly spelling his name. Tachine seemed really surprised as Zacyr explained how his name started with a silent Z, but before the two of them could talk about it much Kshtsi and Sarysi called them over.

As they always did, Kshtsi and Sarysi pestered them over what they had been doing. Sarysi even got up and went over to the spot, but Zacyr had been careful to wipe the dirt clean to cover up the words he had written. Both Tachine and Zacyr wanted to keep it a surprise as long as they could, if only to tease both Kshtsi and Sarysi.

Soon the group was done eating (having found a few prairie dogs earlier and finding that they tasted rather nice), and they got ready to sleep again. By this time, Zacyr had quite forgotten about his earlier nightmare, and almost the instant he lied down he was out like a light.

I cried at mother's side, clinging to her as I still saw the mice biting me. Mother gently held me as I begged her to be my eyes, to tell me what was real and what was not. I just couldn't believe it, how could those mice have been real?

"SIDAS!"

I yelped at the word mother bellowed at my father. Even my father, who never appeared nervous before, looked unsettled by the clear rage in my mother's voice. "I can explain, it's all a misunderstanding!"

"No! There is no misunderstanding here, you fucker! Do you know what you just did? You took all of Zacyr's confidence, and you just destroyed it! I trusted you to keep an eye on him while I was gone, how could you do that to your own son? You know what, you fucker? I won't let you ever have a child again!"

Mother gently pried me off of her, and I was shocked when in one fluid motion she grabbed her bow off of her back, nocked an arrow, and fired. I could only shiver as the arrow embedded itself into father's groin. Dad screamed in pain, and mother soon smiled down at me. "Alright, I still want to see the world. But seeing as your father is otherwise occupied, how about you come with me?"

I eagerly nodded, but shivered when I saw her covered with mice. Were they real?

"No, it's a hallucination."

I smiled up at mother. She could always tell when I was seeing something. Soon the two of us walked out of the village, my father's curses the only sound for miles.

Zacyr woke up when he felt a nibble at his ear. While he tried to ignore it, Real surprised Zacyr by biting down hard. The bite woke Zacyr up immediately, although it was forgotten about when Zacyr heard padded paws not two feet away from him. Zacyr immediately opened his eyes and located the source of the noise.

He couldn't believe it. A puma had infiltrated the 'camp'. He cautiously eyed it, noticing that he could count every rib on the puma. Hunger was the driving factor here. Zacyr immediately got to his feet. This puma didn't look all that old, so it may have been attempting to see if they were prey. The puma immediately looked at Zacyr, and the two of them exchanged glares. A few seconds seemed to pass, and Zacyr's worries were confirmed. The puma wasn't backing down, it was too hungry to flee from a potential meal.

Zacyr soon located where Sarysi was sleeping, and slowly brought a hand up to his pack. The intention was to grab out a long length of rope, which he would then aim to hit Sarysi awake with. She would be a much better combatant than Zacyr would, and he wasn't afraid to admit that he wasn't willing to take on a wild animal by himself. Unfortunately, the puma didn't appear to approve of Zacyr's hastily-made plan, and charged. Zacyr quickly tried to get his shirt off, so his extra arms could be used, but the puma was faster.

Zacyr was knocked to the ground by the puma's lunge, the puma landing neatly on top of him. Instinct allowed Zacyr to get his normal pair of arms up as the puma attempted to bite, and soon Zacyr was attempting to push the hungry puma's teeth away from his neck. He wanted to use his extra arms, but they were trapped within the shirt and not strong enough to push the puma off of him.

Zacyr and the puma both grunted with effort as they fought for the upper hand, and soon a startled shriek alerted Zacyr to the fact that Tachine had woken up as well. To Zacyr's surprise and relief, the puma noticed as well. Deciding that it had already lost the fight, the puma leapt off of Zacyr and soon dashed away from the group, vanishing as fast as it had appeared.

Zacyr soon found himself surrounded by his concerned group members, explaining how Real had woke him up and how Zacyr had spotted the puma. It took a while for the group to fall asleep, but Zacyr was surprised and touched when Sarysi chose to sleep quite a bit closer to Zacyr.

Aww, young love.

Now, what's the point of this chapter? Just passing the time. As I said in a MUCH earlier chapter, I dislike time-skips. Don't worry, the plot will get moving again soon.