Stork's dream

Stork's dream

i am sooooooooo sorry for the delay! sniff, i hope you don't all hate me now. anyway, it's a little short, but enjoy anyway.

Aerrow, haven been wakened along with the others at four in morning by Stork, sat at the table, head propped up by his arm, and listened to the merb excitedly describe his dream in great detail. Stork couldn't rush his words from his mouth fast enough.

Piper, just as tired as Aerrow, waited until Stork's babbling slowed, and then cut in. "Stork, this is just a dream. Why are you telling us this?"

"Yeah," Finn whined, hair disheveled and eyes red rimmed. "I dreamed that I was butt naked at Terra Atmosia in front of the council. Then my underwear tried to eat me, said that it was put up with me wearing it twenty four seven, but I don't wake you all up to tell you."

Stork glowered. "This wasn't a dream! Well, yes it was, but not really. The spirit gave it to me!"

They all gaped at him. Piper scratched her chin. "Spirit?"

Finn shook his head. "The merb's lost it."

"No! No! No!" Stork snapped. "That moth! The one I found in the ditch! With the flyberries!" He scowled. "Wait, let me start over. When I went down in that ditch for the flyberries, I found a moth in a spiderweb and I took it out since I felt sorry for it and then I set it on the ground and then it suddenly became a white winged lady. The lady told me that she would give me a gift for my kindness." He took a deep breath, and then concluded, "And I think I just dreamed it."

Junko didn't get it. The wallop rubbed his head. "I'm confused. What does the gift have to do with your dream?"

"The dream is the gift!" Stork shook the wallop. "Don't you get it? That transparent, glass, see-through whatever it is terra!" He released Junko and pointed down to the table where the map was still outspread. "That terra that you mentioned earlier, Piper, the one that isn't colored in. It's it!"

"What?" Aerrow couldn't resist a chuckle. "Stork, this map's ancient, and Terra Odranoel doesn't exist anymore."

Stork gazed down at the sketch. "What happened to it?"

"No one really knows," Piper took over. "One day it was there, that strange transparent terra, and then the next it wasn't. The few books I've read with any information on Odranoel says that it is made of glass."

Stork tapped the sketch. "I saw something else than just glass." He fell silent, as if trying to remember.

Finn wiped a string of drool from his lip. "Just say what you need to say and let's get back to bed. I'm tired!"

Piper nudged him hard. "Shut up, Finn." She turned back to Stork. "What else did you see?"

The merb stroked his chin thoughtfully. "I don't really know. It's kinda hard to explain and it's kinda fuzzy."

Aerrow got up. "Just a sec." He disappeared down the hallway, and then reappeared a moment later with a sheet of paper and a pencil. "Try drawing it."

Stork took the pencil hesitantly. "I'm not the best with drawing." He put the tip onto the paper, and then drew a circle. He shaded in the sides, and then drew little cracks running from it. "It was in this glass cliff as if someone had just taken it and slammed it in. It was an amber color, or gold, I'm not sure. Then I touched it, and it became like this," He drew another circle beside the first one, this time adding another smaller circle inside it. He sketched little veins around it, and put down the pencil. "It was like a big eyeball. The iris was gold, and it looked at me as if it were alive!"

Finn propped his head up onto the table. "Someone should cover his ears in case the rest of his brain dribbles out."

"Finn, this is serious," Stork snapped.

Junko shivered as he leaned over to inspect Stork's sketch. "An eyeball on a see-thru terra? Sounds more like a nightmare than a dream to me."

Piper slid the paper closer. "Is there anything else besides this, uh, eyeball?"

Stork raked his brain for details. "Uh… Dark Ace. He strangled me."

They all gaped at him. "Wha?"

Stork pointed at his throat. "Dark Ace. He strangled me."

"He… strangled you," Aerrow said slowly. "And then what?"

"Did Frosty the snowman come along, skewer you with an icicle, and roast you over a bonfire?"

Stork raised an eyebrow at Junko's question. "No. Why?"

Junko trembled. "Then I'm the only one…"

Piper slammed her palm on the table top. "Seriously guys! After Dark Ace, eh, strangled you… what then?"

"And then…" Stork thought hard. "I felt my life being sucked down into that eye. And then I woke up."

Silence. Finn broke it. "Nice dream. Sounds pleasant."

Stork frowned. "Nothing about that makes sense?"

Piper shook her head slowly. "Sure, Terra Odranoel, but I know nothing about a giant… eye."

"Forget the eye," Stork said impatiently. "I don't know what that was all about, but what about the terra?"

"Like I said before, it just disappeared," Piper repeated. "A lot of people searched for it in the exact location where it once was, but they've given up years ago when all they found were wastelands, air, and clouds. For all I know, it's gone."

"Or…" Stork tapped his lip. "How 'bout invisible?"

"Even if the terra is invisible," Piper objected. "Someone would have still been able to land on it, or at least have run into it."

"Well," Stork waved his arms. "I know what I saw! If you don't believe me, then fine!"

Aerrow had grown too curious to let Stork stop. The sky knight grabbed the merb's wrist as he turned to go. "Wait, wait."

Stork sat back down.

"So what you're saying is…" Aerrow said slowly. "You dreamed the way to a long lost terra that's invisible and lost, and on that invisible terra is an eyeball that is somehow alive?"

"Uh," Stork thought it over. "Yeah. Pretty much."

Aerrow pushed himself from the table, a bright smile lighting up his face. "Sweet! Looks like we're on a treasure hunt!"

Junko perked up. "Treasure! I love treasure hunts!"

Finn, his gripping about his need for his bed forgotten, rubbed his hands together. "Mmm… treasure."

"Wait, before we get all excited," Piper spoke up, the only one sitting besides Stork. "Let's think this over. This is just something Stork dreamed up. It could just be a normal, simple dream. Plus, earlier this day, Stork passed out and dreamed that a moth suddenly turned into a lady. It might just be a side affect."

Stork snorted. "That was real!"

Finn, arms crossed and mouth open in an are-you-done-yet way, cut them off with a careless wave. "Oh, c'mon! what if it is real? You're just going to pass up a free trip to the rich life? If there're weird goldish eyeballs floating around this place, then who knows what else could be there!"

Junko agreed whole-heartedly. "Hchah! There could be flame corn, or… or a gravy buffet! Oh yeah!"

Finn giggled, hopping from one foot to the other. "Or shiny, sparkly, priceless big chunks of fame and fortune!"

Piper crossed her arms smugly. "Or there could just be a giant eyeballs."

Finn stopped. "Well, that's no fun."

Piper shook her head at the boys. "This is crazy. We're going to fly around aimlessly looking for an invisible terra that Stork just happened to dream up?"

"But I didn't dream this up!" Stork snapped at her, and then he turned to the others. "And this isn't just a stupid treasure hunt! This is serious! There was Dark Ace! Cyclonia!"

Aerrow looked surprised. "So? Dark Ace pops up everywhere."

Stork's gaze dropped down to the floor.

Suddenly he was caught, and lifted high for a bird's eye view of the glass terra. He gawked at it for a moment, and then the entire scene vanished. Then he turned, and found a hand around his throat. Dark Ace laughed evilly and squeezed. Stork grasped the Talon's wrist helplessly as his life was drained away… down… down… down…

Into the eye.

"Stork?"

"Huh?" The merb looked back up.

Piper and the others were looking at him strangely. "You've been just standing there and staring at the floor for 'bout five minutes."

"I have-" Stork's spine suddenly went rigid and his friends vanished.

He saw the terra, the same one as before, at the bird's eye view. The invisible force keeping him in the air turned him slightly to the right, and then to the left. The bright whiteness surrounding the terra slowly darkened, and colors began to show through. Below, the wastelands formed, and the sky showed through. Stork watched, amazed, as a terra formed in the background, no more than a dozen miles from Terra Odranoel. It was terra…

"Atmosia," Stork said breathlessly. His eyes snapped open, and he found himself staring up at Aerrow, who was kneeling beside him. He lifted his head slowly, feeling the throb in the back of his head where he had hit it on the floor. "Oh… not again. Sorry."

Piper pressed her hand to her chest in relief. "Oh, good. I thought you were sick again."

"No. I just had another vision," Stork said, brushing Aerrow's steadying hand from his shoulder.

Finn crossed his arms huffily. "Visions? Oh, so now you're psychic?"

Stork sprang up. "Why won't you all believe me? It's the gift! She has given me the way to Terra Odranoel!"

Junko was the only one who really believed the angry merb. "Where is it? Is it really invisible?"

"It must be. According to the vision, Terra Odranoel is right next door to Atmosia!"

"What?" Finn dismissed the idea. "Everyone's been flying back and forth, up and down all over that area. Someone would have eventually run into it."

"Well that's what I saw," Storks snapped.

Aerrow hated taking sides, but he didn't see the logic. "Finn's actually right Stork, there's no way this terra could be there."

Piper took Stork's wrist as the merb took a threatening step toward the sky knight. "Calm down, Stork. We'll go there and do a complete circle, nice and low, where you saw the terra. But I can almost guarantee that it won't be there."

"If it's not," Aerrow took a step away from the helmsman just in case. "Then we're bringing you to Terra Atmosia to get checked out. I don't think flyberries caused this."

"That's because they didn't!" Stork shrieked, waving his arms. "The spirit touched me and she granted me a gift! I know where Terra Odranoel is and where it's not!"

"Alright, alright." Aerrow stood back. "Go fly us to Atmosia."

"Thank you!" Stork brushed past him to the controls and immediately broke the Condor out of hover, and veered them around.

"It's the middle of the night," Finn hissed to Aerrow. "I can't sleep well when Stork's jerking the ship around and stuff."

Aerrow walked past him toward his quarters. "It's either that, or you can listen to Stork complain all night."

Piper followed the sky knight. "I'm with Aerrow. I'm too tired to deal with him any longer." She stopped and looked back at the merb hunched over the controls. "Hey Junko? Do you think you can stay here and sleep at the table? Just in case Stork falls over again?"

The kind hearted wallop sat back down at the table. "Sure thing. I don't mind."

She gave him a grateful smile. "Thanks."

Morning arrived, splashing the eastern horizon with bright shades of red and purple. Aerrow rose reluctantly, feeling the lack of sleep from the night's interruption. The sky knight slid from his bed and ruffled his hair, groaning as he recalled Stork's dream. Sometimes, he wondered if the merb really was sick.

The sky knight looked up at a knock at his door. It slid open and Finn poked his head in. "Hey, sleep good?"

Aerrow stood up slowly, rubbing his back. "Ugh… not really."

The sharpshooter leaned against the door. "Guess where we are?"

He quickly calculated the distance from where they were last night to the distance to Atmosia. "Uh… somewhere over the wastelands by Saharr?"

Finn shook his head with a small, sad smile. "I didn't think you'd guess. Even I couldn't believe it." He pointed downwards. "Right now, we're hovering in neutral, right over Atmosia's eastern dock."

"What?!" Aerrow nearly knocked the sharpshooter over in his mad dash from his room. He threw the door open and ran onto the bridge, right past Piper and Junko and stopped at the windshield. He pressed his forehead to the glass and peered down. A huge dock, crowded by hundreds of people the size of ants and crates and ships of numerous sizes, greeted him.

"B-but how?" Aerrow turned from the window to face the others. "We were on the opposite side of Atmos last night!"

"He did it," Junko said, pointing to the figure of Stork curled up at the table seat, snoring.

Aerrow's eye twitched. "He drove all night?"

"Uuuuuuuuh… yeah. Pretty much." Junko rubbed the back of his neck. "I was watching him, but I kinda fell asleep 'bout an hour after you guys left."

Aerrow noticed Piper's blank, slightly creeped out stare. "What?"

Finn, hair disheveled from nearly being run over by Aerrow, pointed at him. "You're in your panties, dude."

"In my…" Aerrow looked down. "Oh…"

Just had to add the last part in. REVIEW!!