Gajeel was in for a long night. Nightmares streaked through the closet room-portal from the moment the child entered Dreamland. Drawn to the darkness of his territory, they seemed to enter the room every few minutes. Gajeel growled, changing his vaporous form into a winged serpent to chase another Nightmare from the room.
For once the MUB guarding the BED must have actually done her job properly, if the amount of Nightmares plaguing the closet was any indication. With no dreams to latch onto, the Nightmares launched themselves at every dark corner they could find in hopes of hiding until a crack in the Dreamland could be found and they could once again plague the mind of his innocent child.
Gajeel growled, snapping at a Nightmare before it could dare harm his child. It shrieked and escaped under the door back into the BED-room. He hung in the shadows, watching the dim light surrounding the room-portal with a wary eye. No sounds came from the BED-room, nor from the sleeping child. He should be grateful that the child was slumbering peacefully, but the fact that the MUB caused him more work made his shadows itch.
Apparently deciding to brave his territory yet again, the Nightmare streaked under the crack in the door and straight for the uppermost corner of the closet. Gajeel launched himself from the hangers and bit into the Nightmare, shattering it into a thousand pieces before it even reached the child's hanging clothes.
Gajeel spat vapors from his mouth, rubbing it with a shadow to rid himself of the burnt, sulfur taste. "It keeps multiplying and all of the same dark figure. Just what did that child see today?"
Gajeel flew to the hangers and settled his shadows into an indistinguishable dark mass, keeping an ever watchful eye on the toys and clothes scattered within his domain. The closet remained blissfully calm. No nightmares came through the cracks and Gajeel smirked, eyeing his territory.
It had only been a few full moons since the Boogeyman Makarov recruited him into the band of bedroom monsters and placed him as one of the main guardians of the young Wendy's BED-room. Being a Monster in the Closet was an easy assignment with a simple job description: KEEP THE CHILD SAFE!
Gajeel had easily agreed to the terms. Wendy was a small child and readily obeyed her parentals whenever they tucked her in for the night. He hardly had to leave his closet, except for the rare occasion when he would have to scare the sleepwalking child away from the room-portal and back into her bed. Although he would never admit it outloud, he hated seeing the startled, terrified look Wendy gave anytime she woke and found herself out of her BED. But he did his duty faithfully, knowing full well that if he didn't scare Wendy properly then she could be seriously injured by wandering around the dark house by herself.
He was plenty strong enough to handle the small child and her BED-room and he knew his powers were wasted on a simple, small closet. No Nightmare had ever been able to get past him and Gajeel was certain an MC like him could manage even a walking-in-it closet, should Wendy decide to move rooms when she became older.
The closet door slowly creaked open and Gajeel tensed, shifting his body into a winged serpent. He had seen the image in one of Wendy's fantasy books and the animal called a 'dragon' had quickly become his favorite form. It was fast, agile, and terrifyingly efficient in terrifying any Nightmare who thought itself brave enough to haunt his child.
"Monster in the Closet?" A soft voice called out into the darkness.
Gajeel stared at the open room-portal, his dark eyes settling on the sudden clump of fluff that appeared on the floor. Large eyes, attached to a small, ball shaped lump on top of the main fluff, nervously scanned the room and her soft body quivered. Two slightly longer stubs of fluff on her torso rubbed together and the two stubs near the ground walked back and forth between the BED-room and the closet.
Now just what did she think she was doing?
"MC? Are you here?"
"Of course I'm here, you stupid Dust Bunny..." Gajeel launched himself from the rack of shirts and skirted across the floor. He smiled in satisfaction when the MUB squeaked in fright and drew away from the portal.
He heard the MUB gulp and her trembling voice reached out to him. "I...I need your help. Something happened and I-"
Gajeel lengthened his body, twisting his long neck in the darkness. "I ain't helpin' you if you messed up somethin'. The BED area is your job and I ain't gonna babysit-"
"Wendy has been taken."
Gajeel froze, each shadow covering his body stiffening. He tilted his head, wondering if some of the MUB's dust had floated into his ear. "What?"
"A dark stranger came through the wall-portal and took her. I managed to slow time outside your territory for a bit, but the Nightmares were increasingly strong tonight and I am only able to keep the time-change active for a few more human seconds. Please, I cannot...I do not have enough-"
"Stop yer yammering! What do you mean, you let the child be taken?"
Gajeel growled and flew out of the closet. He streaked across the shadow of a doll house, a fallen pillow, and up the curtains to the wall-portal. Looking through the cold crystal surface, he saw the dark shape of a stranger slowly closing the portal door of a nearby transportation vehicle.
"How long did you slow time for?" he asked the MUB, never taking his eyes off the vehicle beginning to slowly pull away.
"Only a few human seconds. I am not very...I can only time-change once every full moon and my energy is-"
Gajeel groaned. "Why are you MUBs so weak? No matter, if we hurry, we will not be too far behind."
The MUB peered up at him from where she stood on the floor. "Oh thank you, MC! I know you can do it-"
"Yer comin' with me."
The MUB blinked her round eyes. Her body swayed and even Gajeel could see that she hadn't actually lied about using all of her powers. "Eh?"
"Don't 'eh' me! They are taking the child and you need to get stronger so this never happens again. Get on my back now!"
Changing his form into the shape of a long-legged Runalong, Gajeel lept from the wall-portal, grabbed the MUB at the back of her dust, and threw her onto his back. Ignoring her cries of protest, he squeezed through the shadows of the wall-portal and followed the darkness just as the car turned the corner on the wide, empty street.