Chapter Two: Murky Dreams
It was cold, very cold. She should have been used to cold temperatures like this. Then again, she had been born in temperatures that were close to freezing, if not colder. But not even her thick white and orange fur coat could protect her from the bitterness that hung in the air around her. Then the smell hit her, she couldn't help but cringe a bit at the foul yet all too familiar stench that surrounded her tight cage, musty and oily. She didn't like that smell, but she couldn't exactly get away from it… she was stuck here, she knew that all too well.
But that didn't stop her from trying to reach out through the old cages' stainless steel bars. She reached out towards something, but she wasn't sure what. All she could see was a murky, blurry mess out in front of her, it was like looking into a muddy pool of water or trying to look through a warped mirror. She couldn't tell what she was trying to reach for, but that didn't stop her from at least trying.
She could feel warm tears matting down the fur on her cheeks as she cried out. She could feel herself trying to pull apart the rusting bars, she knew she had to get out of here, she needed to get to something… no someone, but any effort to escape quickly proved fruitless. She couldn't escape this cage, not in time. She again cried out, it sounded like an apology, but she wasn't sure who she was apologizing too nor why.
She suddenly found herself overcome by guilt, a feeling so heavy and overwhelming that it made her want to sink into the cold steel floor beneath her and disappear. Her own thoughts screamed at her that all this was somehow her fault, she could have done something to prevent this if she hadn't been so stupid, so weak, if she had just been strong enough, she could have saved her!
A fear and pain filled scream suddenly pierced the atmosphere around her, drowning out her thoughts, she cried out with her, once again reaching through the bars toward her. Her tears blurring her already blurred vision. There was a sudden flash of crackling bright, almost blinding white. Then the bear shot up with a silent cry.
Lumi instinctively tried to scream in terror, only for it to morph to a near cry of pain as a spike of searing hot agony shot down her throat and down her embroidered stomach. The white and orange bear clenched her teeth, doing everything she could to keep herself from attempting to cry out. Why did this always happen? Who or what felt the need to silence her in such a painful way? If they didn't want her to have a voice, surely there was a less painful way of taking it away. Maybe one day she'd get to find out what happened to her voice.
Lumi soon laid back down on the soft teal blue sofa she had been using as a bed as she released the breath she had been holding and noticed that she could see her breath. She curiously watched as the wisp of air began to rise to the ceiling for only a moment, before disappearing from view. The white and orange bear almost gasped upon seeing a large grey cloud had covered the ceiling above her and small flakes of snow were softly falling to the living room floor.
What in the world? Where did that cloud come from? Did she somehow manage to do that? Did she make this cloud?
Lumi hopped off the couch, keeping her amber eyes on the large snow cloud, wanting to make sure it wouldn't disappear on her, until she had left the living room. She then raced down the hallway, quickly and excitedly knocked on Valarie's bedroom door, loud enough to wake up the whole house.
The bedroom door squealed as it opened, revealing a half asleep little girl, who yawned tiredly before speaking, "Lumi? What's going on?"
The white and orange bear frantically pointed at the living room, before grabbing Valarie's hand and dragging the tired girl to the living room. But when they got to the room, Lumi found that the grey snow cloud that had covered the ceiling was gone and somehow the snow that covered the floor was gone now too. But it was still freezing in here, the bear looked over at Lumi to find Valarie shivering.
"Y- You know Lumi, you didn't have to drag me out here because it was cold." Valarie stammered as she shivered, her dark brown gaze shifting from the rooms ceiling to Lumi.
Lumi shook her head, pointing up at the ceiling before grabbing the notebook Will had given her earlier. She quickly began to write, "There was a cloud on the ceiling, and it was snowing!"
The bear handed the notebook to Valarie to read. The girl skimmed the note before looking back up at Lumi, "Really? That explains why it's so cold in here." She said, gazing up at the ceiling, where the cloud had been, "So, you can make clouds?"
"Try to make one now." Will told her as he stepped into the room, almost making Lumi jump at his sudden appearance.
Lumi shrugged and wrote down another message, "I don't even know how I made the first one."
Will read the note and hummed in thought, "Well, did you have a dream that had to do with clouds or something?"
The bear thought about it a moment, she did have a dream, but she barely remembered any of it now. But she knew that it left an eerie feeling in the back of her mind, "I did have a dream, but I don't remember it." She wrote down before letting Will read it.
"Well, try to make one anyway." Will told her, "Try closing your eyes and imagining a cloud."
Lumi nodded and did as she was told. She closed her eyes and tried to imagine a big fluffy cloud that made the world below it cold and blanketed it with a thick sheet of sparkling white. She thought about that cloud, she chanted 'snow cloud' in her mind over and over. Then she opened her eyes, looked up at the ceiling but found no snow cloud above her. The room was even starting to warm up.
Lumi could only shrug and give the twins an apologetic look, before shifting her amber gaze to the floor.
"It's okay, Lumi." Valarie spoke sympathetically, placing a hand on the bear's shoulder, "I believe you."
Will hummed thoughtfully, "Maybe you need to practice these abilities of yours."
"Oh! Maybe something happened to you that made your powers weak!" Valarie exclaimed, turning to Lumi, "And someone erased your memories so you couldn't stop them from a world ending event!"
"I doubt that," Will told his sister, "If she were really supposed to stop some world ending event, wouldn't the person who erased her memories and took her voice want her dead? Pretty sure they would have killed her when they had her, right?"
Valarie thought for a moment, "Maybe she escaped before they could!" She replied, "And they only managed to get her memories!"
"That would explain the loss of her voice." Will stated, "Hard to tell anyone what happened to you if you don't have a voice."
Lumi rubbed her throat instinctively. It didn't hurt but hearing the twins talk about this made her throat feel funny and it made her wonder, what if they were right? What if whoever took away her voice and her memories did it to stop her for whatever reason. She could have been doing something important and she didn't even remember what! And forgetting a possibly important dream did not help matters. Oh, she could only hope that Alex would really be able to help her.
Will seemed to notice Lumi's sudden distress and quickly changed the subject, "Umm, it's late. Maybe we should go to sleep and try to figure this out tomorrow after school." The boy suggested, not wanting to distress the tired bear more than they already had.
"You should also talk to mom about this," Valarie added, "He might be able to tell you what this means."
It was probably best if she went back to sleep. Lumi could feel drowsiness clouding her mind already. The bear yawned and gave the girl a nod as she slowly began to climb back on the couch.
"Night Night, Lumi!" The bear heard Valarie call as she stepped out of the living room towards her bedroom.
"Get some rest, we'll figure this out, don't worry." Will murmured optimistically as he followed his twin.
Lumi simply gave a tired wave as she flipped herself over and fell back to sleep. Hoping that maybe when she woke up, she'd find another snow cloud. Perhaps it was something that only worked when she was sleeping. Perhaps she'd find out in the morning.
(A/N): Been sitting on this chapter for about a month, recently found it and decided to post it now before I forget about it again lol. Might polish it up in the near future, if I'm feeling up to it.