Location: Home (EARLY early morning)
Date: June…day 3?
I had a freaky nightmare.
My hay bed turned into a pink, fleshy monster that started eating me slowly from my back legs going forward. Ugh, it felt so real!
I used my front two legs to crawl towards the kitchen, and Nuzleaf was slumped against one of the walls, his hay bed monster taking up the entirety of his head and eating from his neck down. My guess was it already consumed his head, but I was too freaked out to get a closer look.
As I crawled out of the house, I saw various Pokémon running from their hay bed monsters or being slowly consumed by them. The sky was bright orange with purple plumes of smoke twisting into distorted and disgusting faces.
With my back to Carracosta's house and my monster now eating my torso (ugh, I can still feel its teeth digging into my skin!), I almost didn't hear Lyra weakly calling out my name behind me. She sounded so weak and scared and...she was in agony, and I didn't turn to face her. I couldn't force myself to see what was happening to her.
The monster kept gnashing bones and I heard her gargling my name, and I couldn't take it anymore. I turned and looked just in time to see her eyes bulge and the monster's mouth engulf her entire head. Her tiny stretched-out wing went limp and blood pooled and...
And that's when I bolted awake and sat up in a cold sweat.
What. The FUCK?
The hell did I eat or do before bed to be haunted by that!? What the fuck is wrong with my brain?
I'm cussing a lot more than I normally do, but hot diggity DAMN! How do you rationalize something as utterly fucked up as that dream!?
Eugh...whole thing still gives me the heebies.
Well, now what? The nightmare's over, but I'm still haunted by Lyra's bulging eyes and Nuzleaf's headless body being consumed and the freaking bed slowly munching up me...
I know none of it was real, but even so...ugh, I can't sleep. Not after that. My hay bed is completely uninviting, and I can't...those cursed images and sensations...
Fucking dammit. Why do nightmares have to exist in this world as well as my own? Why did that one have to be so vivid and heart-wrenchingly terrifying that it's made me dead afraid of falling asleep?
Well...now I don't know what to do. I'm wide awake and the sun's not even up yet. I'm...I shouldn't be, but I'm scared of what'll happen if I try talking to Nuzleaf. Again, I shouldn't be. He's done nothing I should be afraid of thus far...yet there's something I can't describe...some small part of me thinks he'll scold me for wasting his time and send me off to bed.
Nightmares are terrifying, and a parent is a child's first source of comfort when traumatized by one. When a parent scolds the kid and warns them of what'll happen if they waste their time again...sometimes laying in bed being terrified to fall asleep is the best scenario. Not healthy, but what else can the kid do?
Does this...relate to something from my past? Did something happen that made me feel this way? Jeez...I wish I could go back in time and hug younger me.
Ugh...I shouldn't feel this way about Nuzleaf. He hasn't done anything to warrant being afraid, and sitting here being afraid because of some past trauma I can't remember is ridiculous. Even if it takes me a few moments of anxious hesitation, I'm gonna go try talking to him about my nightmare.
Wish me luck!
Location: Home (still early morning)
Nuzleaf was dead asleep when I went to talk to him and wasn't really...he didn't appreciate being woken up. He said we had a long day ahead of us tomorrow and we couldn't afford to be losing sleep like this.
I uh...he's right. I woke him up for something stupid, and between my expeditions with Lyra and school, I couldn't afford to be awake right now either.
But...I told him. I put on a brave face, pushed aside my screaming anxieties, and told him my entire nightmare. Afterwards, part of me expected him to give me a dirty look and tell me to get the hell back to bed and not bother him with this nonsense again. Part of me wasn't sure what to expect.
Nuzleaf didn't do that, though. He watched me with concern as I described my nightmare, then he just kinda...stared at his own hay bed. After a while, he went and got mine and plopped it on top of his own. He then went outside.
Was he angry? Irate? Did he leave to cool off so he didn't explode on me for waking him up in the dead of night? Was he off to talk smack about me with Carracosta and have a laugh over how pathetic I am?
I was contemplating going out to look for him when he came back in with a...wooden staff. The hell's he gonna do with that?
To my surprise, he started walloping the pile of hay! Seriously, he beat the living hell outta that hay pile until there was nothing left of it but scattered strands and loose puffs on the floor.
I uh...just stared dumbfoundedly. What was I supposed to make of that display? Was that what he wanted to do to me?
Nuzleaf poked one loose hay puff and...started yelling at it.
"How could ya do this to my gal!? Never give her nightmares again, ya hear me? NEVER!"
He then went around squishing each of the hay puffs while yelling similar things at them. That was...I won't lie, it made me laugh. I was still battling nerves, so I was a little upset...but it made me laugh. He even gathered all the hay into a lumpy pile and performed an elbow drop on it. That...that sent me into a laughing fit.
"This house ain't big enough for the three o' us!"
It was so dumb. He's such a dork!
"Yer kind ain't welcome here!"
I'll give him credit though, it worked. Whatever images from my nightmare plagued my subconscious were quickly replaced with the stupid image of him elbow dropping the hay pile and yelling at it. I still giggle a little when I envision that stupid elbow drop.
Ah...anyway, he told me that I don't have to be scared to talk to him about my nightmares. No matter how late it is or what we have going on, he'll listen and come up with a way to ward those bad dreams away. It is his job to protect me, after all!
Heh. I started getting emotional but I didn't want him to see it, so I hugged him super tight. I told him that the next time I have a hay-related nightmare that he'd better bring back two sticks because that looked like fun.
I wanted to call him Papa when I thanked him, but perhaps that feeling isn't mutual? I didn't wanna take my chances and ruin the moment, so I decided to stick with what I knew. If it ain't broke...
Since our beds were now...in pieces all over the floor, we gathered up what hay we could hold and plopped it into a giant lumpy mess. We each chose a spot in the giant hay mess and said our goodnights. I can hear Nuzleaf snoring away on his side, so I'm trying not to wake him as I write.
I uh...was NOT expecting that outcome when I decided to talk to him. I thought for sure he'd send me back to my room and scold me for wasting his time, but I'm...I'm really happy things worked out that way. Nuzleaf really is a silly Pokémon, but he has a good heart.
Maybe someday I'll be brave enough to call him Papa. I...hope he accepts it.
Location: Home (regular morning)
Nuzleaf had to leave again. He apologized this morning and said he couldn't afford to ignore it, but he reckoned I'm pretty used to my life here well enough to where I can handle being on my own for a day or two. He told me to call Carracosta over if I had any trouble. I tried asking if it was a good or bad thing that cropped up, but he couldn't say. He said that on the bright side, at least I'll get the giant hay mound to myself before he comes back to fix it into two proper beds again.
Before he left, he narrowed his eyes at the hay pile and pointed at his eyes then pointed at the hay pile as if to say "I'm watchin' you". It made me smile.
Such a dork.
However, I felt really uneasy after he left. I've been here a while, and last night when I first got him up...maybe he's looking into having someone else look after me, and he needs to arrange the finalities today? Am I being a burden? Did I bother him too much?
No, no. That can't be it. He'd tell me so, wouldn't he? Plus, I helped make dinner last night and cleaned up afterwards so he could turn in early. Sure, I woke him up, but he told me it was alright and that I shouldn't hesitate to do so again should I have another nightmare. I've got nothing to worry about.
Location: Serene Village School path
Lyra asked me if something was up since Nuzleaf came to visit her ol' pops today. I told her Nuzleaf needed to leave me on my own again, and he wanted me to rely on Carracosta if anything happened. Lyra got all excited and said I should come over for dinner tonight. Apparently, Carracosta is a fantastic chef…so, I figured why not? It'd beat eating alone.
Pancham and Shelmet were certainly in high spirits today. Pancham called us "compadres" before he left for the day. What kinda silly language is that? If I knew what it was as a human, it's but another lost piece of information now.
Lyra wants to squeeze in one last expedition before we have dinner tonight, which I have no objections to. Apparently, Axew needs our help beating up Salamence in the Lush Forest. I don't...like the idea of fighting a Pokémon as tough-sounding as Salamence, but Lyra was too fired up to say no. I'm gonna pack a few additional Tiny Reviver Seeds in case things get too difficult.
Here's hoping Salamence is the only Pokémon on the floor we'll have to fight...
Location: Carracosta's house
Well, the fight proved to be tougher than anticipated. Salamence is really powerful and was able to knock out a member three our four times, making us eat through Tiny Reviver Seeds faster than I liked. Still, with the clever repeated use of a Slumber Wand, we were able to beat him and Axew was grateful. Here's hoping we won't have to do that again anytime soon. I don't think we'd have the Tiny Reviver Seeds for it.
Dinner at Carracosta's was amazing! Lyra wasn't kidding about her pops' cooking. Not only was it flavorful, but warm and filling to boot! There was something really comforting about it, and I ate so much that I was too full to leave. Carracosta and Lyra didn't mind me staying over though. There was a spare hay bed in Lyra's room, and we had a pleasant sleepover!
Heh, I told her about my nightmare last night...though I didn't describe it very thoroughly. The idea of her hay bed turning into a fleshy ravenous monster made her pale, so I figured explaining further might make the poor Torchic faint.
I explained the fears I had about talking to Nuzleaf last night, and how I couldn't remember how they manifested since I had no reason to believe he'd react that way. I admitted that I was worried about...my past life. I still don't remember what it was like, but my instincts told me to fear my parent when I had no reason to...that had to mean something, right?
Lyra said that doesn't sound like a very parental thing to do. Everyone has nightmares, and adults are responsible for teaching children appropriate ways of responding to them. Even if my past life involved bad parents, I had a good one now. She promised that if I get sent back to my world, she'd find a way there and rescue me from my bad parent(s).
Aww...bless her, she's too good!
Heh, she had her own version of flipping off the hay beds. She burrowed into hers until she was surrounded on all sides by it and she smiled at me from underneath. It looked like she was wearing a parka made of hay!
Oh my Arceus, she's so freaKING CUTE!
I decided to follow her lead and burrowed into mine and we decided to spend the night sleeping like this, giggling like a couple of tiny idiots.
Man, what a fantastic end to today :3
A/N: Did I write that entire nightmare sequence because I had a similar nightmare recently? Or was it because I like the elbow drop meme? Psh, I'll never tell.