Defending Our Dreams (Klonoa)

I was woken up by a gentle, swaying motion, as though I was on a boat.

My eyes were still adjusting, so I couldn't really see much… though I thought I could feel my head, feet, and arms pressing against… something to my sides.

Weird… I thought to myself. I don't remember my bed being this cramped…

My vision cleared a bit – I thought I could make out a bit of light peeking out through a crack in the ceiling… a few inches away from my face…

Okay, this can't be right… should I panic?

I tried to lean towards the crack to get a better view…

Only… I couldn't move my head!

I tried to adjust myself and push against the ceiling, see if I couldn't get the crack to spread… only I couldn't move my arms or legs either!

I tried looking around to try and make out the rest of my surroundings… only my eyes wouldn't budge…

Yep… time to panic…

I tried to scream… to let someone know I was trapped… only my voice wouldn't work! And I couldn't move my mouth…

Come to think of it… was I even breathing? I tried inhaling… nope, couldn't breathe… though strangely enough, I didn't feel the need to…

This has to be another nightmare… right? Yeah, it's a nightmare… just need to close my eyes and wake up…

I tried doing so… only I couldn't move my eyelids either!

I made one last effort to move anything… to give off some kind of signal… but nothing would budge…


How long was I in there? The swaying motion didn't seem to stop, but I thought I could hear 2 voices off in the distance.

I couldn't make out what the first voice said, or even who it belonged to, as it was muffled by the walls of… whatever I was in. The second voice was still muffled, but a bit clearer…

"Thank Claire you're safe!" It was Popka's voice. "We saw the rocket landing; we wanted to see if it was an alien or something!"

Rocket…? Oh, right… I think I know where I am now…

When Guntz, Pango and I came back the first time, we had to bring Lolo's body back to Breezegale in a coffin, breaking the news of her death to Chipple and Popka…

Now… I was reliving it from Lolo's perspective… at least, it would've been her perspective… inside the coffin…

Good, just another nightmare… it'll be over soon… right?

After a few moments, the swaying motion stopped, and the first voice spoke again, much clearer than before.

"Oh, and you brought your new friends with you, too!" Sure enough, it was Chipple's voice. "Sorry, that whole business back in 'Nahato's Darkness' went by so fast; I don't think we caught your names."

Another voice joined in. "The name's Guntz."

"Well, that'd explain your weapon choices." Popka snarked. "And you?"

Yet another voice joined in. "I'm Pango."

"I see…" Popka said. "Pango the pangolin. Strange name; that'd be like if we called Chipple over here 'Kanga'."

He paused for a moment. "So, uh… who's the corpse? Is it Garlen?"

They fell silent for quite a bit. I waited, expecting to hear my own voice bluntly telling them who was really in here.

Instead… I heard Lolo's voice… almost on the verge of crying…

"N-no…" she whimpered. "It… it's K… Klonoa…"

Silence again. Had I been able to move my face, the expression on it would've sunk…

"You're… you're joking, right?" Chipple asked in disbelief.

Silence yet again. I could feel the coffin being lowered, jolting a bit as it hit the ground.

The lid was removed, the afternoon light nearly blinding me. Once my eyes adjusted, I could see Chipple and Popka looking down at me, the color once again drained from their horror-struck faces – Chipple's face even more so.

"Klonoa!?" they both yelled. Chipple tried to grab me as though to wake me up, but Guntz, just now coming into my view, restrained him.

"We already tried that." Guntz said. "He's… he's gone…"

His expression wavered… almost as though just looking at me was too much for him. Eventually, he fell to the ground and sobbed heavily over the edge of the coffin, several of his tears landing on my leg.

Lolo, just now coming into view, crouched down next to him and put her arm around his shoulders. She looked like she was desperately trying to hold back tears of her own.

"H-how did this happen!?" Chipple asked, still horror-struck.

"B-back in the Darkness…" Lolo began, "just before you two woke up… did you… did you feel anything… peculiar?"

"W-well…" Popka responded, still shaken, "I thought I felt this… this strong burst of energy… I don't know, it may've been someone's dreams or…"

"Right…" Chipple jumped in. "It was like… like just one person's dreams flooded the…"

His expression sunk further. "Wait… was that Klonoa!?"

Lolo nodded weakly. "H-he said… that Nahatomb was too strong… the amount of dreams we… we needed to send… to stop him… the strain would've killed us…"

"S-so he sent all those dreams!?" Popka cut in.

"R-r-right…" Lolo went on, her voice growing shakier. "Every single dream in his head… more dreams than the rest of us combined…"

A few tears fell from her eyes, landing on my waist. "It… it used up… all of his… his strength and… and…"

She didn't finish her thought – like Guntz, she fell over the coffin's edge, sobbing over me.

Chipple, Popka, and Pango – the latter of whom just now came into view – crouched down next to the two, resting their hands on Guntz and Lolo's shoulders. I wanted to see if it would help them calm down… hopefully end this nightmare on a peaceful note…

Unfortunately, my vision clouded up, the last thing I saw being Guntz and Lolo's despair-filled faces, and one last statement from the latter echoing in my head:

He died… defending our dreams…