Thanks for all the reviews! Looks like it's time for another update :) This has not been an easy chapter to type.
But alas, enjoy!
Ayumu Kimura, 16, Morpheus
He was soaring in the skies, just under those giant fluffy, fluffy clouds. Imagine the surprise and horror of airplane pilots if he could swap them for huge chunks of cotton wool instead. He felt the wind running through his hair and slapping his face like cold hands. Past the line of trees… over the ocean… And then…
Splash! Water filled his lungs, nose. An icy wetness spattered across his skin, and Ayumu's eyes snapped open. Darn it, that had been such a good dream.
Eyes searching in the dark for the source of the water, his gaze settled on a large bucket - which can hold nearly a gallon of water at its full capacity - latched onto the roof of his cabin, just above his bed. And of course, it has been upturned. That's why he's in the state he was in right now.
He was soaking; orange camp T-shirt was clinging on to his body like a second skin and his hair was now plastered to his face, getting into his eyes.
Pushing them out of his eyes, he groaned. This mess would take ages to clean up and it was in the middle of the night. That meant cutting down on at least half an hour of precious sleep time.
I'll find out who did this and get them back, he thought. Probably one of the Hermes kids. Maybe that dude who I pranked last week.
Muttering words of annoyance under his breath, Ayumu dragged his body out of bed. Slowly, he pulled the sopping wet sheets and blanket from his bed, changed the mattress, and put on fresh sheets.
By then, unfortunately, he was pretty much awake. Though, no matter, he would have no trouble slipping back off to sleep. As he climbed back to his bunk on the top, he made a mental note to use his Dream Self to look for the culprit so that he could pay him back in full the next morning. Then, he drifted off to sleep again.
As his physical body lulled into a deeper sleep, his Dream Self started to take form. It was something like astro-traveling in a sense. While he was asleep, his Dream Self could leave his body and travel around, so long as it does not have it interact with the objects of the real world. He could fly, travel anywhere, without being detected. His Dream Self could be out there - from exploring the world, seeing the wonders of nature, to scouting around in the camp forest and scheming for the Capture The Flag game tomorrow, and even… stalking a particular pranker from the Hermes cabin…
Mortals call them 'vivid dreams', except this gift Ayumu had was a million times better. He could see what was happening at real time as long as he was in the right place.
His Dream Self had taken form now, and he drifted a few feet off the floor, though still in an upright position. Starting up a slow walk, though his feet never touched the ground, he left the Morpheus cabin. He would've headed right for the Hermes cabin had he not been distracted by two figures from afar, running down Half-Blood Hill at full sprint.
Curiosity peaked, and Ayumu drifted towards the two figures, who he could vaguely make out as girls. As they got closer, he identified them - the unusually kind Ares girl on the left, and the Hecate girl who he always finds near the forest at the entrance of Camp Half Blood from all his dream scouting he did regularly.
He doesn't know them well though. Actually to tell the truth, he doesn't really talk much with the campers here, since socialising was way too exhausting and there were better things to do with that time.
The two girls slowed to a slow jog just past him, so Ayumu kept the pace to catch their conversation.
The Ares was saying, "...so you wake Iridia, and I'll ask Ash if he wants to join."
"And then we'll meet back here first," agreed the other.
"You got it!"
The Hecate girl hurried towards the Apollo cabin and disappeared inside, as the Ares girl marched for the small shed, far away from the rest of the cabins, sitting just short of the forest. It only accommodate one resident - a descendant of the primordial god Tartarus.
Not feeling up to hanging around near the monster infested woods at the moment, Ayumu decided to follow the Hecate girl instead. Besides, he always enjoyed being around the children of Apollo. Their music was soothing, so relaxing, that it really helps him sleep better, though he could manage sleeping very well on his own, thank you very much. But, you get the idea.
By the time Ayumu entered the Apollo cabin, the Ares girl had already shaken Iridia awake, who was silently stirring, shaking off the sleep.
"Sorry, Monica, what did you say again?" Iridia said, trying to concentrate despite just being woken up.
Yet, ever so polite, Ayumu noted, like that one time years ago when he'd accidentally 'walked' into a fellow camper's nightmare by accident and woke up in cold sweat in a panic. Iridia happened to be passing his cabin for breakfast, and saw his face - pale and beaded with perspiration - and helped him, whipping out her magic violin and playing a very lovely, calming melody that drove the terrors away from his mind.
"We've got a situation." Monica explained in a hushed tone, so that she wouldn't wake up the other Apollo kids. "Someone wants to leave camp to the I.L.B.R. facility for the Cure. He wants to leave now. I've tried to persuade him not to, since it was dangerous at night, but he insists."
"Who is that?" Iridia replies.
"Galen."
"Galen?" Iridia repeats, frowning.
"Galen Vikander. From Aphrodite?" Monica said, hoping it would ring a bell.
The confusion drained away from her eyes as she nodded, "Oh. Oh yes, I remember now."
"Yeah, we, meaning Ciara and I, were hoping to get a couple of other campers to accompany him. At least it's safer this way as a group."
Iridia made up her mind quickly, pulling back the blankets and slipping out of bed. "Yes, I'll go. Let me just pack up some things to take with us on the journey."
Monica nodded, stepping to the side of the cabin to give her some space to gather her belongings. Ayumu's Dream Self watched as Iridia pulls her black hair into a ponytail that reaches just below her chin, packed a few toiletries and clothes neatly into her bag. Then she reaches under her bed and withdrew her war fan - a weapon not to be underestimated, since Ayumu had seen it in action before, and an arming sword. When the fan is tucked safely into her bag, with only the handle protruding from the top, and the sword is sheathed and looped through her belt, she strode towards the door of the Apollo cabin, and gestured them to leave.
"After you," Iridia smiled.
Since Ayumu was most definitely unpresent, she was referring to Monica. They both left, leaving Ayumu to float out after them.
"May I know who else you've invited?" Iridia asked.
Monica shrugged, "It's just Ciara, who's gone to search for Ash, you, and me."
"Hmm…" Iridia said, tilting her head, deep in thought.
Monica raised an eyebrow, "why? Do you know someone else who should come along too?"
Iridia paused, before saying, "I think it could be a good idea to bring Ayumu along too. He's got skills that may be useful for us if we're going as such a small bunch."
The real physical Ayumu nearly jolted out of his sleep from what his Dream Self heard. Of all the campers she could have suggested...him? Uh, no thanks, girl. I'm fine and dandy where I am. Besides I need to sleeeeep. Oh hang on, I am sleeping.
Apparently Monica was surprised at her suggestion too, because she replied, "That Morpheus kid? I'm not sure he would want to go, assuming you can drag him out of bed."
Thank you very much, Monica, Ayumu thought.
"I am certain." Iridia said, "I feel he will be needed during this quest. Do you think you can convince him?"
"Convince him?" Monica gaped, "I can try, I guess. But where will you be going?"
Iridia turned towards the forest where the entrance to Camp Half-Blood stood. "I will try one more time to persuade Galen like you did. Just using a slightly different technique."
"Uh, okay." Monica said.
Iridia waved, "see you later," and walked away, as Monica glanced at her watch before gasping. Ayumu didn't know why, but she suddenly started running towards the Morpheus cabin.
Then out of nowhere, a vice-like grip clenched around Ayumu's right arm. Wincing, he looked down, but there was nothing circling or even touching his arm. That meant the sensation was from his physical body. The jolt had sent his Dream Self dematerialising, and what was once a vivid dream started to blur, as the image gradually blurred...into just darkness.
"Ayumu!" A voice called from a distant, shaking his arm. "Ayumu Kimura! Wake up!"
He wanted to tell the person to just go away and let him sleep, but the events that had happened prior came flooding to his mind.
"Wake up!" Monica shouted, as loud as she dared with everyone else sleeping around her.
"Mmmph….wanna sleeeeeep….leave alone…." He muttered.
"You need to wake up! This is important," she insists.
Ayumu peeled open his heavy eyelids, and stared at the determined girl in the dark. "Not really."
"You don't even know what I'm -"
He cut in, "I know. I saw you coming in my dream."
Monica stared for a while before understanding drew on her features, "Oh."
Then she added, "if you know, then you need to come with us."
Ayumu snuggled into the blankets, closing his eyes - they were much too heavy to keep open, "Believe me, I would. But I'm way too tired to go now."
That's when the Morpheus cabin door opened for a second time, and Ayumu was truthfully surprised to see Ash - his close friend and child of Tartarus - standing in the doorway with Ciara by her side. That really made Ayumu sit up in bed.
"You agreed to go? I must be going nuts." Ayumu declared, rubbing his eyes and blinking rapidly to make sure he wasn't seeing things.
"Only if you go." Ash jerked his head at him.
"But you go on and on about what a jerk he is, that I never thought I'd live to see the day you two cooperate again."
"I ain't doing this for him, bro." Ash shook his head, "No, I'm going out there to make more friends. After that stupid shit got them killed, I've got no one left."
Ayumu knew that he was referring to incident last month when a secret cavern in the forest grounds, where all of the monsters Ash had tamed - he called them friends - was blown up by an explosive.
A week prior to that, Ash had trusted Galen. He trusted him so much that he told the guy about the location where of the cavern in which his monster friends were hiding. And the very next week, that hideout had been blown to smithereens. Everything that resided in there were bits and pieces, yellow goo oozing out of the crevice. Ash had been heartbroken for ages. His friends - those that he could connect to - just gone...like that. And he'd told Ayumu how much he regretted that decision of sharing his secret.
Ayumu remembered just asking Galen about that incident after it happened, but he didn't say anything else other than 'It wasn't me."
"Please go?" Monica said, pulling him out of his thoughts and effectively snapping him to reality.
He looked at Ash and saw those charcoal eyes with a pleading look; one that looked so empty...so lonely and in search for more friends, and sighed.
"Alright. I'll go."
Ayumu Kimura belongs to Deadly Animals Are Cute. Somehow, he was a bit more difficult to write than I'd expected. I hope I portrayed him fine but let me know if there's anything wrong
So how did you find Ayumu?
Thoughts on the rest of the cast that you've seen?
Also, I have a small urge to write little side stories (think short spinoff of about 500 words), for each character on events which happened in the past. It may help to give a clearer image on their backstories. Those may be sporadic, because I'm focusing my time on this main story. But let me know what you think. I could post it on the blog perhaps.
Thanks for the reviews in advance :)