Tavi's Room

Tavi finished telling her aunt of the dreams that had been bothering her. For a long moment, Councilor Wooddale sat in thought.
"I believe," she started finally. "that, in a way, Destini is trying to help you. She used the medallion you absorbed much more than any of the rest of us. In a way, it was a part of her, as it is now fully a part of you. Some of her may also reside in the medallion. I believe she's trying to look out for you."
"Can I make her stop? It's creepy and weirding me out."
"Well, I suppose that's up to the both of you. Tavi, along with the responsibility that goes with what you did comes also a kind of adaptation if I understand the old texts correctly. Emi failed to adapt to the medallion's power. It consumed her. You must come to terms with what now lay inside of you. Perhaps you should try... talking to it."
"Talk to it? But it's just a thing, auntie."
"Even a thing can have a voice." Her aunt shrugged. "It wouldn't hurt to try, and I'm not sure how else to get straight at the matter without addressing it directly, and quite literally. The next time you sleep, try taking control of your dream and see what happens then."
"But how DO I take control of my own dreams? I'm asleep!"
Councilor Wooddale smiled. "Practice."
A knock at Tavi's door jerked their heads around.
"Er... Councilor Wooddale? Sarrika is requesting you."
The councilor nodded at the summons from the messenger gummi and stood.
Tavi held onto her aunt's hand. "Aunt Toffi..."
She bestowed another smile on her young niece. "Everything will be fine, Tavi. Trust yourself, as well as your fellow gummies."
Without another word, Councilor Wooddale left.

Gummadoon Infirmary

She wasn't certain why they might call her in such apparent urgency. It must be something wrong. Councilor Wooddale sighed. She was thinking in a very negative and unGummi fashion. Not like herself at all. The situations of the last few days had taken their toll on many gummies and she must not succumb. Steeling herself for another blow to glance unharming off her shoulder, metaphorically, Councilor Wooddale entered the infirmary.
"Oh, come back here, you!"
"Ale', ale'!"

"Grab him quick before he gets into the--"
"Too late..."
Wooddale was stopped in her tracks at the scene. Sirs Plucki and Gumlittle chasing after their fellow-turned-cub, naked as the day he was born. Little Sir Blastus squealed as Sir Plucki snatched him up, just as his little hands grabbed the medicine tray and sent it crashing to the floor.
Healer Sarrika, usually quite sedate, was laughing her smock off.
Councilor Wooddale blinked, took another look at the scene, and was also attacked by a fit of laughter.

Toni's Room

"Gummie..." the cub whimpered, tossing in his bed as the nightmare unfolded.
He was on the ramparts, on the battlements, on the topmost of Castle Gummadoon. He was waving to Gumlittle as largely as he could but his knight could not see him. He yelled and screamed at the top of his lungs but Gumlittle did not hear him. And the danger trudged near.
Why couldn't they see it? Gumlittle was a tall gummi. Why couldn't he see the evil on the horizon? It lurched ever near, just as his knight walked ever closer to its waiting jaws.
"Gummie, no, NO!!!" He had to get down, to run to Gumlittle and warn him! But there were no doors nor stairs nor any way off his high vantage! Toni raced around the ramparts, in circles around the highest tower, ringed the battlements several times. No way down!!
"GUMMLITTLE!!" he yelled.
Sir Gumlittle kept walking.
Toni could only watch in horror as his knight marched on, met the horror, fought it in vain, and was consumed screaming in agony. He blinked, his throat locked tight, his body numb. No... NO! NOOOOO!!! Tears ran a river down his shocked face.
"Hah! You couldn't do anything to save him. Just LIKE you to be worthless!"
Mother! She was in the empty castleyard below. So far below him... But it was her. He was safe up here. Except that he could hear her...
Huge clawed hands, like those from the horror that had eaten his knight, reached high, high up and grabbed him. They pulled him only so that he would topple over the edge. Falling, falling!! Toni couldn't stop his plummet. He met the castleyard below with a resounding crunch. At first, he felt nothing. Then, as the shock wore off, he felt it all. Unending pain, fire, nerves twisted and plucked, and in his ears the greatest pain of all. And mother was kicking him savagely as she spoke.
"I should bury you! You should never have been born! I'll never forgive you for being the lowliest ever! I hate you, I hate you, I HATE YOU!!"
Even crying hurt, but Toni couldn't do anything else. As his body lay broken, and beaten by his mother, while his mind lay ravaged just like it, too, had fallen from the ramparts, he could do nothing but take the beating. He could think of nothing but of his loss of Gumlittle, his inability to stop the constant torture around him, and that perhaps the only way out was to end it all himself...

Corvi's Home

He didn't sleep well. His brothers did but they didn't have the problems that were weighing on him.
Corvi stretched, yawned, and sighed. Perhaps Mom was right and all she needed was sleep. Still, he just couldn't bring himself to not check up on her.
He crept up to her door and opened it a crack. She was lying on her back, her eyes were closed, and her mouth open a bit. He frowned. She made a wheezing sound when she breathed. He didn't hear it now. Maybe she was better. Elation filling him, he stepped in and moved to her bedside. He felt her forehead, sure that her fever had finally broke.
Cold. Cold? How could that be? "Mom?"
When he got no reply, he nudged her shoulder, then shook her a bit. She moved funny when he shook her but she didn't stir.
"Mom." His voice louder, more firm, he shook her harder.
Her whole body moved.
She was stiff. She was cold. She was...
Corvi's eyes went wide. White, cold fear seized him. "No. No..." He shook her hard enough to rock the bed but it only cemented what his mind was trying to deny. Mom... Mother... was--
"Co'vi?"
He whirled, fright prompting him. Cori was up?? He couldn't see this. No, he couldn't!
Corvi ran from the room and shut the door with a solid thump just as his littlest brother came into the hallway.
"Co'vi? Is Mama awake?"
He couldn't tell Cori. He couldn't tell either of his brothers. Not yet. He couldn't tell them...
Corvi walked over to his littlest brother and wrapped him in a strong hug.
"Co'vi? Is Mama still asweep?"
"... Ah-huh."
"When's she gonna wake up?"
"She's not going to, Cori. She's going to stay asleep for a long time. A very long time..." He couldn't take it anymore. Tears fell from his eyes and fell on top of his little brother's head.
He may not understand what that meant but Cori could tell that his brother was very upset and sad. He started to cry, too, because of that, and because he was just told he wouldn't see Mama for a long time.