Night 1
The girl looked around with mild puzzlement.
She was having a nightmare, she recalled clearly. Not the nightmare, just a nightmare. Shooting zombies was more thrilling in a dream than in-game, she has to admit, but them grabbing her bare feet was just too much. Then, she tried to wake herself up. Then, as she was floating up to what she thought would be her bed, she found herself at this place. Still dreaming - she couldn't have sleep walked to some fountain in her neighborhood. For one thing, she has never been sleep walking and didn't feel like trying. And there wasn't any fountain this big in her neighborhood, much less located in what looked like a middle of the forest. Not to say surrounded by doors and archways in various states of crumbling down.
- So I haven't woken up and apparently, - she checked her hands in order to be sure, - Yep, I'm lucid. And quite lucid at that, too. Cool.
She looked around again, a light gush of wind tugging at her nightgown and long hair. She was actually standing on a wide paved road that led to a paved circle with a fountain in the middle of it. On either side of the road were trees that looked like firs and grew in a cheerful foresty manner with no alleyways order whatsoever. Behind her were the lodge-gate - she saw a similar one in some old park when she was younger, a huge thing cast in iron. The one from her childhood looked grumpy, though, just like that eldery man who was taking great care that grass wouldn't be walked upon, trees would be watched from afar, no flower would be sniffed at, benches would be constantly coated in fresh paint, all the visitors would walk along the alleys in columns, and the park would have a general order of a prison on a break. That park's fencing resembled bars, too.
Musing, the girl walked towards the lodge-gate. This one looked a lot more welcoming. She poked a fancy swirl tinted green with a curious look on her face. Much more eldery, too.
She walked down the road and then stopped at the end of it. A very literal one - the road just ended in a cliff, like this piece of land was dug up and lifted in the sky. She looked down and saw a hazy blackness, with a tint of blueish violet.
She looked up at the night sky full of stars and headed towards the fountain. The pavement under her bare feet felt oddly bumpy and cool.
They said you aren't supposed to feel when you dream, but she could prove it wrong alright. Okay, she didn't felt anything when that missile hit her some other dream, but tactile sensations weren't at all nonexistent.
She stood by the fountain, squinting her eyes to make out vague shapes of colored fishes swimming in the clear waters. Falling droplets weren't rushing at all - following an invisible arch, they gracefully slid down to the surface, making a calm lulling sound. The girl touched the side of the fountain - it looked like marble, but felt less smooth and cold.
She gave another look to her surroundings. What confused her is how solid everything seemed. The dreamscape was queer enough to be aware of its dream nature, but otherwise, there was not much difference between this and the real world. No feeling bodiless. No restricted vision. And the scene around her didn't seem to want changing itself while she wasn't looking.
The girl heaved a slightly disappointed sigh and sat on the wellhead. At least doors looked promising, the most complete of them anyway. They appeared as an ordinary wooden doors with stained glass parts, and they didn't seem to lead anywhere - they just were there, like those doors on sale she once saw in a mall. But she had a feeling of certainty that these door actually lead to somewhere. She imagined how she'd open the door and see a colorful lunapark, then look behind it and see a flat wall on the other side, but in the doorway there'd be the lunapark alright...
She snapped out of her musing, finally taking a notice on something that entered her vision.
It was an owl. Looked like one, anyway. Quite a puffy and brown, too, with beady blue eyes and an expression of a serious, calm examination. And the owl was wearing a pair of glasses on top of its beak, a navy blue jacket and a wine red waistcoat with some blue brooch. The girl wondered if it can fly with sleeves covering its wings, and had to remind herself she was dreaming. The owl could as well be floating or simply teleporting to and fro.
- Good evening, - the girl said politely, trying not to look too curious.
- Oh, my goodness me, - owl's voice sounded like that of a kindly old man, - Good evening, young Visitor.
She thought about that "visitor" for a moment. It sounded like a set term.
- My name is Kathryn, - she continued, - What's yours?
- I am called Owl, - the girl thought the owl could be smiling, if he didn't have a beak, - Simply Owl. It's your first time here at Dream Plaza, I presume?
- Dream Plaza. That's how it's called, - she looked around, thinking about it as she did about "visitor", - I suppose so.
- And you seem to be lucid... - the owl sounded oddly thoughtful.
- I'm not even sure it's a dream, so lucid I am. Do laws of physics still apply here?
It seemed that the bird has snapped out of whatever he was thinking about.
- Oh, hmm, laws of physics? Well, I'd say it depends on person...
A few notes flew through the air, in a clear voice of a flute. The girl turned her head around, looking for the source of it.
- That was a flute just now, wasn't it?
- Oh, yes, it was. And here I was thinking when that little troublemaker is going to present himself...
That what Kathryn assumed was "that little troublemaker" sped trough the sky in a fancy line, leaving a line of sparkles behind. Just as she has followed it to the trees and searched among the firs, it came from the other side and flew in a wide circle above the fountain. Kathryn heard a gentle plop sound, like a plug coming out, and more sparkles drifted down.
- I've told you countless times, young man, no paralooping here at Dream Plaza! - Owl said in a worrying tone, flying up, and the girl thought that no bird in the real world could get away with flapping it's wings in such slow manner, much less holding them perpendicular to the ground. No reason behind the way things behave - check.
- Ah, come on, it's not like it can cause any harm, - the purple creature said innocently, laying in an invisible hammock by now. No gravity and levitating - check.
- You destroyed a perfectly good door the other night!
- Gee, was it that old, half-crumbled archway? But didn't I scared away some marens like I always do? Honestly, you're so grumpy for no reason...
Kathryn examined the creature. It appeared human-like with weird proportions, dressed in a purple trico, a pink waistcoat with an orange ruffled collar, sleeves white and long. He was wearing what looked like a jester hat, purple as well.
- And who's this girl here? - he exclaimed in a high-pitched voice, leaning towards Kathryn. She blinked, somewhat startled - the eyes looking straight into hers were huge and catlike. The creature could be more or less human form of a Cheshire Cat, she thought.
- Hi, my name is NiGHTS! - in a happy voice he held out his hand, and when she took it, gave her a several good shakes, - Delighted to see you! You're a lucid dreamer, right? Right?
- Yes, - the Owl said gravely, - Her name is Kathryn. And you should be good and let go of her hand, NiGHTS, otherwise you might as well tear it off.
- Oopsie, - he giggled, - Sorry about that, Kathy.
The girl shook her hand a little to get rid of the slight numbness, eyeing NiGHTS' floating hands. He didn't seem to have any wrists - and then again she had to ask herself if this jester person was really a male. Vague androgyn - check. She frowned a little at the diminutive, but couldn't decide whether she liked this or not. NiGHTS just seemed that open kind of person who makes friends easily. Quite possible being over-friendly and violating personal spaces in the process.
- Nice to meet you, - Kathryn said, feeling some small flickers of excitement, - I'm pretty much new here.
She eyed NiGHTS as he moved up and down in the air, floating above the ground, and felt an odd urge to pull at his hat to see if he really didn't have any neck. She also wondered if he can lose his head. Can he play with it like it was a ball?
- You're brave one, - NiGHTS has finally grinned, showing a row of pearly-white, and seemingly pointy teeth, - Most of the kids have that really funny look on their faces, like there's some ol' Puffy before them.
- Really, why would they feel that way? - Kathryn tilted her head at how Owl said that.
- Right, no reason whatsoever! - NiGHTS gave a small carefree laugh.
- Why do I feel you are not being completely honest about something... - the girl mused aloud.
NiGHTS laugh came to a halt.
- Beg your pardon?
- That, or you are just sharing some private joke, - Kathryn shrugged, - None of my business anyway, I suppose.
There was a small silence shared between them. NiGHTS appeared somewhat restless.
- Say, Kathy, how about flying? - he asked, obviously trying to look inoccent.
- What about flying? - she blinked at him, - If that your way of asking if I like flying, then okay, I do. Why?
- That's just great! - NiGHTS leaped in the air, drawing a circle. There was that soft plop sound again, and Owl flapped away hurriedly, crying "No paralooping, for the last time, no paralooping at the Dream Plaza!".
Kathryn was waiting.
- I here am able to let you fly! - NiGHTS said in a really happy voice.
- Oh. Thank you. And?
NiGHTS has stopped circling in the air and looked at her funnily.
- Don't you want to? - he said in puzzlement.
- Only if I'm sure I can't fly otherwise, - she firmly told him. Trickters talking into shady bargains - check. She wondered what could he have asked in return.
- Do dreamers fly? - NiGHTS turned to Owl, looking puzzled still.
- I can't say they are unable to, - the bird carefully replied.
NiGHTS seemed crestfallen, his shoulders sag.
- But that's no fun..,
- Actually, I must say that was pretty useful the other time you got yourself captured. If those dreamers didn't manage to...
- That was urgent! You don't compare things like that! What fun it is if she just walk around here?
- Mind your manners, young man, don't insult our Visitor...
- I don't think she'd mind, - NiGHTS said, pouting like a kid, - She's gone, anyway.
Owl looked around, feeling a bit of a worry. Dreamers at Dream Plaza weren't that rare, but quite uncommon none the less. It wasn't like they were a tell-tale that an horde of marens were heading towards dreamscapes to conquers Nightopia one more time, not with Wiseman and his bunch of minions running their nightmaren business, decently in the Mare as they should...
- Oh, my goodness me... Kathryn! - the owl hurried after the girl. It just wasn't customary for the dreamer to walk around the Dream Plaza unobserved.
He saw the girl by a stream, then NiGHTS flew past him, and then he heard him exclaim.
Kathryn was floating over the stream, with a focused expression on her face, and a way of moving like that of a helium-filled balloon someone tug at.
- Gee, is that what you call flying? - NiGHTS moved around her all giddy.
- Don't be in my way, - the girl said, narrowing her eyes and touching stream's bank with one feet. She carefully landed and looked back at the running water, - I thought I was better than that. And here I've expected a lot from this dream. What a pity.
- Yeah, Dream Plaza is like that, - NiGHTS was ready to agree, - So dull and quiet.
- Well, excuse me! - Owl seemed offended.
- I mean it in a good way! Surely there must be a place like that to, er... what was it again?
- Observing and organizing, - Owl said in a grave tone, readjusting glasses on his beak, - Something well beyond your grasp.
- Nah, I'm fine with flying.
Kathryn frowned. There was some thought in her head, the kind that is annoying just so it can get your attention. She took a notice the thought was here, and tried to catch its tail.
She wasn't in any ordinary dream, she mused. These two weren't just some figments of her imagination. She couldn't tell why, but there was something about the whole scene around her she couldn't put her finger on.
Like... it was alien. She was really just visiting this place. She felt a little airheaded - it was like she breached into another dimension. She suddenly remembered how they say that the dreamworld is, in fact, a whole different world on its own.
- Observing and organizing, you said? - Kathryn said out loud, a little bit afraid she might wake up before she'd be able to ask, - Like in a database? How do you do that?
- Merely by seeing and organizing, - Owl looked at her, sensing something serious to come about, - Why?
- I, uh, kind of look for someone. It's not that important, I just want to meet that person, to see how they are doing.
Owl and NiGHTS exchanged glances.
- A person, you say? - Owl specified, - A kind of a Visitor, a person from the Waking?
Kathryn stopped and gave her thoughts a bit more examination.
- No, - she said firmly, - I don't think it's someone from the waking. I've never met anyone close enough, my mind is not that twisted.
- You mean, you look for someone within a dream?
- Yeah, kind of.
- I don't think it could be someone from the waking, - Owl's brows furrowed, - I would knew.
- Pians, then? - NiGHTS assumed.
- Could be. Tell me, Kathryn, - the bird asked, - What did this person looked like? When was the last time you saw him?
- It's a woman, I think, - the girl began, and looked at NiGHTS, - I've been always thinking that was a lady, anyway. I, uhh... I suppose that was around six... maybe seven years ago since I had last saw her. But I think that I might, just might, have seen her somewhere... around the place. She was dressed in blue, quite pretty, and I think she was rather smart... uhh, she was among the scaryperson, I thought she was one of their leaders.
- Scarypersons? - NiGHTS tilted his head, with a funny expression on his face.
- Uhhh, - Kathryn searched for a way to describe the term she used as a child, - There were a bunch of some weird, dangerous-looking guys. They were going around making a mess, scaring people... stealing something, I'm not quite sure what. It was for some huge guy.
- And that lady was their leader, - Kathryn imagined Owl and NiGHTS were sending a bunch of frantic telepathic messages to each other.
- One of them, from the look of it.
- Some lady dressed in blue, - NiGHTS repeated, - A leader of a dangerous villains, stealing something for some huge guy.
He exchanged glances with Owl again.
- How are you related to them, dear? - the bird asked softly.
- I've no idea, - Kathryn had to admit honestly.
But just as NiGHTS was going to ask her something, something akin to a bellowing thunder roared throughout the sky, she felt herself screaming... and then she found herself sitting up in her bed in a frantic motion, shaken by her alarm clock ringing, as she thought, in her very head.
She closed her eyes shut and tried to cling onto the images of the fountain, the eldery bird, the purple jester and their talk.
The girl was sure she has gotten closer to her goal.
So - here comes NiGHTS) =) Well heh - what so you think about it, ne? +)