Dreaming Up Reality

Ch. 6.

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

That's all she heard as she started to come to. Whatever she was laying on didn't feel like her couch. Her eyes were hesitent to open though, the lights were insanely bright and seemed to be focused directly on her. Why did it feel like she was laying on plastic as well? Where was she?

Slowly raising her arm to block out the light so she could open her eyes fully, she felt a slight tug. Her eyes jolted open to stare at the IV implanted in her vein. She could feel her heart picking up already. Her eyes followed the tube to the bag filled with clear liquid. Her head flung back to stare at the closed hospital door. That's right.. she was in a hospital. But why?

Starting to panic, she began to hypervetilate. Her fingers on the free hand dug at the IV in her vein. Needles. Needles were in her. She cringed and started to gasp and call for help. She couldn't stand hospitals. They gave her panic attacks, plus she had a needle in her arm and she had no idea why she was there.

Her head flung back onto the pillow and she continued to squeeze her arm. She got to the point where she was literally ripping the needle out of her skin. It triggered an alarm and the IV machine began to beep franticaly. The next thing she knew a two nurses came in with gloves on holding the biggest needle she had ever seen. She began to scream.

"Hold her down! She's having a panic attack!" One nurse said to the other, who was already partially ontop of her trying to stop the bleeding in her arm where she had ripped the IV out. The other nurse dug the bigger needle into her shoulder. It stung and made her cry. She was still screaming and shaking tremendously. Suddenly though it didn't scare her as bad. Her nerves began to settle and she could feel her eyes getting heavy once again. She needed to know why she was there though! She couldn't sleep yet.. but it was too late. She had already been knocked out again.

"LET GO!" Her eyes flung open and she started to kick and bash, screaming franticly. "Ow! Stop it!" Wait.. why was she panicking? She knew there was something important going on.. but she couldn't recall anything except the fear. It must've just been a bad dream.. Also, who said ow? Where was she actually.. The last she could recall she had been leaving James to go find a couple new people. Now she was in a completely darkened room. She couldn't see anything. That and someone else had to be in there with her because she heard a voice.

Feeling around for any source of light, her hands happened across a huge pile of what felt like fur. Was it another chair? Was she back in Lex and Kains house? "... Hello?" There was a silence, and then the pile of fur moved. "Haha.. well hello there." She gasped and flung herself back. "Who are you!" She was cornered against a wall now. She still couldn't see anything Suddenly she could hear movement, and then a loud crunch. A huge rock rolled away revealing what looked like the cave entrance. Why was she in a cave though?

And then she looked back over to the source of the voice. It was a bear. A huuuge white bear with brown splotches of fur around his eyes and ears.

The bear sat down and started laughing. Oddly enough, she had gotten used to all the animals. It didn't scare her at all that she was in a cave with a bear. She was just wondering why. Taking a seat on the opposite side of the cave she laughed too. "You really scared me.. Why am I here? And who are you?" She asked. "You're here because your friends brought you here. Apparently you fell asleep on the way and they didn't want to wake you. Since my cave is the only available house in the area I told em they could keep ya here. They're outside if you want to join them." She stood and stretched, peeking out the cave entrance to check them out. The bear was right, they were out there just chattering away. She turned back to face him. "Thank you! But again.. who are you?" He seemed quiet and unreluctant at first. "I'm Desmond." "Oh! THE Desmond? The one we were supposed to find? That's great then. Means I didn't completely put us off track!" She giggled, trying to get him to laugh too. He didn't, just smiled a humble smile. She shrugged it off and stepped closer. "I'm Aleice." "I know. Your friends told me all about you already." She smiled. "So I take it you can shift too?" She asked. Hinting for him to turn into his human form. She was curious to see what he looked like. He just sat there and nodded. "I can shift."

Honestly she wanted to see him. But she didn't want to seem rude and just ask. "I figured." She smiled and sat down infront of him. James said that Desmond and Tord could shed some light on who she was. She wanted to talk to him some more. She wanted to try and do this on her own instead of Lex and Kain having to help all the time. She felt kind of useless to be honest. She noticed after she sat infront of him his posture changed. He seemed kind of shy sitting right infront of him. Shy or he just really didn't want to be bothered. She hoped it was just shy.

"So.. How do you know James exactly?" She asked, twiddling her thumbs. "Eh, we're brothers." She froze for a second. "Wait.. He's an owl. You're a bear.. Is that possible?" That put a smile on his face and he laughed. "Yea. Just becuase we don't bear the same mark doesn't mean we can't be family. The animal chooses you." His expression became calm and gentle. She felt at ease around him for some reason. "Ah I see.. We're trying to figure out why I can't shift." "You can't shift?" He sounded concerned. "Are you sick? I know someone who can cure just about any illness." His tone comforted her. He was a stranger she had just met, and he actually cared. That was something she wasn't used to. Everyone in this world seemed to love one another. "Haha nahh. I'm not sick. I just.. don't have an animal I guess. No one wants me." She stuck her tongue out, trying to turn it into a joke. But they both could hear the sorrow hidden behind the fake humor.

"I'm sure you'll find someone." He smiled again. "Is everyone in Luxberry this nice?" She giggled. He laughed too. "Well, for the most part. The people you meet who aren't as friendly usually aren't from around here."

Just as he said that a loud, booming roar echoed through the cave. It came from outside. After the roar they could hear barks and growls, hisses and sneers. They both lunged to their feet, and paws, and headed outside to see what was going on.

On the outside everyone had shifted. Lux, Kain, Damien.. and there was a new animal too. A tiger. It looked just like one from all those jungle pictures.. huge, orange with black stripes, green eyes.

"Just get out of here Tord! You're in one of your moods again." Lex could be heard through his growling teeth. So the tiger was Tord? Wasn't he supposed to be helping them too? "Yea. Just run on home with your wittle kitten tail between your legs." Kain sneered, and then laughed. Tord glared and growled again. "Both of you think you're so funny. You'll see who gets the last laugh." With that the tiger lunged at the two wolves. They dodged and went in different directions. Tord didn't hesitate to switch direction and go after Lex. The wolf hadn't fully regained his balance when the tiger caught up and grabbed hold of his leg with his claws. Lex whined loud. This was getting real. Wasn't Tord there to help them afterall?

She took off running towards them in fear Lex was hurt. Desmond reached a paw out to try and grab her but missed. "Come back! It's not safe!" He yelled, but his attempts at getting her to stop were futile. He growled, but in a more fearful way than harmful.

She dove into the pair of fighting animals, knocking the tiger off Lex since she caught him by surprise. He roared and took a defensive stance, readying himself to pounce. She froze in fear.

Just as he lunged for her Kain jumped in the way and took the blow. Tord bit down on his back and she could see blood spill. She could move again but she was still scared. Filled with adrenaline she managed to jump onto the tigers back and grab on for dear life. He let go of Kain and began to fling himself, trying to get her to fall off. "Get the hell off!" He growled. She could see both of her friends were injured and out for the count. If she let go what would happened to her. She felt tears on her cheeks. She was so scared but had no idea what to do.

Her arms were getting increasingly tired of holding on so tight though.. she couldn't help but let go and be thrown a good ten feet away. Her body landed with a thud and knocked the breath out of her. She could see the tiger still. He readjusted himself before staring her down with barred fangs. He began to walk towards her slowly, laughing. "You stupid little girl. What did you possibly expect to do versus me?" He laughed louder. Was she going to die? This guy seemed seriously twisted. She could barely move. All she could manage was scooting away slowly with what little strength she had left in her arms.

"Ya know what.. I'll make it quick and painless." With that he leapt into the air, and she closed her eyes tight.

In a matter of moments everything seemed to happen at once. She heard rustling, an even louder snarl than before, and then a loud thud. Still, she had yet to be pounced on. Her eyes squinted open slowly only to be greeted with a back full of white fur. It was Desmond! She looked over to where the thud had came from to see Tord laying against a tree. Desmond must've batted him over there. He was a huge bear afterall.

"Don't you EVER lay a paw on ANY of them ever again Tord!" His voice was stern, low.. it had changed. He sounded mean. The type of mean you didn't want to mess with. Tord stood up, barely. He had an obvious limp now. He didn't even try and fight back. It was a fight he knew he'd lose. He just scurried away as fast as he could, not another word.

She was overwhelmed with gratitude, and without thinking jumped up to tackle the bear in a huge embrace.

"Thank you!" The tears were still coming, but they were happy tears now. She thought she was going to die. And he saved her. He seemed shocked when she embraced him. His body tensed up for a moment. But he gradually eased, and before she knew it she had her arms around yet another naked boy. He had one hand resting in the middle of her back and the other hand patting her hair. It was a sweet hug. When it was over she took a step back and sniffled, looking him over a bit. He was about average height. His skin was even more pale than hers. He had a huge three ringed scar on his left shin. It must had been his mark. His hair was down to his mid back, an icey blue colour. He had beautiful blue eyes. And he was also blushing.. Which made her smile.

The moment ended when they heard the two wolves whining still.

And that wasn't all. They also heard coo'ing. Up in the sky was a familiar owl with a scared little snake in his beak. Damien and James shifted after landing.

"Damien tells me you were in need of some assistance? Looks like Tord's gone though." He looked back at Lex and Kain. "Let's get the idiots up and running." They all shared a laugh.