"What did I tell you? I said we'd be called upon two days after Merci's celebration, and here we are," Clarity remarked with a dry mental laugh. "Absolutely incredible."
"Don't act like you don't enjoy this," Griffith said snidely. "You've been getting restless for Nightmare vanquishment. You've even been having dreams about it."
"Please, you make me sound like an overeager child that way."
"Oh, but it's true. I've seen you as elegant and graceful Clarity whenever you sleep, descending into a Dream on wings of light and slaying Nightmares with a mere gaze alone."
She heard him snicker and saw flashes of this "dream" within his mind, but he said nothing more. She resisted the urge to send a mental scoff his way.
It was the middle of the afternoon for the two. Clarity had been at her job, managing the center counter with her Espeon coworker, when Griffith had arrived to give the news that their services as Dream Eaters were needed. Hazel had told Griffith that it was best they took care of the Nightmare as soon as possible, considering the Dreamer had been asleep for a number of days.
The Meowstic and Gardevoir walked alongside one another through the streets of Nebulae Village, a settlement a good five days' journey north of Amber Haven. Of course, with a teleporter in a neighboring city, it only took an hour's walk to reach the town on foot. It had been possible to hire a flier or perhaps a Rapidash to make the journey even shorter, but it never seemed worthwhile when the trip only took an hour. Not only that, but it was a good means of exercise. With the ease of transportation and the stationary nature of both her job and Griffith's, it was easy to lose their physique. Walking at least part of the time helped keep their bodies in shape.
Nebulae Village was a small but noteworthy settlement. Formed in the crater of a meteor that struck the planet long ago, it seemed to attract quite a few fairy folks who went on to craft the village to cater to their interests. Large, thick red mushrooms the size of buildings served as the trees here, providing shade and shelter for those who wished to make homes or businesses within their stems. The streets remained as dirt paths brimming with flowers along their sides instead of being paved over with cobblestone. The air smelt of roses and lavender even though neither of those flowers had bloomed. Every so often, green, wispy streams flowed by, always emitting a soft, melodic tune. Pokemon who didn't know any better called these ethereal strands "fairy songs".
One of these musical ribbons drifted past Griffith's ear as the two made their way through the village. It played a peaceful hum, a melody that both she and Griffith thought sounded so very familiar, but neither could place where they had heard it. The Gardevoir reached out with a hand to touch the drifting wisp, but it elegantly flowed away from him, as if pushed by an invisible wind, and continued flying away from the duo. He watched it go for a few seconds, then turned back to the path ahead of him.
"It's been a while since we've come here, hasn't it?" he asked Clarity.
"A couple of months, I imagine. It hasn't changed much since we were last here. It still has that odd air of whimsy to it."
"And it's quiet, for the most part. We should come here more often."
"I never realized you were so fond of this little village. You never talk about it."
Outwardly, he didn't share a glance with her. Inwardly, there were flashes of him sitting under mushrooms or lounging near the little ponds, content and relaxed. The fairy songs glided around him in these visions, endlessly repeating their comforting, nostalgic tune.
"I think it would be nice. It could be somewhere we could go to relax, even if just for a little while. Somewhere we don't need to worry about anything."
"You realize this village isn't nearly as peaceful or quiet as you're imagining it to be, don't you? This is a fairy village. There will always be nonsense and noise, even if it doesn't show itself immediately."
"I suppose you have a point… after all, this is Nibiru's hometown. Who knows how much of his influence spread to the other residents before he came to live with us?"
He gave a light mental chuckle, but Clarity still sensed disappointment in his thoughts. She looked out over the town and saw Pokemon going to and fro, unfazed by Clarity and Griffith's presence. She saw in their passing thoughts that they regarded her and Griffith as friendly outsiders, Pokemon that Nibiru involved himself with and was rather fond of. Clarity was glad they accepted her and Griffith, as not only did this help with Griffith's empathy, but it eased her own worries. Stories she had heard about untrusting locals never ended well.
"You know we can't truly relax, at least not for too long," she told him softly. "We are Dream Eaters, after all."
"I know," he conceded. "It's the life we chose the moment we took his blessing. It was just a silly thought, that's all."
"We could still visit here after defeating this Nightmare, if you'd like. I see no reason why we can't spend an afternoon or evening here after a victory. I don't think we'd be called to vanquish another Nightmare so soon after eliminating this current one."
"It's fine, Clarity. Pretend I didn't bring it up."
She heard his thoughts, telling him that he wasn't fine, but he was burying them. He was pushing them far down where she couldn't actively hear them.
"How soon after we grab Nibiru are we going to Dream dive?" he asked, distracting himself with ease. "Immediately?"
"Ideally. We need to pick up Moon, but I see no other delays. Did you eat enough before this?"
"Had butter Torchic before I came to get you from the library. I'll be just fine. It's Nibiru you should be concerned about, considering he's been at his job all day today. He's probably exhausted and hasn't eaten since lunch."
"I somehow doubt he'll be tired. He's always lively whenever he returns home. If he's hungry, we can easily fix that by buying something on the way to Moon's home. Did you bring any money with you?"
Griffith rummaged through a small bag he kept at his hip, hidden beneath his gown. She could hear coins clinking against each other in his mind.
"I've got eleven gold and six silvers. Should be plenty for something quick," he told her. "Of course, you owe me twice the cost of whatever he buys."
"Don't be ludicrous," she said with a telepathic huff. "I do believe that you still owe me ten gold for the last market trip you and I had. If anything, I should be the one charging you twice as much when you haven't paid me back for over a week."
Outwardly the Gardevoir's expression remained blank as he put his bag away. Inwardly, she heard him laughing.
"Oh, and buying you your latest book club read wasn't considered repayment?" he asked as waves of memories from said event played in his mind. "It was quite an expensive book, let me tell you. Quite a coveted read and it was the last one on the shelf."
"Gifts aren't repayment," she quipped. "I didn't ask you to purchase a copy. So sorry, but you can't call your generosity reimbursement."
"I disagree. That book cost me nine gold and I do recall helping pay for your little present for Merci's gift exchange. I'd say I've repaid you and more. If anything, I'd say you're the one that's indebted to me now."
"Don't be ridiculous. I already said generosity isn't reimbursement. You only want to get out of giving me what I'm owed."
He couldn't stop himself from chuckling a little on the outside at her staunch refusal to change her mind. Clarity felt invisible strings tie around the base of her twin tails and gently pull them. She resisted the urge to jump, but just barely.
She quickly conjured up a couple psychic strings of her own and threaded them into Griffith's, undoing the knots and unwinding them from her tails. She could sense her own embarrassment and flusteredness through the Gardevoir.
"I hate you," she scoffed, flicking her tails a few times as she continued walking.
"I know you do," he said, his jovial tone finally fading away to something softer. "Tell you what. You say I still owe you ten gold, yes?"
"Because you do, but yes."
"Well, how about after our little Dream dive, I make you ten gold's worth of a cappuccino. I'll even make the milk froth into any picture you want."
"... what flavor cappuccino?"
"Anything you want. At the shop right now, we have all the standards like vanilla, caramel, and mocha, but we do have peppermint for a little while longer…"
She didn't even need to say it; he saw her imagining sipping on a warm cup of peppermint cappuccino with the froth in an intricate heart shape. She could hear him humming in understanding and amusement.
"Make it two cups, and you no longer owe me," she conceded, awkwardly distancing herself from the daydream.
The two continued through the village until they found themselves at the entrance of a peculiar mushroom serving as a building. It was more wide than tall compared to all of the other fungus in the village and had a purple stalk and cap with little white speckles dotting the top. It vaguely reminded Clarity of illustrations she had seen of distant nebula. The bottom of the stalk had been hollowed out, serving as an entrance. Through Griffith's senses, the Meowstic could hear the giggles and high-pitched squeals of children, even if she couldn't see them from where she stood.
She brushed back her ears with her paws, took a deep breath, then stepped toward the entrance, which read "Wonderland Daycare" in bright pink and blue letters. She didn't hear Griffith's footsteps behind her. She looked back to find him standing still, seemingly having no intentions of moving.
"You coming?" she asked him.
"I'd rather not," he answered, outwardly appearing composed, inwardly resisting the urge to distance himself from the building.
"... it'll only take five minutes. I don't want to be around those children any more than you do."
"I'm not going in there."
She could still hear the children through his ears and their seemingly boundless excitement and energy. Though she couldn't directly sense how all of that energy and giddiness was making the Gardevoir feel, his reluctance spoke volumes.
"Fine," she sighed. "I'll be back shortly. Will you find something for Nibiru to eat while I take care of this?"
"Certainly."
She turned away from him and made her way into the mushroom, cutting off her connection from Griffith as she did so. Silence filled her ears as she found herself entering a large, circular room that somehow fit inside the mushroom. She braced herself as she took everything in. The interior, compared to Clarity's home, was utter chaos.
Uneven purple grass that felt like Wooloo wool (and was just as bouncy) lined the flooring. Mismatching drawers and cubbies overflowing with toys were pressed against the walls, though most of the toys were strewn about the room with no sense of organization. Scorch marks, claw marks, and deep holes were apparent on every surface, as if the room were a lively sparring arena. There were several plush toys resembling friendly Pokemon all around the room, and several of them had torn ears, seams bursting, or dirtied so deeply that no amount of thorough cleansing could ever restore them to their former pristine state.
And of course, there were all of the children, over a dozen of them total. Usually, they were running around chasing each other, but not today. Today, a vast majority of them were crowded around a certain Clefable in the back of the room. Clarity's first thought was that he was sticking them to the ceiling again, but surprisingly, there were no giddy children dangling from above. There were, however, a couple of toys fastened to walls by shadowy, wispy violet binds.
Clarity reluctantly formed a mental connection between her and an Igglybuff amidst the crowd. Immediately sound flooded her mind and she nearly cut it off from the sudden loudness of it all, but she held herself together and stayed strong. She ignored the excited, erratic thoughts of the small child and focused on everything he could hear instead. She honestly didn't understand how Nibiru worked somewhere so loud when his hearing was far sharper than anyone else's.
"Do the thing again! Do it again!" said an Oddish that was bounding up and down on her tiny legs.
"I wanna see the thing!" chimed in a Fidough. "I didn't see it before!"
"Come on guys, I can only do this so much," Nibiru chuckled as he toyed with a lengthy Dratini plush in his claws. "You sure you want to do this to Mr. Noodle?"
"Yeah!" all of the children shouted at once.
"Alright, alright…"
He was pretending to sound tired and exasperated, but both Clarity and the kids knew otherwise. He set the Dratini on the floor in front of him, and all the children immediately backed away, as if expecting the stuffed animal to come to life and suddenly attack. Nibiru held up a paw and pointed a single claw at the plush Dratini. Hazy, violet energy resembling the fairy songs of the village swirled around his claw as he reached over and gently poked the stuffed Pokemon on the forehead.
The Dratini's body suddenly burst open with a loud rip, cotton exploding out of the plushie. The stuffing became the exterior and the minky flesh became the interior as eversion seized the toy. The beady black eyes disappeared into the fluffy void as Nibiru pulled back his claw and waved away the strange energy dancing around his paw.
Loud, excited screams filled the air as a few children poked at what was once Mr. Noodle while others looked to the tall Clefable with giddy smiles.
"Do me next! Do me next!" a Togepi giggled. "I wanna be like Mr. Noodle!"
"NO."
The Togepi relented, but it didn't stop other children from asking to have other toys everted. Clarity kept to herself how horrifying she found all of this. She strode toward the group, and though her footsteps were silent, Nibiru still noticed her. He waved to the Meowstic and asked the children to make room for her. Miraculously, despite their excitement, they did exactly as asked and let her join their little group. None of them seemed particularly bothered by her aloofness, though that might have been because they had Nibiru with them.
"Hey Clarity, what brings you over here?" the Clefable asked aloud as he carefully picked up the heap that was once a stuffed Dratini and cradled it in his arms.
"I'm here to tell you that we have a Nightmare to vanquish," she answered simply, listening through the Igglybuff's ears, but directing her thoughts only to Nibiru.
"Oh. You're wanting to head out now, aren't you?"
"Ideally."
Nibiru visibly sighed as he looked over all of the kids. Clarity waited, ignoring the impatience building up within her just as she ignored a couple of the children trying to touch her tails.
"How long has the Dreamer been asleep?" he asked her, still speaking aloud.
"Hazel says our Dreamer has been asleep for four days."
"Four days?! That's… ugh. And Hazel just now told us about this because…?"
"No one reported our Dreamer was asleep until this morning. He apparently liked to keep to himself and concerned co-workers of his only discovered he was being targeted by a Nightmare because he hadn't been to work for a couple of days."
Nibiru grimaced. Clarity kept her composure, though secretly felt the same way. Pokemon trapped in Dreams had to be saved within five days of falling asleep, as that was usually how long it took a Nightmare to consume the Pokemon. Sometimes it took longer, sometimes it took shorter, but on average, it was five days.
"I wish Hazel could actually do more than sense how long someone's been trapped…" Nibiru grumbled.
He looked toward the children again, all of them oblivious to the direness of the conversation. Though, it wasn't as though they could hear anything Clarity had been saying; she had only been directing her words to Nibiru.
"Give me a few minutes to tell someone about the situation," he told Clarity. "After that, we can go. I'll need something to eat first though… haven't eaten in hours."
"Don't worry, I anticipated that. Griffith has food for you outside," she said smoothly.
"Oh. Well thanks, I appreciate it."
"Of course. See you soon."
She glared at the little Oddish and Fidough who had now begun pulling at her tail with their mouths. She conjured up a few psychic strands and tied them around their waists, pulling them away from her as she walked out of the daycare. She didn't bother to see if they were alarmed or merely curious by the invisible strings that had suddenly yanked them away, instead detaching her mental tie from the Igglybuff child and drowning her world in silence again.
Clarity emerged from the daycare and found herself back outside, Griffith in the exact same spot he had been in before, now with a small box hovering beside him that presumably had Nibiru's meal in it. However, he wasn't alone. There was a particular Zorua with him, tail wagging softly behind her. Clarity raised an eyebrow as she reestablished her connection with the Gardevoir.
"-eally excited to go dream diving with you guys!" Moon said. "How many have you done, Griffy?"
"Oh, far too many to count at this point," he said nonchalantly. "When you do this for years, why bother counting?"
"So you don't ever get scared going in? I'd feel pretty scared if there was someone that didn't like me and wanted to hurt me…"
"Well-"
The Gardevoir finally realized Clarity was back. Normally he'd immediately notice when they were telepathically bonded, but perhaps because he was preoccupied with Moon, he had been slower to realize. He smiled at Clarity as she came over to the two, gaze centered on the little Zorua.
"What's Moon doing here?" Clarity asked him.
"Rendezvousing with us, apparently," Griffith told only Clarity. "She showed up a couple minutes after you went inside and said Hazel gave her our location."
"She got here all by herself?"
"Apparently. I didn't see anyone else with her."
"Did you probe her for answers?"
"I tried to, but it's difficult when she blocks my empathy. I still can't feel anything from her."
"Can you not find a way to-"
"I know you guys are talking to each other about me," Moon suddenly said, frowning as she stopped wagging her tail. "It's mean."
Clarity's first instinct was to lie to the child, considering children tended to be rather gullible. Griffith, however, spoke before she could strategize.
"We weren't trying to be mean," he answered coolly. "We're only perplexed that you're here without your parents and frankly, how you knew where we were. I never would have thought Hazel would know we needed to grab Nibiru, and that we were doing so now."
"Doesn't mean you have to be sneaky about it and not just ask me," Moon whined, digging one of her paws at the ground.
"We're not used to conversing with dark-types," Griffith admitted, deciding to be somewhat honest. "At least, not as often as we are with you. Clarity normally can project her thoughts to multiple Pokemon at once, but she needs me to give an actual voice when we're around you. It's an extra step we don't always think about immediately."
"Oh, right. You guys were doing that at Sunset Dunes, I think. I forgot."
"It's okay."
He reached down and gently pat the Zorua atop the head. She smiled a little at his touch and leaned into him, nuzzling the bottom of his gown. Clarity sensed Griffith being at a loss of how to react to the affection, silently wondering why Moon switched moods so quickly. Clarity breathed in as she took a few moments to dilute her guilt through Griffith's perception of it, then prompted the Gardevoir to vocalize her words for Moon to hear.
"Do your parents know you're with us?" Clarity asked.
"Yeah, they know," Moon answered as she pulled herself away from the Gardevoir. "Hazel came to our house and told them I could dream dive today, and he told me where you guys were. So I went to go find you guys after he left."
"Your parents were fine with you seeking us out unsupervised?" Clarity pressed.
"I am seven years old. I don't need someone to look after me all the time," Moon said stubbornly as she held her chin high.
"You're still a child and need to be looked after," Clarity said blandly.
"No I don't. I don't need to be watched all the time. If I get in trouble, I can just look like someone else and get away. I'm not as helpless as you think."
Clarity wanted to keep arguing with Moon. She wanted to tell the Zorua that she was frail and could easily get hurt, even with her illusion powers. She wanted to tell Moon that she shouldn't be involved with Dream Eaters in the first place and that she was a liability. She wanted to tell Moon to go home and forget about everything.
But she couldn't.
Clarity brushed her ears back, taking a moment to settle down.
"You said your parents are aware that you're with us?" Clarity asked instead.
"Yep! They just told me not to go anywhere else except Nebulae Village," Moon said.
"And they were fine with you traveling alone?"
"Yep! I used to go to school by myself."
"You understand this village is a bit further away from your school might have been, yes?"
"Yeah, but it's not like I'm going through scary woods or mountains. I just step on a teleporter and I'm here after a little while! Just have to give the teleporter money!"
Clarity hesitated a moment. She had forgotten about how easily one could travel nowadays compared to when she was a child. All those years ago, teleporters weren't even a concept and she had to travel entirely by foot or upon the backs of fleet-footed Pokemon.
"You still have to walk alongside a river for an hour before you reach Nebulae Village if you arrive from Astra City. River wilds might prey on you if you don't keep far away."
"Well yeah, that's why I stay far away from the river. Or look like something they don't wanna hurt."
Purple light shifted over the little Zorua, obscuring her features. The light expanded, enlarging and growing numerous spikes. When the light fizzled out a second later, what stood before Clarity and Griffith was the near-perfect image of a Nidorina. However, the form wasn't stable. Clarity only had to look at the illusion for a few seconds before it was momentarily transparent. The illusion repaired itself within a heartbeat or two, but in those moments, Clarity could see Moon hiding underneath the illusion. It reminded her of a face hidden behind a veil.
"I heard if you bite Nidorina you can get poisoned, so if I look like one, no one will bite me!" the "Nidorina" said, her voice still sounding exactly like Moon's.
"... fine," Clarity relented. "You've made your point. I won't bother you anymore. As soon as Nibiru is ready, we're leaving."
The illusion burst into a cloud of sparkling purple particles and Moon once again stood as a Zorua. She bounded up and down in glee. Clarity internally sighed as she silently instructed Griffith to stop sharing her thoughts outwardly. She looked toward the daycare entrance and waited for Nibiru to appear so they could depart, though she felt Griffith's gaze on her. She refused to turn his way.
"I'll be fine," she told him. "Don't worry about me."
"I know this isn't just about Moon, Clarity. I'm not stupid."
She saw a brief image in his mind. She saw herself as an Espurr, sitting in her bedroom alone. It reeked of loneliness. Resentment. Guilt.
"I don't want to talk about this right now."
"Is this going to cause problems when we go into the Dream? You know it's not a good idea to go in there when you're emotionally compromised."
"This won't cause issues. I have it under control, Griffith."
She sensed his doubt, but he didn't press her any further. Instead, he turned his attention to Moon and entertained her with small talk while they all waited for Nibiru. A fairy song drifted by Clarity, its vaguely nostalgic tune humming softly in her mind. For some reason, it made her think back to a lullaby her mother used to sing.
Twenty psychic threads suddenly strangled the fairy song, choking the noise from its ethereal form before it burst into a thousand shimmering motes.
Clarity brushed back her ears, dissipated the strands, and patiently waited for Nibiru.
It was about an hour later when the group arrived at the house of the Dreamer. Amusingly, he resided not too far from Merci's abode, even if his own home wasn't nearly as lavish as her own. Nibiru knocked on the wooden door as Griffith, Clarity, and Moon waited not too far behind him. Griffith and Clarity stood at the ready, composed and nonchalant, as though this were a mundane visit to see an old friend. Moon, meanwhile, kept pacing about, refusing to stay still. Clarity couldn't tell if it was out of anxiousness or excitement, and Moon was still blocking out Griffith's empathy. Clarity was halfway tempted to say something, but thought better of it.
"You stay with us, no matter what, you understand?" Clarity warned the Zorua. "Don't wander away when we're in the Dream."
"Of course!" she said, finally stopping to look to Clarity with a large smile. "Uhhhh what are Dreams like anyway?"
"It's different for every Dreamer. However, they're always unnatural and warped, never following the laws of reality."
"Sooooo a dream, basically."
"Essentially."
"Cooool."
Clarity resisted the urge to shake her head. Just then, the door opened, and there on the other side stood a Zangoose. She looked the four over up and down, as if unsure of what to make of the crew.
"Hey there, we're The Phantasies, Dream Eaters here to help out someone that got put into a sleep coma," Nibiru greeted with a friendly smile. "You the coworker keeping an eye on him?"
"Oh good, you're here," she said with a relieved sigh. "Here, come in. I put him in the front room."
The group stepped inside as the Zangoose closed the door behind them. They found themselves standing in the midst of the living area. It had a lone fireplace that was in dire need of a good cleaning and couch along with a long coffee table littered with dirty plates, but otherwise, the room was rather barren. There weren't even any pictures on the walls.
In the middle of this room, sprawled atop a colorful rug, was the slumbering Flaaffy they sought. Clarity only had to stand in the house for one second for the presence of the Nightmare to hit her. It was an insidious presence, one that felt a dozen claws grabbing at her fur and tugging her into a drowsy oblivion. Before, the presence always used to pull her under for a few seconds before she snapped out of it. Nowadays, it barely made her blink.
She looked over at Moon to gauge her reaction and was surprised to see the Zorua seemingly unaffected. If anything, she seemed even more energized than before.
"You guys sure got here quickly," the Zangoose said, drawing Clarity's attention away from Moon. "That Mismagius said you guys might not be here until tonight or tomorrow, but hey, I'm not complaining. Been hard to sleep knowing Volt's like this…"
"You're the one that was concerned enough to check up on your friend when he wasn't showing up to work," Nibiru chuckled. "If it wasn't for you caring enough, I don't know if anyone would have realized he needed help."
"Y-yeah, I suppose you're right when I put it that way. I'm just glad it's easy to get ahold of you Dream Eaters."
The Zangoose tapped her elongated claws together, shifting her gaze between Volt and the group.
"Do you guys need me to do anything or…?" she asked.
"You're free to stay here with us, or you can go wait in another room," Nibiru answered as he started to sit down beside the Flaaffy. "Though, if you stay here, you're really not going to see much besides the four of us sleeping. All of the exciting stuff happens in his Dream. Unless, I don't know, you think it's exciting watching us sleep."
"Uhhhh…I think I'll give all of you privacy. I know I have a hard time falling asleep around strangers. Good luck in there."
The Zangoose awkwardly disappeared elsewhere in the house, leaving the four with the Flaaffy. Nibiru fell onto his back, giggling a little as he put his hands behind his head. Clarity and Griffith found comfortable spots near the Flaaffy as well, readying themselves for the dive into the Dream. Griffith opted to take the lone couch in the room, settling across it and resting his head on an armrest. Clarity, meanwhile, took a blanket from a basket near the couch and wrapped herself in it before collapsing on the rug.
"Soooo, what do we do now?" Moon asked, being the only one still standing in the room.
"Fall asleep," Griffith answered as he dug through his bag. "Pontifex blessed us so that if we rest near someone who's trapped in a Dream, we can enter said Dream."
"Right. I think Hazel was saying I can copy that power if I try hard enough, but only after seeing you guys use it. Sooooo how will I know you guys are going into the Dream?"
"You'll know. Trust me, you'll know."
Clarity wasn't sure if Moon believed this, but she wasn't looking at Moon anymore. She watched as Griffith pulled out three Drowsy Drops from his bag and had two invisible strings wrap around two of them. They floated away from the Gardevoir and drifted to Nibiru and Clarity, then dropped the candies beside both their heads. They were fairly small candies, able to be popped into anyone's mouth without issue. They were that way by design, considering they were a popular sleep aid parents bought for restless children.
"See you all soon," Griffith said.
He threw the Drowsy Drop into his mouth and let it dissolve on his tongue. Within seconds, the candy worked its magic, and he slumped into the couch, locked into a deep sleep. Clarity shifted in her blanket cocoon as she summoned a single psychic strand to wrap around her own Drowsy Drop and fling it into her mouth.
"Oh yeah, Moon, before we go," Clarity heard Nibiru saying as she prepared for her own slumber. "So, the funny thing about Dreams is that when you go in, they like to devolve you. So when I see you again, I'm not going to be a big old Clefable anymore. But you know, even though I'll be a Clefairy, I'll still be me. Just a liiiiiitle bit shorter."
"Oh… what's going to happen to me then?" Moon wondered. "Am I going to turn into an egg if I go in…?"
"Nah, you'll just stay a Zorua. Though if you do turn into an egg, I'll make sure nothing happens to you. As long as I don't get hungry, anyway."
He bellowed with laughter at that, and for whatever reason, Moon laughed with him. Clarity watched them a moment longer before looking away. She didn't know what waited for them in this Dream, but she wasn't too troubled. The three of them were veterans, and supposedly Moon could look after herself just fine.
Hopefully.
Clarity closed her eyes as she took in her Drowsy Drop. It was sweet like decadent candy, but she could still taste lingering bits of bitterness from the ground-up Sleep Seeds that were within the Drowsy Drop. She felt the darkness slowly encroach her, dragging her into the depths of slumber.
She didn't resist the pull.