My dreams were strange ones.

For the moment, while in these sequences, I had forgotten all the events that happened before my capture by the edge of that coastal cliff, and the only memories I had were right here in this plane. I suppose that is how most dreams play out; the waking life you live in the waking world becomes a foggy memory when you are drifting in your dreams, enduring what your mind conjures for you. I cannot speak for most who experience dreams regularly, but I seldom have ever dreamt in my sleep.

The few dreams I have ever had tended to precede major turning points in my life, but I was never fully aware of that when I was dreaming, like right now. I appeared in the middle of an endless sea that spanned in all directions which stood still beneath an enormous starry night sky. It was an incredibly shallow sea, as the water only barely rose above my knees.

I wore nothing on me apart from a long sleeveless dress shirt that covered my whole body, a thin beaded necklace around my neck, and several braided locks in my hair. The water around me was so flat and still, and the stars in the sky were so bright and bountiful, it was like there was no point of separation from each other. It was like a mirror; it was almost as if I was wading through space itself. There was a break in the horizon, however, and that took the form of a tall hooded figure that stood in the water only about twenty feet away from me with his back to me.

I made my way over to him, creating wakes in the water that rippled the illusion of the sea and sky being one. Once I was close enough, I saw runic symbols etched around the sleeves and hood of the cloak he was wearing. The most striking feature of this being was the symbol prominently featured on the centre of his dark cloak, which was identical to the mysterious swirled markings that grew naturally in my fur around both of my outer thighs.

I was too perplexed by the figure before me to fixate on that, and what he had to say to me almost made me forget that I saw it. "It was supposed to be here," he said, in a rich deep voice that was both resolute and mournful at the same time. "All those who have earned their place come here to become the best of us. That chance has been robbed from you, along with all else."

The figure began to turn around to face me, giving me my first look at his eyes, and they were glowing white hot as the fabric of this reality around us began to shatter. "Who are you going to be without us?"

Those very words shook me to the very core and were powerful enough to send a jolt through my body, forcing me to finally wake up with a startle. I took a few hefty breaths before I began to become aware of my surroundings. I was lying on a cold metal floor that was rattling incessantly, making my body sway just a little as I tried to rise.

Stiffly lifting my head, I discovered, much to my distress, that I was now inside some kind of boxed enclosure that was walled off on all sides, made up of a kind of strange blue transparent energy. My enclosure appeared to be in a long, dark triangular-shaped room that rattled along with the floor. I was unnerved by my new surroundings as I warily rose to my feet.

Streaks of light flashed across the metal floor just beyond my enclosure, which I realized had come from a small opening in the corner of the ceiling. I watched these streaks flash a few more times before I finally put it together that not only had I been apprehended by the local inhabitants, but that I was in the process of being transported. I had a strong gut feeling that the ones detaining me were not friendly or reasonable, so I decided it was best to find a way out of there and fast.

I felt along the energy walls of my prison, and I felt that they were more than capable of withstanding much more than more pounding fists could dish out. There was nothing in my prison that could aid me in breaking out, and my couriers confiscated my backpack and even my staff, for it was missing from its clip around my belt. I cursed having lost it again, but there was no way I would hope to get it back without first freeing myself.

Unfortunately, my couriers seemed to have taken great precautions to make sure that I wouldn't be able to escape. I could not find or forge a way out of my energized prison. I was forced to wait and ponder more deeply about my possible escape. Once my transport stopped, whenever that would be, I had to be ready for anything once my captors intended to move me elsewhere.

The waiting took ages, which made me more anxious the longer it persisted. The rattling metal carriage I was in eventually dwindled a substantial degree to the point where I could feel that we were slowing down. What I did not foresee happening so quickly was that my energized prison suddenly shorted out entirely along with the whole carriage jerking to an abrupt stop that was able to knock me down on my side.

All was now dreadfully as I was left to wonder what had just happened and whether or not I should have been direly worried, because I knew that having my prison short out couldn't have been part of my captors' plan. I didn't have long to dwell to myself, because I heard footsteps approaching outside my carriage. "Hop to it, ol' boy, they won't be scratching their heads forever…" I heard a hushed but excited male voice say just outside my carriage before a series of subtle clicks began emanating from the wall.

Someone was outside, and it sounded like he was trying to break in. That wasn't the part that worried me, for it was the fact that I couldn't read his thoughts. Maybe there was some kind of alloy in the walls that prevented me from doing so; there were a few materials that were resistant to my telepathy I had learned. Whatever the case may be, I couldn't determine if this individual had good intentions or not, so I had to assume the worst should he work his way inside my prison.

The clicking sounds persisted as hunched down in a particularly shadowy part of the wall behind me, getting myself into a position that would better allow me to lunge if need be. I was as silent and still as I could conceivably make myself as the interloper continued to work on my door, which I sensed was moments away from unlocking given the changing pitches of the clicks. "Okay, boys, I wonder what catch you caught this time…" the interloper muffled with anticipation, right before a hidden mechanism inside the metal door snapped. "Bingo…"

The door to my carriage then slid open, letting in a bright ray of light, which was the moment when I let instinct take over. In less than three seconds total, I lunged forward with unearthed veracity and tackled the being to the ground. Pinning him down, I raised my hand in a reflexive aim to dig out the enemy's throat, but I quickly froze before I could land any fatal strike as now observed this creature beneath me.

He was quite massive with wide shoulders, a broad chest that both my knees were able to pin on at once, and was wearing some kind of large bluish-grey coat. The creature's face caught me by surprise and was one of the few things that made me freeze. He had a prominent angular nose and a long white beard and moustache with matching white eyebrows. His hair was also white, and was wearing a depressed cap on his head.

I thought this creature was an ape or another simian species of some kind, for I have met and fought a few of them before, but his face was much more pronounced and condensed. Whatever species this creature belonged to mattered very little in this moment, because I could now read his thoughts, and they were filled with a flurry of awestruck and bemused emotions. I knew I was seconds away from making a terrible mistake when one of his thoughts stood out the most out of all the others.

"Shit. Who's gonna look after Ben now?"

Realizing this creature was no threat to me, I put my claws away and quickly backed off of him. I cleared a wide distance between us, inadvertently backing up against my carriage, which I would later recognize was part of a train that ran on metal rails. I knelt passively with my hands at a half-raise, pleading with the creature that I meant no harm to him as he sat upward to look at me. The look of accepting death had completely left his face as he stared at me, his old eyes were bright, wide, and full of wonder as he looked at me up and down a couple of times.

"Woah…" he gawked, squinting his eyes and shaking his head, trying to make sure he wasn't imagining me, but I was plenty real.

"Forgive me, good sir," I pleaded, presenting as docilely as I could. "I didn't mean to terrorize you. I had not realized you meant no harm."

"Oh, uhm…" the large creature blinked a couple more times. "No harm done…"

He began to lean his broad body forward into a crouched position with his palms on the grassy ground, his gaze still fixed on me and hardly sounded upset or scared at all. His thoughts were abundant, and they all told me that I was the most exotic thing he had seen in a long time, which wasn't surprising.

"Jiminy cricket. Pardon my disbelief, but you were not what I was expecting to find in there at all…" he said, initiating some friendly conversation that I engaged with quickly.

"Please, good sir. I am no threat to you. I'm not from your planet, and I'm quite lost."

His immediate thoughts surprised me because he seemed to be more bemused by my statement that I wasn't from this planet of all things. "Ah, uh…if you say so," the creature nodded, still wide-eyed and fascinated by me. However, his fixation wavered when he had thoughts of remembrance while taking a cautious look around. "Well, uh, miss blue space fox lady," he began, crawling towards me with a lowered head, "it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, as I'm sure it is a pleasure to be out of that box on wheels?"

"Yes. It is," I answered, following his lead and crawling closer towards him. He was quite cautious of looming danger while we were out here in the open and found no reason to question his tensity.

"Good. How about we try our meeting again, eh?" he smiled, despite all the tension involving me and the danger looming around us. "My name is Aaron. Aaron Beuford: your friendly local dissident-liberator," he informed, extending his fingerless-gloved hand out to me as a gesture of friendship. I complied and reached out my hand before clasping it around his, which was nearly twice as big as mine.

"My name is Krystal," I replied. "It is nice to meet you as well, Aaron Beuford."

"Krystal…" Aaron mused as we both shook hands. "That's a lovely name, much like that pretty jewel you wear on your forehead."

My ears perked up as I grinned. The warmness in his voice made whatever tension was left in me melt away. "Thank you," I said as we pulled our hands apart. Aaron's old face then turned from sweet to serious really quickly.

"Okay then, Krystal, since you don't know your way around, why don't you follow me back to my den?" he offered, though it was phrased much more like an urgent insistence. "It's only a matter of time before that jam on the tracks planted by yours truly gets cleared away, and I know the Combine's got nothing good planned for you if you stay here."

"The… 'Combine'?" I repeated, curious about that name, but I learned quickly by Aaron's face alone that it was a name that carried tremendous weight and severity, and he was disturbed that I wasn't acquainted with it.

"Oh… So, you are very new here, are n'tcha?" he realized, the seriousness in his eyes increasing tenfold. "Long story short, they rule the planet, and they are nobody you ever want to tip-off. Like us right now, delaying their train, and we would both do better if we quickly got out of here and hide where they can't find us?"