Enter the dragon xD

[therealkaichan]

Chapter 5.



Days turned into weeks, and the weeks turned into a month.

Aislinn’s life had taken a strangely unexpected twist since meeting the investigators and the other two dreamers, and she found she kind of liked the change. She had forgotten how nice it was to have people to talk to, how nice it was to be able to share the stories in person instead of just letting them go so others would see them... Even the strange empty feelings she had started to feel were barely memories by now, and she liked that a lot as well.

During that time she learned much about her new co workers. She learned all kinds of silly things, like the fact that Darius liked tending to the garden and cooking, that Lyall loved superhero comics, that Milah could curse like a sailor and that Attis was utterly fascinated by nightmares.

She learned how everyone liked their tea, and who preferred coffee instead, she learned how to move between dreams without someone else pulling her along, and how to wake up when she wanted. She learned how to look for someone specific, and how to see the dreams as just an observer instead of through the eyes of the dreamer.

And it was amazing. She loved every single little thing she had seen and learned, and she wanted more of that.


Tonight, she was trying another new thing. After a month of training and learning, Attis had decided it was time for her to have a new test.
“You have gone into Lyall’s dreams quite a few times, but tonight we are trying with one of Milah’s. It will be a good test, if we are to explore your issue deeper.”
“I understand...”
“It is very likely that you will lose the sense of being in there, nightmares have that kind of effect. We have tested your anchor, so we should have no issue bringing you back. Darius will be here to supervise you as well.” Attis looked a bit more interested in this than usual, which wasn’t surprising but it was a bit scary.
“If they can’t get you out, I’ll kick your butt.” Milah grinned at her, and Aislinn couldn’t help a soft chuckle.
“As soon as you two are ready we will start. Set your alarms for two hours, then get ready.”
“We will be monitoring both of your vitals. If anything is too tense we will pull you back.” Darius offered a calming smile to both girls, as he walked to sit in Lyall’s mat. “Any irregularities you feel, we will notice, so don’t worry.”
“Understood.” Aislinn nodded, as she set her alarm. “I’ll do my best.”
“I’ll try not to make it a super creepy one.” Milah had just finished setting her alarm, and was getting comfortable in her mat. “It will be crazy for sure, that I can’t control.”
“Got it.”


Both girls lied down, and the soft noise of the recording machine was the only thing that could be heard for a moment. Then the mats started doing their work, and before they realized they were sleeping.

Aislinn arrived in the silent blank place as she always did lately. It was as scary as usual, and she really wished she could go back to the forest. That was a nice dreamscape, not this one. But there was no time for silly complaining, she had to move over quick, so she closed her eyes and started humming.

This song had guided her to other dreams a million times, so she knew that it was something on the notes that helped her move over to the next dream, and with time she had managed to replicate the same effect. As soon as she felt the soft pull, Aislinn focused on finding Milah in what Darius called the shared dream.

The good thing about having nightmares, was that the Dragon did not find those interesting, so people who had many nightmares were actually safe from him. Of course most people slept with their inhibitors on, so they really had no way to know that. That was why Milah had been spared the day in which her room’s Dream Inhibitor stopped working for no apparent reason. She had then visited one of the medical centers led by the Ministry and that was how she had ended up meeting Attis and Darius.

She considered it a good thing, after all it had allowed her the nice payment, and meeting new people, and she was pretty well with both things. The nightmares she didn’t quite like, but she loved the concept of a dragonslayer, so she had chosen to go on with the investigation, as annoying as the bad dreams were. On top of all, from time to time she even got to have a nice, warm dream, and she loved those, as rare as they were.

Of course today was not one of those warm nice dream days. Which was a good thing in a way, since it would have been pretty terrible for the experiment today...

Aislinn found Milah’s dream after a bit of trial and error. It was good that they had chatted so much, since it was much easier to find the dream of someone you knew... And she let herself be taken into the dream, trying hard to focus on not losing her sense of self.



She was walking through the city. It was late in the night, and there was no noise coming from the cars that passed too close for comfort.

She knew she was being followed, it was obvious she was. The lamplights somehow didn’t help her to find the person that was following her, but she knew it was there. She had to walk faster, and faster.

The air was starting to feel heavy. The silence was unsettling, all she could hear was the sound of her own footsteps, and still she knew her follower was still behind. She didn’t want to think on what they would do to her if they caught her, all she knew was that she needed to get somewhere safe as soon as possible, before it was too late.

Her heart was beating hard, so hard that she could almost feel it in her ears. And yet, somehow, her movements were getting slower.

She was feeling sleepy now. As if she hadn’t slept for days, as if she were stuck in that exact moment between sleep and being awake. She couldn’t fall asleep, not now...

Her companion pulled her hand, trying to help her to walk, and she tried, she really did, but it was difficult to stay awake, it was difficult to keep her eyes open.

Don’t fall asleep. Come on, we have to get away...!

She tried, she really tried but her body felt so heavy, and her eyes were closing, and she was scared, because if she fell the she would be caught. If she fell then everything was over, and there was nothing she could do to avoid it. So she needed to escape.

She needed to escape.

But as her hand slipped from her companion’s hand she found she couldn’t.


As her eyes were falling closed, she heard a soft sound, a familiar sound. And then she was Aislinn again, and she recognized that sound well. It was her song, her anchor... She knew well what she had to do, she just needed to follow it to safety, and the nightmare would be over. Her heart would stop beating so fast, she would stop feeling scared...

She just needed to follow the voice...

And suddenly there was another voice. Her own voice. Singing along. It was the same thing she had heard when awake, when creating her anchor.

It was the song that helped her travel through dreams, the song that showed her the way to other people, the song she could only hear in her own dreams...

She couldn’t leave, not now, not when the song was calling her so clearly... Maybe... Maybe there was an answer there, waiting for her. Maybe her dreams could be found, maybe she could get back what she had lost.

So ignoring her best judgment, ignoring the things she had learned and the things she had been taught, she followed.



When she opened her eyes, she was Aislinn, and she was standing in an unknown place.

It was a large room, larger than any room she had ever seen, and it was full of piles of books as far as her eyes could see, some where small, but others were even taller than her. It was almost like a library, but all the books were in the floor instead of in bookshelves.

She knew this wasn’t her dream. It didn’t feel like one of hers. And she knew it wasn’t a normal dream either, she wouldn’t be ‘Aislinn’ if it were... So she got closer to one of the piles of books, thinking that maybe one of the titles could give her a clue of where she was.

She took the book on top of one of the smaller piles, and noticed that the cover had no letters. She checked another book, and another, but they were all the same. The only thing that was different was the colors of the covers, and their design.

There had to be words inside, right? She thought, carefully opening the first book she had taken. Maybe that could help...


She was Leslie, and she was singing today.

Of course she was nervous, singing had been the dream of her life since forever, and today, finally, she was getting the chance to show what she could do.

As she stepped into the stage, she realized—


Aislinn closed the book, her hands trembling.

A dream. It was a dream.

“She is naked.”
“She is what—?” Aislinn almost dropped the book, but managed to keep it in her hands, clutching it to her chest without realizing. “Who is there?!”
“She is naked when she goes out on stage.” The male voice continued speaking as if she hadn’t ever asked her second question. “Everyone laughs at her. Such a basic dream, it tastes like nothing, it smells like nothing.”
“W-where are you?” She looked around, trying to find a source for the voice, but found nothing. It felt as if the voice came from everywhere at the same time.
“You’ve asked who, and where... Soon you will ask why and how.”
“Why—?” Aislinn barely managed to catch herself. Then she frowned. “Don’t play mind games with me. Or if you will, come out and show your face at least.”
“Fine.”
“Fine...?”

Aislinn frowned, looking around. It was then that she noticed that the air seemed to be distorting in one particular direction. She was going to get closer, but she could feel the danger even at this much distance, and the distortion was far larger than she ever expected.

She really tried to not be surprised, but well, she had never been face to face with a dragon before.

It was huge, huge enough to eat her in one bite. That had been her first thought, and she blamed her subconscious for it, even if it was reasonable to feel like that. She would’ve thought it was a pretty cool dragon, had she not being in serious danger, with all the colors and gradients, each scale different to the one next to it, it was amazing, almost as if it were made of a dream...

And it was looking right at her.

And she was seriously starting to regret telling it to show its face.

“Here I am.” The Dragon’s voice was more amused than anything. “Welcome, miss Clara... No, miss Aislinn, correct?”
“Yes. That is my name now.” Aislinn willed her feet to stay still. She couldn’t step back, not now.
“A dragon slayer reaches the cave of the Dragon. There it awaits, surrounded by riches beyond the dragon slayer’s imagination. But the dragon slayer has no weapon that can pierce the Dragon’s skin.” The Dragon lowered its head, looking at her more closely. “How will she slay the Dragon then?”
“I...” She frowned. As scared as she was, she really didn’t like the teasing. “I wasn’t looking for the Dragon.”
“Then how did you arrive here, miss Aislinn?” The Dragon’s breath felt warm, but smelt of nothing. It was a little unsettling.
“I... I followed a voice.”
“The very voice that told you to turn on your Dream Inhibitor.”
“You know of that...?”
“The very voice that told you to wake up, yes. I know of that, anything that happens in the shared dream I can see, even if I cannot reach for it.” The Dragon chuckled, resting its head on the ground, to see her more comfortably.
“Why are you doing this?” Aislinn stopped again, frowning, and the Dragon lifted its head again to speak.
“Isn’t this what Dragons do? They hoard.”
“But dreams...?”
“Aren’t dreams a wonderful treasure? You would know about it, you wish for them as well.”
“Yes... But I wouldn’t take them from people.”
“That is because you are a human, and while humans are hoarders just like dragons, they cannot hoard dreams.” The Dragon’s voice was unnervingly logical as it spoke.
“I don’t like it when you make sense.”

There was a moment where none of them said a word, it was a bit uncomfortable for Aislinn and it seemed to last forever, and then the Dragon’s laughter broke the silence. It was almost like a roar, and seeing its teeth so close wasn’t exactly a nice experience, but to be sincere she felt more weirded out than scared right now.
“You are truly something else, miss Aislinn!” The Dragon seemed to be utterly amused by all of this.
“Why thank you.” Aislinn sighed, unsure of how else to react to this by now.
“So you came here following a voice. And you cannot truly kill me. What will your next step be, dragonslayer?”
“I don’t know. You are surprisingly less helpful than I expected.”
“Oh, am I?” The Dragon chuckled once more. “I can’t say I’m sorry for that.”
“I want to go back home now.” She looked at the Dragon, its strange green eyes were glistening a bit in amusement.
“Do you. You can go then.”
“I can...?”
“Of course. There is a reason why you were allowed to wake up after your dreams were taken. And that reason still keeps you covered, so you may go.”
“You can let people wake up after taking their dreams?” Aislinn frowned at that, walking a little closer.
“That’s a surprisingly stupid question. Of course not, to have a dream there must be someone dreaming it.”
“Then...?”
“Don’t you wish you knew?”
“What—??”

Aislinn didn’t get to finish her question, the Dragon was standing now, and that was even more intimidating, enough to make her step back even against her own will.
“It is time for you to leave, miss Aislinn. Do it before I am tempted to give you a good bite.” The Dragon’s voice was a gentle growl, it was almost confusing. “It was fun talking to you.”
“I still want my dreams back.”
“Then I will be waiting for the day in which you will attempt to kill me, dragonslayer.” The Dragon lowered its head, its breath still had the smell of nothing, but she was certain it felt warmer.
“Just try to not call me again.” Aislinn frowned. “Whatever brought me here it was most likely your fault anyway.”
“Your dreams call to you, it’s not something I can solve. Go away before I change my mind.”
“Fine.”


And as she said that, she felt a soft familiar tug, and even against her will, she could do nothing but open her eyes.



----

This wasn't supposed to be happening yet.

Just saying.