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2045 Words

Brushing past the door and into the room, Wildfire’s squinted eyes settled on a hammock in near far corner of the room. Grumbling softly to herself as she let the door automatically close behind her with a scrape and a hiss. It was a tight fit designed to trap warmth… given the reaction of other folk who entered it - mostly the hospital staff - might well work but it made no difference to her that she could tell.

Cold. Forever cold. Layer upon layer of cloth surrounding her yet comfort was just barely out of reach. Hours passed. Laying in that hospital room hammock. Surrounded by increasingly more other folk with the same affliction as time ticked by. Afternoon turning to evening. Nurses making their rounds, giving her, her ether supplements. Evening turning to night. Time for the nightly struggle… Just sleep. Why can’t you sleep? Was their breathing too loud? Was anyone staring at her? Some patients had become very apparent, making themselves known for hushing her the moment she would do so much as grunt out of annoyance about the sleep that refused to come.

Yet as much as communal sleeping was starting to grate on her nerves, she had no choice, this was just where they stuck their Frostmaiden’s Kiss victims - it was the main reason she stayed here of a nighttime, this hospital bay being specialised with heaters and still it was never enough. Growing increasingly frustrated, Wildfire suppressed the urge to let out a small rumbling growl. Instead finding her pillow in her mouth as she clamped down on the corner of it - hard. Something she quickly grew to regret as absorbent fabrics and mouths usually aren’t the best combination. Spitting it out and suppressing the urge to tear the thing to shreds all at once.

She just wanted to sleep. It was night. The crimson light from the blood moon spilling out into the room from the small window in the door out to the hallway. Wild couldn’t remember a day when she didn’t have to contend with this struggle. Flip, flip, flip. No position was comfortable… It was cold in the hospital bays but what else was new?

What was it she’d been told again? By her lune?

‘Close your eyes. Try to imagine a dot. It can be any colour as long as it’s small. Focus on the dot. And only the dot.’

Flipping over for one last time, Wild lay on her back. Closing her eyes and breathing out slowly as she tried to empty her mind’s eye of anything it held. Visualising a small orange dot, which after a while started to morph and flicker as if growing bored. A tiny orange flame not unlike what her tail once looked like. Growing redder and redder until…

Her ears slowly adjusted to something. It sounded like static at first but soon revealed itself to be the sound of heavy rain. The howling of the wind and the crashing of thunder overhead. Dreams take all sorts of forms and Wild normally wouldn’t have thought this strange at all… had it not been for her sudden inexplicable ability to feel the dampness on her skin as the torrential downpour pelted her and soaked through her fur. It was too real to be a dream. Surely? And then finally came the visuals, steadily revealing to her - not only the thunderstorm she was in the midst of but - the colossal stone monoliths surrounding her. She felt like nothing more than a bug in comparison. As she craned her neck to look up at the closest one, she could just about make out an inscription.

In loving memory…

What were these? Why were they everywhere? How did she get here? The ground beneath her feet was slick with mud as she slipped and stumbled backward trying to get her bearings. Was she alone here? She felt alone. Alone and wet and muddy and-

CRRRRAAACK!

Her fur would have bristled if it weren’t so soaked. Her eyes darting up toward the sky as it lit up with a flash of electric energy. Highlighting something… something in the distance. Something that seemed to be watching her without eyes. A viscous dark fluid seeping from its armoured face - which itself ended with a sharp pointed beak - and quadrupedal body, what little made it to the ground not given a chance to pool beneath it before being seamlessly washed into the soil.

All Wild could do was freeze, hope it hadn’t noticed her behind the jagged stone pillars. Her mind rushing back to that Cauliflower encounter. Seeking comfort in the fact that the creature’s immense form relatively still aside from the plumes of what looked to be flame adorning its back. Of both red and white… ever-shifting… not unlike her tail… not unlike the dot she had imagined. Had she… summoned this? Or had it summoned her…?

She didn’t know, all she knew was that she was now pushing her back up against the stone, eyes closed, trying to… wake herself up? Go back to sleep? Whatever was needed of her to get her out of here. But it was to no avail and soon she felt the rain starting to ease up a touch… as if something was…

Opening her eyes she was met face to face with the creature… and while her initial reaction was to flinch away, it just stood there. It was HUGE, far larger than any living thing she’d ever seen in her life - trees not withstanding. It could crush her with a single one of its claws… (there, done, game over, splat, boom!) … but it just stood there. Silently. It seemed almost… curious? At the very least, it didn’t feel as if it was interested in hurting her. Maybe she was too small?

“. . .”

“…”

“. . .”

“…h-heyyyy, hi, hello there… big… fella?”

The creature paused for a moment, its jaw clicking as it readjusted its mouth, processing, thinking before echoing back to her,

“Hello… there.”

It was Wild’s turn to process now, she hadn’t expected that. A growl, a pounce, for her to need to skitter away and try not to get stuck in the mud. Yes. But… conversation? Oh boy, ok then?

“Wait, you can talk?”

“Can talk… you talk…”

“Can talk… if I talk? Alright. Uh…” her brow furrowed with thought, forgetting the ground was soft for a moment too long as she went to claw at it to think only to get a pawful of mud. Ew. “You’re not going to eat me, are you? Right?”

“Not going to eat you.”

“Good. Don’t want to, very good. Uh… so do you live here? Know a way out?”

“I… live here. Right.” It paused again, looking up toward the sky again, clicking its jaw once more. It seemed to be struggling with the second question.

“Know what? My bad for that. Nevermind that last question. I’m sure I’ll just wake up eventually… I hope… I will wake up, right? This is a dream?”

“Will wake up... This is a dream for you.”

“Ooookay. Uh so, um… My name is Wildfire. Yours would be..?”

“. . .”

“…”

“. . .”

“Ah- right. Doy, I talk.” Wild laughed, lightly smacking the side of her head in a playful mocking of herself. All the tension she felt before dissipating in an instant the moment she let those chuckles loose. “Silly of me.”

“Hmm, let me get a good look at what you look like.” She mused further, backing up and immediately getting pelted in the face by a torrent of dark-tinted water that had collected and subsequently ran down her large new acquaintance’s face. Her muzzle wrinkling as she squinted against it, looking directly upward. “Forgot abo- pfbbtt pfff.” Spitting out the water that had gotten in her mouth and leaping back under the insanely tall creature. “Ugh. Gross. Ok, let’s not do that.”

“Wildfire… are you ok?”

“Ay, remembered my name. Yeah, I’m, ugh… peh… I’m all good! Just uh… will not do that again, that’s for sure.” She laughed again, wiping around her face with her paw. It wasn’t so much that the goop water tasted bad or well it did but it was diluted and all, it was just the principle of the matter. She did not want water or goops or goop water in her mouth. Thank you very much.

She was so focused on the situation that she barely noticed as the large creature seemed to become a little more… uneasy. For reasons she couldn’t possibly understand. So it caught her quite off guard when the quiet was broken by,

“Wildfire… Question?”

“Shoot!”

“What do… you want?”

“Oh! Good ice breaker! What do I want, like, right now? Most ever?”

“Most ever.”

“Wow that’s, that’s a real deep one, Flamey McGoopface. Uh… let me think… give me a moment…”

It seemed to shift slightly in a way that Wild interpreted as disapproval at the name choice.

“What, don’t like it? Ah, fine, I’ll come up with something else. Like Stormflame the Giant… uh… thingy or… big… no… uh… Rock keeper… safe…er? These are your rock things, right?”

“. . .”

“St- Stone… Ste…ven? No, not Steven. Uh… dang, sorry, brain’s empty. Maybe I’ll think of something later. What was it you wanted? Oh! Right! What I wanted. Uh… mnn…” Sitting down, defeated at the lack of names, Wild put a rather muddy paw to her face and thought. Hard. What did she want most…

“I guess… mnn… can it be anything?”

“Anything.”

“Wow… I think…” she tensed, something about this creature, the air it held now, it compelled her to be honest. That she was safe to speak even if it might not be seen as cool. Not that she hadn’t already left a less than cool kid first impression. “Promise you won’t laugh. I don’t even know if you can but you gotta promise me you won’t!”

“Promise.”

“Ok… you…” she grew quieter, more self-conscious, really considering what she was about to say, “… …you’ve already given it to me today. Ugh, that’s all sappy! Ew… What I mean is! I- Nobody’s really… let me speak… over the past year. Not properly… It’s always just been… me and the hospital nurses and… any kit that comes in to chat with the blighted folk are only in it for their own image. Or a good kit mark for their homework… usually both. They don’t care. They get me talking and telling my cool story and then… they never stay. They never listen. It’s like I’m not important enough for them. It sucks. I guess, what I want most of all is just… to have someone to talk to who’s willing to listen and understand what I’m saying. To not see me as a risk or a weirdo.” She smiled briefly, it faltering as she pressed her face into her hands, letting out a strained sound that could barely be considered language as she figuratively died from embarrassment, “…super lame, right? All the things in the world! This hypothetical. Literally anything! Anything I could ever want! I could be famous! Rich! Powerful! And all I want is… all I… I want…” she fell silent for a moment, her voice faltering as if she was about to cry. “…is a friend.”

“Friend… important... Not lame.” The colossal creature repeated, reaching its head down to look at the tiny kit between its feet. Gently using its beak to tap her phylakardia. “I could be a friend.”

“Thanks. But… you’re a dream, remember? You said it yourself… I’m going to wake up… and you’ll be gone and I’ll never see you again...” Wild started to quiver, sniffling a little, her breathing becoming more stilted. It was clear she was tearing up as she quickly covered her face again with her arm. Pathetic.

“Will see you again, Wildfire. Promise.” The chattering and grinding of teeth above was starting to sound almost comforting to Wild as she steadied her breath. Yet she could also feel it. The dream beginning to fade. Falling apart around her.

“Are you sure you can promise that? How do you know?”

They didn’t have much time. She didn’t want to go.

“Promise, I know, Wildfire.”

But she had no choice.

“Don’t you dare break it then, you hear!”

~~~~

24/2958 Acorns

Description

2045 Words

Brushing past the door and into the room, Wildfire’s squinted eyes settled on a hammock in near far corner of the room. Grumbling softly to herself as she let the door automatically close behind her with a scrape and a hiss. It was a tight fit designed to trap warmth… given the reaction of other folk who entered it - mostly the hospital staff - might well work but it made no difference to her that she could tell.

Cold. Forever cold. Layer upon layer of cloth surrounding her yet comfort was just barely out of reach. Hours passed. Laying in that hospital room hammock. Surrounded by increasingly more other folk with the same affliction as time ticked by. Afternoon turning to evening. Nurses making their rounds, giving her, her ether supplements. Evening turning to night. Time for the nightly struggle… Just sleep. Why can’t you sleep? Was their breathing too loud? Was anyone staring at her? Some patients had become very apparent, making themselves known for hushing her the moment she would do so much as grunt out of annoyance about the sleep that refused to come.

Yet as much as communal sleeping was starting to grate on her nerves, she had no choice, this was just where they stuck their Frostmaiden’s Kiss victims - it was the main reason she stayed here of a nighttime, this hospital bay being specialised with heaters and still it was never enough. Growing increasingly frustrated, Wildfire suppressed the urge to let out a small rumbling growl. Instead finding her pillow in her mouth as she clamped down on the corner of it - hard. Something she quickly grew to regret as absorbent fabrics and mouths usually aren’t the best combination. Spitting it out and suppressing the urge to tear the thing to shreds all at once.

She just wanted to sleep. It was night. The crimson light from the blood moon spilling out into the room from the small window in the door out to the hallway. Wild couldn’t remember a day when she didn’t have to contend with this struggle. Flip, flip, flip. No position was comfortable… It was cold in the hospital bays but what else was new?

What was it she’d been told again? By her lune?

‘Close your eyes. Try to imagine a dot. It can be any colour as long as it’s small. Focus on the dot. And only the dot.’

Flipping over for one last time, Wild lay on her back. Closing her eyes and breathing out slowly as she tried to empty her mind’s eye of anything it held. Visualising a small orange dot, which after a while started to morph and flicker as if growing bored. A tiny orange flame not unlike what her tail once looked like. Growing redder and redder until…

Her ears slowly adjusted to something. It sounded like static at first but soon revealed itself to be the sound of heavy rain. The howling of the wind and the crashing of thunder overhead. Dreams take all sorts of forms and Wild normally wouldn’t have thought this strange at all… had it not been for her sudden inexplicable ability to feel the dampness on her skin as the torrential downpour pelted her and soaked through her fur. It was too real to be a dream. Surely? And then finally came the visuals, steadily revealing to her - not only the thunderstorm she was in the midst of but - the colossal stone monoliths surrounding her. She felt like nothing more than a bug in comparison. As she craned her neck to look up at the closest one, she could just about make out an inscription.

In loving memory…

What were these? Why were they everywhere? How did she get here? The ground beneath her feet was slick with mud as she slipped and stumbled backward trying to get her bearings. Was she alone here? She felt alone. Alone and wet and muddy and-

CRRRRAAACK!

Her fur would have bristled if it weren’t so soaked. Her eyes darting up toward the sky as it lit up with a flash of electric energy. Highlighting something… something in the distance. Something that seemed to be watching her without eyes. A viscous dark fluid seeping from its armoured face - which itself ended with a sharp pointed beak - and quadrupedal body, what little made it to the ground not given a chance to pool beneath it before being seamlessly washed into the soil.

All Wild could do was freeze, hope it hadn’t noticed her behind the jagged stone pillars. Her mind rushing back to that Cauliflower encounter. Seeking comfort in the fact that the creature’s immense form relatively still aside from the plumes of what looked to be flame adorning its back. Of both red and white… ever-shifting… not unlike her tail… not unlike the dot she had imagined. Had she… summoned this? Or had it summoned her…?

She didn’t know, all she knew was that she was now pushing her back up against the stone, eyes closed, trying to… wake herself up? Go back to sleep? Whatever was needed of her to get her out of here. But it was to no avail and soon she felt the rain starting to ease up a touch… as if something was…

Opening her eyes she was met face to face with the creature… and while her initial reaction was to flinch away, it just stood there. It was HUGE, far larger than any living thing she’d ever seen in her life - trees not withstanding. It could crush her with a single one of its claws… (there, done, game over, splat, boom!) … but it just stood there. Silently. It seemed almost… curious? At the very least, it didn’t feel as if it was interested in hurting her. Maybe she was too small?

“. . .”

“…”

“. . .”

“…h-heyyyy, hi, hello there… big… fella?”

The creature paused for a moment, its jaw clicking as it readjusted its mouth, processing, thinking before echoing back to her,

“Hello… there.”

It was Wild’s turn to process now, she hadn’t expected that. A growl, a pounce, for her to need to skitter away and try not to get stuck in the mud. Yes. But… conversation? Oh boy, ok then?

“Wait, you can talk?”

“Can talk… you talk…”

“Can talk… if I talk? Alright. Uh…” her brow furrowed with thought, forgetting the ground was soft for a moment too long as she went to claw at it to think only to get a pawful of mud. Ew. “You’re not going to eat me, are you? Right?”

“Not going to eat you.”

“Good. Don’t want to, very good. Uh… so do you live here? Know a way out?”

“I… live here. Right.” It paused again, looking up toward the sky again, clicking its jaw once more. It seemed to be struggling with the second question.

“Know what? My bad for that. Nevermind that last question. I’m sure I’ll just wake up eventually… I hope… I will wake up, right? This is a dream?”

“Will wake up... This is a dream for you.”

“Ooookay. Uh so, um… My name is Wildfire. Yours would be..?”

“. . .”

“…”

“. . .”

“Ah- right. Doy, I talk.” Wild laughed, lightly smacking the side of her head in a playful mocking of herself. All the tension she felt before dissipating in an instant the moment she let those chuckles loose. “Silly of me.”

“Hmm, let me get a good look at what you look like.” She mused further, backing up and immediately getting pelted in the face by a torrent of dark-tinted water that had collected and subsequently ran down her large new acquaintance’s face. Her muzzle wrinkling as she squinted against it, looking directly upward. “Forgot abo- pfbbtt pfff.” Spitting out the water that had gotten in her mouth and leaping back under the insanely tall creature. “Ugh. Gross. Ok, let’s not do that.”

“Wildfire… are you ok?”

“Ay, remembered my name. Yeah, I’m, ugh… peh… I’m all good! Just uh… will not do that again, that’s for sure.” She laughed again, wiping around her face with her paw. It wasn’t so much that the goop water tasted bad or well it did but it was diluted and all, it was just the principle of the matter. She did not want water or goops or goop water in her mouth. Thank you very much.

She was so focused on the situation that she barely noticed as the large creature seemed to become a little more… uneasy. For reasons she couldn’t possibly understand. So it caught her quite off guard when the quiet was broken by,

“Wildfire… Question?”

“Shoot!”

“What do… you want?”

“Oh! Good ice breaker! What do I want, like, right now? Most ever?”

“Most ever.”

“Wow that’s, that’s a real deep one, Flamey McGoopface. Uh… let me think… give me a moment…”

It seemed to shift slightly in a way that Wild interpreted as disapproval at the name choice.

“What, don’t like it? Ah, fine, I’ll come up with something else. Like Stormflame the Giant… uh… thingy or… big… no… uh… Rock keeper… safe…er? These are your rock things, right?”

“. . .”

“St- Stone… Ste…ven? No, not Steven. Uh… dang, sorry, brain’s empty. Maybe I’ll think of something later. What was it you wanted? Oh! Right! What I wanted. Uh… mnn…” Sitting down, defeated at the lack of names, Wild put a rather muddy paw to her face and thought. Hard. What did she want most…

“I guess… mnn… can it be anything?”

“Anything.”

“Wow… I think…” she tensed, something about this creature, the air it held now, it compelled her to be honest. That she was safe to speak even if it might not be seen as cool. Not that she hadn’t already left a less than cool kid first impression. “Promise you won’t laugh. I don’t even know if you can but you gotta promise me you won’t!”

“Promise.”

“Ok… you…” she grew quieter, more self-conscious, really considering what she was about to say, “… …you’ve already given it to me today. Ugh, that’s all sappy! Ew… What I mean is! I- Nobody’s really… let me speak… over the past year. Not properly… It’s always just been… me and the hospital nurses and… any kit that comes in to chat with the blighted folk are only in it for their own image. Or a good kit mark for their homework… usually both. They don’t care. They get me talking and telling my cool story and then… they never stay. They never listen. It’s like I’m not important enough for them. It sucks. I guess, what I want most of all is just… to have someone to talk to who’s willing to listen and understand what I’m saying. To not see me as a risk or a weirdo.” She smiled briefly, it faltering as she pressed her face into her hands, letting out a strained sound that could barely be considered language as she figuratively died from embarrassment, “…super lame, right? All the things in the world! This hypothetical. Literally anything! Anything I could ever want! I could be famous! Rich! Powerful! And all I want is… all I… I want…” she fell silent for a moment, her voice faltering as if she was about to cry. “…is a friend.”

“Friend… important... Not lame.” The colossal creature repeated, reaching its head down to look at the tiny kit between its feet. Gently using its beak to tap her phylakardia. “I could be a friend.”

“Thanks. But… you’re a dream, remember? You said it yourself… I’m going to wake up… and you’ll be gone and I’ll never see you again...” Wild started to quiver, sniffling a little, her breathing becoming more stilted. It was clear she was tearing up as she quickly covered her face again with her arm. Pathetic.

“Will see you again, Wildfire. Promise.” The chattering and grinding of teeth above was starting to sound almost comforting to Wild as she steadied her breath. Yet she could also feel it. The dream beginning to fade. Falling apart around her.

“Are you sure you can promise that? How do you know?”

They didn’t have much time. She didn’t want to go.

“Promise, I know, Wildfire.”

But she had no choice.

“Don’t you dare break it then, you hear!”

~~~~

24/2958 Acorns