Summer's Dream

K

Kitti

Guest
Original poster
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Nightie glanced around at the group around her, all passed out in what seemed to be a peaceful slumber. The twinkling of lights in the branches of the trees drew nearer to her and she realized that the clearing was actually quite dark. The smell of earth and growing things mingled with the scent of a playful summer breeze coming somewhere from between the trees. Nightie edged her slender neck higher into the air, the heady smell enchanting her senses. There was another smell, unidentifiable, like lightning if its perfume could be bottled. Nightie felt anxious and tense, her eyes flicking from tree to tree, unable to make out any solid forms except for the trees, and yet it felt as though there were eyes lurking just out of sight, watching her and the others.

Nightie tried to reason with herself and think of some way this could have happened. Something must have happened, the shop keeper had thrown them out perhaps? Bad coffee? Drugs? Trying to think back, all Nightie could remember was, faintly, his jeer. Something about sevens and playing. Nightie kneeled next to the nearest person and gently shook them. She needed company, someone to force her mind to be logical. She couldn't help but notice that the small pinpricks of light, so much like fireflies, were getting closer. A small cluster, like a cloud of stars, was approaching with the most speed. Nightie tried to breathe deeply but the air caught in her throat and she let out a strangled cry.

Instantly, with the noise, the dots of light ceased their inching forward and flitted some ten feet off the ground near the branches of a tree thick with leaves. Nightie backed away from them and tripped over another person.

"Ooof!" she squeaked. This whole affair was becoming embarrassing and Nightie wanted nothing more than someone to come and take over, rescue her and drag her to safety. The flashes of light grew brighter, larger. A chattering seemed to emanate from the lights now, more of a whispering babble than real speech. The lush green grass around Nightie's small sandals tripped her up as she backed away and she fell again, this time onto her back where the icy dew collected there beaded on her skin and soaked her thin dress. She wanted to wake up, to open her eyes and this was all a terrible dream.
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Katherine began to stir as she turned to her right. Something was not right, and she could feel it as consciousness began to quickly return to her. An indiscernable, quiet noise was in her ears as if someone, or something, was whispering ominously beyond the clearing with the others. Katherine, curious as to why she was lying on the ground, opened her intense eyes which pierced into the darkness as she sat up.

Katherine looked on as lights had fluttered away, and Nightie squeaked. Suddenly turning to the girl, she noticed that she was nervous, too. However, Katherine's nervousness was not showing as clearly. She noticed that both Nightie's and her own clothes were wet with dew along with their skin. Katherine heard a faint babbling beyond the clearing, and became a bit more nervous. However, her face still looked at graceful as ever. What is behind that bush? Katherine wondered for a few moments as she slowly got up on her feet. Katherine approached the fallen Nightie and extended her arm towards her.

"May I help you up?" Katherine made eye contact with the girl, the intimidating affect of the eyes somewhat lessened in the dark.
 
Elsa groaned from her spot on the ground, SOMEONE had stepped on her and she wasn't pleased about that. She was having such a nice dream too. She opened her eyes and sat up, looking at the strange landscape that surrounded her and some of her classmates, none of which she had really met yet. In fact she was sure that none of them were in her grade, or were they? Only a couple of them were standing and walking around, whereas the rest of them were still laying on the ground, probably asleep.

It was then that she noticed her surroundings. It reminded Elsa of Alice in Wonderland or a Midsummer Night's Dream. The lights glowing around the glade made it seem warm and inviting but the frosty dark just beyond seemed ominous and looming. I wonder if it's like those dream sequences in movies where if you run off into the blackness you just keep going forever, or pop out on the other side of the clearing after running only a few feet...I might try it if I can find some rope or...oh yeah! The others! Elsa's mind buzzed about with thoughts as she stepped over to the ones that were standing.

"Um, excuse me, do any of you guys know where we are?" She looked around slowly, shrugging and running over to a tree, attempting to climb the branches, ignoring the fact that her heeled boots probably weren't the best for this sort of activity. "Maybe we can see something from up here!" She yelled behind her to nobody in particular.
 
"It seems I passed out while drinking, again," Vincent noted as he tried to prop himself up. He was no stranger to things like this, but he was bewildered to find himself with a group of other students in the middle of a dark forest.

Vincent checked his pockets for anything that's missing, there was none. "That's strange, I wasn't mugged... Was I raped?" he chuckled slightly and checked if he still got his clothes on.

"Heh, just as I thought," Vincent propped himself up a tree and stood up, "There's no way that would happen, even in a dream such as this seemed to be."

"Um, excuse me, do any of you guys know where we are?" a voice asked. It was from Elsa, a preppy girly-girl who seemed to be as clueless as she is annoying.

"No, I would expect you to have more of an idea than I am though," Vincent barely stopped himself from remarking.

He surveyed his dark surroundings. It's obvious that they're in the middle of some forest, or perhaps a grove. That's all. Other than that, they're completely and literally in the dark. From a corner of the clearing, he caught a glimpse of this Elsa desperately trying to climb up a tree--in some fashionable jeans (or whatever they call fashionable) and high heels.

"What the hell is she trying to do? Climb a tree?" Vincent laughed inside, "Nice idea, but I doubt...."

"Maybe we can see something from up here!" Elsa yelled.

"Eeeeeey?! She's serious dammit!" Vincent thought as he ran towards Elsa, anticipating her fall.
 
Liz awoken with her ear-bud's playing just static, the radio station she was listening to was no more. Her blue eye's glossed over, and her hair was slightly damp from the dew on the ground, long with her clothes. She sighed for a moment fumbling around with her little mp3 player turning to other stations, all static. So she turned it off. She must have been one of the last of the few to wake.

Her eye's wandered to the others, that have woken, they were probably thinking the same thing she was thinking. What happened? Last she had remembered she was drinking her iced vanilla coffee with the others and listening to some music.

Her ice blue eye's turned to Elsa who was seriously climbing a tree in heel's. 'is she serious' She thought, arms crossed her cardigan slightly damped from the dew. She didn't dare to questioned this girl's antic's for a moment, if she broke a leg she broke a leg. A sigh grew from Liz's mouth and her head tilted, eye's closed and she yawned. She was still very calm about the situation, she knew this dream felt like reality like most of her dream's do, For a moment her eyes narrowed and she had pinched herself.

"Owe", She muttered, sighing.

It was real, and maybe a little too bizarre for her own taste.
 
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Nightie frowned at the hectic noise, taking the hand proffered. "Thank you" she replied quietly, her intent gaze taking in the others. She did not know them very well, they were a loose band at best but the lights had flitted away, keeping distance as the others awoke. Vincent was trying to catch Elsa, who was seemingly trying to clamber up a tree and there was another girl who had just woken up, looking skeptical before pinching herself.

"We should stay together, perhaps we just fell asleep in the forest behind the coffee shop?" she murmured, hoping it was loud enough for the others to hear. Brushing off the skirt of her white summer dress, Nightie walked towards one edge before stopping. It was so dark, she didn't know were to begin to search. A rustling in the bushes made her tense up, her eyes wide, before a child with golden ringlets for hair stepped from the darkness into the clearing. She appeared to be the sort of child who resembles more than anything an old porcelain doll with a dress of mint green with ivory-colored ruffles. This did not in any way soothe Nghtie and she in fact leapt backwards from the eerie sight.

"Humans in the forest? How unusual, unless I have lost track of the days again. How long has it been, precisely, is it due again, Faber?" the girl asked, seeming to disregard that the people in front of her were listening. What Nightie supposed to be Faber emerged from the trees.
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Faber tilted his head to the side and made no comment, if indeed he could speak at all. The little girl seemed delighted, however, with this. "It's been dreadfully long it seems, you know... never many people about. Faber's a meanie, but I could help you find your way to the city" the little girl said with a bright smile. "My name is Vomica!"

Beside her, both of Faber's mouths grinned. "Trust her? Nothing comes for free..." Vomica scowled at him.
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Alex's eyes shot open. He stayed on the ground and looked around a bit. Trees. Nice.
He sat up and stretched, noticing that everyone was looking, dumbfounded, at something behind him.
"What's going o--" He started to say, turning around and almost immediately seeing the odd sight that had emerged from a nearby bush.
"What the shit taco is that?" He said, wondering if he was still in his dream or not.
 
Elsa had somehow managed to scramble up a tree to one of the lower branches and sat down on it, just in time to get a glimpse of the girl and the creature that came out of the woods next to the girl.

"THE HELL IS THAT THING!?" Elsa shouted from up in the tree, pointing clearly at the creature. ]Well if there's things like that in the forest it's probably not best to go out there...but we can't just stay here? What is that girl saying to...Nightingale was it? Well whatever they're talking about that thingy looks like it's totally about to make a snack out of that Nightingale lady... Elsa thought to herself as she adjusted her seat on the branch.

"Hey you! Cute guy! Why don't you come up here where it's nice and safe?" Elsa smiled, patting the branch next to her and winking at that Alex guy.
 
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Nightie stumbled backwards, away from the girl and the... "I think.. I'm pretty sure it's a chimera" she said, breathless, an answer nearly irrelevant to the current events but she was dumbstruck, in awe. And yet, was Faber trying to help them? Nightie near hyperventilated and in her mind, full of words, stems, and conjugations, a sliver of Latin danced around in her mind. She was certain the girl's name was Latin, but what did it mean? She had a feeling that everything would be clear, if she could only remember but her mind seemed to cloud more the harder she tried to recall.

FRom in front of her, the girl just kept smiling, her eyes devoid of light or warmth. Suddenly, it clicked, and Nightie had to restrain herself from scrambling backwards. She knew what her name meant and she looked warily around to the others, hoping to silently plead for their help and support. The girl in the tree was proving herself to be no help of any kind, and she had a hunch the guy below her wasn't about to be useful either.

From the bushes, another rustle caught Nightie's attention.

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Her breath caught in her throat and she thanked silently her childhood love of fantasy tales. "A catoblepas..." the body of a bull, covered in scales with a long male concealing its eyes. Said to have a breath of poison, and that any creature who looked in its eyes would meet a swift death. A low rumble signaled its speech.

"Nebrudian am I. I will guide you through the forest, better I than either of them". The mane of lank brown hair shifted and Nightie inhaled sharply, but the beast merely lowered its head to graze.
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"Not bad..." Vincent thought watched as Elsa deftly climbed the tree despite her outfit. "Not bad at all," he went on as he thought what would it be like if he were climbing a tree in such an outfit.

"We should stay together, perhaps we just fell asleep in the forest behind the coffee shop?" a murmur said from behind Vincent's back and interrupted his imagination.

"Who's that?!" Vincent blurted and turned around. It was a white summer dress seemingly floating in the darkness. "Great," he snorted, "now I am hearing and seeing things."

Vincent followed the weird apparition as it walked towards one edge of the clearing and stopped. She seemed to be talking to yet another apparition, this one, of ghost child.

"Humans in the forest? How unusual, unless I have lost track of the days again. How long has it been, precisely, is it due again, Faber?" the ghost child spoke. It sounded all but normal. It is as if her voice came from somewhere else but her mouth.

"Okay, plese someone wake me up. Please," Vincent murmured, "this is as far as I am willing to go with hallucinogens or something." And as if answering Vincent's plea, the girl summoned a creature that Vincent thought grinned at him.

"THIS IS NO GOOD!! RUN!" And Vincent's body need not be told, for even before he thought of running, his feet already propelled him as fast as they could away from the clearing. He could faintly hear some shouting from the clearing, but he knew he mustn't turn back. Not that he could even if he wanted to.

The faint grunt of another creature entering the clearing cemented Vincent's resolve never to turn back. "Whatever it is that I drunk before this, I WILL NEVER EVER DRINK AGAIN!" he swore to himself
 
Elsa scrambled down out of the tree and landed with a soft thud and she groaned, rubbing her butt. She quickly jumped to her feet and charged over to the creatures and let a kick forward, stopping inches from the multi-headed thing. All in all it was rather impressive because the heels seemed to be natural on her and the grace wasn't lost in the kick nor the running.

"If you don't leave us alone right now and let us figure out what to do on our own okay? Ya creepy little freaky things!" Elsa said, holding perfect form for the kick. "Si nous allons dans le foret je pense que nous trouvons quelquechose miere d'ici." Elsa sprouted off, lowering her foot and looking to Nightie, "Ya know?" She asked, assuming she knew what she had said.
 
Katherine remained silent after helping Nightie up, simply nodding. However, suddenly taking her attention was a strange girl, who began talking. Nightie seemed to be tense as Faber, the presumed Chimera, appeared before them. The thing was rather hideous, as if a bunch of animal parts had been taken off and spliced onto a mass of cells. Katherine was somehow intrigued however when a scaled creature with a mane of long brown hair appeared in the shade.


Katherine noticed Nightie becoming more nervous, as if looking at the thing meant instant death. Katherine, feeling somewhat nervous as well, kept her eyes planted on her feet, as if they were of more significance than the creature that was talking to them.


"Nebrudian am I. I will guide you through the forest, better I than either of them". The mane of lank brown hair shifted and Nightie inhaled sharply, but the beast merely lowered its head to graze.


Katherine merely nodded at Nebrudian, or whatever the thing was called, before turning her attention to the rather spunky girl in heels who ran at the creatures, stopping just short of kicking the chimera.


"If you don't leave us alone right now and let us figure out what to do on our own okay? Ya creepy little freaky things!" Elsa said, holding perfect form for the kick. "Si nous allons dans le foret je pense que nous trouvons quelquechose miere d'ici." Elsa sprouted off, lowering her foot and looking to Nightie, "Ya know?" She asked, assuming she knew what she had said.

Is she crazy? Katherine couldn't help but ask as she looked at the young lady, who seemed ready to get in a fight with a bunch of creatures that would most likely easily overpower her. Not like I can stop somebody I hardly know from getting into a fistfight with a bunch of things that may not even be real, Katherine thought as she continued to observe next to Nightie.
 
Liz looked in awe at the creatures, she heard of them from fairy tale's and story books. Her blue eye's widened as she quickly looked down, for a moment she actually felt she can trust these creature's. Maybe they did fall asleep in the forest, and this dream was real. But ether way she believed it and them. Heck, Liz almost believed anything.

She nodded her head with Nightie's response, she completely agreed, the group needed to stay together, especially in a forest like this. She looked over at Elsa who was about to kick the creature's.

"I think... They're trying to help us..", She shot a look at Elsa who was about to kick them.
 
The first thing Joseph noticed was that he was laying down. An odd thing considering he had been sitting in a coffee shop not too long ago. The second thing was that whatever he was laying on was wet. And cold. The third thing he noticed was talking. He recognized some of the voices as the people that had accompanied him into the coffee shop, but there were other voices, quieter ones that he did not recognize. Joseph opened his eyes to see a night sky that was framed by the branches of trees.

Joseph sat up, noticing that he had been laying on grass, though how he ended up here was anyones guess. He didn't feel drugged or sore, so he was fairly certain he hadn't been drugged or knocked out, though since he had never had either of those things happen to him he couldn't exactly be sure. His shirt now clung to his back, wet from the dew, and Joseph reached back to pull it off and separate it from his skin. He noticed his colleagues not too far from him, but his mind quickly ignored them for what he saw with them.

The first image looked to be an animal that one would find on the island of misfit toys. As if someone had taken their favorite aspects of different animals and put it into one. There was a name for it.... Chimera! Joseph said inside his mind. While surprise was clearly written on his face, there was also curiosity and a lack of fear. If they had been threats, he reasoned, they would've killed them a while ago. His eyes flitted over to the girl, nothing spectacular about her other than the fact that she was a stranger who somehow was here with them, and a yak-like creature with what looked to be a shell of an armadillo. 'What an odd place,' thought Joseph as he climbed to his feet.

As he slowly joined the group, he saw one of the girls that had been with him, Elsa if he remembered correctly, run up to the Chimera and threaten it with a kick. Now, he wasn't sure what had been said, but it looked like her reaction was uncalled for except out of fear, and that it would only serve to aggravate the creatures. He heard another girl, Liz, mention something about them helping them, and Joseph piped in, "If anything, try not to piss them off. I'd rather not die before I figure out what the hell happened and whether or not I'll get a refund for the scone that I ordered that I never got."
 
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Nightie wanted to warn them, but the catlobepas seemed to be nonthreatening, keeping its eyes hidden behind the mane. Elsa spoke rapid French, to which Nightie's ears perked. "Attendez, attendez. Ce doit être une forêt magique. Sans les bêtes, vous pourrez flâner jusqu'à la mort!" Turning back to the creatures before her, Nightie looked at them all apprehensively. "What would you take in return for guiding us away from the forest?" she inquired, her mind working rapidly at possible solutions.

She faintly heard yelling, and saw a man run off. So much for sticking together. Sticking out her lower lip thoughtfully, she waiting for a response from the creatures.

"I ask for one soul. You can easily donate to me any soul among you..." Vomica replied sweetly.

"My price? One of you, to entertain me forever.." Faber growled. "Better than forfeiting a soul, I'll let you live".

Nebrudian spoke slowly, deliberately. "Nebrudian desires to play a game. If Nebrudise loses, Nebrudise will follow your every command. If the humans lose, Nebrudian will kill and devour everyone here".

Nightie's eyes widened, and she glanced at all of them. To the girl near her, who had helped her up, she whispered "I believe.. they must have.... faerie blood. Faeries are bound to their word, aren't they?"

Nightie silently concocted a plan. "What is your game, Nebrudian?"
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Vincent ran as fast as he could for as far as he could, which was neither terribly fast nor terribly far. Out of breath and almost tripping down, Vincent propped himself against a tree trunk and rested. In between his heavy breathing, he could still hear the commotion from the clearing he has fled from.

"This doesn't make sense, which makes perfect sense if this was indeed a dream," Vincent thought and pinched himself, "But it seems I'm not, and hence, none of this actually makes sense afterall. If what I am saying makes any sense, that is."

Looking up the branches of the tree he was leaning upon, Vincent turned around with his back towards the trunk and leaned his back against it. "It still makes sense, does it?" he asked himself.

"It has to be," he thought as he slumped down and sat on a large root.
 
Danny had been out cold. Who could blame her? She had been studying for her summer class for almost 24 hours in an effort to cram the major and minor symptoms associated with abnormal feline excrement. A coffee break had been in order.

Danny awoke with a start. It was dark. Her face was plastered with wet grass.

“Great,” Danny mumbled to herself, “What time is it and why am I on the ground.” Had she somehow passed out at her seat at the cafe, fell to the ground, and no one had bothered to wake her up. Weird.

Sitting up, Danny looked around. She was in some wort of forest clearing. Unease swept over her. There were other people there too some still sleeping, some wandering around, most familiar. There were...

“What the...?” Danny said out loud peering over at the meshed-mashed animals. “Whoa. I've got to be dreaming. That's the only logical explanation. That's it. Ugh. My mind really needs a break if its subconsciously creating these hideous creatures.”
 
[SIZE=-2] "Attendez, attendez. Ce doit être une forêt magique. Sans les bêtes, vous pourrez flâner jusqu'à la mort!" Nightie fired off quickly. Elsa was excited that someone else could speak French but then the words settled in and then she realized what Nightie had said and was stunned.

"Vraiment? Une foret magique? C'est pas possible...mais le petit fille est une sorciere?" She shook her head and looked at the little girl, "At very least she could wear better clothing..." Elsa scoffed before walking back over to where she had woken up, picking up her purse, listening to the creatures speak.

"A game? Games can be fun? Like Project Runway and all that!" Elsa cooed, practically skipping back to Nightie's side but instead bumping into a girl muttering about the creatures. "Oh I'm sorry!" She smiled widely and continued, stopping next to Nightie and crouching down, inspecting the girl's dress with her eyes. Guh-ross, it's like it came from the twelve-hundreds...

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"Attendez, attendez. Ce doit être une forêt magique. Sans les bêtes, vous pourrez flâner jusqu'à la mort!" Katherine looked at Nightie and Elsa, barely able to understand the two. Haven't heard French in awhile, Katherine noted as Nightie fired off at Elsa.

"Vraiment? Une foret magique? C'est pas possible...mais le petit fille est une sorciere?" She shook her head and looked at the little girl, "At very least she could wear better clothing..." Elsa scoffed before walking back over to where she had woken up, picking up her purse, listening to the creatures speak.

Katherine turned as Nightie spoke to her following the offers of the strange beings before them.

"I believe.. they must have.... faerie blood. Faeries are bound to their word, aren't they?"

Katherine tried to remember what little fairy-tales and lore that she had learned and couldn't come up with an answer to the question. She couldn't really do much but encouragingly nod in agreement as Nightie turned to the Nebrudian and began to speak.

"What is your game, Nebrudian?"
 
Joseph listened to that girl, Elsa, and just shook his head. She was quite the ditzy one and seemed oblivious to the obvious peril that surrounded them. He did his best to ignore her shenanigans and walked closer to the Nightie and the rest of them, figuring to make his presence known. While it seemed everyone's initial reaction was shock as to their sudden change in scenery, now they have begun to adapt, mind you in many different ways. Joseph himself figured that, even if it was all a dream, that was no reason not to play along. It's not like being angry or scared would change anything anyways, and he preferred to get back to normalcy as soon as possible.

"Hm, so the first 2 require us to give up a member of our already small group, and the third one has a game that, should we win we keep everyone, but if we lose then all of us are lost," Joseph mused, "A question I have, after finding out what your game is, is what are the odds of us getting out of here without any of your guy's help? Because if we can do it ourselves, there's no reason for us to deal with you guys."