SLEEPING BEAUTIES: DREAM LOG

[yourkeepers]

Bewitched by the thorn's touch, you have been ensnared in the deepest of sleep. Fortunately for you, the world of Faerie doesn't end with the waking.

The world of your dreams is brighter now, more clear than you've ever witnessed it. You've been it before, you think, there fragments of yourself become reality. But now you are somehow more lucid in its presence, and it's more real - something you can reach out and touch.

You find yourself in this world, and you are not alone. Your dreams and those of other join at the edges, pulling into each other along similar threads.

And you are watched by something even greater.

Comments

[intothehedge]

She steps forward, raising a hand as if to aid him, but not touching him out of caution and respect. Her brow furrows in concern.

"It's your dreams. Just your dreams," she explains. "Bits of thoughts and memories. A part of you. It can be anything, really."

[whitepawn]

The truth in her words is difficult to ignore, it solidifies and makes real so many feelings he had since now brushed off as errant thoughts. The sense of them sparks and burns like the warm Light he so often calls upon to aid him, the same Light that has always been there to guide him.

"Is that why everything here is so real?" So everything he had seen before and now were things he had at some point known and more disturbingly forgotten. Drawn from his sounds by the sudden growth in shouts his ears flicker distracted and towards the sounds of clashing swords in the distance.

"That explains a lot," he admits with a grateful smile, but still a hint of concern remains. "That doesn't explain what you're doing here though? Who are you?"

[intothehedge]

"My name is Ruby," she says, nodding her head with a little curtsy. The mist-like dress ruffles around her feet. "I've been in my own dream home for a long time - there used to be others, but now it's just me."

[whitepawn]

"It's a well suited name for someone like yourself," her hair and eyes certainly make her deserving of it he thinks as he tucks one arm at his chest and the other at the small of his back before bowing politely.

"You may call me Unicorn," though his name seems so lacking in comparison, yet it's the only one he can give in return. "You speak of dream homes like they are connected? Is that how you came to find me and mine?"

[intothehedge]

She beams.

"I chose it myself," she says, as if proud of the acquisition. Regardless of what he thinks, she seems to like his name well enough, however literal. "But, yes, they are! The dreams are all connect." She raises her hands, crossing them over one and other. "Emotions and landmarks intersect, and you can follow their paths if you know how. It's something I'm very good at."

[whitepawn]

"Fascinating," it's his turn for his attention to perk and his face to glow thanks to the prospect of learning something new. "Considering you found me, I would have to agree. Is it something that can be learned easily and if so would it be rude of me to request that you show me how?"

If he was going to be here for a while, such a thing would surely be good to know.

[intothehedge]

She grins.

"Well I could try to teach you the basics! It takes practice, like anything, but there's not much else to do when you're asleep, right?" She gestures up at their surroundings.

"You have to follow the flow of the dream. It helps if you know where you're going. I usually think of where I want to be and take the first path that seems like it could lead there. Like...if you want to get into castle, you could first enter a house."

[whitepawn]

"Right," except explore and as much as he wants to know more about this place, he knows passing up this opportunity would be just as worse.

"In my case I've just been walking, I don't know much about this place to want to be anywhere in particular, but from the way you make it seem any doorway or path could lead to any destination I want." Which he could imagine for some rather tempting, especially, if these places could be anything a person wished.

[intothehedge]

"In a way," she says, nodding as he seems to get on the same mental paths she is. "Once you have the experience, you can create anything you can imagine. The easiest things will appear on their own, like the pieces that come from you. Or other people, if you're travelling."

She looks down, batting her eyes shyly in a moment of private embarrassment.

"It's been so long since I could do this sort of thing properly - it's so exciting to be able to talk about it again."

[whitepawn]

"It's quite the ability and I imagine handy if wish to seek out others." It is not his intent to add to her embarrassment, but Ruby's talents to travel so freely are something to be admired.

"You mentioned before that there were many before... they all woke up?" He doesn't wish to get off on a complete tangent but it seems an apt time to ask since she mentioned other people.

[intothehedge]

"I'm...not sure." She places a hand to her forehead as she tries to think. "I think I may have been separated from them. The two of us..." she trails off.

"There is somewhere else here with me, and it is important that you don't listen to her."

[whitepawn]

So then there were possible other ways to escape this than awakening? An interesting fact, one he tucks away for now as he watches Ruby think.

"Why not?" He asks more curiously than cautiously as his eyes narrow carefully on the young girl's face and body language. Though he was never charged with being a a lie detector the unicorn had always had a knack for being rather perceptive.

[intothehedge]

"Because she's evil," is all she says at first, as if so much should be obvious. He frustration curbs quickly, though, as she sighs. "She's cruel, and she's a liar."

She seems to believe whatever she's saying, whether or not it's true.

[whitepawn]

Those descriptors certainly painted whoever this other being was in quite the negative light, "Those are strong words to use against another. What has she done to deserve such a horrid reputation?"

[intothehedge]

"It's not about what she's done, but what she will do..." she says, looking a little upset. "I've been charged with stopping her, and she's tried to hurt and kill me many times before."

[whitepawn]

Something in his chest aches over the way her voice shifts with urgency and her voice becomes distressed and he reaches out timidly with a hand to calm her without invading any further personal space.

"What will she do and just how do you plan on stopping her?" The latter question comes out as quickly as it came to mind, perhaps it wasn't his place to ask, but he can't help but wonder just what exactly stopping this other woman entailed.

[intothehedge]

"She feeds on others - preys on them. I've been stopping her from being able to hurt others, but if I'm here with you...then she could be with any of the others." She sighs. "And I want to stop her for good, more than anything, but it's...complicated."

[whitepawn]

"If I'm here because I fell asleep after being pricked by those vines back home then there might be many others here," which meant quite a lot of others for this other woman to possibly make prey of. The thought causes his features to grow more solemn with concern.

"Complicated how?" Though he certainly feels like he has some notion of why.

[intothehedge]

"I'm not strong enough," she says, sadly. "I can hold her back, but neither of us has ever struck a killing blow. I think if I woke up it would stop her for good, but I don't know how to do that."

[whitepawn]

He can't help but feel slightly relieved when he hears that part of the tale, taking a life while nessecary at times, should not be done unless there are no other means of compromise. And though he is not sure when or how, but another part of him understands completely when Ruby says she's not strong enough.

"Is this type of sleep ... the one I and you are experiencing not the kind that we can wake from on our own?" He wishes it was easy to stay on topic, but each answer is only make him think of more things to ask. "I'm sorry ... it's just there's a lot to think about in regards to all of this."