32 - Calling Dream

Her? Did they have the same dream? It smelled of Andernite... not that Andernite smelled like anything, but you get the metaphor.

"Who, Cameron?" I asked.

"The girl in my dream! She was running from a giant crab, and-"

"Found a place to hide from it before looking directly at you and saying 'come, help me'?" another of the men finished. Nate was his name?

"Yes! Exactly. We have to go help her!"

"Slow down, kid." Jack said, sitting up and resting the Builder on his lap.

"Leaving camp is dangerous, especially at night." I said, "Not to mention, we don't even know where on earth she is."

I could tell my argument didn't sway Cameron.

"She'll probably be fine in that nest of roots she dove into at the end of the dream, assuming the girl was in danger in the first place." Nate said.

"What do you mean?" Cameron asked.

"There are two possibilities," I answered, "both of which acknowledge the fact that we are dealing with magic. One: the girl is real, in danger, and needs our help. In which case, we have nothing to go on except a forest, giant crab, and specific tree. Two: she's an illusion created by someone or something that wants us away from temple. All of us."

"Either way," Jack said, wiping a smudge from his blade, "She can wait until morning in those roots we saw."

The others nodded in agreement, though Cameron was clearly disappointed.

"I'll let the others know what we decided. Assuming they had the dream too." I suggested, since I was already up and on my way to the door.

I left as the others settled back down. Silence kept watch from the top of Jack's side project. We made eye contact, then I poked my head in the other men's barrack.

Most of them were up and getting ready to go out and search for the girl. I explained the two possibilities, and told them we would search in the morning. She would be safe in the roots.

Katie came out of the women's barrack before I could check on them.

"You all had the dream too?"

I nodded. "Go back to sleep. We'll go look for her in the morning. She has shelter until then."

Katie nodded. "That makes sense, and yet..."

"You want to go now."

She nodded in response.

"It's more dangerous at night. We wont be able to see anything before it decides to attack."

She bit her lip, "Maybe not all of us... But you and I, and maybe Juliana... If we were to fly, maybe we could..."

"I know you can't wait. Go get the Angel. I'll get the Ancient and tell Silence. We'll stay above the treetops, but if Juliana would make a torch or two, that would be nice."

We parted ways, going into our barracks. I grabbed the Ancient, and was on my way out when Jack stopped me.

"So... You're going right now anyway? Even after telling everybody else to wait til morning?"

"I want to come!" Cameron said, sitting back up.

"Katie and I are going to scout it out from above. We'll come back and get help if we need it."

Jack grunted, but didn't argue. I left and went over to Silence and her watchtower as Katie came out with an ignited torch.

"Katie and I are investigating the source of a dream everyone just had. Keep an extra sharp eye out tonight."

She nodded, which was all the response I expected from her.

I joined Katie. She held her glassy sword in one hand and the blazing torch in her other.

"Let's go." I said, leaping up and making a platform under my feet.

A flash of light emitted from Katie, after which, she wore a tiara styled as a slitted visor, on her forehead. A pair of white feathered wings extended from her shoulder blades, each as long as she was tall.

With a flap of the wings, Katie joined me in the air. We left the clearing of our camp, and flew out over the forest. I barely kept up with her near-effortless soaring with a jog. This was the real stress-test on my newfound ability, and it was reasonably successful.

We kept a few feet above the trees, scanning the ground beneath the leafage. Between it being late fall season, and how sparsely packed the trees were, we saw a lot more than I had initially expected.

I was right to say the wilds were more dangerous at night. In our flight, we noted dozens of monsters clashing with each other in hopes of being the predator rather than the prey. We saw nearly no smaller creatures, except for a type of monkey that stayed in the treetops and spit at anything that got too close.

But among all the monsters in the forest, we had yet to see the shark-faced crab from the dream.

"I think we went the wrong direction." Katie called to me.

"We should switch to a circular pattern, rather than flying in one direction and hoping we're lucky."

"We should've done that from the start!"

"I didn't think about it!"

From that point, we did start circling around. Katie was getting more anxious, and started flying in arcs around me, getting a wider field of view.

I started listing off the creatures I saw. Monkey, snake, crab - crab? no shark face - bear, spider, centipede... that one gave me shivers. especially since it was long enough that if it stood on one end, it might have reached me with its doglike fangs.

Katie shouted in alarm.

I dashed over to her, to see what she was hovering over.

It was the same scene we had observed in our dreams, just from above. The shark-faced crab had clearly dug at the roots of the old tree, but was currently distracted by a scorpi-snake like Juliana had encountered when we first arrived on Valade.

The snake easily had the crab beat in speed, evading its pincers and striking in sudden charges.

Glowing gold emanated from the tree roots, and from this distance, the girl seemed unharmed.

"I'll go in, pick her up, and get out."

"But what if the monsters turn on you?" Katie asked, incredulous.

"I'll block them off."

"You've been making barriers for the past half hour. Do you have enough mana?"

"I won't if I stand here for too much longer. Any other ideas?"

She thought, then shook her head. With that answer, I stepped down into the forest, and behind the tree, into the roots.

The golden-haired girl looked at me hopefully.

"I'm here to save you. Come on."

Her mouth moved, but no sound came out.

I picked her up princess-carry, and leapt up and out, using the hole the crab had made for an open exit.

The snake slammed the crab in the face just as I passed, then I was out, and safe.

"Let's go home." I said.