Attacked

It seemed like the two were having a staring contest. Neither spoke; both just watched each other, waiting for the other to crack.

But there was no prize to this contest, and the winner was bound to be Pollen. He was a being that had existed far longer than Liam.

Liam closed his eyes and sighed. This was pointless.

"What is this?" He asked without any regard for formality or such.

"We are inside your consciousness," he replied.

"My consciousness looks like this?"

He was sitting in a lotus position on a green field with many flowers. He could see a forest somewhere in the distance and feel the wind blowing which tasted of salt. Clouds were in the sky, randomly littered.

"Yes, so it seems," Pollen agreed wit him but was secretly amazed by what he saw.

"Why does it look like a real-world?"

"It reflects what is inside you," 'this looks perfect, is he really perfect?' was what Pollen was actually thinking.

"I am not this. I am not this good kind of person." he disagreed as he didn't think he would look like this. This beauty wasn't what he was, and he knew that.

"Then those parts must be somewhere as well. But, like the world, it is not all good."

Liam chuckled.

"Did you direct me to the old man?"

"No, I did not. I knew he was close by, but I did nothing,"

"If I had tried this the way you suggested, what would have happened?"

"You would have failed without end, even if you used the one in the water as a sours material."

"I didn't think your suggestion would be this difficult, but I was thinking of a different line. Why would I give the ability to talk to Biff to only a few people he might not even want to talk with. So, I guess giving the talking ability to him seemed more plausible. This way, he would get to choose if he wanted to talk to a person or not."

"Yes, I was wondering what you would do with this suggestion. By the way, this is a space we could talk about anything without consequences." he thought to reveal this fact and see what he would do with it.

Liam smiled but didn't answer him.

"What is it?" Pollen asked, somewhat concerned now. He'd seen Liam's expression shift to sadness.

"How long will I be able to stay here?"

Pollen looked at the boy in front of him. The question, he couldn't understand what he meant by it.

"In terms of outside time, two days," he still answered. However, he was getting more and more interested in this World Reader.

"In terms of outside time?"

"Time doesn't move here like outside your body. But unfortunately, you are too young and inexperienced to understand the concept of time."

"So, all this is my understanding of the world." Liam decided to change the topic back to what looked more important at the moment.

"Yes,"

"Interesting." He mumbled. "I entered my consciousness by accident. Can I enter it again when I want to?"

"Only through deep meditation, it should get easier as time passes," he said as guidance.

"Thank you."

There was silence yet again, and Liam stared at the scenery. The calmness of this place made him close his eyes and picture Haru by his side. He wanted to enjoy something nice with her, even if he was the only one who could remember it.

He could feel her. He imagined her soft fur touching his body. Liam pictured her eye as clearly as he could remember them. Everything they have done together.

He turned to look, and there she was - sleeping soundly.

"You…" Liam heard Pollen stammer. "You pulled her consciousness inside."

"What are you talking about?" Liam was confused. Why would he react like this?

"That, that is actually her. Her consciousness is right beside you."

"That's… I just imagined her," he says, stunned by Pollen's words.

"Just imagined?"

"Yes, I was just thinking about her. I didn't …" he couldn't understand what was happening. He didn't mean to do something like that.

"Wake her? See what happens!" Pollen suddenly wanted to experiment and see what would happen.

"Okay…" Liam was hesitant but also wanted to know if it was possible. If that is true, then are there other possibilities?

Liam started to shake the big cat, and soon enough, the cat started purring. But that wasn't what he wanted, and he continued to shake her.

Soon, she woke.

Haru had been very worried about the human. She wouldn't leave his side. She watched as the kids gave the unconscious man some water by dripping it into his mouth.

When the old man returned, she watched as the plant and person exchanged blood.

The words he had said, but she couldn't understand. He had fallen asleep again. She watched as the snake hurried away with the plant. She didn't understand a thing anymore.

She put her nose near him and sniffed, just to make sure that he wasn't dead.

He wasn't, and she placed her head on his hand. She fell asleep shortly after. She was a cat, after all. She could sleep whenever she wanted. The Daylight Dreams just forced her to sleep a few hours, but she could always sleep if she wanted to. In that case, she is like Nio. She only hunted when she needed to or liked.

But to her amassment, she soon woke up, smelling the heavenly scent of Liam. A Liam that smelled like he was awake and moving. But that Liam was waking her. She didn't like to be awakened like that, but that was her Liam. Liam could do what he wanted to her. Just not hurt her.

She opened her eyes and found herself in a strange place. Haru had never seen a place this beautiful. Where was she, and how had she gotten there.

"Haru!" She heard his voice.

"Liam!" She answered without thinking.

"Huh?"

"Ahh?"

The startled expression on Liam made her think.

"You can talk?" He asked first, looking at Haru.

"…w-what?" Her eyes went wide when she understood what he said and heard her own voice.

A smile grew on Liam.

That was a young girl's voice. He knew that Haru was a female. He just didn't know how old she was. This made him estimate that she didn't seem much older than the kids in that perspective.

He started laughing soon after.

"This is… marvelous. I wanted to know, why did you come to me?"

"I…I just wanted someone to be with," she couldn't look at him as she said that.

"Do you mean you wanted a friend?"

"Yes," a shy voice peeped.

"Then, we will be friends!" He declared and approached, wrapping his arms around her or as much as he could.

"WHERE IS SHE?"

A shout of an angry woman reached Liam's ears.

"What is that?" he pointed to the distance only he could see.

A gigantic black massive shadow-like being.

The shadow-like being then located Liam and bounced on him. It leaped, and in one swift move, Liam was pinned to the ground, unable to move.

The creature finally had time to look around. The world looked … how could you describe it… beautiful. It blinked and focused on the other black creature in front of it. She was looking curiously up at it.

The creature's head turned, and it saw the other strange being. 'What is that?' It could understand only a fraction of what it was. She had never encountered a being like that before.

Her attention was focused on the being under its paw. It unleashed its claws and dug into the being under its foot, but she stopped upon smelling the essence coming from that being.

It lowered its massive head and took a wif at that smell.

'It can't be?'

****

Liam was shocked to his damn core when he was pressed down by a creature over ten times his size. What was he supposed to do now?

He forced himself to stay calm and see what happened.

But what happened next was that one of the creatures' nails dug deep inside Liam. The nail wasn't hurting his physical body but rather his soul.

He was hurting. The pain of the Destiny String wasn't nearly as severe as this one. He wanted to scream from all the pain but couldn't. It just didn't come out.

It was so excruciating that the world around him started to react. The wind was picking up speed. The clouds were gathering and turning darker. A mountain turned into a volcano and burst open near then, the blast directed at the black creature. Lighting struck down at the same time. Rain turned into ice shards and pierced into the creature. The wind had somehow turned solid and cut the beast until all the shadows around it were gone, leaving behind a chard feline.

The claw was yanked out.

Relief washed over Liam.

Even in his consciousness, he lost consciousness, blacking out completely.