.

.

Oh.

.

It's this dream again.

Xinyi's breath is caged into the fabric, silk reflecting the torid air back into his nose and his mouth. It's suffocating in a good way, because he remembers the smell. And the feeling of her hands running through his hair. Long, untrimmed fingernails brushing along his scalp, then down the back of his head.

His legs are are hanging off of her lap, so he curls them closer, tucking his knees into his chest, to keep all the warmth in there. There's no need to go anywhere else, he van never see in his dreams anyway. Just feel as much as he can, until it is over.

But this time it's different. Subtle at first. The room feels off. Then a tension fills the air. Xinyi, you open your eyes, not something you've ever done in a dream before. You recognize the fine linens of your bed, beyond that you see the familiar layout of your bedroom, illuminated faintly by the pale blue light of Nomon, second moon.

Xinyi blinks, the blur of fabric becoming clearer. The haunt of the moon casting the famalier darknes instead in effervescent shadow.

Its not just his legs that hang from the lap, but his waist, and chest. Like he was bigger now than he was supposed to be. And this lap where he lays his head; the bones run sharper than ever before.

All the love in his heart runs cold.

He lifts his head from the cloth. Twists his veiw up torwards his observer.

First you see not the delicate hand of your mother caressing your head, but a long-fingered hand that appears to be made of obsidian, still stroking your hair. As you look up further, you see not a head, but an intricate pattern of swirling black lines and shapes floating above the being's shoulders. Twisting into impossible angles, spiraling deeper into fractal geometry that is dizzying for the eye.

You get a sense that this being felt you 'awake' in this dream. The shoulders hunch slightly as if it is bowing to look down at you despite its lack of face.

The shudder Xinyi makes, the way his diaphram lurches, its almost like he about to vomit the air.

This wasn't supposed to be how the dream was supposed to go. This wasn't supposed to happen at all this had to be real, he would rather this please be real.

"What," he whispers from the gutter of his throat, "the hell are you...?"

"The question is: who are you?" The entity says. The words just drift out of the ever-shifting symbol that is its head. "Nanantut?" It asks with a wave of its arm, gesturing to your bedroom, your memories, your past. "Or Xinyi?" It brings its cold obsidian hand back onto your head.

Xinyi's gaze follows the obsideon hand. From the parted drapes of his canopied bed, across the terracotta floors illuminated panels of his quarters. It didn't have much to do with him, but it was his birthright.

"I don't know..."

His feels nails in his hair, his eyes growing heavy.

"Maybe neither..."

Xinyi realizes he's still being cradled by the monster.

"Hey!" And smacks the obsideon

hand from his head. He crawls back to the edge of the mattress.

"You're not supposed to be here! And I'm supposed to be dreaming."

It makes no move to stop you or pursue, simply rests its hand in its lap. "Hmmmm yes dreaming. Weird thing humans do. Sleep and lie to themselves." The being says in a voice that's like a buzz or a hum. "You are dreaming. But this one isn't a lie. Dreaming puts you closer to the cognitive realm. You tell wonderful lies, Xinyi."

"I don't-" Xinyi's mind races.

The cognitive realm- that sounds so familiar. But he can't remember where he's heard it before, or really any of his circumstances from the waking world. He shakes his head.

"I'm not a liar." He dips forward, wanting to bury himself in the bed. "I'm not a liar and you aren't really here. I need to go back to sleep."

"Mmmm more lies" it hums out. "I'll be watching." And with that, the strange being disappears.

With a start, Xinyi awakes back on his sleeping roll. He's with the party, they've nearly arrived to the shattered plains. Still, the feeling of that strange dream clings to him.

.

.

"Xinyi?" Furrow's quiet, rumbling voice is warm and grounding. An anchor he unconsciously grasps. Pulling himself back to where he is now. In a low tone, Furrow calls again, "Xinyi?" But he can not connect that his name is being said. Still securing himself after waking as the feelings persist like cobwebs trapped under his skin and breathed into his lungs.

"Xinyi?" Furrow repeats. Then continues, "Were you having a bad dream? You were talking in your sleep." The concern at the edges of his voice shift to something firm. Solid. "Xinyi. The dream is over. You are safe. You are here. You are with Taszo and Furrow. You are safe."

Furrow and Taszo were up keeping watch. Furrow can only keep watch so well, but still wants to participate in shifts. Tonight he is up with Taszo. They sit together, nearby, by the crackling fire.

Taszo adds a little shalebark to the fire to brighten it up. "Yes you're okay now. Must have been a particularly bad dream" he says as he swats at a floating purple blob hovering around Xinyi. "You managed to attract a fearspren." Taszo's hand passes harmlessly through the unfazed spren.

No stars.

Xinyi presses the heels of his palm into his eyes and rubs. It's still a pitch black sky, just as though he were dreaming. But he can see now, the faintest glow of firelight in his periphery. where his friends are now.

"Oh..."

He let's his head fall to the side so he can see them better.

"...That sucks."

“It’s probably because it’s the Hateful Hour…” Taszo lets that sentence drift in the air. “When the Second Sister rises you’ll be able to sleep easier. But for now why don’t you talk with us? Does something weigh on your mind? Or maybe the nightmare was from my poor cooking!” He lets out a small chuckle that he quickly quiets, not wanting to wake the others.

Furrow's hunched shoulders shake with his stifled chuckling. His voice hushed for just the two others to hear, "If it was your cooking, I'm in for the worst night of my life. Furrow had what? Three helpings? Four?" He gets up from his seat beside Taszo, patting it to indicate where Xinyi should go, before sitting again now off to the side a touch so that Xinyi will be between them both. "Come, Xinyi."

'I need to go back to sleep.' Xinyi thinks, less as a seires of words and more as an instinctive pull. The same need for sleep one might have when lost in a snow storm. When the body is filthy and in bed. All it wants is to keep you there, more than it wants you to stay alive.

But the fire is inviting in its own way. In a way that is less for the body than it is for the soul.

So Xinyi slowly pulls himself from his bedroll, tredges across the bedded rock before taking a seat just as he was told to.

A steady hum gently comes from Furrow as he hears Xinyi sit. A familiar, warmer hum than that hum, buzz, voice of that strange creature.

"There you go." He leans further forward, elbows on his legs. A relaxed posture. Perhaps it will ease him. "Does something plague you, misra? Or maybe tell us your dream? Voice the feelings out and the occurence from your mind. We can face it together. You were speaking your usual things in your sleep. But then they changed."

Xinyi's face scrunches from the heat of firelight. His back covered in goosebumps. Eyes blotted with stains of the light.

Everything feels just slightly too uncomforatable too ignore. He rubs his eyes again, trying to think of what Furrow just said.

"My usual? What do you mean...?"

Furrow hums, Consideration. In a soft voice he answers, "It was the one about your Mom. You dont always have that one," Furrow speaks very slowly. The topic one he understands the heaviness of, "but you usually say "mom" or..."i missed you"...and sigh a lot during it."

Xinyi wakes up.

Pale in the warm light, pitted between two strangers for friends. Its the sort of alertness that prey animals feel, and he did it to himself. I mean, he talks in his sleep?? Has he always talked in his sleep? He had no idea- how would he have ever known, in that big lonely bedroom of his. And no one in the caravan has ever brought it up before. It's almost a betrayel he thinks, that no one had ever thought cover the glinting shards of his exposed heart. It would have been nice. And it worse, it would have assured him, that the very worse had not come to pass.

"And... nothing else?"

He feels cold allover.

"That's all I said?"

Furrow stays still. Thinking that Xinyi may be worried about what he said in his sleep. He won't lie to him. But he wonders if Xinyi knows he talks while dreaming.

"Well. No. This time was different. Your words changed. It was really just more....stressed sounds. There were some words but not really of understanding sorts. Mumblings. The only thing that could be understood was something of "not liar." And then you woke up as you did. I'm not sure when the mafah'liki came. Since it was a fear one, it must have been when all that had happened." Furrow slowly puts his hands together in his lap. He keeps his focus on Xinyi. Listening to his breathing. Listening for fidgeting. Pushing the smell of the fire and the feel of the air from his mind. Honing in on the young man.

Xinyi's senses weren't as focused. He took his answer and then turned to Taszo, desperate to know whether that was true for him as well.

Taszo nods. "That's all I heard as well, and Furrow's ears are sharper than mine," Taszo pats Xinyi's knee. "We wouldn't lie to you."

Furrow hums his agreement at this. He finds Xinyi's arm with the back of his hand. Then rests his palm on his upper arm. "Never will."

Releif. All at once the color returns to his features, and Xinyi's tense shoulders round and relax. It's such a good feeling, he almost smiles.

"Right. Of course." He pats thr hand that Furrow left on his arm to let him know he's alright. "You guys had me worried for a second there. I thought maybe I said some really embaressing stuff."

"No, no, that's when you're awake."

"Mhm. Everyday. Pretty much all the time actually."

"But at least Renir is asleep so she's can't say these mean things about you."

"Mhm yes since you are afraid of her. I think Lina might be working on a song about it though."

"Bit tough to rhyme with Xinyi though."

"True. But lina is very talented."

"This is true! She'll figure something out." Taszo smiled at Xinyi, trying to see if any of this ribbing is riling him up.

"This is Truth." Furrow smiles as well. Leaning a bit sideways, listening for if Xinyi is getting fired up from the jests.

"Wha-! Huh-? What!?" Xinyi's head whipped back and forth, hardly able to keep up with the sudden onslaught.

"Hey hey hey, what is this?? What am I, meat over an open flame? Enough with the roasting!"

Furrow whispers loudly, "Oh, hear that taszo?! You can try you're cooking again! Good muscle on this one." And he swiftly grabs inyi's leg and yanks it upward. High so xinyi has to catch his balance in his seat. His whisper has a growly edge to it now. As though a hungry beast. "Save me some of this though! Good, lean, meat."

Xinyi would have gone red in the face if the heat from the fire didn't already have him flushed.

"AHAHAHAHAHHA No. Thanks for the compliment but no, I think I'll be going to bed now," and he tries to pull away so he can stand up, sweating bullets all the while.

Feeling inyi try to stand, furrow makes a show of not being moved an inch. Arm in place. Solid. His more "menacing" smile turns bright and playful. "No?? Would you really deny taszo like that?? It is for his cooking!" He grips Xinyi's leg with his other hand now too. With a stifled laugh he continues, "Ah, all in jokes! It is I jest! I was just PULLING YOUR LEG!" Furrow lifts the leg a touch and back down in the air again. He pats Xinyi's leg a couple times, chuckling quietly at his own joke. "Renir taught me! I kept saying it wrong before."

He lets out a content sigh with a touch of "eh. well. Anyways!" to it. He lowers Xinyi's leg and frees him. "You can stay with us a bit if you like, though. Maybe until this part of the night is over?" And he points up to the moonless sky. "Talk to us. Or sit. We can behave. Right, Taszo?"

"Hahah well I can behave, but apparently 4 servings isn't enough for Furrow so no promises he won't eat you."

The blindfold obscures it but furrow gives big ol' puppy eyes. "I can behave! I can! I just...get hungry. But! Alright! I promise not to eat you tonight."

This isn't the first time Furrow has threatened to eat him. As well as promise not to. Both options were equally signs of trouble.

Xinyi flexes his now free leg, a smile growing on his face. Maybe he could go for a little mischeif. Steady the night awake, in some far away place with a couple of trusty strangers.

"Well, it would be a shame to deny you of my company. The night watch can get pretty boring..."

"Ah that’s the spirit, Xinyi! Maybe you have another one of your stories to share?"

"Yes! A story." Furrow tussles Xinyi's hair in his excitement and excitement for Xinyi.

Xinyi swats away Furrow's meddeling hand, but he laughs all the same. Straightening his hair and dusting off his coat.

"Gentlemen, you read my mind. I was actually just reminded of a story I once heard, that happened on a night, just like this..."