We entered the Forest of Living Dreams when the sun was still blood red. The Forged Order’s weapons were in hand, eyes scanning the purple mist for any disturbances. The Champions had their large melee weapons and the Packers a bulky complex firearm, its weight supported by metal arms connecting to their packs. I was in the middle of the formation, with the three Packers following me in a line. Quint and Downs were in front of them and Icey took up the rear.

  Despite the eerie atmosphere the forest was beautiful. The colored mist brought a fantastical element to the path, and for the first half-hour it was relatively peaceful.

  Quint was the first one to notice a change. He stopped, face hidden by his helm, but the tilt in his head showed his confusion.

  “Are the trees… pinker?”

  “More pink,” Downs corrected.

  “Shut it,” Quint grumbled while approaching the closest tree.

  The trees were indeed more pink. Their bark was smooth too, as if they were made of clay and were not fully sculpted yet.

  The six of them looked at me, as if to ask if my Dream was to be a big pink bean. I didn’t respond, I had barely spoken to them all morning. Sweat coated my palms and my mind was cocooned with a dull buzz that only allowed the dark thoughts through.

  We continued on our way, the bark of the trees becoming lighter and lighter, the pink beginning to change into a more fleshy hue. However before anyone could comment, the tree’s changed more, green moss draped over the branches and water began to rise from the ground. The smell of feted bog filled my nostrils.

  “Monty?” Icey asked.

  “Not me,” I replied.

  I very much did not enjoy the feeling of wet clothes.

  Thunderbird team closed ranks, the Champions using their bulk to shield the rest of us and the Packers pointing their firearms in the gaps between the Champions.

  The swamp-like environment encroached on the pink trees, clashing against one another and making the forms twist like two serpents clashing fangs. However the approaching Nightmare was more powerful than I and soon only small swirls of pink remained in the waterlogged bark of the trees.

  The only sound were the bubbles that rose up from the shin high water, releasing their putrid fumes.

  From my position in the center I saw a pair of blue lights shining from the water beside Quint’s leg.

  “What is that?” I asked.

  “What is-”

  A stream of grey-green scales shot out of the water, wrapping around Quint’s body and quickly taking him to the ground. I got a glimpse of the snake’s ghostly blue eyes as it opened its maw, revealing finger long fangs and jabbed forward. Despite being made of metal the fangs of the Nightmare left a visible groove.

  The thing reared back its head hissing in pain, but it's hiss was not like any snake I knew of. It sounded like a knife scraping against a plate. The monster stared at Quint with intelligent malevolence, its body tightening against the metal armor.

  Terkville flicked a switch on his weapon and a red hot bayonet flipped out. He thrust it into the Nightmare’s body, causing it to cry out and snap at Terkville. Thankfully Quint was thrashing about so much that the Nightmare missed.

  “There’s another one!” Icey yelled from behind us

  A second snake leapt at him, easily dodging the head of the swinging hammer and wrapping around Icey’s arm. However that was all the attention I paid to him, instead I looked down at the water beneath me.

  Another pair of glowing blue eyes staring at me from my feet. I leapt back just as the third Nightmare attacked, however I fell onto my rear putrid water soaking my clothes.

  The smooth feeling of scales wrapping around me was the only warning I got before the air in my lungs was forcefully expelled, my ribs only a hair away from cracking as the snake tried to crush me to death.

  Just as I was about to pull power from the river stone in my Dreamscape the body of the snake went limp around me. I felt hands pull at the snake, unwrapping me from its embrace.

  Gelf quickly brought me to my feet, then hurriedly pulled me behind him.

  It was not three snake Nightmares, but six, with the one that tried to kill me dead.

  They had retreated when their brethren died, and now all converged into one spot in the water. It looked as though they were fighting amongst one another. Their sinuous bodies twisted and writhed within one another, the water churning chaotically.

  Then I noticed that the snakes were getting bigger. Bigger and less numerous. Before each snake was as thick around as one of Icey’s armored arms, now it was as thick as his thigh, its tail stretching into the distance, but instead of one massive head, it had five. Each pair of blue eyes stared with hatred at the corpse of their fellow Nightmare.

  They all hissed in sync, the ear splitting noise overwhelming my sense of self. I decided it was a good idea to start using the rock in my Dreamscape, a steady stream of white Intent wafted off of me and my body became stronger and more robust.

  The Nightmare charged at us, however the Champions braced themselves, weapons lighting up and pouring out steam.

  Icey swung his hammer, the back of the weapon bursting with kinetic light and propelling the head forward, crushing one of the Nightmare’s heads instantly. Another head lunged at him but a shot from Yun threw it to the side, destroying one of its eyes.

  The pained cry of the Nightmare echoed in my soul. They were ruining a beautiful creature, it would be better if they broke the creature’s spines, or found a way to choke it to death.

  Downs stabbed at the base where the many heads met, the tip of her spear glowing with heat. Once punctured, her spear buzzed with noise, the head of the spear began to spin, being shoved forward by a jet of light at the butt of the spear.

  One of the snakes leapt forward and unfused from the other Nightmares, as though it was leaping out of water instead of disconnecting from its brethren. It wrapped its body around Downs’s legs, and another of the snakes still attached to the others slammed its head into Downs’s helmet. She toppled into the water, arms flailing.

  Gelf’s was there a moment later, his bayonet slicing grooves into the Nightmare latched onto Downs.

  Meanwhile Quint ignored the attacks from the remaining three heads and chopped down with his two-handed sword. It sliced into the scales of the Nightmare rather easily, and as soon as it did Quint’s sword began emitting large amounts of superheated steam into the body of the Nightmare, ripping, boiling and burning the monster. More of its precious flesh was getting destroyed right before my eyes. Two of the three remaining snakes slithered out of their joined body, completely bereft of wounds. However the last one keeled over, its body still with two heads attached.

  The two fleeing were quickly dealt with, Icey crushing one with his hammer and Yun and Terkville peppering the last one with bullets until it finally stopped moving.

  Immediately the water began to drain from existence, the feted smell of stagnant water leaving with it. In only a few moments all that remained was us and the snake Nightmare corpses.

  Gelf pulled the desecrated snake corpse off of Downs, who muttered a thanks.

  “Good job team. Are there any injuries?” Quint asked, studying each of his teammates who confirmed they were okay. “Monty, what about… what are you doing?”

  I looked up, my arms attempting to pick up the Nightmare who had tried to crush me into paste. It was only thanks to my river stone that I could hold the heavy snake at all.

  “I wanted to see if the Nightmare’s could still be joined even after death.”

  The six of them stared at me for a moment before Downs ambled over and helped me carry the dead weight to the larger corpse.

  It was when I held the head of the singular dead snake that I saw the wound that killed it. A perfectly circular hole went from one side of its head to the other, blackish blood leaking out in dribbles. Downs also noticed the hole, looking at it in surprise.

  “Who killed this one?” she asked the others. “Gelf?”

  “It wasn’t me. I thought it was Terkville,” Gelf said with a shrug.

  “No, our bullets don’t make wounds like that. Actually I don’t know anything that makes a wound like that,” Terkville said, poking his finger into the hole and wiggling it.

  Civilian grade firearms did nothing but shoot a concentrated beam of light, which while sounding impressive, was rather slow and easily deflected if one wore reflective clothing. Good for self defense. Meanwhile military grade firearms used bullets propelled by Stygoscript formulae or pressurized steam and were powered by Sun Stones.

  Both weapons created large gaping exit wounds.

  But this wound was too clean, too even, to be from one of their weapons.

  “Is that? Hey, look over there,” Quint said in awe, pointing to a tree.

  A clean, perfectly circular hole went from one side of the trunk to the other. On the other side of the tree the only distinct feature was the mountain we descended from earlier. It took me a moment to realize what happened. The very idea of it an impossibility in my mind.

  There were only two people on that mountain at the moment, Sergeant Adam Brightstrike, and Professor Raiden Alyci. One of whom was a Dreamer.

  “That is… impossible,” Private Quint said.

  “She’s a bloody Dreamer, what were you expecting,” Yun replied, before looking at me, no doubt wondering if one day I could do something similar.

  I was wondering that too.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  In the end the dead Nightmare could indeed merge back into the others even if they were all dead. Something I wrote down in my notebook for further research. None of the others knew what kind of Nightmare it was, but perhaps I would run into it again one day.

  We then began to travel further into the forest, and the landscape changed as we did so. The trees went from a light pink to the various shades of skin, with the same texture and give when I pressed onto it.

  The Forged Order turned quiet, the previous rush from their victory against the Nightmare gone.

  I could not meet their eyes, and wished the Packers wore helmets like the Champions.

  I was examining the leaves, which had also begun to change into a fleshy color, the arteries in their thin shape pulsing every few seconds. I wondered if the trunk and branches had bones. What about muscles? They would not serve any purpose to an organism that did not move.

  I had a pocket knife, I could peel open the trunk and dive inside.

  “Is that another snake?” Yun asked.

  A sound like the grinding of gears rang out and the Forged Order all took defensive stances.

  A few feet away a pile of wet thin pink ropes were visible next to a tree. I recognized them immediately, I had dreamed of them often enough in recent months.

  Burst, the white with brown spotted dog from my childhood, ambled out from behind the tree, barking happily when he caught sight of me. All I could do was stare, stare at what was once my best friend, what caused my parents to exile me from my home.

  Burst barked and yipped as he excitedly danced around me. His intestines that he dragged behind him wrapped around my legs, their sticky wet feel soaking into my pants.

  I looked up and saw disgust on the Packers faces, their weapons raised slightly. Were they pointing at me? Ready to put me down?

  Burst tried to jump into my arms, his claws scratching at my knees, and his mouth open, panting happily.

  “No,” I whispered.

  His maw stretched, black lips peeling back to reveal his surprisingly sharp teeth. His fur rippled and for a moment I thought his hackles were raising, but the coarse hairs were melding into sharp quills. The intestines began to squirm like worms in rain, becoming scaled.

  I took several steps back and Burst barked again, this time sounding harsher, like he had a sore throat. His white teeth became yellowed as he snapped his jaws menacingly.

  The dogs head exploded into gore, Terkville’s gun emitted prismatic steam a few inches away.

  “Are you okay Monty? Do you know why that dog appeared?” he asked.

  I just stared at the corpse, and Terkville asked again,

  “It was my pet dog from when I was younger,” I replied, watching expressionlessly as Burst’s body disolved into purple Intent, fading into nothingness a moment later.

  I had rejected Burst, rejected my Dream. I rubbed my eyes before glancing at the Forged Order. I saw the sympathy on the soldiers' faces, as well as the more reserved relief and lingering suspicion.

  Their sympathy was going to be short lived.

  Only a few moments later two Bursts shuffled out from the treeline, their guts dragging behind them with leaves and small sticks stuck to them. I wanted to reject them again. Actually I wanted to flee from this forest and back into a stable reality that didn’t pluck my deepest shames and desires from my soul and display them for everyone to see.

  The two Bursts yipped and danced around me.

  If I rejected them again, the same thing would happen. I could understand more of this forest's purpose. It lulled Nightmares and Dreamers with its conjurations, but if they denied it, then they would be seen as a danger.

  After a moment spent warring within myself I knelt down. My fingers trailed through the two Bursts’s fur, finding that one spot beneath the corner of their jaw that they loved to have scratched.

  He licked my hands affectionately and the one to my left gave me an encouraging bark before rolling onto his back.

  I heard the gasping breathes from the Forged Order, whatever last hope they held that I was just any other child falling away.

  A diamond shaped hole in Bursts stomach allowed its guts to spill out.

  “That’s… Monty, did you do that?” Downs asked, her horror filled voice tinged metallic thanks to her helm.

  “Yes.”

  I traced my finger around the sternum where the hole began. My fingers wrapped around the large intestine, the mesentery haphazardly sliced away to allow the organs free movement. I then changed to the small intestine, where I knew I would find it. There, warm with black flesh and yellowed pus, was a large spot close to where the small intestine met the stomach. A bone stuck was pierced through the intestine from the inside out.

  “I’m sorry,” I said to Burst, thumbing the sharp bone.

  Burst barked in acceptance before getting to its feet. The second one echoed it and they both faced toward the path further into the forest. I stood, feeling closed in with six heavily armed soldiers staring at me.

  I began to walk, following the happily yipping Bursts, the others trailing behind, no longer caring to stay in formation. The Forged Order were barely even acquaintances, I wouldn’t miss their kindness.

  The further we went the more exotic the landscape became. Faces with various expressions were plastered onto the flesh trees, happiness, anger, ecstasy. The grass turned into thick hairs and the ground became spongy, the beating of massive arteries felt through it.

  I watched a swarm of butterflies fly across us, instead of normal wings they were instead ears. The pair of Bursts chased the butterflies, one of the dogs’s intestines getting caught on a bush made of fingers. I watched Burst slowly extracate himself from the bush, careful not to damage his innards, a small smile grew on my face at the sight.

  “Freaky,” I heard Yun mutter from behind me.

  The gnawing sensation in my heart grew.

  “You all can stay behind if you wish. I know this may be too abnormal to be comftorable,” I said more confidently than I felt.

  Even after getting attacked by the Nightmare I was not particularly worried about another one. Something about where I was soothed my tense shoulders, but I was not foolish enough to fully trust that feeling.

  “No, we can’t,” Quint said, his voice cold. “We are here to protect you and bring you to the center of the forest.”

  Yes, this was a mission, not a trip with friends. There was a small hope that the Forged Order soldiers would look past my desires, but it died in the tense silence. I wondered if some people were meant to be alone. Hopefully Elina never found out about my Dream.

  The further we traveled the more drastic the changes to the environment.

  Tied between two trees was a dismantled facsimile of a male human. Its face was smooth, its skin peeled back and nailed in place, muscles hung loose, labels stuck inside of them with small needles.

  Then there was the man screwing in his eyeballs while his legs laid a few feet away. After that it was a chimeric rodent-like creature with a snake's tail, bunny ears, and dog legs.

  It was the next one however that stopped me short. Standing taller than Quint in his armor was a fleshy version of a Champion. Its armor was made of bone and chitinous black material. From the gaps I saw springy tendons, tough muscles, and odd unique organs that no doubt were there to mimic some of the Champions’s abilities. Lastly it held a hammer with one hand, the end a heavy plate of bone with fang like spikes coming out of the top.

  Most of the things we saw were childish renditions of my Dream, as if the forest could only comprehend the surface level, but this rang more true. I stared at the flesh Champion for a minute, and the thing shifted, altering to fit my standards.

  Icey audibly gulped from next to me, shocking me out of my revery, and I moved on, following the two Bursts whose wet entrails had picked brown dirt that quickly shifted into a redish pulped flesh leaking drops of blood the seeped into the skin we walked upon. It was all an illusion… right?

  Spiders made of human fingers climbed in and out of the trees mouths and noses. They only had a single bulbous human eye, and lipless human teeth chattered as they crawled.

  I liked it, the oddness of the environment, each new wonder supposed to keep me thinking about the possibilities, even if it was mostly focused on human anatomy at the moment.

  I could see the large purple leaved tree getting closer, and in only a handful of minutes we would be at it.

  But standing in our way was perhaps the single most important thing.

  On a pedestal made of dozens of hands was an old journal, a copy of the one I carried in my pocket at that very moment. Lying at the base of the pedestal was a monster. The head of a tiger, the body of a wolf, the front claws like that of a pranged mantis and the back legs of a kangaroo. Its tail was actually a fifth limb that resembled a right human arm. Where the joints of its head and appendages met the body were doll-like balls and sockets, and lying around it were dozens of different heads, tails and limbs that could fit into said sockets. Some of them were only half shaped, as though a carver stopped half way through.

  I traced the scar that went from my thumb to the base of my palm.

  The toy chimera looked up at me, a deep inviting growl came from the beast's throat and I approached the journal.

  “Wait, it could be dangerous,” Icey called out.

  It wasn’t, the chimera purred as my fingers threaded through its coarse tiger fur, when I got to the joint I looked to the tiger head in question. It just smacked its lips. With a shrug I pulled and the head of the tiger popped off, falling onto the ground. Immediately becoming inanimate while the rest of the chimera continued to sit up, swinging its arm tail lazily.

  I picked up the head of a rabbit, popping it into place before petting its head. The rabbit yawned and its arm tail seized a passing finger spider, popping it into its mouth and chewing, red blood spilling down and staining its white fur.

  Its ears twitched and it jutted its head toward the notebook. Giving it one final pat I stepped to the pedestal and ran my finger down the cover’s edge before flipping open the first page.

  It showed the very chimera that sat next to me, only it was completely disassembled on the paper, with dozens upon dozens of appendages ready to be attached. And before my eyes it did so. The blood red ink drifted across the page, creating a chimera with a rabbit’s head, mantis forearms, kangaroo back legs and a long humanoid arm for a tail. On the paper the rabbit roared, rippling the page, and began to slice apart the other limbs with its mantis claws.

  On the next page was a drawing of a watch, only its gears were bones and springs tendons. The hands were actually just fingers. Each time it clicked it the slap of flesh echoed out. The next page was a diagram of a bat, I’d copied it from a textbook.

  It continued in that vein, sometimes an animal or Nightmare, sometimes a watch or other mechanical device, sometimes made of metal, other times, flesh. Then, finally I reached the promised page. I stared into a copy of myself, more realistic than my skills could produce, with my pale skin, grey eyes and black hair. The other half showed altered organs, almost human, but not quite. I didn’t really know what those organs looked like, only reading about them in books. But they made me more. At least they made the drawing of me on the page more.

  The version of me on the page began to move, stretching his limbs and playing with his exposed organs. I wondered what my organs felt like, how similar they were to Burst’s. It was odd to be envious of one’s self.

  The ground shuddered, and a deep wailing groan echoed out from the center of the forest. Looking up I could see the huge purple tree shake, its black bark writhing like dozens of snakes, and the purple leaves flew off as though they were birds fleeing from a predator. It was covered in chains that criss crossed its body.

  A wave of purple Intent exploded out from the tree, washing over everything in the forest.

  As it passed us the feeling of belonging shattered and the creeping feeling of something under the bed tiptoed up my spine.

  A hand closed around my collar and yanked me back just as the chimera at my feet leapt at me. Its tail arm grabbed my leg, its grip bruisingly strong, but Quint sliced it off a moment later, the limb falling to the ground and spasming before trying to crawl toward us.

  The rabbit growled at us, its fur turning as red as the blood staining its mouth, and it began

  to grow in size.

  That wasn’t all, hundreds of limbs from various Nightmares tried to escape the notebook, and I could just make out a mirror of my own dull grey eyes peeking at me from one of the pages. The hand pedestal which it laid upon began grabbing the limbs and fleshy mechanical parts, trying to help pull them free, but inevitably making the situation more crowded.

  The scraping of boots on the ground from behind alerted us to the flesh Champion ambling our way. And all around there were the finger spiders, their lipless mouths chattering in agitation as they closed in.

  “What is happening?” Yun asked, hoisting his weapon up.

  “Something is wrong with that big tree,” Gelf replied.

  “How astute,” Yun snapped.

  “Shut it and stand in formation. Icey and Downs take the knight, I’ll hold off the rabbit, Packers deal with the spiders,” Quint ordered.

  “What about the book?”

  “Shoot it or ignore it.”

  Yun flipped a switch on his weapon, the large barrel twisting, and he pulled the trigger. Sunlight yellow flames shot out toward the book, but the hands that made up the pedestal covered the book like a shield. I watched in fascination as the skin bubbled and blackened.

  That was until two hands, one pale as milk and the other missing its skin pierced through the crispy shield of hands, like a baby bird breaking out of its shell. From that shell came my form, half of my body naked with nothing but skin, the other half with even less, the muscles and organs showing.

  I was exposed, completely, inside and out. I cursed myself for staying true to anatomy rather than decency. Thankfully it seemed my genitalia was of secondary interest, rather the others focused on the twisted snarling face of my opposite.

  The thing locked eyes with me and screamed in a horrid way I doubted I would ever be able to replicate. Then, it charged.

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