Storm 1. Dream!

Dreams aren't always something that are controllable now, are they?

The spores are something that rake along a person's being, lulling them into something akin to a comforted self-satisfaction that they can be properly safe inside of a city that might've turned on them easier than they ever wanted. Going home to Sarradia seemed to be a noble dream in every sense, but it wasn't possible, right?

That's what one considered to be trapped within the walls of Valmasia when they belonged elsewhere, where they were crafted in other places.

Though, it didn't really mean that there needed to be a dungeon crafted for such a thing with various bits and pieces, odds and ends scattered about that didn't properly belong.

A coo is the only thing that alerts him to the fact that he's not actually alone in the midst of this so-called dungeon.

"I don't think this is Sarradia..."

It's a quiet mumble that comes as she floats there, feet no longer bare, but clad in boots as she hovers in the air, giving a questioning look as she glances around.

"I think we're in the wrong place. Dreams are weird..."
(Rosalie)
The Sarradian felt himself dozing off into a nice sleep--- perhaps to dream about what he'd said, or maybe the beauty of the Bloom-- perhaps the garden, or maybe another crazy adventure where he was somebody that he wasn't. Wh knew, but something seemed very off as he wakes up in what he assumes to be a dream.

... This was not the same as the rest. He looks around-- and soon realizes that he's not alone...

.... No, Rosalie was here-- a strange guest within his dreams, no less, a guest. He looks at her in confusion. He never knew anyone in his dreams, which ... Well, set this apart from others.

"Rosalie..? How is -- how is here?" He questions, and as she begins to float, so does he -- ah, yes, another dream he often had. The power of flight.

"... What is happen? How is--- Am conf--" He looks around once more.

He'd never even seen a place like this? What was to happen next?
(Zephyr)
Somewhere inside of his dreams, a there was a stirring. As the boy glanced around, he could feel... something. Something off, something that did not particularly belong. In the backdrop of his dreams, there stood something that seemed to fight the proper flow of what was inside of the Sarradian's head.

Like a sentinel, it stood once more. Eyes closed, no mouth to speak of on it's features. Arms were held down by it's sides in such a way that suggested it would not have even moved with the harshest of winds. Choices could be made in this point.

...Did Zephyr reach out to touch what might've been there? Or did he ignore it like another strange odd or end inside of his mind in this strange dungeon? The choice, really, was his.
(?????)
On the same end, however, Rosalie would glance over toward Zephyr with a confused look: "Huh?" Her eyes blunk a few times as she ruffled a hand against the back of her white hair, still floating there in the air beside the child as she tilted her head. "Where are we?" She chirped it in a happy manner as she held her arms outwards, watching as the cloak floated around her tiny form, a bemused grin being that painted upon her very features there.

"Look how neat..."

Spinning around a few times, she would halt-- if only a bit abruptly as she stopped, staring at the back of the sentinel like figure's head. Oh. Glancing upwards idly, she would look toward a new addition planted there atop of her head, roosting against the top of her skull as she gave a little wheeze outwards.

"...It doesn't look like you. I don't think that's a Sarradian!"
(Rosalie)
It became clear to him that this wasn't right when he awoke in a dungeon, a place he'd never want to end up... But it seemed that he was here. What was causing this..? He doesn't know, but it seems that Rosalie had made it into his dreams in some way-- something he never expected and was still a bit shocked by.

"Um, does not know why this dungeon is here..." He says, staring for a few seconds in confusion. "Do not know why is in dungeon.." He continues, staring at the sentinel-like ... Being, Hopefully nothing super dangerous -- hopefully nothing that would end up super dangerous.

"... Of course is not Sarradian, but does not look-- human, no?" He murmurs as he slowly inches closer towards it.

"... Maybe does.. Maybe does know why is here..?" He questions. The Sarradian is only three feet away from the creature now, and things felt ...

... Um, a bit scary. He reaches out to touch the shoulder of whatever it was... He was in a dream- he couldn't be harmed..! He controlled it...!
(Zephyr)
It did not look like a Sarradian, indeed.

That being said, in the grand scheme of things, it was hard to say what the creature standing there was. With a body so rigid that it dared not even to make the smallest of breaths, it remained unwavering, eyes sealed shut in such a way that suggested it might've been asleep itself. Not knowing was half of the struggle of what was going on, and that was enough to make a heart drum in and out of itself.

However, as the hand came upwards, as he angled to touch what shouldn't have been touched... The eyes opened.

You shouldn't have done that.

And like the fluttering of a bird, there would soon be the scattering of feathers all about and Zephyr was face to face with the creature... But he was not grabbed a hold of, oddly enough. The boy would feel distinctly outside of whatever control there was in the very moment--

He'd feel--

A looming sense of dread, and the slow wrap of vines came around his legs aiming to cement him there into the floor. Mouthless, for the time being...

...But the flesh over the creature's maw broke open, showing the rows... upon rows... upon agonizing rows of sharp, almost shark-like teeth... And it leaned in, closer... The vines dug into the poor child's skin, thorns crafted to agonize...
(?????)
"It's the monster!"


A girlish squeal to leave Rosalie's lips, or well... Whatever he could consider Rosalie in his dreams.  The squeal suggested a good amount of horror, a pressuring force forward as she aimed to grab a hold of Zephyr's shoulders tightly to drag him back and away, but... She fumbled. Right through the body of the other child, but--

Directly into the monster's form, crashing into it's chest with a horrified sound as her forehead would crack against the sharp-toothed mouth of the creature there-- but there was intention. A strong intention and need to save Zephyr from whatever might've been considered harm's way, but one could see it...

She looked more like a deer in the headlights than anything.

"G-get away! Get me out of here! Zephy! I can't grab you!"

Panic littered her tone of voice as she raised her fingers upwards, feeling where a gash would cross along her forehead, fresh blood spilling between her fingers as tears began to collect within her eyes. "I'm...!"

Scared. Horrified. Unable to save her friend.

Just what was going on inside of this dreamscape, anyways?
(Rosalie)
It becomes clear that trying to make contact with the creature in any form was a mistake that he'd regret... The dream-monster, whatever it was, finally moved -- and it seemed to be face to face with him after feathers flutter everywhere-- what was the Sarradian to do in this moment..? He could try to fight it, to empower himself in his drea--

Something tells him that he's not in control as he's rooted to the ground with vines, something that he should've been able to control. Rosalie had tried to help him, and only ended up getting hurt as he turned towards her for a brief moment -- the moment was so terrifying, that HAD MY KEY BEEN EYES OF LIFE--

The Sarradian is in pure terror as Rosalie is ... Incapable of helping -- it was only him and the monster, Rosalie was only a spectator here, and that seemed to be all there was. Zephyr's in shock for brief moments before he can come up with what to say.

"... Get out of dreams! Am not allowing to be here ... Go!!" He says -- and had he access to his magic, lightning begins to course along him violently into the vines trying to link to him.

Whether it be killing the vines, or attacking whatever they were up against..

... Well, it was hopefully going to help.
(Zephyr)
Savior.

Could he be? Really now. Was that what he wanted to be in the face of a monster? It was hard to say, hard to tell... But the thing-- whatever it was-- was barely clinging onto the fabric of whatever realities there were. There was no doubt, though... There had been fear feeding through it. Nightmares held that it could lurk around the corner inside. Once people allowed it inside, there was no turning back. It was torment. It was agony within the minds of those children slowly finding themselves spread a curse, plagued.

Hours passed in real life while they suffered for what only seemed to be minutes inside, a waste of time-- a waste of life.

It was horrifying.

To be followed along inside of dreams, inside of their minds-- nothing that should have been properly allowed for children barely able to read, and yet their fear was the perfect catalyst toward empowerment. They feared the unknown. They struggled.

Suffered, perfectly. It was twisted, sadistic, the culmination of blood and power twisted into genesis, given formulation in the form of something that used that synthesized prowess to terrorize all those touched, all those given aid, and all those willing to allow themselves the struggle of this, the monster begotten of twisted experimentation.

Because people saw themselves how they wanted to in their dreams, but there was unawareness.

The vines shriveled, but it seemed as though Zephyr wasn't paid much mind as hands moved forward, grabbing a hold of Rosalie-- and violently like a small baby, she was shaken back and forth, fingers digging in and attempts made to suddenly, violently take her and her entirety in.

Assimilation--
(?????)
"Zephyr! Wake up wake up wake up! I don't want to die! Wake up!"

Begging, pleading. Anything but this, but staring the maw of a monster down with horrified eyes. She was a child, naught but more and blessed with immense power that was kept locked and hidden away, and it wanted to take her within, and it wanted to force her to use that power that had been bestowed upon her by the likes of Marula, the mad scientist. It wanted to give her empowerment that she so needed---

But she slept it away. Her body incapable. Unable to split away from the garden that fueled her life and allowed her to expand outwards.

In dreams, though, she was more than capable. To walk, to bend those whims, and to dominate the spatial means within the minds of others.

"Wake up! Please! I-I'm scared!" Get it away from her.

There were other pathways to power... Right? This wasn't how it had to be. If he didn't wake up, though... He might've found the ghastly form of his childhood friend... gone?
(Rosalie)
"U-urrrrgh.." With that do things become more difficult-- coupled with the fear, it seemed that they were almost trapped within this. He didn't know how to wake up from a dream, but maybe Rosalie did ... Something he would find out within a few seconds. It was his dream-- he should've been able to control it! His eyes close.

It was time to try and manifest ... The magics he'd seen the Queen of Alteros do-- Storm Magic, it was called..?

With flight taking form again, a darkening cloud forms around him as he tries to blast back the monster with a combination of lightning and water -- and wind. All three of them working in unison would make something destructive.

... Unless it was something he was incapable of harming... If it were to pass through him, he was screwed..!

"H--How to wake up? How to make self wake up?!"
(Zephyr)
So close--

So far...

The girl was pulled, deep into the inky darkness of the body of the monster, to be dragged in deeply with attempts to assimilate what it figured belonged. Property, above all else. To be clung to. Used. Stirred within, to be made one... whole... entity.

But there was something standing in the way. There was a crackle, lightning, the twist of storms given there as the dark eyed creature snapped it's maddened attention toward Zephyr now taking to the air and conjuring what could only be described as the storm itself...

And as the combined magics crashed forward, it seemingly exploded into a scattering of feathers, and the sound of a bird's wings echoing through the hellish scape took place. It was no secret that the creature only seemed to barely cling to the walls of the dream.
(?????)
...And the girl was to be dropped, harshly down to the floor as her hands planted down against the cold tile there. Untouchable, as it seemed. Was she real? It was hard to tell. The sobbing sounds that echoed and shook her shoulders with little remorse came and did not seem to be going anywhere. "Please please! J-just wake up!" It's cried out in a hysterical sense. "I don't want to be here anymore! I'm scared!"

Horrified, shaking like a chihuahua more than anything as she felt little droplets of blood spatter down against the ground, draining the coloration of the flower blossomed at her spine as she panted.

"Pinch yourself! Something! Anything before it comes back! I don't want to be eaten!"

...there was the beating sound of wings against the air that seemed to suggest that sooner would've been better than later...

Zephyr was successful in defending his friend, but...

Did he know how to wake himself up to save not only himself, but what appeared to be her in this dreamscape?
(Rosalie)