The Night-watch.
© Tsumi Moogle ‘11
Characters © themselves.
It wasn’t always so peaceful. The Room cozy in temperature, sound and silent save the soft breathing of the sleeping otter, and the occasional sound of his form rustling under his blanket. The Moonlight, pouring in from the window reached the side of his sleeping face. There was a contented smile on the undisturbed face as he dreamt.
Why wouldn’t there be? He was utterly safe, curled snug in his bedding, with the breeze rustling through trees outside, and the tan-furred mouse plush cozily bundled in his arms. He’d had the toy for as long as he could remember, and every night he had fallen to sleep with it snug beside him, his dreams were bright, vivid and varied.
But that of course, was a given. The Mouse stirred. Gently extracting himself from the young Lutra’s arms, he turned to look over the sleeping face and smiled, petting a plush hand along his cheek-fur and hair.
JD, he was called. He wasn’t entirely certain what it stood for, beyond possibly ‘Judicator of Dreams.’ A title he took on proudly, and very seriously. Honored protector of dreams, way-layer of nightmares and scourge of night-terrors. He tugged his trusty cap from thin air to snug tight on his soft head, and similarly drew a base-ball bat to paw. Certainly, he was all of a foot and a half tall, stuffed with pleasantly squishy beads that kept his shape, but he had never yet failed in his job.
The shadows twisted about the corners of the room.
‘They’re here.’ Thought the Mouse as he shouldered his bat, getting to his feet to meet the gleaming red eyes of the nightmares.
‘Good evening, Guardian.’ Came the guttural snarl of the almost room-spanning figure of the nightmare. It’s scales gleamed in the moonlight as it slunk cumbersomely, but entirely silently to regard the hapless prey and it’s protector.
‘Back again so soon?’ Grinned the mouse as he stood like a palm-tree before a hurricane, between otter and dragon. ‘I’m almost thinking you like this little run-around of ours.’
The dragon bared it’s fangs in a guttural snarl, making the otter stir faintly behind the mouse.
‘Shut your mouth, Guardian. Tonight, he is mine!’ the beast reared high, and lunged, jaws gleaming.
With a disdainful tut, the mouse took his stance and turned his cap backwards, before hefting his bat with a narrow-eyed gaze.
The Jaws hurtled like a freight train towards him, encompassing his vision. The wretched breath roared in his ears, and he leapt.
--CRACK!!!--
Several thousand pounds of sinewy, scaled nightmare collapsed in a reeling heap with a thunderous rumble. It was remarkable. A miracle, really, that such noise never roused the other house occupants.
With a muffled landing, JD grinned as he regarded the crippled nightmare, twitching and groaning in agony along the floor.
He hopped gently from the bed, padding his way along the carpet, to lift the chin of the dragon with his bat.
‘Better luck next time, Freddy.’ The Mouse winked, before tucking the bat under his arm and grasping up the broad head, as though it weighed nothing. Perhaps it didn’t. Licking his lips a moment, JD permitted enough grace period for the dragon to open his eyes, only to view as the tiny plush toy’s jaws yawned, and hauled over the nightmare’s head.
The sight was all but unbelievable; the not-even-two-foot mouse worming his way up over the room spanning beast with a look of indulgent delight on his face. Each and every lunging swallow dragged the twitching, feebly growling dragon, (Or Drag-in, as per the Nightmare’s position, relevant to the Dream-Adjudicator’s Manual.) not inch after inch, but foot after foot! The Tan fur stretched and bulged, but with a mass that was certainly not concurrent with the Beast’s size. As though JD’s gullet was compacting the Nightmare down, his belly was barely distending by the time he was snarfing down the struggling mid-section of his first meal.
As he worked, he watched the faint glittering, glowing forms of dreams peeking into the window, and easing through the glass, like light. Dancing Moogles, Bounding Wolves, and pouncing Skunks all worked through the air, looking the room over and giving a bright wave to the Guardian. Circling over the otter’s head, they dissolved into mist that faded into the Lutra’s fur. Dylan’s smile settled, wider than before to the fresh wave of shifting dreams.
Grinning lightly, JD tilted his head back and with an easy slurping swallow, dragged the thick, scrambling hind-legs and thick tail on down his throat, like noodles. Tasted like them, too. A finely spiced sort of flavour. Smacking his lips, he regarded the struggling in his gut, an immense maw pressing from his gut for a moment, letting out a horrific, muffled screech, before slumping back in as the Mouse cracked the Maw over the nose with his bat.
‘See you next time, ugly.’ The Rodent grinned, before getting once more to his feet with his bat’s assistance. Patrol time.
Nightmares are curious things. Immensely varied. There are those, much like the dragon, currently stewing: Big, bold, blaring and offensive, callously devouring their victims and plunging them into a world of horror, until the sun’s rays freed them from their infernal prison.
Nightmares, posing as dreams, sneaking by the gaze of Adjudicators who’re lazy, and can’t spot the difference.. Nefarious things. They stalked dreams, as much as dreamers. Incorporating the Dream’s form over their own like a cloak to slip in unnoticed.
And then there are the ambient nightmares. They slither and wisp, hiding from sight and plaguing the mind as they crawl in the shadows, and slowly sink into their victims, enfolding and dragging them into their nefarious jaws.
Chests of drawers, cupboards, the space beneath the bed. They lurk like cock-roaches, or hyenas, waiting for an opportunity.
‘Ssssssstthh~’
The Mouse’s ears twitched.
The unmistakable sound of an Ambient. Tricksters, throwing their low hiss about to distract and discombobulate. But predictable all the same. A part of JD wondered if the nightmares had their own manuals to follow, that hadn’t been updated in a very long time.
‘Or maybe other Adjudicators are just stupid.’ The plush-toy thought wryly, turning his gaze and pointing his bat at the slithering fold of darkness inching along the carpet towards the Otter behind his back. It froze.
The bat’s tip gleamed and pulsed purple, with a crackling arc of electricity. The Ambient reared up in unmistakable horror, and turned, trying to slither for cover in a hurried frenzy, subtlety and stealth forgotten.
--SBRANG!!!--
Plasma tore from the bat’s tip, raking the Nightmare’s sheet-like form and blasting it into whisps of shadow that faded into the Room’s usual gloom, leaving the bat smoking and glowing red from heat for several moments.
With a hearty puff, JD blew the smoke away and nodded proudly as he returned to his post on the otter’s bed, rubbing his gurgling paunch. The attention drew a great wet belch from him, expelling a sliver of darkness, baring those ominous glowing eyes. Incapable of speech, the disembodied nightmare turned over in the air, and slunk back to the depths of the corner from whence it came.
Settling on the pillow by the Otter’s head, he sat, watching the sleeping form with a smile on his face. Dylan’s eyes twitched faintly behind their lids as the dreams all played and interacted. The Mouse could remember when he’d been a dream, before his promotion. Flitting from mind to mind, indulging fantasies and bringing smiles to faces. But he’d wanted to try more. The Adjudicator was a perfect position for him, particularly once he found his perfect candidate. He still remembered the bright eyed smile on the young Lutra’s face when he’d picked him up off the shelf at the toy-store.
A small blossom of light lifted from the Otter’s forehead. One of the dreams, a wolf, lifting up and giving a wave to the mouse.
‘Later Ash!’ JD called with a smile as the Lupine darted off into the night for another mind to visit.
The Mouse smiled as he kneaded his belly down, softening, flattening out as the night crept on, with dreams fluttering in and out. The Nightmares were curiously restrained for the night.. Usually the Mouse couldn’t go the evening without leaping from one peering set of jaws and gleaming eyes, to the next. A very filling experience, but wonderfully rewarding, all the same.
He paused, looking to the window as a form slunk through it. The glow of the fox was subdued. It flickered. There was something off about this one. It’s fur looked overlong in places, mangey. It’s eyes were dark, transfixed on the sleeping otter.
Stepping up before the Otter, JD held out a hand.
‘ID.’ He said firmly, frowning as the fox came to a halt before him. It’s eyes twitched from Mouse, to Otter and back. Licking his lips, the fox pulled a card from his fur to present it.
Dreams could have off-days, certainly. Not ‘sick’, really, but hazey, feeble notions that were more filler, than dream for the dreamer.. They drove out other dreams, and often left the sleeper groggy the day after, themselves. That wasn’t the case in this regard, though.
The ID picture held a bright eyed smile on the fox and pristine fur.
‘Tsk, sorry guy. Denied.’ The Mouse said with an unsympathetic tone, flicking the ID back at the fox.
He lunged.
JD frowned as he grabbed the wrists of the fox and toppled over the Otter’s chest. Rolling with the Poser, he turned him away from the sleeper, and turned atop the struggling form. Nightmares could never over-power a physical body. Sleeping minds, no problem. But a plush-toy? The very thought was laughable.
Less laughable, though, was the memory of having once being infected himself. A shiver travelled his spine to the thought. A horrible sensation, a mind-blanketing shroud and leading voice hissing in the ears. Only one way to purge them.
Once again, the Mouse’s jaws gaped, and lunged.
Compared to the dragon, the Fox was cake-walk. And just as delicious. Dreams often were, though he wasn’t really supposed to devour them. They didn’t appreciate it at all, and would turn, avoid his Sleeper.
Packing hands up steadily, the Mouse-plush groaned in delight as he pushed the thrashing nightmare down his gullet to join after his digested counterpart. He’d never call them friends. Nightmares almost never worked together, and would almost never compete for a sleeper. There were more than enough to go around, after all.
Raising his plush jaws to the roof, he bolted on down thighs and legs, until the fox emptied into his gut, smirking gently, he ground his paws over his gut and chrrled pleasedly at the thrashing. His hands traced his stomach, delightfully rounded in his lap, sloshing the Dream and it’s parasite down.
Settling down once more, JD smiled as he flicked his ropey tail about and tugged his cap off to scratch through his wavy brown hair. Watching over the sleeping face of the Lutra again, he smiled to himself, leaning in to give a warm kiss to the boy’s forehead. Settling in place for the rest of his watch, until he’d squirm back into the Otter’s arms at sunrise, for a well-deserved rest, himself.
