Dreamer's Melody

by J E Mueller

  Please tell me there is a way to prepare for these things before stepping foot outside.

  When you are ready, we can show you where those answers are.

  Wait, what does that mean?

  It means you are not ready yet.

  How in the heck can one be ready for that? Isn’t everyone ready not to die?

  Lydia gave a sad chuckle. If only things were that simple.

  I reached the door to the weird puddle room and opened it. I wanted to demand a better answer from Lydia but as I opened the door I saw a long trail of blood leading to one of the back puddles.

  “What in the world?” I whispered, frozen in the doorway. I let the scene fill my mind, not even sure what to ask Lydia now.

  Lydia gave a laugh. That is likely thanks to a Polycoy.

  A what?

  You’ll see eventually.

  The name sounded familiar. Didn’t someone get bit by one? Yes! Leta did, and that was what forced us outside in the first place. I realized I still didn’t even know who Leta was.

  Marella appeared in her watery form in the same spot as before. Or at least I thought it was the same spot. A lot of this room looked too much the same.

  “You’re back,” Marella stated the obvious. “Come in.”

  I glanced from her to the blood and back to her. “Hopefully you can understand my hesitation.”

  Marella gave a hearty laugh that turned slightly sinister. “Oh, sweet child, you have nothing to fear here. That much I know you remember.”

  I shut the door behind me but didn’t walk much further.

  “What happened?” I needed at least some answer in order to feel any level of comfort again.

  “There are things here that need protecting. Most people fear this room. Some do not.” Marella casually walked about the room, hovering just an inch over everything. “The ones who do not fear this room aren’t problematic unless they try and explore. Some things they cannot explore and for that, the Polycoy guard the tunnels when I cannot.”

  “The tunnels?” I asked as the answer was already coming to me. Not all, but several of the puddles were attached through a sequence of tunnels. If you followed the maze correctly it led to something… the answer was just on the tip of my tongue.

  Marella nodded as I thought. “When the answer comes, let me know. It seems you are progressing well in remembering things now. Hopefully soon it’ll come and we can move on.”

  I sighed, rather annoyed with her and Lydia. “Why not just give me the answers so we can set things straight again? I’m sure things will start to get harder and worse if that stupid fog cannot have its way.”

  Marella frowned. “Because, there are parts to this puzzle only you know, but forcing the information on you or anyone else that could help would only turn you toward them. They know you can reach out to them just as easily as we can block them.”

  I stifled a frustrated sigh. “Fine. What can I do to help myself?” I started to casually pace the entrance area. I didn’t want to get too close to the puddles until I remembered more.

  Marella gave a coy smile. “Experiencing things that lead to memories. Running into those you used to know and interacting with them will help. Seeing creatures you had no issues fending off will help. Maybe even once more playing with a Polycoy.”

  “Why would I play with a creature known for biting and poisoning people?” I thought back to several people that collected snakes and shrugged. I supposed it wasn’t that far-fetched. “Maybe?”

  I heard the doorknob turn behind me, and turned to see Mare peaking in. Seeing me she looked relieved, but only for a moment as her eyes caught sight of Marella.

  “Good evening.” Marella smiled wickedly as she called casually to Mare.

  Mare stared at her for a beat before looking at me with frantic eyes. “You need to leave here.”

  I sighed. “Things are a bit more complicated than that.”

  Marella laughed as Mare fumbled over words to say.

  “Go on, there’s work to do.” Marella waved me off before nonchalantly vanishing into a puddle.

  “What in the nine hells just freaking happened?” Mare asked.

  I motioned for her to take a step in but she shook her head. “Get in here already so the whole house doesn’t hear.”

  Hesitantly, Mare took a step in and shut the door, but her hand never left the handle. “Do you mind explaining things now? And quickly. This room is lethal.”

  “This room is only somewhat lethal, and only if you’re not meant to be in here.” A thought came to mind of how easy it was to distract the Polycoys and explore.

  “Whatever, please just tell me what just happened here?”

  I couldn’t help but laugh. “Just happened? Nothing actually. Last night though is where the details are.”

  Feeling on the whole it was fine to tell her, I explained my dreams and how they lead to me exploring at night. I explained how I ended up here and what happened.

  “So, in the end, you’ve been on the right track with trying to help the Creators, but it seems to be more complicated than we first thought.”

  “Not that it wasn’t already complicated,” Mare agreed, nodding slowly. “Let’s get out of here, I need to think, and I can’t think here while every fiber of my being is screaming to run.”

  “That’s fair.” I motioned for her to lead the way. “What are you doing here, anyway?”

  “You vanished and after how worried you were yesterday about something happening, I was worried something may have happened so I followed your trail,” Mare admitted giving me a backward glance as she left the room.

  Oh, how easy it was for a Tracker. “I appreciate it. Thankfully, it wasn’t anything like that.”

  “This time.” Mare glanced back with a look that screamed be more careful. “Some things today have just been off. Hopefully, it’s nothing, but still. I can’t shake the feeling that things are about to go down.”

  I could not help but laugh. “Things were going down before I got here. It’s just a matter of time before they get worse, and Marella can only do so much.”

  I still didn’t fully grasp how she could bypass some things the others couldn’t. Then again, Lydia also could communicate with me before I had the bracelet. Maybe they all could do something to varying useful degrees.

  When we finally reached the common room, everyone had already gone to bed. I shrugged at Mare.

  “Who had you wanted me to meet with earlier?” I asked softly. “I did venture to the library, but it was pretty quiet there.”

  Mare gave a shrug. “It’ll come up again. Until then, I’d rather wait. It’s too complicated to explain unless we’re all in person.”

  “Because that’s not weird at all.”

  Mare smirked. “What here has been normal?”

  “The constant need for sleep.”

  “Praise be. That is the truth!” Mare gave a tired laugh. “Shall we get to bed then?”

  “I’ve only slept on and off all day, so why not?” I replied as I followed her back to the room. I wasn’t sure if I was relieved the day was over or disappointed it had happened at all. This place knew how to wear you down a bit too well.

  The morning started with Mare’s overly chipper voice and her throwing a mound of pillows at me relentlessly until I awoke. If she woke me up another morning in a row I would have to officially make her part of my family since that seemed to be everyone’s favorite way to annoy me.

  Still, I forced myself up and followed her out into the common room as she cheerfully mentioned, maybe even explained that yesterday’s talk seemed to have gotten through to Clove. I was hardly listening so I was fairly surprised to see everyone, that being about twenty something people.

  “What did you say?” I asked quietly as we joined the group.

  “You really suck at being a morning person.” Mare chuckled as she crossed her arms. “Clove decided she thinks we should do a library crawl and gather all the useful books possible. It�
��ll be an all day event, but with all of us, really it shouldn’t be a problem until the third floor library.”

  “Why would it be a problem if there’s all of us?” I was kind of confused since I thought that by numbers alone we’d be able to overpower anything here.

  “A few creatures like to cause problems.” Mare shook her head as she considered them. “A set of annoying ones called Nipem tend to turn invisible. They aren’t too terrible to defeat, though I can’t exactly track them normally. If they are visible we can fight them, but I can’t sense them.”

  That was weird but something about her earlier phrasing worried me. “There’s something terrible to defeat?” The Agmon came to mind and I cringed, maybe too visibly since Mare fought back a laugh.

  “There’s a creature that is attracted to movement, but instead of fighting it, the way to make it leave is to close your eyes and not make any gestures. You can breathe fine, but lifting your arm or even walking will get you killed. It’s a waiting game.”

  I frowned. “There has got to be a way to kill it. Even you said everything has a way to die.”

  “True, but no one knows the way. It is basically incorporeal until it strikes you, but it moves faster than even Clove or Benz. No one fights it.” Mare shook her head.

  At least just waiting for it to leave wasn’t bad. Wait. “So, can other things attack you when it’s around then or do they avoid it too? Does it take long to go away?”

  “Now you’re asking the good, problematic questions.” Mare glanced around, acknowledging the eavesdroppers. “Most things avoid it, since yes, it will kill anything that looks upon it. If it catches you looking, you are dead. Some creatures, like the Agmon that want your magical essence, will give it a go, but most of the time they die before they reach you since the other creature sees them. As for time… well, it can be minutes or hours before it gets bored. Trying to be motionless for a long period is really rough.”

  It sounded like she knew from experience but before I could ask, Clove started to speak above everyone.

  “Since it looks like everyone is here, were there any questions before we take off? I assume word has spread enough that we all know we’re going from library to library grabbing important information? Only important information.” She repeated the last part firmly.

  This was certainly going to be an adventure worth checking out.

  Chapter 15

  The first floor’s library was too small for everyone, and with so many of us just hanging out around the door, it seemed to attract every creature on the floor. I got to see first hand just how many people were hesitant about facing creatures, even if they were just squeaking pokey hedgeish. After observing for several moments I found myself offering tips and tricks I remembered from being a Dreamer previously. It was like opening a can of worms. Suddenly more people had better comments, more useful tips and tricks.

  The conversation continued on to the second floor where the creatures were bigger and the stakes a little higher. Clove watched here and there and nodded approvingly at some strikes and people quickly learning to dodge.

  The third floor was more intense, and Clove wasn’t afraid to make rules for it. As we stood at the stairs leading up to the third floor Clove made her announcement. “Once we’ve done a check of the library, and rid it of any creatures we’ll have Mare and Remi here be the ones closest to the doors along with myself and Cane. We’ll likely not need help fighting anything. If you’d like to join, great. If you’d rather not, that’s fine. You can learn and join, but nothing is expected. We don’t need twenty deaths to prove a point. Now let’s get that material!”

  “Why do you have a newbie doing the doors?” someone asked, pointing to me.

  Clove smirked. “Remi has been a Dreamer on and off here forever. She’s been slowly remembering things about this place, so her talents were able to increase with more quickness and ease than most. She knows what she’s doing about as well as anyone who has been here for several months.”

  A few people glanced back at me for confirmation and I shrugged. I hated being outed like that, but there was no turning back now. “It’s true, though I wouldn’t say I was that good.”

  “How modest.” Cane patted my shoulder, making her way toward the front. “I’m ready for this thing! Let’s move.”

  A few echoed cheers and we were off. I hoped in a short time everyone would forget this moment, but I doubted it. I probably should have mentioned earlier that I didn’t want to be pointed out in such a way. Clove had to have known that Dreamers were being targeted at one point, but it’s likely she hadn’t fit all the pieces together that me being here as a long term Dreamer could be problematic for my safety.

  Silently, I shuffled on toward the next library. The journey wasn’t particularly interesting, and surprisingly not heavily creature filled so it seemed like we made good time. Clove and Mare had declared the library cleared before I even got close enough, so I was able to walk in with the same wonder and awe as many around me.

  There was so much about this library I had forgotten. This was the grand library. While there were several smaller rooms off to the left of the entrance, for most of the library you could see up to the fourth floor. Bookshelves filled both floors. The center was left open for chairs and small sofas, the vaulted ceiling above showed a picture of different mages fighting creatures I remembered from picture books when I was younger.

  As I stared, mostly upward at all the art, I bumped into someone.

  “Sorry!” I quickly apologized before I saw that it was Ze. “Oh hey. I haven’t seen you yet all day.”

  He smirked. “You’ve been rather busy helping everyone.” Ze shook the pack that he had slung over his shoulders. “I’ve been gathering books.”

  “Oh, good idea. That is this mission in a nutshell.”

  Ze nodded. “So shall we?” He started walking to an area of open shelves and we began looking.

  This place would be an actual librarian’s worst nightmare. Nothing was organized in any way that would make sense. Still, we had a goal and we needed to find things, so we looked on and on, slowly combing through the rows of books.

  Light conversation filled the room, staying fairly hushed as no one wanted to draw attention to themselves. It was at least fifteen minutes into the search when Mare popped up in the center of the room.

  “Clove, three Nadikas,” she said mildly, bored with her own statement.

  “Okay. The two of us can get that easily enough unless someone else wants to join.” Clove glanced around but no one volunteered. With a shrug, they headed out of the room.

  This wasn’t helping anyone learn and I could see why Clove all but gave up on most of them. If they weren’t even going to try and show interest, why would she keep calling on them when they never wanted to help? I took it in, trying to keep both sides of the situation in mind. Some wouldn’t want to volunteer when they didn’t have confidence in themselves or their abilities. There needed to be a better middle ground, but how could one even get there?

  Several minutes into the next aisle, Mare and Clove returned without an extra word. There was so much to go through and I wasn’t finding anything worthwhile to our cause. I did find a book on plants and their locations. It seemed useless overall. Everyone seemed to know exactly where to go for this and that, but it might come in handy for me. I wouldn’t have to ask where certain things were.

  On I continued, finding more amusing things to glance at than useful things and was thinking that maybe this was just the wrong section. Still onto the next aisle I went just before I heard Mare speak up again.

  “Both Nipems are almost here.” Mare sounded annoyed, and I recognised the creature’s name as the annoying one from earlier. It was invisible and probably harder to track and fight.

  Clove let out a curse before giving directions. “Cane, Remi, come on. We could use two other fighters to make this quick.”

  Ze stepped forward, dropping his bag in the middle of the room. �
�Sure, what can they do?”

  With no one else stepping forward Clove gave the same details Mare had already given me with the added fact, “Aim for the gut. Right about where you think a belly button should be. That’s their weak spot. They can regrow hands.”

  Mare led the way into the hall cautiously with us right behind her. Regrow hands? That didn’t sound like a fun creature. As soon as I looked down the hall I could see it. Mare watched it carefully as she got into position.

  “The other one is slightly behind it.” She declared, only being able to sense the invisible one.

  Cane pulled out her short sword. “Ugh, I remember these things. Who got poisoned last time?”

  “I think Garth…” Mare sighed as the rest of us summoned our weapons.

  No part of me wanted to take that thing on, but that felt like my normal mood. It had four arms, and while the base of the creature was fairly humanoid, it was a bruised purple and sort of slimy all over. The head looked like it was a fusion of a goat and a llama, but once more it was entirely slimy and that purple bruise color. It also appeared to have a barbed tail, though short in length.

  “What in the heavens is that thing…” I whispered, the question obviously rhetorical.

  “Really, another poisonous thing?” Ze complained loudly over me.

  “Naturally.” Clove nodded. “Though the side effects are much easier to combat than most of the others. Really as long as you get a day blooming flower of any sort in you within twenty-four hours you’ll be fine. Just a nasty fever for a day after.”

  “We’ve both gone through it,” Mare tossed in. “Freaking hate these guys.”

  “Oh, that’s encouraging,” Ze muttered.

  “It’s been years though. We’ve gotten better at fighting them.” Clove snickered. “We just know from experience how to combat it and survive. That part should be encouraging.”

  “Please don’t ever write a pre-fight speech,” Ze begged, no humor in his face.

  “So I’ve been told.” Clove smirked and readied herself.

  Following suite, I stood defensively trying to figure out the best part of this thing to hit.