Memoirs of a RAFian

[Cloak]

Well, that'll help me. I'm gonna try to post as many chapters as I can today, anyway.

Now, then, let's see if I can post another chapter.

Hmmm . . . apparently the next 3 books will be rather gimmicky, if I'm not mistaken.

This chapter is gonna be short . . . unless I pad it out . . .

CHAPTER EIGHT:
The Inevitable

It was another twelve hours before the inevitable happened. RAFians began to drop off into sleep. A sleep as irreversible as the first. No one was spared -- even those that did not sleep were inexplicably felled into their first sleep.

Even Cloak and Estelore, two of the most powerful RAFians, could not resist and fell under this somniferous sway. Even the Pootang fell under this sway easily.

Within moments, the whole of RAF was snoozing, but not writhing. Their dreams had not been corrupted into nightmares yet.

The reason for this was soon made clear. The radius of this somniferous surge was not confined to RAF's borders. Malice and Rumor succumbed, though Rumor's sleep was dreamless.

The sleep surge did not stop there. It soon eclipsed the Bannedlands and halfway enveloped the city.

By the time the city fell to this sleeping state, the surge slowed significantly. It began moving so slowly and sluggishly, it seemed that glaciers were speedy in comparison.

***

The reason this surge slowed was because the source of the surge, Kruegar Somnus, eventually lost interest in expansion, and began to focus more on his "toys".

That's what he thought of his prisoners, his victims. He would delight in seeing their pathetically saccharine dreams and oneirokinetically changing it into a nightmare perfectly suited to the individual. That's why he always tried to break them one at a time. He always drew it out as long as he could.

He didn't like it when they died too quickly and in too unimaginative and too mundane ways. That would be too boring, much like that stupid Red kid. He died too quickly, Somnus thought.

Now the choice of the three locations to start his attack first -- the city, the Bannedlands, and RAF.

Ah, decisions, decisions.

He decided he'd get most the most bang for his buck with the RAFians. They were the strongest of those under his sleep thrall. It took even more of his power to keep them in a slumber, to lock them into it.

[Cloak]

Okay, according to my notes, this book'll have nineteen chapters, unless I find a way to split a chapter or arbitrarily add another (which will probably be filler). However, if it does not post, you'll have to make due with three today.

Now another chapter.

CHAPTER NINE:
The Somniferous Sovereign

As he sedately made his way along the "dream corridor", as he thought of it, he passed by a flurry of thick wooden doors with name plates with the names engraved in black, gray, or white, depending whether the dream was a goid one, a marginal one or a nightmare. The name plates were bronze when the owner was awake, silver when in a dreamless sleep, and gold when the door's name-bearer was actively dreaming. They emit a faint glow when they are under the sleep lock.

As he walked along the RAFian dream corridors, already seeing them sucked into oblivion, as is what happens when the owners die, leaving a briefly unoccupied expanse of wall, until someone is born to replace it.

As he prolonged his decision, his thoughts turned to his past. But a lot of it had been corroded and eroded by his permanent existence and residence in this place, as time was really extremely hard to judge in this place.

Kruegar Somnus wasn't his real name, he knew. He had long forgotten his true name and true form. Anything of permanence usually gets eroded away here, and eventually forgotten. Somnus couldn't remember what species he was before coming here, or indeed if even had came here frim the waking world. For all he knew he could be the merest fragment of a way overpowered oneirokinetic.

For his current form, he wore a very basic human form -- as he wore a body-length red spandex suit with black horizontal stripes.

The red-and-black stripes . . . it was the only thing about him that never faded away. Sadly, any significance it once held for him had been eroded away to nothingness and forgotten. Yet it remained with him no matter what. So it must have had some really deep significance to him.

The only other then that he remembered is hating the waking. If pressed, he wouldn't be able to explain or state why, just that he does. He does know why he does what he does, but he does it, and takes great enjoyment out of it. He has no remorse, no regret. If he ever had, he doesn't remember it.

It would be a rather sad fate if he wasn't so murderous, so callous, so evil.

Then he remembered that monster -- the monster that managed to banish him, lock him up somehow. He still did not understand how he did it. That monster with that unbreakable will and cloak.

As he stopped infront of a door with a glowing name plate, his form changed subtly and seemingly without thought or desire. He grew glowing eyes rather like Noivern, a scorpion's tail, pincers and eight scratchy, scrambling legs. He was entirely red, except at the joints, which were black and vented flames.

[Cloak]

Fifth chapter today. I don't know how many more I can post today. But I was lucky that my internet isn't giving me a problem.

*Jynx behind him says, "Jynx, Jynx."*

Don't give me that, Valkyrie. Return! Ahem -- now Chapter 10. May be brief -- and emotional.

CHAPTER TEN:
Dream of a Deep Desire

Cloak, vaguely aware of the fact that he was in a dream, was walking towards his dream-reality wife, Wisdom (a snowy owl-form Realm Walker) in her snow white cloak. She, as her chosen name (though, like Cloak, was essentially given to her) implied, was very wise. She was also very knowledgeable, very personable. She, like Cloak, was a staunch believer of equal rights and was an egalitarian as well. These are the qualities that Cloak valued very dearly, and, in this dream reality, are the qualities that drew him to her.

At her side were their dream-reality children, both having inherited Cloak's gift . . . and curse. Both were Elements Masters-in-training.

There was the eldest of the two was in a blue-gray cloak, a blue-pointed Siamese cat-form Realm Walker, and was his daughter Lightarrow. She was ten years old (a hundred years in Dweller Earth years). She was a fiesty, sassy and affectionate yet fiery, mature and moody Realm Walker. She favored the Fire element.

On their mother's other side was Valor, a seven-year-old (seventy, in Dweller Earth years) German Shepard Realm Walker who favored the water element. He was very loyal, gentle, and kind, with a good heart.

Cloak knew deep down that they weren't real. But this, believe it or not, was one of his deepest and most desperate desires, if not the deepest and most desperate desire. To have a family, to be a husband, a father. It was pretty much something he doubted he would ever get to have . . . which made the desire all the more fervent.

His hope to be all this in this waking world was derailed, derided, and decried as a pipe dream. He believed  at one time when he was essentially imprisoned at him mother's house that this fantasy was just that -- a fantasy, a pipe dream. But still, he yearned.

He paid no mind to the empty void in which he stood, them before him, in a spotlight. He made to walk towards them, to embrace them, to hold them, to be with them. It became an all-consuming desire. He had just get to them . . .

But, with each step he took, he did not get any closer. He did not draw any nearer. His steps quickly turned into a brisk walk, which evolved into a jogg which translated into a light run. Spon, he broke out into an all-out run, never tiring, but never getting any closer. But they were so tantalizingly there! Just there! He just had to get nearer. He had to.

But it was no use, though he refused to believe this. The reality of it was that he would never reach them in this dream, until he reached it in the waking world. But he could never wrench his eyes from them, from the family he so desperately wanted.

This obsession, this all-consuming desire filled him so much that he didn't realize that this private dream now had an uninvited, unwelcomed dreamdropper.

[theyoungphoenix]

Aww...

[Underseen]

Seeing dreams become nightmares is a depressing thought.

[Cloak]

I certainly hope that wasn't sarcastic, Abby.

True, Underseen -- but the next chapter'll have somewhat of a twist to it. But it'll be a bit of a cliffhanger, because I've ran out of energy. Sorry.

[theyoungphoenix]

No, that wasn't sarcasm. I honestly thought that was sweet.

[redtailedsaffa]

And so did I.

[Cloak]

Ah, okay.

I'm not sure that this'll even post, but here we go.

CHAPTER ELEVEN:
Repel the Nightmare

Cloak remained oblivious to the intrusion and the dreamdropper. He was possessed with desire, his eyes locked upon the three fictitious beings before him. He continued to try and reach them, even outstretching an arm, though he remained forever out-of-reach. He was so close, yet light-years away at the same time.

It was this driving desire, this consuming obsession, that blinded the Elements Master to the thing that was quite literally corrupting his dream. The surrounding, blank environment began to take a darker tone, with sharper edges. All unseen by Cloak.

Then he saw his fictional wife and dream construct children suddenly standing upon an impossibly large palm, looking terrified. The palm was aged with coarse brown fur and stiletto-like claws. The three representations of Cloak's deepest innermost desire. Then, what seemed to be agonizingly slow, the fingers and thumb began to curl around the three. They were quickly snuffed out, gone as the hand balled into a fist.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!" Cloak screamed, his voice intermingling with a tiger's roar. He glared high up and saw a face -- his mother's face -- mostly obscured in shadow with malevolently glowing eyes.

"YOU'RE NOT READY," her voice boomed. While the words themselves, maybe even the tone or lilt of her voice, may have seemed innocuous, the reality and symbolism of it wasn't.

Somnus had expected this to break Cloak, to cause him to collapse into tears and beg for death. To wish to be dead. And Cloak might have . . . six months ago. But he was not the same person he was then. He wasn't so easily shattered emotionally.

Waves of fury emanated from him in palpable and visable waves, alternating scarlet and gold. Somnus was so taken aback at this, his very form wobbled into a guy-in-a-Sentai-suit form. Cloak remained oblivious to this, though a mist began to form about 45 degrees to Somnus's right, but still behind Cloak.

The dream construct of Cloak's mother boomed again, "YOU ARE NOT READY."

"Who are you to decide that?" Cloak said, heatedly. Suddenly, this construct shrank instantaneously to her normal size -- still formidable-looking for a woman in her sixties (six hundreds, if you're going by Dweller Earth years).

"I am your mother," she said, voice rather tinny, with a slight reverb effect. "I only want what's in your best interest."

"The Veil you do!" Cloak snarled, finally expressing all the repressed feeling to this pale imitation. "You never cared about my interests, best or not! I was nothing but a source of free labor to you. I wasn't a son to you. I wasn't even a pet. I was a servant, a slave, to you. Nothing more, nothing less. Just somwone you could kick around simply because you could. Then minute I finally had the backbone to stand up to you to say that you're wrong, you abandoned me. You ditched me! You threw me away like yesterday's garbage."

Cloak's gaze was severe. "You could not handle being wrong. You always had to be right, and you never took bad news well."

He pointed an accusatory finger at the diminishing form of his mother, "You always killed the messager. Yet, you wondered why I was so reluctant to give you bad news. You never permitted me to feel anything, yet you wondered why I was so serious all the time."

"I'm done. I'm done with you." she said, though the sincerity was questionable.

Then he turned his back to her, "Welll, know what, Mother? I'm done with you. Good-bye, and good riddance."

Then the construct shattered into nothingness, and he noticed, for the first time, Somnus. And the new figure.

"Grandpa?"

"Hello, Cloak," he said  though he glared at Somnus, addressing him, "I don't know who freed you, Somnus, but I'll put you back again."

"You . . ." Somnus growled, but fled. He would avoid Cloak's dreams from now on, for fear of Sage. Fear of the one who captured and contained him.

"What do we do now, Grandpa." Cloak asked.

"Do what you've done many times before," he said, "place your faith in your rather remarkable friends."

[Underseen]

They do say you can't die in your dreams.

[Cloak]

Sorry that I didn't post more chapters today. Just got caught up in something else.

Remember in these books some parodies might show up elsewhere in future books. and I might be able to stretch this book into twenty chapters.

CHAPTER TWELVE:
Torturing the Torturer

Somnus escaped with his essence in tact. He did even know if he could be killed anymore. But he had the feeling that he may have been very close to it. The very idea . . . it unnerved him. He actually felt fear, a sensation he had so thoroughly forgotten that it was novel. But he didn't like the novelty of this atrophied emotion.

He burst through a dream door without actually reading the dream-owner's name . . . Pootang.

It wasn't one would have expected. It wasn't wild and bestial. The dream's environment was bright, colorful -- like that show, "Timon & Pumpaa". There were millions of identical Horse clones, as it was a well-known fact that she was its most favorite meal.

Bright, cheery music was playing, and the Pootang was eatting a Horse clone inbetween every lyric. Its voice was a deep, rich baritone.

"Yummy, yummy, yummy,
I've got Horse in my tummy.
And I feel like munching a few.
She's such a sweety.
Good enough to eaty!
I think the same of you."

Somnus realized that he was being addressed, and he had a seal form with the usual red-and black color scheme. But the Pootang continued in its song, addressing the other Horses, eating one whole every lyric:

"I love to hug ya.
I love to kiss ya.
I Horse so!
Sweet, sweeter
Than sugar.
I won't let her go!
Yummy, yummy, yummy,
I've got Horse in my tummy.
And, as sick as it may seem --"

Then it seemed to forget the lyrics of its own song, muttering, "Uh, somethin', somethin', somethin'," before launching back into song, cintinuing to snack on the infinite Horses between each lyric:

"And she tastes like peaches and cream!
Kinda like sugar.
Kinda spicy.
Kinda like Xanadu!
Kinda sounds funny!
Kinda like honey!
Horsie, I love you!
Yummy, yummy, yummy,
I've got Horse in my tummy.
All I need to satisfy.
Such a sweet thing.
Sweet enough to eat!
And that's no lie!
I love to hold her.
I love to kiss her.
I love her so!
How much sweeter,
Sweeter than sugar!
Oh -- !"

But, suddenly, there were no more Horses. The land looked suddenly barren and dull. Somnus's handiwork.

Pootang was furious -- you may think tickling a sleeping dragon is bad. Well, provoking -- deliberately provoking -- the Pootang is not only very dangerous, but very stupid. If it couldn't snack on Horse, it'd just come up with an alternative . . . Somnus.

The foolish dream wanderer barely escaped in one piece. He almost didn't get the door shut.  Like Cloak, this was enough rouse the Pootang from slumber.

[theyoungphoenix]

Serves Somnus right.

[Cloak]

True, that. The confrontation with Sage has unsettled him more than he allows himself to believe, and then this.

Last chapter tonight.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN:
That's All I Need

Disturbed and unsettled by this last encounter, he decided to head for another target. An easier one . . . the seal. The seal should be effortless enough to terrify. An easy victim.

Pity that Somnus really didn't know anything about Horse.

Horse's dream was colored like a theatrical animated Disney movie. She was laying upon a rock, repeating "Scurry . . . sniff . . . FLINCH!"

After the third repetition, music started up, and Somnus muttered, "What is it with these guys and songs?"

Horse sang with the music at a moderate tempo.

"There's more to life than panic
And being the Pootang's favorite snack.
I may be deliciously organic,
But this little entree's fighting back!
I'm gonna put being eaten behind me,
And live with a positive attitute.
I'm gonna reach for the stars to remind me
That I'm not mere Pootang food!
For once, I'll be
Looking out for me."

Suddenly, the music's tempo quickened noticeably.

"Yeah, I'll tell you what I want,
This seal is movin' on.
She's a bon vivant
Who's missing out on bon
I'd be a bigger cheese,
Far from the menu scene.
A little icy breeze,
A little patch of sea green.
And I'll be snoozing in my hammock
By a rippling Artic stream,
Many miles from Pootang
And his silly dancing team.*
Looking after RAF will be my only creed,
That's all I need.
That's all I need.
I've always been good at swimming away,
Well, now, I'm gonna run the show.
I've always been seen as the ultimate prey,
But now my status ain't so quo!
A dream sublime.
It's Pootang time -- !"

Suddenly, the Pootang was there, saying, "Oh, look it's dinner and a show! And I thought beans were the only musical fruit."

This was it, Somnus thought anticipatory, she would collapse in fear, in terror. And then every would be right back on --

SLASH!

The Pootang dissolved into dream mist. Horse was in her Eternity armor with the Tempest Blade.

"So, you're the one behind this," she said. "I expected you to be taller. And scarier."

Again, Somnus barely escaped and Horse awoke.

---
* D-don't ask. Just -- just don't ask.

[Underseen]

Pootangs dream was not what I expected.

[Cloak]

Kinda the point, Underseen. Sorry, about the late chapter, I had to work late today.

May be brief.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN:
Plan Patience

"Who's awakened?" Cloak said, his back to whom he addressed. He sat with his legs crossed, his heel touching his hip on the other side. His hands were on his knees. His tail twitched at the intrusion, though he didn't bothering opening his eyes. He didn't need them to "see" who had disturbed his meditative solitude.

"How'd you know it was me?" said Horse.

"How indeed."

There was a pause, then, "Oh."

"My question, Horse?"

"Only me." Horse answered. She couldn't have known about the Pootang -- she never went to check on it, for fear of being eaten. "Everyone else is asleep. Even those that don't sleep."

"Odd," Cloak commented rather benignly.

"'Odd'? That's all you can say? Just 'odd'?"

"This creature -- my grandfather called him Somnus -- must be expending all lot of his somniferous strength to induce and lock them into sleep."

"He did look rather less threatening and frightening than before," Horse replied thoughtfully. "It's rather arrogant of him, isn't it?"

"He may very well not realize what he's doing," Cloak pointed out, not moving, remaining in the same position. "He's only had someone challenge his power only once, and that challenger contained him, not knowing if he could destroy this oneirokinetic force."

"Who challenged him?" Horse, assuming it was Cloak.

"My grandfather, Sage." Cloak said, with a prideful lilt. Then, with surprising quickness, he return to the business tone. "The plan proceeds then."

"It's going too long." Horse said apprehensively.

"Patience, little seal. Patience."

"But what if Somnus discovers what we're up to?"

"Have faith, Horse." Cloak said, looking up. "He'll have a time trying to get to the others."