3. In the cage
With a short gasp, I look around. It’s the same room, but nobody is here. How long have I dreamed? Ugh, and my head hurts… I try to recollect my memories, and after a few minutes, everything becomes clear. Man, that was very unfortunate for the dragon. Crap, I need to name her. It’s annoying to refer to her as “the dragon” every time.
I slowly stand up and, leaning no the wall, look into the corridor. Oh, there are Harold and Dana. Oh, Dana seems very sad; she almost cries, arguing with Harold. What is happening?
Dana notices me, and her eyes light up. “Hey, our junior is back. Together, we…”
Harold immediately interrupts her: “No way. You have already failed once, and we won’t risk you and him for the sake of your imaginary friend.” He turns to me. “Welcome back to reality. After every mission in dream worlds, you need to fill the report describing in details about everything that have happened to you. It will help us to investigate dream worlds further.”
“Harold, please, listen!” Dana keeps begging him.
“I said no. Wait until Maven is back, and make another attempt on your mission.” There’s a hint of metal in Harold’s voice. Huh, has Dana failed her mission? But how is she here and in her consciousness then?
Harold notices my concern. “We’ve learned how to perform the emergency exit from a dream world if something goes wrong. It will be your next topic to study. After you fill in the report, I will explain the details.”
“But what has happened to Dana? What is that ‘imaginary friend’ you’ve mentioned?”
Harold frowns. “I’d prefer to not discuss it.”
Dana steps forward and grabs my shoulder. “I… I have a friendly somnian living in my dreams. Harold calls them dream parasites, but I don’t care. We are good friends, and he helps me a lot in my investigations. And that exsomnian, she captured him! She will kill him if we don’t save him fast enough!” I can see tears in Dana’s eyes. “Please, help me. Together, we are definitely going to defeat that monster!”
“Dana! Do you remember that some information is confidential, and you can’t just tell it any newbies?!” Harold raises his voice.
“What is somnian? And who is exsomnian?” I need to clarify, even if I feel very sorry for Dana.
“Eh…” Harold breathes out. “Somnian is a self-assigned name for dream creatures. Based on this, we call the creatures that have breached the barrier between realities ’exsomnians.’ And, yes, there’s some kind of barrier between worlds that apparently got damaged at some point, and we have to deal with those invaders now. Okay, the lesson is over; go filling your report. Dana, you go to the medical cabinet; I must check your physical and mental state.”
Dana grabs Harold’s wrist and begs again. “Please, we have to go and…”
“Enough, Dana!” He shrugs her hand. “Sending one or two tired people to the dream worls leads to much worse consequences. But since the worst has not happened, everything is okay, at least from our point of view. Maybe Anna will send help, I could ask her also…”
Even if I feel really sorry for Dana’s friend, my dragon is in too bad shape too. “Sorry Dana, I really need to rest now.”
She sighs and walks away without looking back. Harold walks away after her.
Well, my report needs to be filled now. I found a bunch of papers on the table, probably templates. Looks simply enough. Date, mental state, physical state, and dream description. I try my best to describe my recent dream as detailed as possible, trying not to leave any important parts out.
Pretty soon Harold returns and looks over my shoulder, while I’m finishing the report.
“Wait, what?!” Harold’s usual tranquility breaks, and his voice pitches several tones up. “You have ‘your’ somnian?”
“Erm, I was not sure, but she appeared in that dream world again after I saw her last night, so I think she is a friendly somnian.” I shrug. “Is it bad?”
“It’s usually a problem. But dragon, huh. I need to call Anna now, please wait here.” With a hurry, Harold exits the room.
Overwhelmed my events and tiredness, I just want to rest my head on my arms, when I fall into familiar darkness.
I wake up in the room. It is still my room, but the dragon messed it up completely. Oh, I’m still naked. I breathe out, release the armor and try to find some regular clothes. After a moment, I see a long T-shirt that can pass as a dress. There is a pile of all items on one side, and the bed is on the other. The wall is broken and opens up to …some kind of a cave? What is that?! I hear a distant scratching like claws on the stone. Is it a dragon? The door at the opposite wall is also slightly opened, leaving a strange blue light out.
I decide to check the cave first, as the strange sounds may be a problem. I slowly move forward until I see the dragon girl lying on the floor. She mumbles something, tosses and turns as if she has a nightmare.
I step closer and grab her hand, realizing only now that she is literally twice bigger than me.
With a shiver, she opens her eyes and sits up, recovering her breath. “Oh… I…”
“Are you okay?” After the past event, she may still be damaged somehow.
She looks at me with very sad eyes. I see how tears are collecting in them. “I’m ..sorry.” She shakes her head. “I’m all yours. You can do anything with me. You’ve saved me from that dryad despite the fact that I’d started the fight. My instincts were telling me to kill that creature, but she was strong, and I was weak. I tried to command you before. I thought that I was capable, but I appear to be stupid and useless…”
I don’t even think when I hug her and pat her hair. She seems surprised. “It’s okay. You’ve helped a lot. You just got ambushed, that’s all.” She returns the hug.
After a minute, her sobbing fades, and she asks, “So, what is my name, master?”
Huh. First, she was serious about being ‘mine,’ but it’s a topic for later when she recovers. Name, huh… What about Bella? I had a gecko named like that; it was cute and bigger than others. I suggest, moving forward to her: “Hey, I remember you forgot your name, but what about using the temporary one? I could call you Bella if you are okay with it. After you remember your real one, we can use it instead.”
Her face lightens up, and she nods, hugging me even more tightly. “Yes! I love the name. You can call me Bella, master.” Her tail starts waggling a bit. “Thank you so much, master.”
After a moment, Bella breaks the hug. “And now… could you tell me about yourself?”
I introduce myself and explain my current situation and where I am from. Bella listens intently. After the story ends, she looks me in the eyes, smiles and nods: “Master… thank you so much, and I’ll do anything I can for you!”
“Why do you call me ‘Master’? It’s… it’s just a strange thing.” I can’t understand how to respond.
“Hmm?” Bella puts a hand to her cheek as if thinking about it. “Because I’m yours? I owe you my life.”
Is it some kind of hierarchy instinct?
It takes an hour to slowly explain to her what friends are, what unconditional support is, why it is essential, and why violent relations and hierarchy are supreme. The dragon is confused, but she consistently listens to me while lying on my knees.
“Myrty… You are my friend. I’m your friend. And we just live here together without any other restrictions… It’s hard to wrap my head around. I want to own everything. My nature says own or be owned. But I’ll try!” She smiles at me timidly, waving her tail. I pat her head cheerfully.
Maybe I can cheer her up a little bit with food? I think a bit. Will I be able to create something edible? I focus, and remembering how I made my weapon, I try to apply the same technique to the food. After a few moments, I open my eyes and see a plate with two big hotdogs.
Bella looks at it with undisguised curiosity.
“Let’s taste it. You go first!” I pick up the first hotdog and give it to the dragon girl. She looks at it for a moment and carefully takes a bite. Her eyes sparkle, and she looks at me, smiling. “Delicious!” I take a bite from another hotdog, and, as expected, it’s good, even more tasty than I had in some cafeterias.
After ‘dinner’, Bella starts falling to her side and after a while, falls asleep again, now peacefully.
I decide to leave her and check the rest of my dream. The door from my room leads to something strange—an ample space bordered by trees with a giant glowing crystal in the middle, resting on vines rising from the ground. Delicate, soft grass covers the floor, making it so comfortable to step in. I look up but see only darkness. I come closer and intuitively put my hand on the crystal. I feel the power stored in it, allowing me to transform surroundings or even myself…
Suddenly, in the stream of thoughts, I notice a small and curious scaly snout. A tiny winged lizard. It looks at me with its beady eyes as if it evaluates me. What. It is my thought; I haven’t thought about that thing! I open my eyes and see the same lizard sitting on the top of the crystal. Oh, is it the lizard that helped me before? It squeaks and jumps onto my shoulder. It is very light… Suddenly, I feel a wave of approval and support. The creature squeaks and dives back into the crystal, disappearing.
[level up unlocked]
I wake up and feel disorientated. Oh, right, I’m still in the laboratory. Wait, it’s almost midnight… I look around and realize that someone covered me with a blanket. There is also is a note near me, saying “call me after waking up”, written with neat and flowing handwriting. Dana, huh?
I pick up my phone to call her but hesitate for a moment. Is it about her exsomnian friend, right? Harold forbade to interfere, but I still feel sorry for her.
Finally, I dial Dana’s number and wait for her to answer. The line rings once, twice… “Hey Terry,” comes her voice from the other end. She sounds awake and alert, unlike me who’s still half-asleep.
“Uh, hi Dana. You left a note asking me to call you after waking up.” I say, trying to shake off the grogginess.
“Yes, thank you. Please come to the room with the dream boxes, we have a few things to discuss.” Yep, it is about her friend. Dana, as if she hears my mental sigh, continues: “Terry. I really need to talk about it. Let me try to explain it to you, I beg you.”
I stand up, stretch with my whole body and go to the nearby room. At the end of the corridor, I notice Dana, running towards me. I weakly smile at her, and we both enter the room with the boxes.
I walk over to Dana, who looks like she’s been waiting for me with bated breath. Her eyes are wide and anxious, and she seems to be on the verge of tears. I can tell that this is important to her, so I decide to give her my full attention.
“Phew. Thank you for coming. Terry,” she begins, “I don’t know if you remember, but Harold mentioned my exsomnian friend - Lucas. Now he is trapped in one of the dream worlds. I’ve known him for a very long time and I consider him my real friend. I … I can’t beat this world alone, so I need your help. Two people are stronger than one, right?”
I nod slowly. I can imagine that if something happened with Bella, I would worry too, even if I met her just recently. Dana takes keys out of her pocket, and unlocks one of the boxes. I sit down, reminding myself that the dream will come pretty fast after the first contact. She looks at me, nods, and sit down nearby, grabbing my hand.
I raise my eyebrow. Dana explains: “Physical contact guarantees that we will ‘wake up’ at the same place in the dream. Sorry if it’s uncomfortable for you…” She stands up again and presses the button just to quickly sit down before box opens.
I take a deep breath and close my eyes, falling into familiar darkness.
I open my eyes and find myself in some sort of dungeon. Stone dusty walls, torches, most of them extinguished. The air hangs thick and motionless. The complete silence envelops everything, broken only by the occasional drip of water echoing from somewhere far beyond sight. I feel some pressure in the air, like the dungeon itself is watching. Or waiting.
“What a cute kobold! I didn’t expect this form from you.” Nearby, I see Dana with the same face, but a slightly different body. A harpy, huh… Tawny feathers ripple along her shoulders and upper arms, blending into broad, talon-tipped wings that twitch restlessly behind her. She wears a light leather armor strapped tightly across her chest and hips, the surface weathered by wind and use. The pieces are cut for movement rather than style — asymmetrical, close-fitted, with thin belts and buckles cinched to her frame. Her backward jointed avian legs ends with huge hooked talons that scrape softly against the stone.
She giggles, noticing how long I’ve been examining her. I blush and look away.
“Don’t worry. It’s fine to be curious about others in the dream world. When I first saw Miss Anna, I’ve been looking at her for quite—” Suddenly, she stops mid-sentence, and her eyes widen. “Crap, Harold will kill me…”
I look back, and see Bella standing beside me. I smile at her, and she nods back. I turn back to Dana, who is paler than usual. “Oh, right. I have an exsomnian too. Her name is Bella. Do not worry about her, she is friendly.”
Dana shakes her head. “I do not worry about her attitude, I worry about her race. Dragons, as I was told, are very special. If I remember correctly, they played a key role in dream world ’ecosystem’, but somehow got extinct.”
“Extinct?” I look back at Bella, who seems confused too.
Dana shakes her head again. “Sorry, it’s better to ask Harold. I’m really bad at explaining things, especially when Harold and other big shots in the lab are so secretive.” She sighs. “OK, let’s hurry.”
I agree, and we advance slowly. Quite soon we hear something clinging. The dragon growls: “Skeletons.” I still can’t see anything farther than five meters ahead. But anyway, I focus and summon my wizard stuff.
“Wizard, huh. May be helpful.” Dana mumbles to herself.
We slowly make our way down the dimly lit corridor while the flickering light from the remaining torches are casting grotesque shadows on the walls around us. The clinging grows louder and more insistent, and I can feel my heart pounding in my chest as we approach a bend in the tunnel. I grip my staff tighter, its familiar weight grounding me despite the anxiety that threatens to consume me.
As we round the corner, the source of the noise reveals itself: a group of skeletal warriors, their bones clicking together as they move towards us with menacing intent. Their hollow eyes seem to bore into us.
I raise my staff, sending a fire arrow towards the enemies. Suddenly, everything lights up, as a torrent of fire roars overhead, scorching the air as it passes, turning the enemies into dust. Wow…
“Don’t lower you defense. Skeletons are easy to deal with, but there’s too many of them. We can be easily outnumbered … as it happened with Lucas and me last time.” Dana looks away, hiding her sadness. “Also the dungeon is a labyrinth. It’s very easy to get lost and start going around in circles.”
“Suddenly, The dragon steps forward. “I can lead. I sense where the core is located. Will you trust me?” She looks directly at me. Is it still her ‘being weak’ issues?
I nod, and pat Bella’s shoulder - I simply can’t reach higher… A smile spreads across her face and she happily proceeds forward.
The air grows colder as we push deeper into the dungeon. Bella leads through the dark corridors, suddenly taking turn to left or right. We hear skeletons here and there, but our way is clean. After a ten minutes of moving, we enter a new room. A wide, dark hall stretches ahead, lined with rows of stone columns. Torches, long extinguished, hang cold and lifeless along the walls. At the far end stands a massive door, barely visible in the gloom. The air feels heavy and cold, and I can’t shake the feeling that something is watching me from the shadows.
After we enter the hall, the door behind us closes with loud thud. Dana screeches and leans to me. I notice two translucent figures, floating behind the columns. The translucent figures—tall, humanoid, and featureless except for hollow eye sockets—drift closer, their forms flickering like heat haze.
“Lost… Helpless… Toys…” I hear a faint, hollow murmur. My fingers tighten around my staff. I notice a warm light nearby—flames start to form in Bella’s mouth. Dana spreads her wings, ready to fight.
The two ghosts fly closer, ready to attack. I focus on my stuff, but the result is only tiny little arrow that one of the ghost easily avoid, rotating around. Dana lunges, claws slicing for the ghost’s form. She’s a breath away from hitting—when it blurs and vanishes into the shadows. I hear a distant laugh—they are mocking us!
But the laugh suddenly changes into scream, as the Bella’s flames hit one of the ghosts. She bares her teeth in a predator’s grin and steps forwards, preparing another fire breath.
“Bad… toy… Will… be… broken…” I hear another murmurs. When I tries to call Bella about it, the ghosts already laugh their attack on the dragon.
While Bella easily evades the first ghost, the second one appears from her back. The ghost’s translucent hands snake around Bella’s waist, cold and insubstantial, but the touch is searing. She rears back, fire flickering in her throat, but the ghost’s fingers are everywhere now, trailing up her sides, brushing the hollow of her armpits. Her whole body jolts, a strangled noise escaping her throat.
The ghost’s touch is a slow, deliberate violation. Its fingers—cold, insubstantial, like smoke—slide lower, brushing the soft curve of Bella’s hips, then dipping between her legs, brushing the sensitive flesh there. Her body tenses, a sharp inhale escaping her as her fire flickers, sputtering like a dying flame. She thrashes, her tail lashing wildly, whiplashing toward the thing that holds her—only to pass through its insubstantial body.
“Helpless,” the ghost whispers, its voice like wind through a tomb.
I focus again, trying to help Bella, but the ghost makes the dragon to block my fire arrow with her body. “Crap!”
Dana strikes again, her claws hits directly the ghost’s neck… But nothing happens. The attack goes through as ghost isn’t there. I notice a panic in Dana’s eyes, and she flies up to the top, trying to evade the ghost’s counterattack. But the ghost is faster, and I see Dana falling on the ground, as the ghost holding her wings together.
I hear a slight moan, as another ghost starts playing with the harpy’s body as well. The ghost’s fingers are parting her feathers, sliding down her tail, down her hips, until they press against the curve of her butt. Dana lets out a strangled gasp, her body arching involuntarily. Her face flushes red, and she clinch her teeth, trying her best to fight that feeling.
Bella’s breath comes in ragged gasps, her body trembling as the ghost’s fingers trace slow, maddening circles around her clit. Her body trembles, her tail lashing wildly against the stone floor, but the ghost’s touch is relentless, each stroke drawing a shudder from her. Bella’s hips buck, her slit widening as her penis begins to emerge, slick and glistening.
Dana tries to get her wings free, but ghost’s hands keep pinning her to the ground. She give me a pleading look, while struggling against the ghost. Her talons screech against the floor in a futile struggle.
The ghost’s fingers curl around Bella’s cock with a mockery of tenderness, and I watch as her body convulses—her tail lashing, her wings flaring in a useless, frantic attempt to fight back. Her mouth opens, but instead of fire, a wet, high-pitched giggle escapes her, shaking her entire frame. “Toy… toy…” the ghost whispers, its voice grinding through the air like gravel, and Bella’s laughter cracks into a sob as her hips jerk involuntarily, her cock twitching against the ghost’s grip.
The ghost leans closer, its hollow eyes fixed on Bella’s face as it strokes her cock with a grotesque, almost reverent slowness. “Helpless…” it whispers again, its voice a rasp of wind through a tomb. “You’re nothing but a toy.” Bella’s hips buck, her tail lashing wildly, but the ghost’s other hand slithers between her legs, pressing deep into her anus, making her moan loudly.
I can’t just stand and watch how my friends slowly breaking. I focus on my stuff once more, and a flaming arrow finally hits the ghost messing up with Bella. It screams and flies up, releasing the dragon from its torment.