Monday night and I still haven't given Cecil the watch. Every time I think about going over, I panic. Leea rolls her eyes at me whenever I ignore her questions about whether or not I've done something about it, but she doesn't try to force me. Which is nice.
It's half past twelve and I'm lying in bed, unable to sleep. Flame is curled up on a ball on my chest, and aside from the ticking of the clock her soft breathing is the only thing I can hear in the room. My mind refuses to stay still, running around with all kinds of thoughts about Flame and secret boyfriends and pocket watches and Cecil. Cecil...
I groan and rub at my eyes. Flame shifts on my chest, but doesn't wake up, settling down almost immediately. I stare up at the ceiling and decide.
The spell falls off my lips, quiet and steady. I know the words by heart, I've said them many times in the past. I do not know who I hope to see in the dreamspace, or if I hope to see anyone. I just want to...
I take a deep breath and close my eyes.
~x~
I don't feel like being cooped up in the old choir room, and decide to rearrange some things. It's amazing how easy it is to alter my surroundings as I walk around the dreamspace, sprouting trees and benches and grass until I've made myself a lovely park, complete with a duckpond and a merry-go round. I sit on a bench which is much more comfortable than park bench really are, and I watch as a flowerbed sprouts a few meters away from me. It is warm and sunny and I find myself relax.
"Wow, dude, that was some impressive building!"
I jump at the voice by my ear and turn around to find Rachel leaning on the back of the bench. She's grinning widely and looking around the park.
"I mean, we were just hanging out in the choir room and suddenly everything started to change behind the windows, all these trees growing around and the next thing I know there's a full park outside the door! You made this on your own?"
"I, yeah," I manage. "Why are you here? Who is 'we'?"
Rachel points her thumb behind her and I look back. Leea is climbing a tree a bit further away.
"I didn't know you two hung out," I say as Leea hauls herself up on the lowest branch. She waves at me when she sees me watching and I wave back. Rachel shrugs, still grinning.
"Sometimes," she says as Leea shouts: "Come climb with me, you two!"
I huff out a laugh and we walk over to the tree. Leea is up three more branches as I pull myself up. I don't even see Rachel move, but soon she is all the way over at Leea's side. She smiles widely.
"Come on then, you snail!" she shouts at me with a laugh. Oh, it is on.
The tree creak as I hoist myself up, new branches reaching out where I need to grab them and pushing my upwards at the same time. Leea is rendered speechless, and she stares with her mouth agape as I fly past her and Rachel, who looks surprised and actually impressed. In no time the tree has grown much higher than any of the others in the park and I stop to sit down on a unnaturally wide branch. The tree sways softly in the wind and I pat the trunk.
"Holy shit that was amazing!" Leea shouts as they catch up. I help pull her up next to me and she is positively beaming. Rachel sits on a branch that is a bit lower than the one we are sitting on. "I had no idea you were this good at manipulating dreamspace!"
"Really?" I said, surprised. "I mean, it's not hard, I just kind of... Dream thins up?"
"No, that is some next level skill," Rachel says and I scratch my neck. "It usually many, many hours to be able to control the space accurately, and the ease with which you did all this..?"
"It's like... decades of practice for most people," Leea continues, and Rachel nods. "Even I can't dream up anything aside small items and stuff!"
"Oh," I say. My cheeks have been gradually heating and I'm pretty sure I'm as red as a beet by now. "I didn't know. I mean, I've always remembered my dreams pretty well and I often have lucid dreams, and I always do all kinds of weird things whenever that happens."
"You know, Cecil has this.. friend, over at HUT who studies dream manipulation and he would be stoked to see you in action," Rachel says, looking out at the distance. We can see a skyline of an unrecognisable city beyond the park. I'm not sure there's actually anything in the city, but the view is beautiful none the less. "Cecil would probably be pretty excited too."
"Wait, what 'hut'?" Leea asks before I get the chance. Rachel blinks.
"Oh, it's the Howth University of Transcendence, just outside Dublin. They study dreams and out of body experiences and probably ghosts and shit. Y'know, spiritual stuff. Anyway, It's a subset of the NALMC and I think Cecil studied there for a bit, but he was much more interested in myths, so it didn't last."
"Speaking of Cecil," I say before I change my mind. "I found a pocket watch in a thrift shop the other day, and I was thinking of giving it to him. D'you think he'd like it?"
"Probably," Rachel says. "Although I'm pretty sure he'd like anything you'd give him."
I try not to smile too widely. I can feel Leea's eyes boring holes in the side of my face, but I ignore her. She doesn't say anything.
Tomorrow I'll go see Cecil again.
_____________________________________________________________
Yep yep. I had no idea how to make a story with a literal hut, so this is a thing that happened. Had some real problems with the name of the University, cause I couldn't think of a good term for things that are like dreams and shit, and I wasn't sure if I should use a real city or make up my own. Howth is a real place, just fyi. It's by the shore, like 30min drive from Dublin. So you think I should change it into a fictional place?
But yeh, I'mma go to bed, give me topics! Bye~
Pie out.
P.S. I see that we broke 200 posts. Yay. (the 200th was the "Reschedule" one)
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