Cierra's hand moved rapidly across the page. In a list she had scribbled:
-Telepathic Tiger (?)
-Man in fog
-Tele-Tiger (again)
-Weird horrible giant flying insect
-Head disappearing under the waves + mysterious underwater creature
-Bird
From what she had been able to gather from Dawn before class, the kids in the book were granted powers from aliens and could then morph into any creature that they touched, thus downloading its DNA sequence.
Could something similar explain what she had been experiencing up to this point? Cierra chewed on the eraser of her pencil. It just didn't make sense, but then again, nothing was making sense right now. There had clearly been a person other than Cierra in a few of these dreams, and she had been purposely trying to track whoever she had seen from the Menace situation.
What if her tracking hadn't been letting her down, but instead the person had been hiding in plain sight? Why were they so set on hiding from her? All she wanted were answers.
The stifling heat of the classroom wasn't helping. Even with all the windows open, it felt like the hot air refused to move. Cierra sighed heavily. What was it with no one wanting to talk to her? She wasn't sure how much more of this she could take.
It was a relief when the bell finally rang.
"Cierra," Dawn yelled after her, "Cierra, wait," she grabbed onto Cierra's backpack, "Wait for me."
Cierra looked around, surprised to find that she had been so lost in her own thoughts that she was already halfway down the hall.
"I'm so sorry," Cierra said, "I completely lost track of…" she tried to think of what to say. Reality? Where she was? "Time." She finished lamely. Even to her ears her excuse fell short.
"Riiiight," Dawn crossed her arms over her chest. "We're still on for Friday night horror?"
The way Dawn was looking at her made Cierra feel like it was potentially unsafe to say no. For the first time in a long time, Cierra found herself wanting to decline. There were so many other things demanding her attention that a movie night sounded like a waste of her now valuable mystery dream world time.
She forced a smile on her face; she didn't want to double down on hurting her best friend's feelings and cause two misunderstandings in one day.
"Of course," she took Dawn's arm in hers, "What movie we watchin'?"
After four and a half hours of Were-Clowns IV: When Wolves Laugh, Cierra finally got to lay down.
This time she knew exactly what to think about; she played over and over the tiger talking in her mind. If the tiger was dead like the rest of the Skogkatts, then she would wind up somewhere completely random. If the human from the fog was the tiger though… Cierra could barely hold in her excitement. If the human was the tiger and she found a person followed by an animal or insect again, like in the worlds before, then she would have found them.
Mentally, Cierra kicked herself. How dumb of her to think her mind was playing tricks on her when she had no idea what was or wasn't possible in the dreams.
Next to her, Dawn rolled around, getting comfortable, and Cid, knowing better than to lay where Dawn's squirming could get him, had perched himself rather unceremoniously on Cierra's head.
Why couldn't he have just laid on my feet?, she wondered, feeling the heat from his stomach starting to make her head sweat. As if in response to her thoughts, he started pawing at her hair.
She sighed, giving up. A cat was a cat, Skogkatt or not.
Turning her attention inward again, she focused on the tiger. The feel of its weight when it had pounced and held her down. How the words had felt so loud in her head—I had never seen someone shine so bright.
When she opened her eyes what felt like a few moments later, she was in what could best be described as a light pink cloud. The ground under her feet was both solid and soft at the same time and she felt as though if she jumped, she would simply start to drift off into the violet nothingness above. There was no sun in this world, light seemed to simply permeate from the ground itself.
Cierra tried her best not to get lost in the new sensation this world brought. She needed to focus and look around quickly for a person. Everything here looked empty, as though the sky and the ground just continued in a sloping around each other for eternity.
Cid wrapped around her legs, tail flicking cautiously as he tried to get used to the new surroundings.
"Do you see anyone?" Cierra whispered, not wanting her voice to carry and not expecting a response.
Cid paused, ears twisting one way and the other. Before she could say anything else, Cid started walking to the left, belly close to the ground. Cierra found herself wanting to imitate him, crouching low and following behind.
They had walked what felt like a few kilometers when Cid suddenly stopped. Up ahead a mass swirled above them, into the empty violet sky. At least, it had looked empty when they had first arrived.
Now, Cierra could make out black swirls of smoke above them, with vague body-like outlines. What Cierra hoped weren't their heads but looked very much like the heads of pterodactyls Cierra had seen in drawings, glided on top of bodies that swirled into various shapes. As she watched she saw some with what might be giant wings and others forming into the spiral bottoms of seahorses.
Cid's ears laid flat, and Cierra gulped; each mass was at least three of her.
Cierra saw only two options, either she could chalk this up as a failure and wake herself up, or she could keep trying to find the mysterious person.
The beings up above were terrifying, but Cierra tried to take solace in that nothing in a dream before had ever bothered her. The only problem was if something would attempt to take on Cid. Cid seemed to understand the threat as well, wrapping himself back up around Cierra's legs.
Looking around, Cierra tried again to find anything even remotely humanoid. If they had arrived around the same time, then she might see them before they transformed. That was seeing more and more unlikely as time went on.
That left one option.
"Hey!" She called out to the things in the sky. Most beings ignored her presence, but how likely was it that the mysterious tiger/insect/underwater monster/bird transforming person was just going to fly away, not keeping an eye on her.
The things above kept floating by slowly.
"I know you're up there!" Cierra raised her voice. "Don't ignore me! I know you were the tiger and that stupid mean bird!"
Was it her imagination or had one of them flinched slightly?
"You!" She pointed at the one who had paused, "I saw that! Come down here and talk to me!"
There was a long pause, and for a moment Cierra felt idiotic. Who would just stand around yelling at giant black swirls in the sky? She tried to take solace in the fact that least no one could see her.
How do you keep following me?
An answer! Cierra almost jumped out of her skin at the echoing in her skull.
"I knew it!" She wanted to make eye contact with the mysterious being, but already they had started mixing with the other beings again.
"It's time for you to answer my questions." Cierra tried to make her voice sound steady and confident, "What happened to the skogkatts? Who or what was that Menace thing? And who are you? What do you mean I shine? I want answers."
There was silence for a moment.
I do not know why you shine, and I can't tell you anything.
Cierra could almost feel her cheeks turning red; how could they have no answers for her after all this time she had spent looking for them.
"What do you mean?" Cierra couldn't understand, her tone turning demanding. "Goldie said you would come looking for me. You should have answers."
Goldie wasn't wrong, but we decided not to look for you. You must prove that you can be trusted.
Trusted? "How can I prove I can be trusted?" Cierra asked, confused.
Things are changing in the dream realms.
What does that have to do with me? Cierra wondered. She had come here expecting answers not even more useless back and forth.
The changes are new and you are new to us.
It was as if they knew what she was thinking.
Cierra was getting impatient, "Again, how can I prove I can be trusted? I just want to know what's going on."
Find Goldie, she'll tell you what you need to find.
"Find—" Before she could ask anything else, the swirling body pushed up further in the sky and disappeared.
"And who named her Goldie?!"