I woke up to the sound of alarm clocks from my dad's and sister's rooms humming simultaneously inside the house. I glanced at my watch, only to see that the time wasn't moving. I figured it was just defective, so I didn't pay much attention to it. Pororo was still asleep on the sofa, murmuring something unintelligible with drool dripping from his mouth. He must have been tired from playing video games all night, I surmised.
When I went downstairs, the kitchen was empty. Dad should have been up by now, but I assumed he was tired from working overtime again. Dad works as a writer for the New York Times, and deadlines are a constant in his field. My sister Kanao, however, was unusually not awake yet. She always gets up early to jog, and I have never beaten her to it. But now, the house was eerily quiet.
I decided to go outside and do some skating, but the streets in the neighborhood were empty. There were no cars, no pedestrians, nothing. That's when things started to feel really suspicious.
"What the hell is going on?" I asked myself. I tried calling Rowie, but he didn't answer. Since he lives just a few blocks away, I decided to visit him and see if I was just overthinking things. When I reached his house and rang the doorbell a few times, nobody answered. Not even Sparky, his dog, who usually hates me and barks incessantly, made a sound. I noticed that every cat, rat, bird, and dog on the street was asleep.
"This can't be real," I muttered. "What on earth is going on?" I suspected that a beast was causing this, there is no other reason behind this phenomena, so I hurried back home to tell Pororo.
At home, I climbed upstairs and shook Pororo as hard as I could to wake him up, but to no avail. I checked on Dad, and he was fast asleep in his bed. Kanao was sleeping like a log as well.
"Think, think, think," I said to myself, pacing back and forth. "What to do? How to check if there's a beast nearby?"
I was certain a beast was causing this to our entire neighborhood. I needed a plan, and fast. Then, an idea struck me. Since this beast was affecting sleep, it could be residing in people's dreams. If I could fall back to sleep, I might be able to encounter it.
Determined, I went back to my room and tried to fall asleep. I counted sheep, goats, and every other animal I could think of until I reached what felt like a thousand. Suddenly, I felt the environment around me shifting. Before I knew it, I was inside my own dream.
In my dream, the surrounding environment was enveloped by a thick fog that concealed the sun from view. All I could see was fog. I walked around, observing the place. Despite the eerie atmosphere, I was almost amazed at the dreamscape, knowing it was caused by a mystical beast.
I searched everywhere for the beast but couldn't find it. All I could see was an offering altar with a drawing of a weird-looking animal on it in a shrine. The animal looked like a combination of a hawk and a goat, with a tusk of an elephant, and on the altar, the word "Baku" appeared.
It rang a bell. Ms. Thompson had mentioned the Baku in one of her classes. It was a mythical beast that inhabits people's dreams. This could be it, I thought.
I cursed Pororo for not being around when I needed him the most. Then, I saw a group of people in their pajamas walking aimlessly in the streets. They were lined up as if heading somewhere. I nearly had a heart attack when I saw Dad, Kanao, and even the idiot Pororo among the crowd. I rushed to them and tried to wake them, but they wouldn't wake up no matter how hard I shook them.
Suddenly, I felt a gust of wind from above. The mist moved as though wings were flapping. I saw a shadow of two pairs of wings on the ground.
"The Baku!" I whispered, my heart racing.
I needed to summon the book immediately. "Book Open!" I shouted. The Eldritch Bestiary appeared with no problems, thankfully. I was worried I wouldn't be able to summon it in a dream. Next, I summoned Pororo and had him transform into a sacred tool. He did transform, although partly asleep and unable to converse with me. It was good enough; at least I had the tools to capture the beast (plus I don't get to hear Pororo's annoying voice) and wake everyone from their dreams.
"Where do I start?" I thought. "Find the beast first. But how?"
The beast hadn't noticed that I wasn't under its spell yet, which meant luck was still on my side. I remembered the people on the streets walking aimlessly earlier. Maybe if I followed them, they would lead me to where the Baku resided.
I followed the crowd of dreamers. They led me to the Baku. Dreamers were circling outside a temple as though waiting for something. Moments passed, and I felt the gust of wind again. The fog cleared up, and there, above the sky, a creature half-eagle, half-goat with an elephant's snout appeared.
"Indeed, a stuff of nightmares," I told myself.
The Baku perched above the shrine, looking down on the people. When it spotted me, it flew towards me with the aggressive look of a bird of prey, only betrayed by its funny elephant snout that dangled as it flew. Its claws were sharp and black.
I ran as fast as I could, screaming. The Baku's claws were outstretched, ready to grip me.
"Book Open!" I yelled. "By moon's light and shadows deep, awaken beasts from ancient sleep. I call upon the centaur!"
The Bestiary opened, scanned the page, and stopped at Centaur. The Centaur appeared in front of me, and I wasted no time climbing onto its back and racing away from the Baku that was chasing me. My heart was pumping 1000 beats per minute, and I was running out of breath. I tried using the book's power to subdue it, but the Baku was too agile, evading all my attempts.
I looked behind me, and the Baku was still chasing us. Even with the Centaur's top speed, we couldn't escape it. I was running out of ideas on how to capture the Baku.
I had to confront this monster. I had to defeat it if I hoped to wake up my dad, sister, and Pororo. My heart pounded as I made my decision. No matter what, I had to win. If I didn't, we would all be imprisoned in this dreamworld forever.