Fauna fingered her hair, twisting it around her finger for a
moment. "A few weeks after I woke up, I started having a nightmare,
basically what I had seen when I was under the...spell of the
Nightmare dust. But just a few months ago, it started changing.
There was this snake..frozen in a huge lake. But then, it would
open its eyes, break free from the ice.. and everything would go
black. I don't understand what it means.."
"Maybe it's a vision?" Boreas theorised. "Perhaps that lake is my
Elemental Avatar, and the snake is some sort of guardian...though I
don't know why the lake would freeze over. Ah, that's just the
start of another adventure. But that can't be; after all, Odelia's
locked up, so maybe it was just a nightmare, a backlash. Do you
need counselling or something?"
Fauna shook her head. "I-I don't know. Maybe I am going crazy. Do
you think we should tell Principal Ferrigan?" Just then, Max slid
over. "Hey-o, wuzzup?" Fauna explained to him about the nightmare,
and he grew serious. "I think we should tell Ferrigan. He can help
us figure out what it means." He turned to Boreas. "What about
you?"
"I'm all for it. That old geezer hasn't done anything productive as
of late; might as well give him a friendly shove." Boreas then
hesitated. "Ehhhhhhhh and I'm bringing my lasagna with me. Your
ravenous tendencies are rubbing off me, Maniac."
Max grinned. "Hey, there's nothing wrong with that!" Fauna smiled
sadly. "Hey, if it weren't for that "old geezer" you wouldn't be
here." They got up, and Fauna led the way to the two oaken doors
marking Samuel's office. Fauna knocked on the door, and it slowly
opened. Ferrigan was sitting at his desk, writing something down.
When the doors opened, he looked up. "If it isn't Fauna, Max, and
Boreas. Welcome." He gestured to several leather seats in front of
his desk. "Come, sit down. What seems to be the problem?"
Fauna sighed and explained the nightmare. Ferrigan put the tips of
his fingers together and thought. "Well, could you describe the
snake to me again?" Fauna bit her lip, not wanting to think about
it more. "Well, it was long, with fins on the side of its face. It
was covered in scales, and it's eyes...so dark.." She shuddered.
Ferrigan nodded. "I think the best thing to do is for you to wait
for now..and when the time comes, I can try and figure out what it
means."
Max and Fauna nodded. "Thank you, sir." They got up and walked out
of the office. Max sighed. "Well, that's done. I'm going to go read
that stupid book so Kyleen won't kill me and bring me back again so
she can do it twice."
"Finally learnt your lesson, have you?" Boreas chuckled, secretly
wolfing down his lasagna. "Well, I'm just about done as well. Maybe
I'll go to the gym or something, practice a bit more with my wind.
Fauna, you coming?"
Fauna shrugged. "Okay!" She was definitely feeling better after
getting the nightmare out of her mind. "I finished all that i
needed to do anyway." She walked with Boreas to the gym, pushing
open the doors. "I'll watch, though. I'll be on the bench over
there if you need me." She pointed to a bench in the corner of the
gym.
After a few hours, Fauna decides that she wants to go to the
library. She gets up and waves for Boreas's attention. "Hey, I'm
going to the library. You coming?"
"If you say so." Boreas rolled back a shoulder experimentally, then
took of his jacket, revealing a thin white t-shirt. "I've been
practicing, you know. With my precision. See that target at the
back?" Boreas pointed to a red-and-white pinprick. "I can hit the
bulls-eye, easy. Watch." He lifted up a hand, and a thin,
arrow-like icicle crystallised into existence. He hefted the icicle
back, and launched it forward in perfect form.
It splintered the dead centre of the target.
Boreas smirked, almost arrogantly. "Not bad, huh?"
Boreas grinned lopsidedly, looking down at his trained arms. "Yeah.
I am. I am, aren't I?" He then turned and led Fauna to the library.
"Come on, Shrub. You wanted to check out the Library Cult, didn't
you?"
Fauna raised an eyebrow. "No, I just want to go and have a Chat
with Kyleen. What are you blathering about?"
Fauna shook her head. "Whatever. What are you going to do? I mean,
you don't usually go into the library except for schoolwork."
Benjamin was in the library, only glancing up when a door opened,
then staring back down when nobody approached him. He had a pencil
in hand, as well as his grey notebook, which now sported a vortex
illusion on the back cover. Sharpening his pencil quickly, he
continued his drawing... Or whatever it was. To most it would not
make sense, he knew. To others, they might get lightheaded. To him,
however, it was his subconscious reaching out to grapple with his
awareness. He'd seen the illusion in a dream, and had quite enjoyed
staring at it until he figured it out; his mind told him it was
magic, that he might perform great feats with this piece, and so
he'd set about drawing it. It was a complex things, full of
crisscrossing lines and an aspect of "depth", although there was
none on the paper. He was about a third of the way done with it,
although he'd only dreamt it up the night before.