Professor Pure led me away from the cluster of buildings that made up the known area of the Rising Dreamer Academy and into the forest behind it. I had heard rumors that there were Nightmares living there, but if I could trust three random Forged Order Champions to keep me safe in a mystical forest, then I could trust the teacher I had gotten to know over the past few months enough to do the same.

We walked down a path in silence, and I inspected the trees and plants as best I could. If I was going to walk down a path of exploring the mysteries of organisms, then I should not ignore the flora to focus only on the fauna.

“Professor Alyci has informed me of the nature that The Forest of Living Dreams took when you traveled through it. The ground that turned to flesh and the bleeding trees, as well as the flesh armor and the dog with its organs hanging out,” Professor Pure said.

I had expected that, and I gave the teacher a quick glance to see if there was any negative expression on his face. There wasn’t it was neutral as he looked around the woods.

“Yes,” I said in admittance.

He nodded curtly.

“I can see why you are nervous right now. Dreams are not fairy tales, Mister Niko, I know that better than any normal person who would judge you. Do you remember when I was speaking about the different kinds of chef Dreamers?”

“Yes.”

“I would suspect that it wouldn’t be unlikely for their experience within The Forest of Living Dreams to be similar. Butchered animals, anatomic displays, fire. The trip allowed those Champions and the professor to see into your mind, but I don’t think there is a single person alive who’s inner thoughts are completely clean. So I will ask a simple question. Do you enjoy inflicting pain and death upon living things?”

I knew that the normal thing would be to say no with my voice containing slight anger and appalment that the professor would even suggest that, but I would give the question the proper thought it required. Nothing was ever truly just a yes or no.

After almost ten minutes, I spoke up.

“Do you know what a stress test is, Professor?”

“Where someone tests something to see if it will still function in different situations and environments?”

“Yes. I believe it is possible for me to conduct such a test on a living being, and it would bring pain and perhaps death upon them. There is even a good chance I would enjoy that, but not because I am bringing a living organism misery. It would be because I have learned what the organism can and cannot live through. I do not want to butcher things. I want to take things apart and learn about them, to find strengths and weaknesses, flaws within their makeup, and then to put them back together so that they can still function. The best thing would be if I could put them back together in a state where they are better than they were before I took them apart. Or to make completely new things.”

“I see,” the professor said.

“Living things are the most interesting to me, but I have been able to stifle those thoughts by working on watches or other small machinery most of my life, but now…”

“With the powers that could come with being a Dreamer, you have the chance to turn those thoughts into reality without having to become a doctor in order to do so.”

“Yes,” I said, with almost reverence in my voice.

“Well Monty, I am something of a veterinarian. I work with animals and Nightmares because I enjoy it and my Dreamer abilities reflect that. You remember the fire that healed you before?”

“Yes Professor.”

“Those flames are not a cure all. They cannot heal internal damage easily, especially to vital organs. They cannot cure diseases. So there are times I must do operations on animals and Nightmares. I will allow you to come with me during those times to observe and maybe one day help. I also have plenty of friendly Nightmares that I communicate with regularly. If possible, I may ask one of them to fetch a fresh corpse of an animal or Nightmare for you to play with, and I can even ask some people from the city to send over corpses of some uncared for homeless people for you.”

That was… a lot. A mouth watering opportunity. I knew the homeless population was bad in Zuva, but I never thought about exploiting it in such a way. Homeless died every day from sickness, cold, drugs, even cases of starvation and dehydration.

Even if I could not empathize with them, I could still acknowledge that it was a problem that would benefit more people if it was fixed. However, I believe for those with the money to do something about it, that it would cost them more to fix it than the benefit of fixing the problem would give them.

So I too would abuse the system to benefit myself.

“Yes. Thank you Professor.”

“You must promise me that you will never experiment on one of the Nightmares that I show you. They are my friends and companions, and I do not care if you are one of my students. I will kill you.”

“Okay.”

Easy enough. We once again walked in silence as I thought about the great opportunity I was just given.

“Did you visit your family in the two weeks you were given off?” The professor asked suddenly.

“Yes Professor. Why do you ask?”

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“Just wondering if it went well and if your parents know about your interest in biology.”

“Yes they do know, and no it did not go well.”

I had done my best to keep myself busy in the past week to keep the encounter out of my mind.

He grunted.

“Sorry about that then Monty.”

Why?

I knew why, even if I didn’t understand it. So I didn’t ask the instinctive question.

We reached a clearing in the forest and I saw a large barn with opened doors. On the ground leading into the barn were the tracks of a dozen different beasts.

“This is where quite a few of those Nightmares and animals stay. They protect the weaker ones that would have a harder time surviving in the forest here. I am going to bring you in so they can get used to your face and scent. For most students they either steer clear of or dissuade from going too far in the forest.”

I stopped and looked from Professor Pure to the barn, then around the forest.

“If they recognize your scent and do not recognize mine would that not illicit one of them to scope out what you were doing here? Has on been following us during this entire journey and I never noticed?”

Professor Pure smiled.

“Yes… Bliss.”

From directly behind Professor Pure walked out a feline Nightmare. If it had been the size of a cat I could understand it sneaking up behind the teacher, but this black panther looking Nightmare was about a head shorter than the tall professor, but almost twice as long as the professor was tall, not including the tail.

“This is Bliss, the second Nightmare I ever befriended. She is one of the primary guardians of the other Nightmares. Let her sniff you.”

“Okay,” I said in a calm voice.

I was not calm on the inside. Fear and excitement coursed through my bloodstream as I watched the giant feline approach me with interest in its glowing green eyes. It was beautiful, a living work of art.

Bliss the Nightmare cat stopped only inches from me and lowered her snout to sniff the top of my head. I shivered, never would I have thought that smelling could be powerful.

The cats tail slapped against the ground with surprising force and she began to walk around me, gliding her nose over different parts of my body. I felt her rough tongue lick my hand and I raised it.

There was of course spit on my hand now. Bringing it closer I sniffed the saliva, no noticable scent compared to what I could smell from the forest. Bliss stopped for a moment then bumped its head onto my hand and almost forced me to pet her body as she walked past me back to Professor Pure.

She gave a deep purr, and the professor nodded as if he understood her perfectly. Maybe he did.

“Thanks Bliss.”

The cat gave a little growl and stepped back behind the professor, disappearing from view as if behind a large curtain instead of a thin man.

“Let’s head inside now.”

—-

Around an hour later we walked back to the school. I think that the professor tried to strike up conversation once or twice, but my mind had been so occupied that I hadn’t paid the man much attention.

I had seen… a lot. A monkey with burning gold eyes and six arms. A contingent of six ants half the size of myself. A dog that had belched out a plume of fire and ran through it to dissapear. A human hand that had a fanged mouth where the wrist should be. A snake that was lying on its own small cloud that floated at the top of the barn. A furred humanoid looking thing that only went up to my knee and had been kicking a rubber ball around.

According to the Professor that hadn’t even been half of them. A lot of them had been out and some of the more powerful and territorial ones lived further out in their own areas.

I finished my paragraph on theories how the snake could naturally produce clouds that it could lay on. It had to do something with Intent, that was the only logical way, but if it’s species could do that there must be a reason why.

Closing my notebook I looked over to the professor.

“Professor Pure?”

“Yes Monty?”

“Do you know what this is?” I pulled out the gold coin with a hand on its face that Arebor Aeronoute had given me.

The professor looked surprised.

“When did you run into the Councilor?” He asked.

“When I visited my parents.”

So the coin was well known, that was good.

“That coin is called a Helping Hand Coin. It’s gold too so it is more powerful than the silver and bronze ones. Think of it as a one time life saving shield.”

“Why did he give it to me? What benefit does this bring him?”

Merchants didn’t just give things away for free.

“Councilor Aeronoute has been handing out those coins for decades, I have even had a few before, and as far as I know there is no negative side effect for you. I do know that he can track the movement of the coin, so if he wanted to find you right now he could. Many Dreamers hypothesize that by giving these out he does benefit in some way outside of goodwill, but it won’t do anything negative to you.”

“What if it leaves some mark on my Dreamscape so that I would have to repay a debt to the Councilor one day?”

I hadn’t kept the coin on me since I had first gotten it, and instead kept it in a small lockbox in my room. When Professor Pure had called for me to join him today I had decided to ask him about it.

“There is always a chance, but others have had that theory before but could find no evidence of such a thing, and there is no knowledge of the Councilor ever calling in such a debt outside of something agreed to beforehand.”

Possiblities

One, the coin did negatively effect me and others with it in some way but that way is not yet know to the public. Or at least the public that know of the coins existence. Why? Either the negative effects are hidden from being discernible. Those effected by the coin are unable to talk about it. Or Arebor Aeronoute has yet to activate the negative effects.

Two, the coin does not effect others negatively, but instead effects the Councilor positively. Perhaps it gains information on those that carry it, like a journal. Information would be extremely precious for someone in Arebor’s position. Or maybe by giving out the coins Arebor has some condition on his Wit that doing good deeds will increase his power.

Three, the man just helps people with the coins.

Three was unlikely, so much so that I would bet money that it wasn’t the case.

“Should I keep this on me?” I asked the professor.

“Yes, even if there is some negative side effect. I know that you are still hesitant. It is still something that can save your life. It’s up to you though.”

True, being in debt was better than death. I pocketed the coin, not aware that the debt was already being paid.