After the initial discussion of nightmares, Magral Knights, magical girls and the like died down, study and homework took precedence. It did for most of them, at least; Melissa had disappeared for a short time and had come back with a pencil and a piece of paper. She covered whatever she was working on with her arm, not allowing even Vee to see whatever she was doing. All her friends could be sure of was that it likely wasn’t homework. No amount of prodding, whether it was at the café, in the car on their way back to campus, or in the dorm told them anything.

All they could be sure of was that, judging by the way Melissa’s face turned red when they attempted to ask about it, it was highly embarrassing. The trans girl was all too happy to be back in her room after all that questioning, knowing she could at least get out of talking about it for a day. With no one looking, she sat at her desk, turned on her monitor, signed into her PC, and opened up the browser as she placed her drawing next to her keyboard. She looked at the dress she had drawn, tapping her chin with her right hand as the left typed what she felt she needed to into her browser.

“Something is missing,” She muttered to herself, looking between her drawing and the screen. Clicking over to view pictures, she was greeted with some of the more classic designs of magical girl characters she could think of off the top of my head. Nearly immediately, she realized what felt off. “All these costumes have evidence of the group they are in as a whole, and I forgot that. I put in too much girl and not enough knight.”

She stood up and made her way over to a graphing book she typically used for her own classes. After ripping out a page at the very end of the book, she went back over to her desk and looked to her right. She saw a book of crayons, closed and not used in quite some time, shoved to the side. She reached in and grabbed a pink one and light blue one. Melissa remembered the number of times she had drawn alongside Lucy over last year, letting out a chuckle. The French girl had gotten her through a lot in those first few months of HRT.

“I don’t dislike the outfit design overall, I just need to touch it up and make it more knightley. More me,” Melissa told herself. She got up from her seat and struck a pose that she was all too glad no one could see at the moment, one crayon in each hand and her arms crossed over each other. “Only question now would be weapons. Vee said that Magral Knights only get the power to manipulate dream energy from the pin, so I also am gonna have to manifest that along with the outfit. Hero types typically go for things like swords or spears, but I’ve never used them. What I do know, however, is…”

She smirked, turning back to her PC and sitting down. She minimized her browser, then two more apps that had opened on start up, and launched Call of Duty Vanguard. She could mentally picture her friend rolling her eyes, but at the end of the day guns were what she always felt most comfortable with. Hell, she actually knew how to use them because of her father teaching her how to shoot at the age of nine. One of the last real bonding moments she remembered before he…

… she shook her head. She wouldn’t use the skills he taught her in the same way he had.

The question then remained what gun she wanted to use. She could eliminate a few right off the bat. Anything automatic was off the table, remembering the shooting headline from earlier and the fact she was a civilian; she shouldn’t have such a gun in her hands, Magral Knight of no. That left semi-auto’s, bolt actions, and other non-full auto weapons for her to choose. Despite sniper and marksman rifles being an easy and powerful option, she found herself opening up the pistol category in the game, smiling.

It was perfect for a number of reasons, the main one being that she could easily conceal such a weapon whether she was transformed or not. Granted she wouldn’t be carrying it around untransformed often due to living on a college campus, but if she was in a case where she needed to quickly defend herself it was for the best. Even excluding nightmares and the fact she was in one of the safest states in the entire country, she was still a trans woman in America; she wouldn’t be truly safe as long as the right wanted her burned like a witch.

A headache brought her out of her thought process. She groaned unhappily as she lowered her head into her open palms. She hated having to think so much; it never did her any good.

“Perhaps… perhaps just pick a sidearm and go for it,” She said as she looked back at the screen. Her eyes hit one specific weapon and, without thinking about the upsides or downsides of it, decided to just go with it. She took a deep breath as she got up. “Okay, I’ll work everything else out later. Let’s just try and summon what I already have so far.”

She took another deep breath as she stood in the center of her dorm, then looked at her PC and monitor and decided to step further away for their safety. Closing her eyes, she felt a phrase come to her much like the knight’s pledge she had taken earlier. It was strange having such information in her brain as if she had known them all along when in truth she had never even heard them before. Part of her didn’t agree with whatever the voice from earlier was shoving such information into her against her will like a toddler shoved peanut butter into a game council’s disk drive, but she couldn’t complain having it was in humanity’s best interest.

Taking the same pose as earlier for no reason but dramatization, she opened her eyes and whispered. “Dreams of my desired reality, manifest before me.”

----------------------------------------

The tiniest of smiles was on Dragon’s face that evening as she watched Vee bounce on her bed. Despite the doll being a literal nightmare manifested in physical form, there was something rather cute about it. Perhaps it was the childish manner Vee seemed to talk in sometimes, or the fact that it really didn’t look threatening for a nightmare. She knew it was something along those lines but exactly what was hard to tell. Either way, it brought her an odd amount of joy that she wasn’t used to.

Looking down at her phone, she viewed a message that had been sent to her by Melissa a few hours earlier. She had wondered why her friend had rushed off to her room faster than usual. Typically they were able to keep her around for a little longer, only disappearing when the call of gaming was too much to resist. Considering the message she and the others had received, this was not for the usual reason.

> Melissa: I did it! I fucking did it!

>

> Lucy: Did what exactly?

>

> Melissa: The transformation works! I hereby dub myself a magical girl and none of you can prove me wrong!

>

> Holly: Um… what are you all talking about? Is Melli finally going to a con?

>

> Dragon: My goodness Melli. How did you type that without feeling the slightest bit of embarrassment?

>

> Drew: Don’t ask hun. I’ll *try* and explain when I visit tomorrow.

>

> Lucy: Wait, so you got a working outfit and weapon and all that jazz? Fuck yeah girl, lets go!

>

> Holly: Ah, so it is a cosplay for a con. What character is it based on?

>

> Dragon: It’s not a cosplay Holly. She’s being serious.

>

> Drew: Yep.

>

> Melissa: Yep. Just wait till I show it off to you all tomorrow. Would now, but I’ve resisted the need for too long. Gamer girl has to do what a gamer girl does.

>

> Holly: ?

>

> Drew: Again hun, I’ll explain tomorrow.

On one hand, seeing Melissa as excited as she was to address herself as an anime character was a clear sign she had failed to keep her friend away from her brother. Not that she hated Cameron, but Melissa already spent so much time in front of her monitor doing non school related stuff that she feared the two becoming friends would affect Melissa’s grades too heavily. It had been a joint effort between her and Lucy, and while the latter had taken failure in stride, Dragon had not.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

On the other hand, she couldn’t deny how nice it was to see her friend genuinely happy. While Melissa had overall been in a better mood since starting her transition, the smiles weren’t always real. That was to say nothing of the numerous other emotions that had been pulled up in second puberty. Lots of crying, anger, and other negative emotions almost seemed to come easier to the trans girl than positive ones. A moment of gender euphoria this pure for her friend was nice to see.

At least one of them was truly happy.

Dragon shook her head and turned to Vee. She shouldn’t think that way, and yet her brain found it so easy to bury her under an avalanche of bad thoughts. Sadly, whenever her friends or brother weren’t around, she found no way to control the oppressive thoughts that overtook her. It only made her more certain that Melissa was the better choice to become a knight. She would do nothing but get herself killed.

Vee stopped jumping on the bed all of the sudden, meeting her gaze. “I really think you don’t give yourself enough credit. You would make a great Magral Knight.”

“I…” Dragon said, her mouth getting caught on her rebuttal as she realized that she hadn’t said her thoughts out loud. “You read minds?”

She didn’t exactly care that her voice betrayed the amount of fear that thought gave her. The energy to put emotion into her words was impossible to muster, so she simply hoped her worry got across in a more subdued sense. Considering Vee had shaken her head after the girl had spoken, she believed she had achieved what she wanted.

“Just yours, no one else's,” Vee teased in a matter Dragon saw as far too casual. “You made me. While I have a physical form, I’m still a figment of your dreams. It makes sense that a part of your mind could read it.”

“Yeah,” Dragon said, hanging her head dejectedly. “Sorry you have to see it all. I’m not suicidal like I was before. The thoughts are still there, though.”

“It’s okay. I would love to do what I can to help, if anything,” Vee said, waddling up to the edge of the bed and plopping herself down. “Actually, besides saving our realms, that is why I was hoping to make you the first Magral Knight.”

The doll looked around at its dreamer’s room real quick, noting the mess of clothes, papers, and other things that was strewn about. The only thing someone cleaned was the space by Dragon’s tv, and even it wasn’t safe from Dragon being, at least spiritually, an actual dragon. Like one she had heard own hoard, but where most dragons adored coins she adored card games and sports memorabilia. It was the former that had formed a small, physical wall under her flatscreen, blocking the lower part of the screen.

In terms of sports memorabilia, it was all football and all related to Buffalo. Saber, Bills, and while not technically a team from that area the Blue Jays all had jerseys, posters, and otherwise strewn about on both the walls and floors. Vee could make out several jerseys among the clothing items that lined the floor, recognizing each of the names and numbers from Dragon’s mind. It all added together to make a space which, while not clean, was comfortable and safe.

“It’s cool you wanted me, but it is better that Melissa is your first choice,” Dragon replied, sighing as she sunk into her chair. She could feel a piece of her brain telling her to sit straight, but she lacked the will to do so. “Melissa can be a bit of a jerk at times, and overly pessimistic, but she is good at heart. Besides, she actually knows how to fight.”

Vee turned back to her for a moment, and then looked away. “Meany may be good, but she isn’t who I wanted. Besides, I think you sell yourself short. You already have the nightmare smell I know recruiters look for with Magral Knights”

“The… nightmare smell?” Dragon asked. Despite being a question, she noticed it came out more as a repeated statement due to her lack of tone.

“Oh, yeah, I only told Meany about that all,” Vee said to itself. It tapped the bottom of its head-mouth for a couple of seconds, then looked back up at Dragon. “Everyone has dreams. You may not remember them, but you do. We all have good dreams and bad dreams, but depending on what you have more of, your scent changes. You, Meany, and Lucy all smelled like nightmares while Drew smells more like dreams.”

Dragon stared off into the walls as she considered this information, knowing that it was accurate for all three of them. Her room was right next to Lucy’s, and she had heard the French girl through the wall muttering in fear late at night. Melissa’s sleep schedule was a direct result of the girl hating sleep due to having both nightmares and night terrors consistently at a young age. It was similar in some ways for Dragon, knowing all too well where her nightmares came from but doing her best not to think about it.

She was a mistake, and mistakes didn’t deserve good dreams.

“Nightmares, the kind you get when sleeping, are kind of a drug to my kind,” Vee admitted. There was guilt and disgust in their voice, though Dragon couldn’t tell which there was more of. “We seek it like wild animals. It makes us strong and powerful, and our kind would do anything to get that power. It is why nightmares feed off a dreamer’s fears and trauma, because it is healthier. There are other ways though, and feeding from the realm of reality itself is done differently than from the realm of dreams. I told you the danger of prolonged feeding, and the effect it has on a dreamer.”

“Why? Is it worse here?” Dragon asked. She was feeling a little uncomfortable, but she figured it was best to get the information now so she could relay it to Melissa for her friend's safety. “How do you feed from your realm?”

“That’s easy to explain,” Vee said, standing up and walking back across the bed. “When a dreamer sleeps, a part of their mind enters my home realm in a random place. Depending on the location, it is either a dream or a nightmare that feeds on the dreamer, and because you are only partially connected to our realm and only for so long there is less chance of something bad happening,” Vee looked up at the ceiling as they continued. “However, as I mentioned at the café, prolonged exposure causes bad things to happen. It is dangerous, even if it is a dream that feeds on the dreamer and not a nightmare.”

“So it’s, as you put it, substance addiction in the form of eating,” Dragon summarized, getting a nod from the doll. “All of this is so much to take in. Still, it doesn’t explain why me having the scent of nightmares is such a necessary thing.”

“The pin does more than just grant you the ability to manipulate dreams,” Vee continued. It opened its mouth and pointed at itself. “It makes you immune to the side-effects of our feeding, but living nightmares like myself are still attracted to you. It acts as protection, and I wanted to protect you.”

Dragon’s mouth opened, trying to will up the urge to show surprise. She failed, her heart going over her left breast in an attempt to feel her heartbeat. No matter how much she wanted to appreciate the sentiment, Dragon felt she was undeserving of such a gift. There were people who would be a lot more useful to the world than herself, no doubt bothered by nightmares just like she was. They deserved that protection more than she ever would.

Her friends deserve someone better than her.

She closed her eyes, doing her best to remind herself that wasn’t true. She grabbed both sides of her skull, gritted her teeth, and dug her nails into her scalp as she shook her head. She hated her brain and the thoughts it gave her, because a part of her knew they were false. Why, even after all she had done, did it still see itself fit to destroy her? What had she ever done to deserve any of this?

“Maria! Calm down!”

She opened her eyes, expecting to find her brother; he was the only one who called her by her real name. Instead she found Vee, who had made their way from the bed to her and was currently hanging onto her dress. The rapid movement of her eyes made it impossible to focus on them, trying to think of what she could do to get her mind away from thoughts. Perhaps Lucy would be up for a round of Yu-gi-oh, or she could watch a movie, or perhaps…

A knocking could come from her window. She tensed up and moved her hands from her scalp to Vee, squeezing the doll and pressing them against her chest. She told herself she was imagining things. There shouldn’t be anyone knocking at their window. She was on the second floor of the dormitory, and there was nowhere to stand. Nothing could possibly be standing outside her window; it was all a trick by her mind.

Then it knocked again.

At a speed rivaling molasses, Dragon slowly turned her head around till she could see what was in the window. All she could see were two pairs of eyes staring at her from the dark of night, veins visible as if they had either not slept in days or head boiling water thrown on them. Her feet carried her off the chair as she tried to get as far away as possible for whoever was outside, one hand going to her pocket to grab her phone. She didn’t pay any attention to where she was planting her legs, causing her to trip herself over. Dragon tumbled to the carpet floor, the sensation of landing on a phantom tail only making it more painful.

“Maria! You okay there?” Vee asked, climbing up the girl a bit more. Dragon gave a hasty nod as her free hand went to rub the phantom appendage. “What caused you to freak out all of a sudden?”

Dragon pointed to the eyes peeping at her, Vee finally turning around to see what was going on. As soon as the doll saw them, it let out a growl and pulled itself free of the dreamer’s hands, holding its arms out. While the doll bravely, and due to its size and strength rather hopelessly, defended her, Dragon used her hands to search for where her phone had fallen. Hoping it wouldn’t bring her end, she looked away and toward the door out of her door.

That made finding it to be easy. Her phone had landed an inch or two from said door, just close enough for her to reach without standing up. As she fumbled to grab it, the sound of shattering glass brought her head back towards her window. Shuffling back as much as she could, Dragon watched as two lanky, quadrupedal, humanoid creatures made of nothingness entered her room. While one stalked its way onto the floor, the other climbed on to the wall and then the ceiling. Quickly as she could, she grabbed her phone, opened the camera without putting her passcode in, and took a picture. The creatures freezed at the camera flash.

“I would recommend not sending that if you don’t want to be feasted on,” the one on the ground said. It held out its front leg and paw, which Dragon quickly realized was more like a human arm and hand. “Now, give us the doll and the pin it stole.”