「…Straf! Straf! Straf!」

Holding his face, Cycelia calls out in a loud and desperate voice, gently but rapidly slapping Straf's cheek with her dainty hand.

「…Nnrggrh… What?…」

Straf groans quietly, and groggily opens his eyes. Standing over him to the side, Lily is looking down at him with her arms crossed, and an expression that could almost pass off as frightened. Her face quickly returns to normal, and her crimson eyes look away.

「Ahh… I'm so glad you're okay.」

Cycelia sighs out with her hand on her chest, and a relieved smile appears on her face.

「Why would I not be?… Wait, did I actually fall asleep?」

Straf furrows his brow, his eyes jump between Lily and Cycelia.

「…Not exactly.」

Lily glances at Straf as he sits up on the mat, and Cycelia stands up. He squints in surprise at the cast on his arm.

「…Oh.」

Straf utters out, and his lips narrow into a tight-lipped grimace.

「I don't know where else I can look, I think I've searched everywhere.」

Lian says as she approaches Will and Alicia with her spear in her hand.

「Straf is awake, is he still?…」

Cycelia softly asks, fidgeting with her medallion as she approaches them. Straf gets up as well, and follows her to see what's the commotion.

「No… Shit. What kind of a bad luck is this? And after we just got into an argument, too…」

Will bitterly remarks, shaking his head in response while kneeling with Alicia near Greaves. Both of them look with concerned eyes up at Straf when he approaches, but Alicia certainly looks dismayed the worst.

「So, uh… What did I miss?」

Straf asks, looking at everyone for a brief moment at a time.

「I woke up to take a leak, and I noticed you and Greaves were asleep. Then I went to wake up Greaves, and rub it in your faces that you both fell asleep. But then I realized neither of you would wake up, no matter what.」

Will glances up at Straf, and his eyes return to Greaves's face. He remains sleeping.

「…Okay? And?」

Straf asks, looking at everyone again.

「You fell victim to a dream-eater, Straf. You, and the human.」

Lily says, and her crimson eyes glitter in the campfire's orange light as she looks up at him.

「…Though I had no doubt that you would wake up shortly.」

She looks away, and adds. The campfire loudly pops, sending sparks into cool night air.

「…Dream-eater?」

Straf asks inquisitively, spreading his arms.

「It's a pretty rare monster. Nothing short of complete magic immunity, blindness, or knowing ahead of time that it's coming can save you from its attack. It turns invisible once it captures its prey, too, so it's hard to save someone from its grasp.」

Will adjusts his glasses and explains, looking up at Straf.

「Okay, but what the fuck does it do? I had a pretty weird dream just now, is that it what it does? Kill you with cringe and eat you?」

Straf points at his sleeping mat with his thumb over his shoulder.

「It feeds while it attacks, Straf. Do you not remember? The bestiary?」

Lily's scarlet eyes turn to Straf again as she asks.

「The… Oh. So that dream was an attack?… Give me a quick rundown again, I'm still feeling a little groggy.」

Straf says, rubbing his face with his palm.

「It wasn't a dream, Straf. Not quite. It was like memories, but not quite, either. It's both, but neither at the same time. Simply put, a dream-eater shows things to its victims with an intent to weaken their mental state.」

Lily explains, sticking her clawed index finger out.

「So, mental torture?」

Straf asks, shrugging with his hand.

「Perhaps. But not necessarily. Two things are a constant. One, the victims must be shown something they have in common. This is important for the dream-eater. To make an apt comparison, it's like multi-tasking, and its brain is limited in that capacity.」

Lily says, gently tilting her head.

「Pft. I have nothing in common with Carrothead. Guess it was shit out of luck.」

Straf scoffs, and places his hand in his pocket with a smug smirk.

「…I wouldn't be so sure, Straf. Are you certain that you do not share similar dreams, hopes, fears or trauma? It does not have to be a strong connection, mind you. The stronger it is, the harder it is for the victims to break out.」

Lily asks, looking deep into Straf's eyes while her eyes glitter.

「…And how do you do that? You have to realize it's a dream, and then wake up? Is that how it works?」

「No, Straf. In fact, I would say it's quite the opposite. If you realize that you are under the dream-eater's influence, it may become impossible for you to save yourself. Which brings me to my next point…」

Lily replies, and straightens her middle finger out, spreading them out a little.

「Two. The things the dream-eater will show its victims are warped, dream-like memories of everyone involved. They will be real, but at the same time they will be false. Real events may be twisted by perception, or personal feelings.」

Lily says, crosses her arms again, and looks down at Greaves. Will and Alicia gaze up into her glaring, inhuman red eyes.

「The monster puts its victims into an agitated mental state. The victim, in essence, must naturally overcome whatever it is that is troubling them. Failing that, the dream-eater will eventually devour everything that makes them, them.」

She turns her eyes back to Straf, looking at him with a quite serious expression.

「It presents a way out to the victims, often through malformed memories of someone else, gambling that they will choose comfort instead. Which is why if you become aware that it's not real, the way out becomes the size of a needle's eye…」

Lily says, and pauses for a few seconds.

「…Most would, at that point, subconsciously repress their troubles even if they consciously attempt to overcome them. In their desperation to find a way out, the key slips through their grasp and falls out of reach.」

Lily says, and curiously tilts her head. Her twin tails jiggle gently.

「…What did you see, Straf?」

She asks, blinking a few times.

「Just some stupid meaningless shit. More importantly… Can't we just kill this thing? Even if it's invisible, it must be here somewhere, right?」

Straf asks the gathered.

「I already tried. It could be anywhere.」

Lian replies, glaring at Straf, albeit her eyes are devoid the their vitriolic look about them when looking at him.

「Well, I kind of remember it being…」

Straf mumbles, walking away from the crowd a few steps while looking towards the treeline.

Fwoosh-Crack!

「…There!」

A windbolt thunders out and rips a chunk of a large tree out, carving a channel at its roots as well. Straf, and everyone else looks at Greaves. He continues peacefully sleeping.

「…Okay. Maybe… There!」

Fwoosh-swsfsfhsfh!

Another windbolt tears a bush to shreds, then carves a large channel in the dirt behind it, sending bits and pieces of the dirt flying, with some splattering the trees. Leaves chaotically hover in the air, swaying downward.

「Stop, stop! You'll attract something worse with the noise.」

Will calls out, stretching his palm out at Straf. He looks at Greaves again, and nothing has changed.

「…Fuck. Maybe it moved.」

Straf curses under his breath, and walks back to Greaves.

「How do we know it didn't just hit and run?」

He asks, looking at everyone once more.

「It can't. As… The baroness has said, it's bad at multitasking. Think about it. It's invisible, showing Greaves something weird… And feeding on him. It'll stay there, and it has to stay in range to feed.」

Will explains, and adjusts his glasses.

「Okay, so why don't we just fucking take him and leave?」

Straf pulls his hand out of his pocket to shrug with it.

「We can't! It's true, that would stop it from feeding on him… But it could also rip his conscious apart. He would not be dead or dying, but he wouldn't be alive either. He'd just be dead inside.」

The young mage explains, then looks at Greaves, clenching his teeth.

「Wow, big deal. Suck it up like everyone else…」

Looking aside, Straf grumbles quietly as he puts his hand back in his pocket.

「…And since it could be anywhere, and we don't know where, it's dangerous to move him even by a little. Our only option is to wait and cross our fingers.」

Will clenches his fist, and Alicia lets out a mournful sigh while her eyes drift down into her lap.

「…Why did it have to turn out like this? It wasn't even his fault this time!…」

He seethes through his clenched teeth, looking down at Greaves.

「…So, what, he's in a coma? Is he just not going to wake up?」

Straf asks, looking at Will and Alicia. Their eyes snap up to him with outrage visible in them, but in the next instant they soften, and their gaze escapes down and away.

「…I don't know. It took a while for you to wake up. I don't know how long it will take for Greaves… If he will.」

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Will bitterly replies, grimacing in a mix of anger and sadness.

「Will, don't say that…」

Alicia meekly says. They look at each other for a brief, silent moment.

「…Sorry. I'll look around, maybe there's some physical traces.」

Will apologetically turns his gaze away from her, and stands up, adjusting his glasses. He walks to the center of the camp and starts scanning the treeline with his gaze. Straf walks up to stand beside Will.

「What do you want?」

He asks, glaring at Straf and his slanted mouth.

「Did you ever refuse to be friends with Carrothead?」

Straf asks, lazily looking around the treeline with his hand in his pocket.

「…Where did that come from? What are you even talking about?」

Will asks back with a suspicious squint to his bespectacled eyes.

「So, you didn't, right? How did you end up as friends, then?」

Straf asks another question, looking at Will with a slanted mouth.

「Tsk. What do you care?…」

Will clicks his tongue, and looks the other way.

「You're right, I don't. But we might as well pass the time.」

Straf shrugs, grimacing with visible indifference on his face. Will sighs and adjusts his glass.

「…Back in the village, we were pretty much growing up together. We just never really talked. We've seen each other from time to time, but that was it. It was just me and Alicia doing stuff for the longest time.」

He says, still looking away.

「And that's when he asked if you'd want to be his friends?」

Straf asks with clear sarcasm in his voice.

「What? No. That'd be too straightforward and normal for that dumbass.」

Will first glances at Straf, then at Greaves's sleeping face before looking away again. He becomes silent for a few moments.

「He did something really stupid. His parents died a few months before that. Keep in mind, when you live the village life, time flows different. A few months is like yesterday. Anyway…」

Will says after the silence. He shrugs his shoulders, and adjusts his glasses before continuing.

「They were adventurers, and apparently, back in the day, they helped the village a lot and ended up settling there. They had Greaves, but they decided to continue working as adventurers when he was old enough to take care of himself-」

「And then they lived happily never after?」

Straf chimes in with a quip.

「Yeah. Another adventurer came and told Greaves what happened. Said he's on his own now, and that's it. Then he left.」

Will shoots Straf a dirty look, but then his eyes return to the treeline, and he shrugs.

「Yeah, that tends to happen. You win big and think you're on a roll. You keep playing, and then you walk away saying, well at least I had fun!」

Straf shrugs as well, grimacing with indifference again.

「…One day, Greaves snatched Alicia's scarf for no reason and ran off with it. There was this tree-」

He continues, and Straf cuts in.

「In the middle of the village?」

He asks, looking at Will with his brows curiously raised, yet his eyes appearing bored. Will's surprised gaze snaps to Straf, almost as if he wants to ask a question of his own.

「…Yeah. He ran there with the scarf, and threw it up on a branch. That pissed me off, Alicia did nothing to deserve that.」

「Wow. A huge prick in a little kid… You know he did that because he wanted her attention, right?」

Straf asks, looking at Will with one brow raised.

「Yeah. Now that I'm older, I get it. I'm not sure Greaves does, but I do…」

Shrugging, Will adjusts his glasses.

「…Anyway, the scarf is precious to Alicia. Her grandmother gave it to her, now it's a memento. The wand as well, she doesn't leave anywhere without it, even if she doesn't need it anymore. The scarf is safely tucked away in her pack somewhere, too…」

Will takes a short peek over his shoulder at Alicia's worried face while she's watching Greaves.

「…I climbed up the tree, because I wasn't about to let some shitty brat bully Alicia. And I grabbed the scarf… But then on the way back, I slipped, fell, and broke my leg.」

「…And then he asked if you want to be friends?」

Straf asks with a deadpan expression. Will looks up at Straf with his mouth scrunched to its maximum to the side.

「Alicia helped me limp home. Her grandmother was a healer, and she taught Alicia some first aid and medicine basics before she died. She set my leg, and I had nothing to do except learn magic and talk with her.」

「Wow, her grandma died adventuring too?-」

Straf asks with a sneering smirk.

「She was old, stupid! She died of old age…」

Will exclaims with his fist clenched, and shakes his head in frustration before continuing.

「…A day, or two later… I don't even remember, it hurt pretty bad and the days kind of blurred… That idiot barged into my home with his hand all swollen and purple, bawling his eyes out. He held his hand up, and asked if we are even.」

Will says, idly looking around the treeline with his mouth aslant.

「He fucked his hand up on purpose?」

Straf asks, and Will shoots him another dirty look.

「Tsk. I can't believe the queen associates herself with someone as coarse as you… Yes, he smashed his hand with the smith's hammer.」

Will clicks his tongue, looking away as he berates Straf's language. He then nods, affirming Straf's roughly-worded question.

「…Because he felt bad you broke your leg?」

「…Yeah.」

Will nods again, sounding almost remorseful.

「Man, that kid is properly fucked in the head, isn't he?」

In a lightly amused tone, Straf asks with his fist on his hip, looking at Greaves over his shoulder.

「Shut up. Don't say that about him.」

Will responds with an angered growl and a glare. Straf's bored eyes return to meet the glare, and the young mage turns his head back towards the treeline.

「He might be weird and stupid, and he really pisses me off at times, but he's also good-hearted. After he had done that, he'd been visiting every day. Alicia eventually learned how to heal and healed us, I learned general purpose magic, and Greaves got stupidly strong.」

「And that's how you became friends.」

Straf quips with sarcastic smirk a shrug of his shoulders.

「Yeah. But we never said let's be friends or something like that. He never asked us to be. We just kind of assumed that we are. Then he randomly decided that he's going to become an adventurer, and that he wanted to set out on some big adventure.」

Will adjusts his glasses and shrugs his shoulders, looking into the treeline's darkness.

「And you're on your big adventure ever since, huh?」

「Yeah, though it's not like I want to be. I just don't want him to run off on his own and die like an idiot. And Alicia got dragged into it too…」

He lets out a long sigh after responding to Straf.

「…And there's no guarantee he won't die just because I'm here.」

Will bitterly remarks, looking away somewhere.

「There's no guarantee he wouldn't unceremoniously die back at your muddy shithole. Remember, your chances of dying by a cow are low, but never zero.」

「Eh? How do you know it was always muddy? And the tree?…」

Will asks, heavily furrowing his brows at Straf's broad shoulders while he walks back to Greaves with ominous parting words. Straf ignores him, or doesn't hear it.

「So, he's still snoozing?」

Straf asks as he walks up to Greaves. The dense crowd mostly dispersed, creating some empty space around him while they discuss their options. Only Alicia remains kneeling next to him.

「…Yes. He's still asleep.」

She weakly nods her head while looking at the orange-haired boy's face. With a light grunt, Straf lays down on his side next to Greaves, and props his head up on his hand.

「Hey, wake up dipshit.」

Straf says to Greaves. There is no response.

「Hey. If you don't wake up… I'm going to feel Alicia up.」

He leans in a little closer, and threatens the unconscious sleeping boy. Crimson and emerald eyes snap to Straf.

「Eh!?…」

《What is he-!? Is he serious!?》

Alicia exclaims in wide-eyed shock, albeit very quietly.

「Alright then… Wow, she's really into it. And they're so soft.」

Straf says to Greaves with a smug grin on his face, still laying on his side and propping his head up. There is no response.

「Straf… What are you?…」

Cycelia hesitantly asks with large emerald eyes, fidgeting with her medallion.

「Straf?…」

Lily calls out with her arms crossed, and an inquiring, disapproving tone.

「What is going on?」

Will asks, approaching Greaves and Straf as well.

「Wow, she's really getting into it! Huh? Alicia? What are you doing? Wait, Alicia! Get off of me! Right here!? In front of Greaves!?」

Without moving even a little from his spot, Straf verbally acts out a scene for Greaves with a huge amused grin.

Lily and Cycelia glance at each other with somewhat perplexed and disconcerted faces. Will looks on with a disgusted and confused expression, and Alicia is waving her hands in front of herself in panic, hoping for Straf to stop.

「Um. Straf, I think that's enough.」

Cycelia says with a palpably upset tone, taking a few steps closer while toying with her medallion in her fingers. Her brows are furrowed heavily, and she looks down at Straf with a pouty frown.

「Tsk. Come oonn. It's not like he can hear me.」

Straf clicks his tongue and looks up at Cycelia with a playful smirk.

「Greaves!…」

Alicia exclaims in surprise.

「Yeah, him. Who else?」

Straf shrugs, glancing at Alicia. She leaps at Greaves's neck, wrapping her arms around him.

「Oh. He actually woke up.」

Straf looks at Greave's face, which bears an expression of pure befuddlement and awe with wide-open eyes of sheer shock. Cycelia sighs out with a relieved smile again, and Will turns away, adjusting his glasses.

「…I just had the weirdest dream ever!」

Greaves exclaims, staring at the night sky…