I woke with the fleeting urge to tell Sera something. Something about Millie….? Thoughts drifted hazily through my head. Sometime during the night, Ani had crawled into bed with me, pressing against my side. He woke slowly, blinking the last remnants of sleep away and accidentally jabbing my side with his claws as he stretched. I groaned, pressing my hand against my forehead in a useless attempt to grab the information that threatened to disappear. “Do you remember what I needed to tell her?” I asked him.

He meowed at me before snuggling back down into the bedding. I sighed, wishing I could do the same, but my restless brain was itching, trying to cling to my dream. Something about Millie….Millie….Millie and an arrow? The sequence of events played through my head like a film, and I shot up, wide awake. I scrambled for something to write or draw with before it faded again and realized I had nothing.

I continuously tugged at the memory of the dream, cycling the events through my mind. Chimera, mage, green gem, Millie, arrow, Sera. Chimera, mage, green gem, Millie, arrow, Sera….

The still starry sky outside the window caught my eye. Sky! I quickly tugged on some clothes, uncaring of color coordination, and bolted outside my room. If I remembered correctly, Sky was in the room directly across from me. I pounded loudly on what I hoped was his door. After ages, the door opened to a blinking and yawning Sky, disheveled from sleep.

“Hayden…?” He mumbled, “what are you,” a yawn interrupted, “doing here?”

“I need to borrow some writing utensils.”

He rubbed his eyes, still not all here. “Huh? …Sure…”

He stumbled toward his pack, going through it in a daze as I impatiently tapped my foot in his doorway.

A cold, heavy item was pressed into my hands, coupled with another yawn from Sky. “Here’s a stone tablet you can use for now.” He carefully placed a sharpened not-pencil on top.

“Thanks!” I darted out, careful not to drop the tablet or the pencil thing, leaving him to go back to sleep. I shoulder-checked the door, slamming it shut with a bang. The fireplace in my room was still cackling, albeit gently, and I settled on the plush carpet in front of it, angling the stone tablet to (sort of) see what I was doing. Unfolding it, I tilted it in the light, checking for any unsmoothed wax which would disrupt or confuse my writing. Finding none, I scrawled what I remembered from my dream down in a somewhat legible manner, shortening words and sentences in a long-practiced manner that was devoid of non-essential words and was meant only to remind me, not document in its entirety.

By the time I was finished, my hand was cramped with my hasty writing. Ignoring the pain, I tilted the tablet in the firelight once again to read the best I could. Verifying everything was there, I moved the tablet away from the fire, resting it next to my bed so the wax could cool before crawling back under the covers. Starlight from the window caught my eye as I lay down, bringing to memory another dream I’d almost forgotten.

A dream of shattered and broken stars.

Broken?

I laid my arm across my eyes, blocking the light, and cursing the inconsistency of these dreams. How strange for the current dream to call up the memory of a dream almost forgotten. Stranger still, for some dreams to be as clear as glass, while others faded into the dark recesses of my mind. Was it random? Or was there some pattern to this madness?

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...I should probably write that dream down too.

I took a deep breath in, gathering energy as my hand patted the solid wooden table next to me for the stone tablet. When my fingers brushed the fire-warmed stone, I sat up in bed, this time squinting and attempting to see by starlight. I couldn’t remember most of that dream, and only wrote down a few words (Stardust, Earrings, Remember) where there was no chance of them overwriting what I’d written minutes ago.

My neck protested as I stretched over Ani and placed the tablet and pencil back down before sliding back underneath the silk covers and closing my eyes. Sleep snatched me quickly.

Breakfast that morning went much the same as dinner had the evening before, and we excused ourselves as quickly as possible. While the excuses were true we could tell Sera was as irritated as the rest of us despite her outwardly pleasant and patient appearance. I summoned the others to my room after breakfast, locking the door behind us in case of any eavesdroppers.

Noticing the tablet on my bedside table, Sera gently picked it up, rightly guessing the purpose for my summons “you recorded your dream this time?”

“Yes. For some reason, it was more difficult to remember than the last few.”

She gave a noncommittal “humm,” and scanned it for a few seconds before handing it to me “Your written language is very beautiful.”

Confused, I paused briefly. “Thank you,” I ended up responding. I’d forgotten that while I could somehow read and understand their language, they could not read English.

Using the words on the tablet as a guide, I explained to them what I remembered from the dream, and we fell into a contemplative silence.

Aeolus was the one to break it, stating, “Well, it’s obvious that the green gem you mentioned must be an altered beast-taming gem. Your description lines up,” he scowled, “ Normally, they don’t affect magical creatures.”

Sera nodded along with his explanation, her expression grave. “That would explain why the chimeras acted so beast-like.”

Sky, seeing the look of confusion on my face, caught my eye and explained, “It fully takes away any free will, in some cases triggering a kind of berserker state.”

“Ah.”

Helia moved over to Sera, still staying between her and the door. She placed a hand on Sera’s shoulder, looking her in the eye. “They’re after Millie. What do you want to do?”

Sera turned away from her gaze as she thought. She sighed. “For Millie’s own safety, I should probably send her away, but…”

“..but that will leave you vulnerable to the chimera.” Aeolus finished.

Her molten eyes flicked over to us, and she nodded. “She is a phoenix, however. If something happens, as we protect her ashes, she’ll return.”

“So what we need to do now,” Helia interrupted, “is focus on how to protect you in the meantime.”

“Or is it?” I wondered. Varying levels of confused looks were sent my way, and I raised my hands defensively. “Rather than waiting for something to happen, we could go on offense. We already know the chimera plans to hunt you down in the capitol and that he plans to rid you of Millie first.”

“We tried that already. It didn’t work.” Aeolus said bitterly. Sera grabbed the bandages on her still-healing arm, and Helia, noticing the motion, glared at me.

I plowed on, undeterred, “No, last time we were overconfident and tracked the chimera down to his playing field.” I met their eyes, the same confidence I’d felt when we’d spoken with Aquila flooding my veins. “This time, we can play on our terms.”

Shortly, Sera said, “Explain.”

It had been a spur-of-the-moment suggestion, but I was confident in my statement. My brain was supplying bits and pieces of ideas, puzzling them into a plan. In essence, it was simple. “We set a trap.”

The others shuffled, exchanging uneasy glances. “It’s far less dangerous than moving Sera elsewhere or putting her under guard and hoping that will be enough,” I pointed out. “This way, we can turn the tide in our favor. We’d know exactly where he’ll be and how he’ll strike”

A muscle twitched in Aeolus’ jaw, and he stared at Sera’s injured arm as he spoke. “I don’t like it.”

Azure placatingly patted Aeolus’ shoulder, stating, “Don’t worry so much. Sera can take care of herself. An’ after watching the way Hayden plays board games, I’d hate to be the chimera right now.” It was minute, but Aeolus relaxed slightly under Azure’s words.

Skeptical, Sky said, “But there’s a lot about this w–whole country you don’t know.”

“There are a few things I need to know first….” I said, a fully formed outline on the tip of my tongue.