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When Gomenne opened her eyes, she was somewhere she didn’t recognize. Her surroundings looked like a forest—not too dissimilar to the one she passed out in—enveloped in a thick, pinkish fog.
“Where the in hell?” Gomenne said with a whispered tone.
“Gome!” A familiar voice from behind calls to her, so she turns around. It was Muffler.
“Muffy, what’s goin’ on? Where is everybody?”
“You passed out three days ago. I tried calling out to you all this time but I finally managed to get through! Are you okay?”
“Yeah, but you didn’t answer my question.”
“Oh. We’re in the Dream World.”
“Dream World? How do you know that?”
“’Cause you can see the Dreamstone now. See?” Muffler lifted up their shirt to reveal the Keystones embedded into their chest. There is now a fifth purple stone right in the middle of the others.
“Wha—was that always there?”
“Uh-huh. But you can’t see it normally.”
Gomenne looked around once more, noticing the abnormally pitch-black sky.
“Is the sky always this dark here?” she asked.
“That’s not the sky, Gome.”
“Huh?”
At that moment a gigantic eye opens from the pitch-blackness, peering down below. It was joined by many other smaller eyes revealing themselves.
“The hell? Is that what I think it is?”
“Yeah. It’s the Sky Beast.”
“What the hell’s it doing here? How even?”
“I don’t really know, but this is how the world looked when I was born.”
“You were born in the Dream World?”
“Maybe, I don’t really know.”
“That’d definitely explain a few things about you, Muffy, but only a few.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. But I really wanna know what that Kaara chick’s been up to when we weren’t lookin’.”
An unfamiliar voice calls out to them from the fog. “Muffler? Muffler, is that you?”
Gomenne and Muffler turn towards the source of the voice and see a young woman wearing a big robe, a singular jeweled horn jutting out from her forehead as well as glasses with thick lenses resting on her long muzzle.
“Silkehrn!” Muffler replied, “It’s been a while!”
“It definitely has! I’m glad you’re okay,” the woman now known as Silkehrn says with a sigh of relief, before facing Gomenne.
“Who’s your friend?”
“This is Gomenne, the deity of Light.”
“The—wha—Huh? Are you sure?”
“Uh-huh. She and her friends came to help me when I was asleep all alone.”
“Then the plan worked after all, thank the Gods.”
“Mind explaining what’s going on, lady?” Gomenne rudely interjected.
“Oh sorry!” apologized Silkehrn, “Here, uhm, I think this will explain things a little better.”
Silkehrn put two fingers into her mouth and whistled loudly enough for it to echo.
Silence followed briefly, but then tiny, glowing orb-like creatures began to swarm out of the fog towards her. Silkehrn raised her hands towards the sky and the creatures follow suit. The fog in the surrounding area gradually thins, revealing a giant glowing tree off in the distance.
The giant tree appears to be keeping the Sky Beast shackled down by some type of magic.
“I’ve done all I can to keep the beast from leaving but there’s only so much I can do on my own. We’d hoped that by getting the attention of the twin deities that they’d be able to handle things from there.”
Silkehrn turned back towards Gomenne and Muffler with a soft smile before continuing.
“But now that you’re here, I think I can hold out just a little longer.”
“Just who are you?” asked Gomenne.
“In a past life I was Silkehrn, bearer of the Earthstone but now I’ve been reborn as the Grand Tree, guardian of the Sea of Green. Surely you know me by that name at least.”
“So when you said ‘we’, I’m guessin’ you mean the other Keystone bearers, right?”
“That’s right.”
Gomenne responded with a silent blank stare, then Silkehrn continued.
“My roots spread far and wide throughout the many continents, and while I can do very little to influence the rest of the world, it’s thank to the Fae that I can take this form and my words can reach those who need to hear them.”
Silkehrn holds one of the tiny glowing creatures—assumed to be the Fae she speaks of—cupped into her hands.
“I’ve been watching this world silently for hundreds of years. I was even there when you found Muffler and Cloudia. I think you even saw this very form run into that forest on that day, Miss Gomenne.”
“I knew I saw something! That was you I saw, wasn’t it?” Gomenne replied. Silkehrn nodded.
“Even if your powers are greatly diminished from centuries of hiding, your senses are just as sharp as ever!” Silkehrn complimented Gomenne. But in that very instant, Gomenne’s body began to fade away as if it were an illusion.
“Wha-what’s happening to me?” Gomenne asked in a panic.
“Relax, you’re just waking up,” reassured Silkehrn, “but that means we might not meet again for a while.”
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“Wait! How long can you keep this up for?”
“I’m not sure, but don’t worry! The Sky Beast isn’t as strong as it used to be so I’ll be okay for a while.”
Gomenne sighed and took a deep breath, then looked Silkehrn straight in the eyes.
“Good, I’ll need all the time I can get. When I come back I’m gunna beat its ass into next week.”
“Please look after Cloudia, Miss Gomenne. She means a lot to me—I mean us, we all care about her.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure no one messes with her again.”
With that final remark, Gomenne disappears completely.
----------------------------------------
Gomenne awoke with a start. She looked all around her and saw that she was back in her room. Well, her room at the White Clover headquarters. She felt something fuzzy on her arm and looked down, only to see a still sleeping Muffler with their arms wrapped around her.
She touched Muffler’s shoulder then hesitated. Nah, she thought, I’ll let them sleep.
Climbing carefully out of bed as to not wake Muffler, Gomenne then quietly left the bedroom and entered the hallway.
She ran into Kiki who had probably been going to their room to check up on the two dreamers.
“Gome!” Kiki exclaimed in surprise, “You’re up! How do you feel?”
“Fine. Where is everybody?”
“They’re in the lobby. Why?”
“Good. Let’s go, I got something I wanna say.” And with that, Gomenne walked past Kiki and headed for the lobby near the entrance of the base. Kiki followed without another word.
Once there, Gomenne saw that Capryce was still here and clicked her tongue.
“Look who’s awake,” Capryce said in her usual monotone. Cloudia’s ears perked up slightly to the sight of the now-awakened Gomenne.
“How do you feel, Gome?” Star asked in concern.
“I’m fine, but I’ve got something I gotta say first.”
The room went silent in anticipation.
“Star, do you know anything about the Dream World?”
Star shook her head. “Not a whole lot, no. Though I can sleep thanks to my shell, I’m afraid I’ve never really laid eyes on it myself. I know only what people have written in books.”
“Mm. What about you, cat?” Gomenne directed the question towards Capryce with a bit of reluctance.
“I know some things,” Capryce replied.
“Then talk.”
Capryce sighed before continuing, “It’s a plane of existence parallel to the conscious world that becomes visible when your subconsciousness is most active. Most people aren’t even aware they’re even seeing an entirely different world.”
“So you’re sayin’ what I saw really happened, but not in the same world?”
“Correct, but not everything looks the same to everyone. Usually the Dream World is some kinda reflection of the world as you know it in your memories.”
“Then, Cloudie?”
“Yes, Gome?” answered Cloudia.
“Your friend Silke—whatever her name was—she talked to me in my dream.”
“Really?! Silkehrn is still alive?”
“Yeah, but I saw the Sky Beast with her too. She’s doing everything she can to keep that thing pinned down, her and the other bearers too.”
The shock of the revelation of—not only the fact that the Keystone Bearers all still live but also—proof of the Sky Beast’s existence caused worried and shocked glances to be exchanged in the room. Star—especially—was losing her usual calm composure until Gomenne gently held her hand.
“Star,” she spoke with concern, despite her permanent scowl, “It’s okay.”
“I’m so sorry,” said Star with a wavering voice, “When I realized the true nature of the Sky Beast, I couldn’t kill it. I couldn’t!”
“Please calm down, Star! It’s going to be alright!” assured Cloudia. “While I’ve yet to understand my purpose—let alone the true purpose of the Keybearers—surely this means they are all doing their part for this world’s sake.”
“Please don’t blame yourself, Miss Star,” pleaded Muffler who seemingly just appeared in the room, probably snooping in on the conversation.
“Star is right to feel guilty,” Capryce spoke coldly, drawing the silent ire of most in the room—sans Muffler.
She scoffed, “Don’t look at me like that. You all know I’m right.”
“Cappy’s right, guys,” Kiki admitted with a sigh. “But instead of shifting blame we should try to do just as much as the Bearers are doing, knowing what we know.”
The others all nod in agreement.
“If this Silkehrn lady is still around then that must mean the other two bearers gotta be somewhere in the world, too, right?” asked Gomenne, “Maybe they’re probably all trying to buy us time.”
“If that’s true then I will have to give my all as well!” Cloudia said with a smile.
Gomenne chuckled—and with a smirk—responded, “Wouldn’t have it any other way.”
She then turns to Star, placing a hand on her shoulder, and added, “Don’t fret, Star. We’ll handle this, like we were supposed to from the beginning.”
Now that Gomenne has woken up, the activities of White Clover can officially resume. Though they have no idea where to start, they ultimately decided to begin taking up quests and spreading their name around as much as they can—all in the hopes that the return of the Light Deity will one day bring peace to the world once more.
Though, even without saying, the knowledge of the Sky Beast and the Keystone bearers weighed heavy on their minds.