Vessel

Nightmares

Unfortunately, we once again left Dirtmouth in search of Grimmkin. These Grimmkin however, were different. They were bigger, stronger, better trained, and worst of all, dealt two masks of damage per hit.

There was, however, one major advantage we had over them. At this point, Curth was the only member of the group that wasn't pissed off about our current situation. And even then, they had to force themselves to remain happy rather than indifferent.

The first nightmare appeared in front of us. It did it's best to up play the intimidation factor, but it wasn't enough. Almost effortlessly, Hornet cut it down, allowing Dave to swoop in and eat the torch's flame.

The second nightmare proved to be a fair bit more difficult to fight. This was mostly due to the fact that it was over a pool of acid in Greenpath. There was a lot of jumping on our part. My nail collided with the torch bared by the nightmare, severing the top half completely.

Landing on the largest area of land I could find, I signaled to Dave that dinner was served. Hornet continued to duel with the Nightmare, needle clashing with the metallic point of the nightmare's torch. Dave swooped in, burped a fireball at the nightmare, and devoured the torch's flame. When it did this, the nightmare seemed to die, falling into the acid puddle below. I guess those torches are like their life forces or something.

With two of the the three nightmares defeated, we settled down for the night. Once again, I took the first watch. Funny that we should once again be camped out in Greenpath. For the most part, it was still quiet. There was one major incident though.

As I stood guard, watching everything around me, I heard rustling in the nearby bushes. I drew my nail, watching the bush even more intently. Out of the bushes, emerged a mosscreep. I sheathed my nail. It looked up at me, almost with a hint of familiarity. Wait. There was no way. It was the same mosscreep I had encountered on my first trip to Greenpath, three years ago! Somehow, it was still alive!

It continued to look at me for a moment. Suddenly its eyes widened and furrowed into a rather angry expression. It finally realized who I was. It made a tiny screeching noise before charging at me, at a pace slightly faster than it's normal walking speed. I took a slow sidestep and watched as the poor mosscreep once again was forced to waddle away.

Before long, my shift was over, and I woke Hornet for her shift. I recounted the mosscreep incident to Hornet, which at least made her chuckle a little bit. Any humor I could provide her was a win. As Hornet drew her needle and started to patrol the camp, I slowly slipped into my own nightmare.

I was home. It was in perfect detail. I looked the home up and down, but found no blemishes. It was a perfect recreation. It was rather eerie, with all the window curtains closed and only natural light filtering in through the tiny gaps. Sure enough, everyone's favorite Circus Vampire appeared in a flash of scarlet flame.

"Ah, my friend, surely you must have some idea as to the purpose of this meeting?" Before I could answer, Grimm continued. "You're doing a fine job of defeating my minions. There remains only one. Upon his death, you will return to me. It is then, that our true battle will begin. But you know that."

He was right. The final challenge was to defeat the nightmare king in his own realm. I was pretty good with a nail, but I didn't know if I was quite that good. There had to be some way around this. Grimm laughed at me. "There's still a lot you don't know about that dreamnail of yours, isn't there?" Without bothering to explain, he disappeared into a flash of red smoke.

Just like the last meeting, I was left to wander. I walked around my empty house, knowing that I may never get to see it again. Sure enough, Grimm had tweaked one small detail. Taped to the wall, was a piece of paper. In the center, was a drawing of Hornet's face. The rest of the paper was covered in drawings of fire, with the sole breaking up being the number one, written across Hornet's forehead. I couldn't deny what they meant any longer. We had one day to complete Grimm's quest.

That's it for this chapter! Sorry to leave you on a cliffhanger, but the next chapter is going to be a long one (probably) so I didn't want to combine the two into a single massive chapter. Once again, thank you all for allowing me to be where I am, and I'll see you in the next chapter!