Little Dreams and Hollow Nightmares

Ph1 Ch24: Simple Mistakes

Mono opened his eyes, as pain shot through his body. He looked around on the cold floor he had fallen on. He struggled back to his feet, and looked around for the knight. He noticed its white horns poking out of a pile of rubble, and he ran over to help it. Mono used his ladle to pull the rubble away from the knight, and once there was an opening big enough, the knight pulled itself out of the rubble.

"Are you alright? That was quite a fall," Mono said, looking at his friend.

The knight nodded, then began to observe the area they were now in. Mono looked with them, and it seemed like they were in a pit of some sort. Mono began to move around, and suddenly, he heard something that sounded like a gurgled gasp. He looked down at the floor, and jumped backwards. A white blob crawled along the floor toward him, waving it's limp arms as it moved. Mono quickly smashed the creature with his ladle, then looked around to see if there were any other creatures that would attack.

"What was that?" Mono asked, looking at the knight.

The knight pulled out it's journal, and flipped to a page that was titled, "Mistakes" After reading through the page, Mono looked back at the knight.

"How many of those are we going to run into?" He asked.

The knight did nothing but shrug. It was clear to Mono that it didn't know this place that well either. Or it did, and several things had changed since it was last here. Whatever it was, Mono was prepared to run into those things, and anything else. He was feeling stronger, braver. He felt like the Mono he used to be before the signal tower and the Thin Man happened. With this new feeling, he and the knight pushed forward, prepared for whatever this place could throw at them.

Upon taking a few steps, several other "Mistakes" popped out of the ground, and started moving towards them. Mono leapt up, and brought his ladle down upon two of the mistakes, crushing them. He noticed another one, and quickly swung his ladle, defeating it. He looked at the knight, and saw that it had defeated the others. With the path now clear, Mono and the knight moved forward through an open door.

As they walked, Mono looked around. This place seemed like some sort of junk pit. There were several stone statues, cluttered around the room. Mono and the knight climbed over the statues, and made their way into another room. This one looked like an abandoned laboratory of some sort. There were these weird machines everywhere, and glass jars filled with a glowing white substance.

Suddenly, Mono heard a loud, *CRASH* from behind him. He looked, and saw the knight was breaking open the jars, and the substance was flowing into them. That substance then began to surround the knight, as it leaned down. Then, the knight walked back up to Mono as if nothing ever happened. Mono shrugged it off. The knight was different than him, and it probably needed things that a person like him wouldn't.

But then, something appeared in the air, and started floating closer to them. The knight leapt at the creature, and struck it down with its nail. Once it did, more of those creatures started appearing, and Mono prepared himself for battle. Once the things got close, he leapt up at them, and batted them down using his ladle. It had become so much easier to use his ladle after the Nailsmith upgraded it. It had become much easier to carry around, and it was way lighter, allowing Mono to jump with it drawn.

Once the creatures were all stuck down, he and the knight continued ahead. Mono couldn't help but ponder what those creatures were. They were called "Mistakes," so did they become like that through failed experiments? Did something go wrong, and their bodies changed into those creatures? Or was it something else?

Mono put the thoughts aside, as a locked door lied in front of them. Mono looked around the room for anything that could be used to open it, and then saw a glitched staircase. He remembered his glitch power, and glitched himself. He walked up the stairs, and noticed a set of statues, and symbols on the ground. He figured that this must've been some kind of puzzle, and tried to figure it out.

But as much as he tried, he couldn't figure it out. He had never seen these statues before, or any of the symbols. Suddenly, he got an idea. Maybe the knight knows. he thought. He leaned out the opening, and held out his hand for the knight. The knight leapt up, using a pair of glowing white wings, and Mono pulled them into the room.

"Can you help me with this?" Mono asked, and he pointed at the puzzle.

 The knight began looking around, and then started pushing statues to different symbols. There were many heavy ones, and Mono helped the knight move them. It clearly had seen these statues before, and knew what the symbols meant. Once all statues were matched with their correct symbols, a small *Click* came from downstairs. The knight hopped down, and Mono glitched himself to walk down the staircase.

He unglitched once he arrived at the bottom, and he saw that the door was now opened. Mono and the knight walked through, and were met with a whole arena of mistakes, and whatever the flying creatures were called. Great, I can never stop fighting. Mono thought. The creatures advanced towards the two of them, and they leapt into action. The knight landed down a descending dark, and Mono struck the creatures down from the sky. Once he landed, he glitched himself to avoid the hoard of mistakes crawling towards him, and the knight obliterated them with a blast of black energy. Mono unglitched, and the two fought together to wipe out the remaining threats. Soon, every creature was defeated, and the path was cleared.

Mono took a few deep breaths. I'm not used to fighting this much. he thought. But then he looked over at the knight. He saw it beckoning for him to follow, for them both to continue pushing on. Even though Mono wasn't used to all this fighting, he had a reason to keep pushing on. To fight for his friends. To fight with his friends. He stood up straight, and followed the knight through the mysterious door, ready for whatever came next.

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OMG! 2,000 reads! THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH! Sorry I haven't updated this sooner, I had trouble coming up with ideas for this chapter. Thank you all for your patience, and thank you so much for reading this story. I seriously means a lot.

Also, I feel bad for asking this, but if you're enjoying the story, feel free to comment! It's actually the support, and enthusiasm you all give me that motivates me to continue this story, even though it's taking a long time. I enjoy reading the positive responses you give, and I can't thank you all enough for reading this.

Thanks again! See you in the next chapter! :D