Lumai's Mind

Chapter 23: Protect

I woke up gasping.

What's wrong? Bad dream? Tarnyx asked while I checked our alley way for danger.

The sky was still dark but the street lights made everything visible. Nobody seemed to be inside our outside our shack except a few drunk men stumbling home.

'Just another water cycle dream.' I responded distractedly and started checking that nothing was missing or unstable.

Another? How many? Tell me about them?

'Aren't you curious,' I turned to look at the kitten, she was pawing the ground anxiously. She's starting to look more like a lost kitten then a skeleton now, even though it's only been a few days. I don't know a whole lot about weight gaining speed but that seems unnatural, then again, she is a mind reading cat. 'Curiosity killed the cat.'

But she still has eight lives, so tell me!

'Okay, okay. This is the... Third. Every night since the IGA I've dreamt about a specific part of the water cycle.'

Go on...

'The first time, I started in a glacier that melted, I was tossed around in a mountain river through rapids and waterfalls. Nearly drowning so many times but managing to survive, then I got to a dam, it sucked my into the pipes and crushed me against the propeller. It's was dark and scary, once I was out of the pipes I somehow got to the shore but my entire body was covered in blood, making a red puddle beneath me.

'The second time, I was in an underground lake. It's was dark, I didn't know what was in there but I could sense I was in a vast body of water. My body was dragged through a current that turned into a river, through rapids and flood damaged waters I was pulled until the smell of salt filled the air. I was caught in a rip, I tried swimming to the side like we were taught but I was dragged out to Sea. Then I was out of the water, floating or flying with anti-gravity droplets of seawater. High above the ocean, we formed a cloud that was steadily growing denser as it moved inland.

'The last dream, this dream, I was acid rain. I had travelled in a cloud across the land but didn't rain until we got to the mountains. I plummeted, not with fear but determination, burning anything and everything around me. Then I hit the ground, bounced, and was absorbed by the dirt. I was dragged through the rocks and soil like I was a ghost, then the roots snatched me up. I was lifted through the tree trunk and thrown out through the leaves, but I didn't fall. I was floating into the sky to form another cloud.'

Tarnyx was still and silent through my dream recounts, she still hasn't moved. I was worried she'd turned into a statue until she blinked slowly.

"Well?" I asked and she, still slowly, turned to me. She stared at me with big, thoughtful eyes. What was she thinking so hard about?

What does it mean, she whispered in my mind, almost like I wasn't meant to hear it. Why the water cycle?

'But they were just dreams.'

Her head snapped up to hold glaring eye contact, nothing is ever just a dream, Lumai.

'Are you sure? I once had a dream where a pig was drinking from a mosquitoes champagne glass.' I lied smoothly.

What that actual fuck. That could mean so many things!

"Please, do tell." I mocked and poked her head. Somehow she growled at me so I raised an eyebrow critically. "You sure you're a normal cat?"

One, we've been over this; I'm not a cat, I'm a spirit familiar. Two, maybe you wanna be like the bad kids because of the respect they get or maybe you think you're a pig. Maybe pigs are bigger than mossies so you van take what you want. Is that enough for you? She tilted her head mockingly.