Little Dreams and Hollow Nightmares

Ph4 Ch1: Return to the Troupe

The journey back to Hallownest was a long one. The Maw was capable of travel, but it's speed was less than ideal. Once the Maw did reach Hallownest, Seven had to scale the Howling Cliffs right after. This wasn't a problem for the knight and the Grimmchild, as the knight could use its claw and wings to better climb the cliffs, and all the Grimmchild had to do was fly.

And I thought I'd never have to climb another mountain again. Seven said to himself as he carefully moved up the cliffs. He should've been used to climbing by now, but he was out of practice due to his time at the Maw.

As he reached his hand up fir another rock, Seven's foot slipped, and he didn't have enough contact with the cliff to hold himself on. He started to fall, but was quickly caught by the knight. Seven remembered how thankful he was to have both the Grimmchild and the knight with him for this task, as the knight pulled him up.

From that point, all three of them worked together to scale the cliffside, and reach the top. Once they did, all that was left was a leisurely fall towards the town of Dirtmouth. Seven was able to survive the fall, unfazed, thanks to the fact we was a dream. That didn't stop him from resting on the bench, however.

As he sat down, he looked over Dirtmouth, and saw something heartwarming. Elderbug and the knight were conversing. Even though the knight couldn't speak, it still used motions to respond to Elderbug. As for Elderbug, Seven had never seen him so happy to see someone. The whole experience made him smile.

But he couldn't watch forever, as seeing the Grimmchild reminded him why he was here. They had a Ritual to complete. One that was overdue as well. Seven got up from the bench, and walked over to the knight. There was something he had planned to give it.

"Hey," he said. "Before we complete this Ritual, I'd like to give you something."

The knight looked at Seven as he got out a small bag.

"I planned to give these to you earlier, but all the chaos and troubles earlier made me forget. The Grimmchild found these in Deepnest. I think they belong to you," he said, passing the bag over to the knight.

The knight opened the bag, and emptied out all the small, shiny trinkets inside. It looked at them for a moment, then sat down on the bench. The knight cycled through all the trinkets, and attatched 5 to its cloak. It then stood up, and went back to Seven's side.

"Ready?" He asked.

The knight nodded, and the Grimmchild confidently chirped.

"Alright, let's finish this Ritual," Seven said.

All three of them walked into the large tent, and made their way to the stage room. Seven got his metal pipe ready, expecting Grimm to reveal himself again. But... he didn't. Seven stopped, puzzled for a little bit, wondering what to do. But then, the Grimmchild chirped, and he saw the knight was heading further into the tent. Seven shrugged, and followed.

As he walked down the hallway, the sound of a heartbeat could be heard, and got louder as he continued forward. Eventually, the hallway came to an end, and Seven found the source of the heartbeat. Grimm.

He was hanging from the ceiling, wrapped up in his cloak, surrounded by scarlet dream catcher particles. The knight jumped up to a ledge, making its height even with Grimm's head. It looked down at Seven, waiting for him to join. Seven climbed up, and the knight pulled out its dream nail. Seven readied his pipe, focusing his essence into the strike. He and the knight struck the Troupe Master with their weapons, and transcend to the dream realm.

At least, that's what Seven thought. But upon arriving, he realized that this strange place he was sent to looked nothing like the dream realm. There was no floating surfaces, and no heavenly sky surrounding it. It looked almost exactly like the tent hecwas just in. The only thing that allowed Seven to distinguish this place from the tent, were the giant, floating dream catcher particles all around just like in the dream realm.

After assessing his surroundings, Seven stood up, and met eyes with the knight. He looked for the Grimmchild, but it was nowhere to be found. Seven looked all over the room for a while, but was interrupted by the knight tugging hus arm. It jumped down, and motioned for Seven to follow. With nothing better to do, Seven did exactly that.

He followed the knight down a hallway made of stitched cloths, and padded surfaces. Further down, Seven noticed a pair of stitched, pulsing veins. He tried not to focus on them, as they sent shivers up his spine. But as he kept walking, he saw more and more veins, and the sound of a heartbeat returned to his ears.

The hallway soon came to an end, and Seven and the knight reached another stage room, much more eerie and ominous that the original. The seats were filled with the Grimmkin Nightmares, red flames danced about the room, lighting it up. But the most disturbing thing in the room was the giant, stitched, beating heart in the center if the seats, just in front of the stage.

And just when Seven thought things couldn't get creepier, the center of the heart split open, and flames spilled out all over the room. Inside the heart, the silhouette of the Troupe Master faded into view. He raised his claws, and made a quick snap with his fingers. At his command, the flames stopped. Seven and the knight, looked up at the heart, now unable to be blinded by the flames spewing from it, and they laid their eyes on the scarlet red figure before them.

"Well, isn't this a reunion." Grimm spoke, in a much more charred, and deeper voice. "Both of my friends have returned, all for the purpose of completing the Ritual."

"Yeah, it is quite the reunion," Seven replied. "But we don't have time to catch up now, do we?"

"Of course! The Ritual must not be delayed any longer! The new Grimm must be prepared!" Grimm answered.

"Wait, the new Grimm?" Seven asked.

The figure Seven once thought was Grimm, laughed at his question.

"You didn't think I was the Grimm you knew, did you?" He asked. "No, I am something more. I am the vessel of the Nightmare Heart, the burning essence of your fears, the song that shall never reach an end. I, am the Nightmare King!"

Once again, the room filled with flames, erupting from the Nightmare Heart.

"So dance with me, my friends. Dance for the crowd before us. Dance to the rhythm of the beating heart. Dance like it's the last time you will ever dance, because guess what?" The Nightmare King asked, twirling his crimson cloak. "It very well might be."

Nightmare King Grimm jumped out if the heart, and Seven and the knight drew their weapons, ready for battle.

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Hello everyone! It's been awhile hasn't it?

Allow me to take this time to explain to you all where I've been.

Recently, I've been writing stories that are original, using what I've learned from writing this story. I got myself caught up with too many projects. So many, that this had to be put on hold. In fact, I kinda forgot about this book.

Only when I was writing one of my stories, and I decided to rake a break to see how far I've come as a writer, did I realize I still had to finish this book.

But that's not the only reason why this took a while. As I mentioned, I have been writing my own original stories, and I want to focus my attention on them, but I have to close this door before I can proceed to the next. And to tell the truth, this book has been dragging on for a while now. I wanted to finish this book, so I scrapped my original plans for phase 4, ended phase 3 the way I did, and wrote a shorter series if chapters for phase 4 instead.

Today felt like the perfect time to return to this book, because today marks the 2 year anniversary of Little Dreams and Hollow Nightmares! Like I said, it's been dragging on for a while now.

I hope this is a satisfying return for all of you, and I will see you all in the next chapter. : )