I Chose to Bow

The Hunger of Dream

Bunnyblade shrank away into Philza's arms again, his ears gone limp and his head slowly shaking back and forth. Phil scooped him up, holding him close and staring at Ranboo in a sort of shock. "He...what?"

Ranboo's long tail tapped at the ground a few times. It was difficult to read his expression because of the veil, but the hard, grim tone of his voice was easy to understand. "Dream consumed all of Technoblade's family that he ever found. Nothing was left except their clothes when Techno and Bunny came back." He sighed. "That's....that's how Dream kills. He eats. And very few have survived an encounter with him when he has decided to satisfy his hunger."

"You..." Kristin stammered, "you mean he...you mean...he...why? What kind...what kind of monster does that? There was a child there!"

Philza gripped Bunnyblade tight. Something cold, deep inside him, was trying to make him angry, he knew. Something familiar. But he didn't know what, yet. "Ranboo," he said low, "how does Dream take memories without...killing someone? You said he must have done that with us."

"It's a roughly similar process, though one he uses much less often." Ranboo tapped his fingers of the table. Click-click-click-click. Click-click-click-click. "Dream is not human, as you may have guessed. He is what is known as a Dreamon. Basically a spirit that can take human form, usually manipulates dreams, and can eat just about anything to stay alive. Dream just prefers to eat his enemies."

A shiver ran through Philza's body. Bunny was trembling, both arms wrapped around Phil's neck and his eyes squeezed shut. He pressed his body as close to Philza as possible and both ears lay flat against his back. Philza stroked the child's back, trying to soothe him though he knew he had good reason to be afraid. He looked at Ranboo. "You mentioned something earlier. The sure way of getting back out memories. Would that work for all of us?"

Red and green moved rapidly back and forth under the veil as Ranboo thought. "Well, first of all," he replied, raising a finger, "I'm honestly surprised you still want to face this guy after what you've heard. But I guess that's the Angel of Death for you."

"And Death herself." Kristin interrupted, knocking on the table to gain Ranboo's attention. "They're not doing this without me."

Ranboo tilted his head. "Well, you must have some morsels of memory left behind if you believe all that so fast." He nodded. "That's great." He leaned back in his chair, resuming. "Dream. Memories. All of you guys. I mean...I've never seen if it works on a group before, but hey. Maybe it will. I mean, getting those memories out of Dream will be the hard part, but that's what Techno's for, am I right, or am I right?"

The couple glanced at each other, each silently nodding. Philza spoke again. "But how?"

"Well..." Ranboo grinned with all of his teeth. "I think that's another plate...." He took a deep breath. "Look here. Out of all the people Dream ever devoured, only a few actually survived the affair. I was one of them. And I was able to get bits of myself back. But with a nice little addition which stays rent-free in my head: my own special voice to listen to all day. Dream's voice." He sighed, putting his head in his hands momentarily. "I don't know if the other survivors have this too, or whether it's just because of my method of taking back my memories, but that's my side effect. I don't know if you'll have the same thing." Standing up, Ranboo began to pace back and forth. "The way I took mine back was by trapping Dream in a locked room and letting him see and speak to no one. Eventually his loneliness grew too great for him to bear and he released what parts of me he had inside him. I guess the voice was his way of getting back at me."

Philza and Kristin looked at each other again. "Ranboo," Kristin said, "are you sure you haven't heard of another way to get memories back? Bunnyblade already has Voices he hears, and we're not exactly keen on listening to Dream for the rest of our lives either."