The world was back to normal.
Instead of leaving Snowdyne's outpost to go hunt the monster, Sands yawned heavily and made his way to his room. As much as he would have liked to curl up on his stomach and sleep, he realized that sleeping in the outpost was not the best place to be, with all the bones aching from waking up, and the human threatening his life at any moment. Sleep was precious, but not worth the price of life.
Why couldn't he just go back in time and not be mentally exhausted? If his body was fine, his mind should be fine, too. "It's not fair," Sands muttered gloomily as he flopped down on the bed.
"I'll have another nightmare, I'm sick of it...."
He had been plagued by nightmares for some time now, as if the monsters that had died at his hands could not tolerate even the briefest respite, and if he dreamed at all, it was a nightmare. Even when he's been able to see the most horrific of gore, it's only when he's mentally prepared for it. Like a dream, you can't prepare for the nightmare, but you can't help it.
I've always put off sleeping through recurring nightmares as long as possible, but this time I had no choice. The drowsiness was too strong to resist. Sands lay down on her bed, closed her eyes, and welcomed a not-so-welcome sleep. Her mind sank down, down, down, like an anchor thrown into the water.
* * *
In her dream, Sands was standing in the town of Snowdyne.
The landscape was all off-white and monotonous. She didn't like the lack of color. It was clearly different from reality, but as with most dreams, she couldn't recognize it in her dream. Sands didn't question the alien landscape. The town was empty and deserted, and the surroundings were silent. She wandered around the town, thinking she might find someone if she wandered around. She approached the nearest Snowdyne shop and opened the door. Who could be inside? Alas, the shop was empty, with only a lonely fire burning in the fireplace. After a quick look around and finding nothing of interest, Sands exited through the door he had entered.
There was nothing outside the door. Even the town had vanished in the brief time he'd been looking around the store, leaving only structures and no inhabitants. Sands looked around. There was darkness everywhere, but at least the shop he'd just left was still there, he thought, and when he looked back, it was gone.
As everything disappeared, Sands looked around, unsure of what to do. Suddenly, something like white snow fell in front of her eyes. She grabbed it with her fingertips. It didn't melt like snow. When she touched it, it crumbled and smeared on her fingertips. Like dust. Sands decided it was dust. He looked up, and dust was falling like snow from the void. Wondering where the dust was coming from, he looked up.
Overhead, the body parts of various monsters were jumbled together like a tangled ball of yarn. A grotesque mishmash of eyes, mouths, beaks, and limbs, each moving differently, dust falling between them. Sands made eye contact with one of the many eyes. The yellow beak directly beneath her opened and let out a piercing scream, "Quite a bit!" The eyes everywhere turned to stare at her. The creature flapped its wings, claws, and sparks of unknown origin at Sands. A cloud of dust rained down on him.
There was nowhere to duck. A scream was buried in the falling dust.
* * * *
"-Ahhh!"
Sands screamed, bouncing off the bed, breathing raggedly. Between nightmares, I peeled off the clothes that clung to me in a cold sweat and checked the time to see how much time had passed since I fell asleep. Only two hours had passed since I fell asleep. I couldn't help but laugh out loud. My head was throbbing from lack of sleep, but I was in no mood to go back to sleep.
