Time

Chapter 6

Travis woke up. He was sleeping on the ground next to Knowlridge. He was muttering in his sleep, as if he was having a bad dream.

"No, please... don't hurt her, please don't! NO!! Wake up, please... please..."

Travis was surprised; Knowlridge hadn't used that voice for a while. He wondered what was causing the dream. A memory popped into Travis' head. He focused on Knowlridge's discomfort, closing his eyes to focus on the dream. The silent world of the night morphed into a somehow even quieter place. Travis opened his eyes and immediately regretted it. He was in a sort of small coliseum, containing a great metal cage in the middle. He could see a boy looking over a fallen girl on the floor. She had a gunshot wound. Travis shut his eyes quickly and had a dizzy sensation. He awoke.

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Travis stirred awake. He was lying on the ground, basked in the golden sunlight of daylight. His eyes blinked as his mind worked. Why was it suddenly morning? He had been in tha-that dream for a few minutes. It had been midnight before! Travis examined Knowlridge's sleeping mat. It was empty. A moment later Travis swung around and met eye to eye with Knowlridge.

"What were you doing poking around in my dreams?" Knowlridge asked, a little anger in his voice.

Travis stumbled out an answer. "Uh, what do you mean?"

Knowlridge sighed. "I said," he interrogated, his voice shaking with hate, "WHAT WERE YOU DOING IN MY HEAD!!!!"

Travis was blown back by the voice. It was full of all the feelings of murder and hate and annoyance, and felt strong enough to crush a mountain. Travis' answer came out as a whisper.

"I-I was just concerned..."

Knowlridge seemed to calm down. "How did you do it?"

Travis answered, "I just remembered something... something from a long time ago... I remembered... that I could see your dreams..."

"Do you know how guarded my mind is?" Knowlridge asked.

"Well... you were asleep..." Travis reasoned.

"That doesn't matter!" Knowlridge snapped. "My mind is guarded even when I'm unconscious!"

"Well..." Travis whispered, gazing off into the forest, faintly seeing a flicker of light.

"You think it's because of your Father?" Knowlridge asked, showing a little more sympathy and curiousity.

"Yeah... probably." Travis replied, uncomfortable. He didn't want to be having this kind of discussion. He got up and gestured towards the horses. "Shall we get started?"

Knowlridge smiled, but not out of humor or happiness, but out of a sense of uncomfortable foreboding. "Yeah, let's do that." He answered, getting onto his horse. They set off, the steeds trotting off on the road. Travis couldn't hold his curiosity in and finally spoke after a few minutes.

"Who was the girl?" Travis asked. Knowlridge looked over at him with a raised eyebrow. He sighed and fully faced Travis.

"That was... Willow. Not your mother, somebody else. I used to know her... can we move on from this subject? It... upsets me." Knowlridge stated, turning away when he finished. Travis decided that it was best not to continue the questioning and went back to staying on his steed.

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Travis woke up. He was startled. He looked around where he was. It was a room, full with a desk, bed, lantern, skeletal bunny, door, an- wait! Skeletal bunny!? Travis spun to the desk, his face frozen in a stare at the rabbit on the desk. It was shining white, although it wasn't fur that did that, it was the fact that it was made of bone. It jumped down from the desk, a faint, blue flame trailing behind it. It stared expectantly at Travis. Travis slowly got up and backed to the door. He opened it from behind him and ran into the hall. The rabbit seemed to sigh and jumped to the desk. The flame popped out of an ink bottle on said desk and rolled its eyes. "I TOLD YOU IT WOULDN'T WORK!" The rabbit replied by jumping through the fire and scurrying out the window, into the commotion down below. The fire sighed out and floated after him.