Dreamtale: Origins

Chapter 4: Another

Chapter made to bridge the previous chapter and the next.

Edited

:):

Nightmare was already up and reading when Dream woke up. Nightmare heard the gentle rustle of branches and leaves before he saw Dream, crawling down from his side. The golden apples gently bobbed as he jumped down.

Sometime during the evening, Nightmare had woken up and carried Dream up to his rightful side. The golden fruits instantly protested, jabbing sharply at his negative spirit. He gladly endured the pain until he got back down, unable to fall asleep again.

"Mmmmph up," the little guardian groaned, rubbing his eye sockets. Nightmare only looked up at him from where he sat down on the ground, pretending that just woke up a few moments ago. Dream glanced down at the book in Nightmare's hands, then looked at the sunrise."How are you reading when the sun is just rising?"

Nightmare didn't even look up as he responded, "We can both see quite well in the dark. I thought that you would know that." Immediately, he winced at the callousness of his statement, hoping that Dream didn't notice.

Thankfully,  Dream wasn't listening. He was now interested in the small building site that was just minutes away from the tree. There wasn't anyone there, but then again, it wasn't there yesterday. The sudden growth was certainly a surprise, and Dream could have sworn he saw a person or two dart from building to building.

The little guardian tugged at Nightmare's shirt, whispering, "Was that there yesterday? I could have sworn that wasn't there yesterday. Oh my stars, does this mean new friends? I hope so!"

Nightmare brushed off his babbling brother with a smile saying, "Dream, I wonder if you'll ever stop being so curious about this sort of thing. Probably not." Nightmare grinned and Dream gasped, putting a hand over his chest in mock offense.

"Are you calling me childish?" He gasped, making Nightmare laugh softly. Then a small breeze blew past the two, almost sounding like a small giggle.

You know, the people coming here are quite eccentric.

Dream got a twinkle in his golden eyes. Nightmare smiled as the aura from his brother swelled. So there were people there. It was exciting and a little scary, but exciting all the same.

People. Real people, and lots of them.

They might be here to stay, children.

That made Dream swell even more. Permanent friends! He could make a new friend and keep them! Of course, no friend in the entire multiverse could be better than Nightmare, but it was always fun to shake it up a bit.

Nightmare had a sinking feeling behind his happiness. Sure there were new people arriving and settling, but there was no telling if they were all going have good intent or not. Stars, what if they were all bad?

They could get hurt.

Dream could get hurt.

"...Nightmare? Did you even hear what I just said?"

The guardian of negativity snapped out of his thoughts and gave him a simple and slightly indifferent look (strongly contracting his terrible thoughts) and shrugged, saying, "I couldn't catch the last part. But... I'm sure it was something good."

Dream huffed a tiny bit and made a cute little face. "I just said," he pouted, "That we could go down and meet them first before they come to us."

Nightmare hadn't even thought of meeting them. Mentally slapping himself, he realized that he had just judged them without even meeting them yet. A silly mistake, but one hat made him feel bad nonetheless.

After a small sigh, Nightmare finally gave in to Dream's demands and bargained, "Fine, we can go see the people. But," he stated after Dream gave a small squeal, "We'll have to wait until they're awake again."

The sun had rose far up into the sky by the time they saw movement. Dream caught it first.

"BROTHER!" Dream shouted, seemingly falling out of the sky and landing clumsily on one of the roots of the tree with a small 'oof.' "NIGHTMARE! Brother, there are people there!! I SAW them! They're awake again!"

Nightmare looked up from his book (which, when looking closer, said 100,000 Leagues Under the Sea) and his eye sockets widened. There were tents and unfinished houses there, sure, but there were no signs of—

S n a p .

Nightmare jolted up. Dream jumped a bit too, but they both relaxed when they saw that it was just a bird landing on a small stick. They were both on high  nerves since they'd agreed to wait.

Dream kept on staring at the spot where the little yellow bird had landed. Nightmare eventually lost interest, much more captivated by the stories undiscovered in his book. It was amazing to him how much emotion could be spread across a flat terrain of paper, it's only way of proving itself in words.

The intrigued guardian was soon rudely snapped out of his daze by a turn of events that would forever change both brothers.

"Hi! I'm Dream! Who are you?"

"...H-hi... I'm Aubrey."