Woven

Sira: Chapter 8

Sira was walking next to Dom, who was helping her get the details straight, "Okay, so Anima is a higher being who assigned us to defeat the Reaper, which will eventually suck the Essence out of all of Dream. Essence is life force and magical power, depending on the holder, and it restores itself very slowly, so the Reaper will continuously get stronger. We have no idea of how to beat it, but Kyo, who apparently lived or lives in Dream is able to fight it somehow. And now, we're on our way to meet another powerful being who will tell us how to use Essence to fight an entity that eats Essence."

Dom nodded, "Sounds about right."

"Except," she added, "Olivia has some sort of taming ability that got us a leopard demon named Mia and telepathy is a normal form of communication here."

"There we go. Are you about up to speed?" Dom seemed genuinely concerned. How nice of him.

"I'm just having a hard time wrapping my head around this."

He smiled, "If it helps, don't think about all of it at once, just what you need to think about at the time."

Sira rolled her eyes, since that was the popular thing to do, "You make so much sense sometimes."

"Sometimes," his voice jumped higher in pitch for the first syllable, not like a voice crack, but a polished, practiced variance, and it was actually pretty funny, considering that Sira laughed briefly.

She stifled her laughter, "You certainly are a character."

"It would've been funnier if you had been there," he looked ahead, refusing eye contact.

Sira took that as a hint that he was thinking of before Dream. He would've been what, thirteen? "You miss it out there, huh?"

He turned back to her, a tear in the corner of his eye, "I've been in a coma for two years; how do you think my family feels? I know people have survived longer in comas, but... I'm worried they'll pull the plug on me."

Looking down at the ground, Sira was stunned into silence; she had no idea how to respond to his fear of death. Sure, they could die here, but they'd know if it happened. Dom, on the other hand, he had no idea from day to day if would die or not. Although, in a selfish sense, it made Sira feel happy that he could trust this sort of thing with her.

She looked in his eyes again; he seemed to be searching for her to say something, "Thanks for letting me know; that's gotta be a hard burden to carry. I think, technically, we're all in comas right now, if that makes you feel any better."

He sighed, "Sort of. And, if the rumors are true, Kyo isn't."

Again, Sira had no idea how to respond, since Dom had a way of twisting things into self-deprecation. They walked in silence together for a little while, not daring to break the ice.

Therin, who had been scouting ahead, trotted back with a grin on her face, "You're not gonna believe it, but there's a waterfall ahead!"

Ryan came up from behind her, breathing hard, "Yeah, it's awesome!"

Olivia came in line with them while riding on her leopard, showing no concern for the supposedly venomous spikes beneath her, "You hear that, Mia? Let's go look at the waterfall!" The demon-not-demon bolted off, going only half as fast as Olivia could go on her own.

Ryan and Therin turned on a dime and sprinted after her, calling, "Hey, wait!" etc.

Kyo walked up to watch the race, Well, guess that just leaves the three of us.

Dom smiled, "Race you?"

Holding up her hands, Sira feigned fear, "Woah, there, testosterone; remember, not all of us are super fit."