Heroes of Dreamland Rewritten, Book 2: Stars in Far Places

Chapter 11

Yuki | ユキ

"It's too bright," I say. "I don't like it."

Captain gives me a look. Usually this look means I am doing something he doesn't approve of. I don't care very much. He sighs. "Yuki. I understand you're overstimulated at the moment. I know everything is too bright and too loud since you're accustomed to the station, but there's not much I can do about it. Thankfully, our mission is brief, and as soon as we're done, we can go back to the ship and head back, alright? Just... try to enjoy being outside as much as you can. Who knows when your next chance like this will come?"

I squint my eyes to stop the light from getting in as much. "No time soon, I hope. I don't like it," I say. It hurts. It doesn't really matter that it hurts, but it does. The sound hurts too. There's the sound of water moving, like a faucet, but Captain says it's just running along the ground somewhere nearby. I wonder who poured that much water out, and why. It seems like a strange way to use water. There's also the sound of something exhaling through the tall brown and green things—trees, Captain calls them—but it never stops to take a breath in. I don't want to meet whatever is big enough to make all the trees move at once when it breathes out. Captain says the air is just moving itself, but I'm not stupid. I know that's impossible. A being or a machine has to move the air.

Maybe it's a giant blowing machine. But again, I wonder why someone would make something like that. It seems like a strange way to use a machine.

And everything feels weird, too. There's soft, crisp, green, damp stuff on the ground that we're walking on. It feels so strange on the soles of my feet. I don't like it either.

I wonder why Captain said the outside world was so exciting. It's just uncomfortable.

Captain stops at the edge of the tall things that reach for the blue space without a ceiling. Everything is too big. I don't like it. I walk past him, but he grabs me and pulls me back to where he is.

"Remember," he says. "You mustn't let anyone hear you speak. Since you're so small, they're all going to assume you're a little child who's too young to talk. We have to work with those expectations. You also need to keep your mouth closed so no one can see your fangs; if they see them, there's no telling how they'll react. Your only job is to follow me and to keep an eye out for anyone who might try to interfere while I knock out anyone already at the clinic and search for the old doctor's research, understand?"

I shrug. I might do what he says. I might not. It depends on what makes more sense for me to do from my own perspective when we get that far.

He sighs, seeming to not approve of me again. You'd think he'd be used to this by now. "We could both be in danger if you don't follow the plan, Yuki, both here and back at the station."

I blink at him. "They can't kill us. They can't hurt us."

He grunts, still holding me by the paw and refusing to let me continue into the space beyond our current location. "They can hurt me, and the Lord of Nightmares could easily find some way to kill both of us. He's the one who made us like this."

"Project Starfall won't let us die," I say. "If you can feel pain still, that's your problem. I don't care."

His eyes carry a strange look I don't understand for a moment, almost like fear, but it disappears a moment later. "Please, Yuki. Just do as you're told today, alright? If you do, things will go very well for us both. If you don't, they'll go very badly. Can't you please at least try to understand that?"

"I don't care," I say. I pull away and start walking. He comes behind me with another sigh and quickly walks so he's just in front of me now instead, leading me instead of the other way around.