The dream catcher

Marie

Marie cast her dream-lines out through the fifth story window. She sat back in her chair and watched the rippling mana tides of the dreaming city, as her lines floated up and down like kites. She looked over to check and knew she had chosen the right place to dream-fish. She loved the work, it was nice and relaxing, and though working at night might have been unpleasant to some, night work was natural to the fox-folk woman.

Suddenly, Marie's crystal necklace started to glow. She stared down at the glowing rock, and muttered, "Well, it seems my trap has caught something, I'll go check on it." She reached out her arm and pulled in her lines, then twisted them into a coil and placed them in her pack, all in one fluid motion. Then, like lightning, she was off- her paws softly running up the stairs, up to the roof, then jumping, with the grace of a swan, from rooftop to rooftop. Gradually, her pace started to slow, and then, she stopped. She was standing in front of her trap.

Caught between two nets of rope, struggling, was a tangled, shadowy, mess of fangs and tentacles, roaring at a pitch invisible to the ears of humans. But Marie was not a human, and she could hear it. "Ahh, little nightmare having a tantrum?" She mocked. "You, my temperamental friend, are going to fetch a good price at market. Serves you right, I bet you were the one who kept scaring away my catch,", she said, slowly approaching the trapped spirit. Then, she grabbed hold of the edges of the net, and with a flick of her wrist, lifted up the nets, folding it into a bundle, stuffing it into a large duffle bag and pulling up the drawstrings before the spirit could react, then, the bag shook with great violence, as the spirit realized what had just happened.

Marie, she simply slung the still shaking bag across her back, then, bent her knees, and sprung forth! Once again, she flew across the cement, jumping from building to building. There was a purpose to this movement, however, as she had smelled a great place to cast her lines. In less than a minute, she was there, landing on the tiled roof.

Before she had time to cast her lines, she turned around and growled, for it seems she had competition for this spot. Dropping out of the sky was her rival, the owl-man Aether. "HEy, tHiS iS mY sPOT!", he screeched. "Too. F****ing. Bad." she roared back, showing her teeth and arching her back, ready for battle. "MoVE!", he screeched, spreading out his wings, and hopping at her, then, suddenly, dropping to the ground clutching his face and screaming in agony. Marie simply said "shouldn't have messed with me, then," and wiped the blood off her claws. Aether groaned, and still clutching his face, ran off into the distance, visibly limping.

Marie took off her backpack, pulled out a collapsible chair, and cast out her lines. She sat back and sighed. It looked like it was going to be a good night for dream-fishing. She stared up at the stars and watched as schools of dreams swam across the night sky. Her dream lines floated in the air, and their feathered ends shook and radiated with arcane energy, levitating the lines, and attracting dream spirits. She watched as sandmen flew through the night sky, scattering dream-eggs. She took a sip of pomegranate juice, and pulled in a line, as it had snagged a dream. Quickly, she separated the dream from the line, pulling the spirit from inside the lines feathers and transferring it into an empty page in her dream journal. She cast the line back out, and closed the book, placing it beside her.