Qi and Mana? She repeated. I have not heard of such things. Why are they important?

The colors bubbled and welled, almost forming a whirlpool like structure. Resheph’s chosen form was weird. I thought not – the very concept is alien to any dream, save for this one.

Explain… Every dream had its own rules and elements that governed it – some were strange, some were common, and some were outright ridiculous. It only followed that this dream had a few things she knew nothing about.

The way I understand it, the Shepherds of this dream have separated the avatars’ innate connection to the dreamer by separating the energies of their conscious thoughts from the energies of their physical forms – Mana and Qi respectively, when neither of those things should exist to begin with as they should’ve been one and the same. Resheph explained. I did not like it – not one bit. Shepherds should be subservient to the Dreamer, but they’re acting out, instead.

Nyx nodded and raised a paw to lick it. I see, by disconnecting their conscious energies from their bodily energies, the Shepherds have effectively severed the connection between the avatars and the Dreamer… fascinating.

Indeed, I have never encountered such phenomenon before. This dream is broken, I tell you. Resheph continued. However, I have arrived at a solution without interfering with the dream – since that would be rude of me.

What is this solution? Entering and witnessing someone else’s dream was harmless; in fact, it was how most of her family staved off their boredom, aside from dreaming their own dream. However, actively interfering with the dream was… quite rude – no one did that, lest the Dreamer awaken prematurely. So, whenever they entered a dream – not of their own – their powers had to be greatly restricted to a point that they became almost akin to physical beings and could be forcibly banished outside the dream by its denizens.

I have created a sickness among the humans. Resheph explained. I could not simply wave away the broken connection to the Dreamer; doing so would compromise the dream and make me look bad. So, I designed a plague that would forcibly meld together the broken energies….

And? Ah, so that was what happened to those smelly humans. But… why did they turn so ugly? That one heavily mutated thing at the village was hideous to behold, like a failed attempt at creating life.

Well, the plague was not nearly as effective as I’d thought. Resheph admitted, his voice sounding rather regretful. I had underestimated the complexity of whatever it is the Shepherds have conjured and now the humans are mutating, because of the plague I’ve created. Though, I have noted two people whose bodies haven’t succumbed to mutation, but they’ve emerged extremely flawed – far from what I’d hoped.

Really… this mess would’ve sorted itself out without your dumbass intervention, Resheph. Nyx sighed and shook her head. This is why they weren’t supposed to mess with each other’s dreams; their designs and visions weren’t often compatible, which often resulted in avatars going crazy at whatever it is they did or… this. Can you reverse it? This counts as messing with someone else’s dream, you know. For all we know, the actions of the Shepherds could’ve been a part of the dream; some of us like drama in our lives.

Well, despite the lack of humans and shepherds in her own dream, Nyx had conjured up ridiculous scenarios wherein her avatars would need to band together to save themselves again and again as she tossed whatever apocalyptic idea she could of at them. It was fun – dreams were supposed to be fun for everyone. The Dreamer, most of all, was supposed to have the most fun with it, which was why it was rude for anyone to mess with the dream overtly.

Ah… drama… right… I had not considered that… shit… I really did mess with the dream, did I? Resheph muttered. The idiot was definitely feeling sorry for himself now. At least, he didn’t do the same things as Nyarly, who went and messed with dreams on a regular basis. I can’t reverse the plague, unfortunately. But I can stop it from spreading any further. However, it’s already saturated quite a lot of humans and… well, most of them have turned into ugly, mutated things.

Can it be fixed?

No, the other humans will have to kill them, but- ah, yes, at least it won’t be spreading anymore. Resheph paused. Well, if the infected humans can master both their Qi and Mana then they’ll be able to lift the curse and regain their connection to the Dreamer, but… I’ve not seen any human with that ability.

What of the two you mentioned, those who’ve acclimated to your little plague?

In time, the plague will force their Qi and their Mana into one and they will regain their connection to the Dreamer – maybe… I’m actually not sure about them. However, without actual mastery over both energies, they’ve begun mutating as well, albeit far slower than is usual.

Nyx grumbled and groaned. At this point, waking up the Dreamer and deleting the whole dream sounded like a mighty fine idea; this place was becoming more and more annoying with every passing second. Aside from Resheph’s apparent blunder, there was still her brother to find and bring back home. Okay, you little shit, get out of this dream and go home or go find another dream to visit or I really will whoop your little-

Fine… Resheph groaned and the colors bubbled once more. This time, however, the swirling mass was actively coagulating, gathering into itself in front of Nyx. The colors that’d clung onto the walls and the plants and the soil were all drained, leaving behind mutated matter. I’ve spent… a very long time in this dream, anyway; it’s about time I go and find a new one.

Just make sure you stop the spread of your little plague.

What are the humans doing to each other? Nyx and I stood atop a stone perch that overlooked quite a bit of woodlands. Nestled at the center of a small clearing as a human settlement of some kind, though much smaller than the village we’d encountered the day before; there were only a few humans here, but they seemed to be doing… something to the other humans, who crawled on the ground, bruised and bloodied.

It’s called slavery, little one. Nyx explained. The meaning of the word, however, eluded me. What is slavery and why were the humans doing it to each other? What’s happening is that these humans have captured other humans and are forcing them to do… things against their will, under threat of pain or death.

I see… The concept was definitely foreign, but it was rather easy to grasp. So, the injured humans wanted to do something else, but the other healthy humans were forcing them to do what they wanted, instead. I paused for a moment, studying the interactions of the humans and their peculiar social dynamics.

How… odd. Already, I hated the concept of slavery; why should anyone be forced to do something they didn’t want to do? The very idea of it was anathema to me; how could anyone do such a thing to one’s own species? Even wolves, who were much lesser beings to humans, in terms of intelligence, at least, wouldn’t do such things to their own kind. I don’t like what they’re doing; it would’ve made more sense to me if they just started eating each other, but this seems… pointless. If they wanted to do something, why not just do it themselves? It would be a lot easier than having an unwilling human do it for them.

I agree, but humans are strange; they’re rather fond of doing this, actually. Nyx explained, hopping down from my back and lounging over a patch of soft moss near my forelegs. In any reality I’ve been to, humans always have or are actively enslaving each other. It’s just… part of their collective nature, I suppose.

I stayed quiet for a moment, just observing the strange social interactions of the humans. If what Nyx said was true, then it would’ve been unnatural of me to intervene, given that slavery was apparently a part of their nature. But… I hated it and I wanted it to stop. The enslaved humans would’ve wanted it to stop, too, and I would be doing them a favor.

But… was it right for me to do such a thing?

On that note, what was right and wrong, anyway?

No… what mattered was what I wanted to do.

And I wanted them to stop.

I’m going to kill them. I told Nyx, who didn’t seem all that surprised at my choice. Then again, she did whatever she wanted; it was unlikely that anything could surprise her.

Have fun.

Their settlement was surrounded by sharpened pieces of wood that stood erect – acting as a sort of barrier. There was a single entrance at the front, where the healthy humans passed. The bloodied and weakened humans were left to their own devices away from the entrance; their numbers were greater, but their captors were stronger. They couldn’t escape unless they were prepared to sacrifice a lot of their own, but I had a strong hunch as to the fact that that simply wasn’t an option for them.

Hmmm, I guess I’ll have to kill all the healthy humans first, before freeing the captive ones… It’d been a while since I attacked a bunch of humans. Back then it was more a battle for my territory; they were in my hunting grounds and so I scared them off. Now, I was going to kill them because I wanted to kill them.

No… was I really about to help a bunch of humans?

The though itself was rather alien.

Regardless, I pushed the thought away as I blinked towards the entrance. There was a human, standing there – likely keeping watch over their little settlement. I arrived beside him and bit down in his head, before ripping it right off his shoulders. Screams echoed immediately.

“THERE’S A FUCKING BEAR IN THE CAMP!”

“ARM YOURSELVES LADS!”

One of them rushed towards me with a spear, but I merely tossed him upwards towards the canopy using Telekinesis. The human screamed the whole way up, but stopped as he landed on one of the numerous spiky logs around their settlement, which pierced through his chest.

“DID YOU ALL FUCKING SEE THAT?! IT TOSSED RODRICK INTO THE FUCKING AIR!”

I stood at the front of the entrance. The only way for them to escape was to climb over their little walls.