[Valerianne Yul]

I decided not to head to Aloenna's grove. I didn't want to see the dryad. I felt too disgusted, too angry with what she had done. This wasn't the real Aloenna anyway, as this was a dream construct woven from my memory.

I walked to the root holding the rope ladder and began my climb down to the farmhouse. Upon reaching the main platform, I unlocked the hatch and went down the spiral stairwell. Instead of heading to the living room, I kicked down my elder brother's door.

The green branch lock splintered with ease. I knew exactly where to hit it because my brother Tim designed it in a way so that I could open it in an emergency. I went inside. I knew Tim's room by heart. He and I were friends until my… 18th birthday, I suddenly realized. Until the day when the dryads erased my memories...

Gritting my teeth, I got into a wooden safe and grabbed the bottle of Oggberry wine and drank a few gulps. This wasn't real Oggberry wine, I knew, but I decided to test how realistic this dream was. The wine instantly made me feel better, more focused, more determined. It made me feel unstoppable, less angry.

I wasn't sure if it was the illusory Oggberry wine or the pact between myself and Nox, but I felt capable, determined.

I grabbed an arbalest from the wall and loaded a poison-tipped arrow into it, winding up the mechanism. Then, I picked up several alcohol bottles and stuffed cloth wraps into their end and grabbed Tim's flintlock lighter filled with fire fluid. Tim knew about my "lack of affinity" problem. He knew that I had no Green magic to defend myself with, so he taught me how to make alcohol fire bombs in case I ever had to defend the farm.

I had never taken Tim's lessons that seriously, until now. After all, who in their right mind would attack a three thousand year old titanic beast like Moosy. Who would raid a farm? Sure, the Sextants had been a threat, but they had never managed to pierce the Judgement Dome.

I put on Tim's armour woven of reinforced bark that he had carved away from Moosy himself. It didn't fit me amazingly, but it would do to protect me. Why the hell did I waste all of my savings on leather armor?! I could have just asked Tim to make me a set like this if I asked nicely! Fucking Aloenna must have made me forget how kind Tim was to me! Day by day she had cut away my connections with my family one by one so that I would leave the farm.

I hung the bottles on myself using a mesh belt that Tim kept in his wardrobe. In this dreamworld, I looked like my twenty two year old self and was almost as tall as my brother. I put on his magisteel spiked shoes and wrapped a long bungee rope around myself. The cord was tipped with a magisteel claw at its end. It was very handy for moving quickly around Moosy. Five years ago, I had practiced jumping using the bungee cord with Tim off Moosy's back many times. It was a dangerous and exhilarating experience.

After raiding Tim's room, I went into my other brothers' rooms, collecting whatever I could find and weaponize.

Soon enough, I was ready. I headed down into the living room. Everything there looked as peaceful as ever. My mom was sitting by her interior garden.

Mom turned and looked at me with a smile. “Back already, sweetie?”

This was new. Mom never spoke to me. Mom never smiled at me. I squinted at her.

“How was your adventure in Amarillia?” Mom asked. “We missed you.”

Something was definitely off about her.

“Perfectly fine, thanks.”

“Oh good, good. Well, have some tea and you can tell me all about it!” Mom said with an alien, cheerful demeanor.

I went to the kitchen, glancing at mom. Her behavior was far too irregular. As I walked across the kitchen I noticed a small black kitten snoozing atop one of the plants. I blinked at it.

“What?”

We never had a kitten. I bent down to examine the small critter. It was definitely a kitten and definitely black… as dark as the Void. Its fur shimmered with tiny purple sparks that looked like stardust.

“Noxxy?” I whispered. The kitten yawned, not acknowledging me.

I grabbed her, lifting her to my face. “I thought you ran out of mana... Are you here to help me? I hope so.” The kitten yawned again. I stuffed her into a big pocket at the front of my armor.

“Mom’s acting hella sus… you’re adorable though.”

I poured myself some herbal tea and returned to the living room.

“How was your adventure? Find any dungeons?” Mom asked.

I put the cup down, feeling odd. Feeling like I had to answer and obey her.

“Nnnn….” I wanted to say no, but I felt something compelling me into speaking the truth. “I ffffffooo….” I stuttered, closing my mouth by force.

“Go on. Tell me everything.” Mom pressed. It wasn’t mom! Mom couldn't string two words together, even whenever she wanted something from me. Mom liked her plants more than me. I swung the arbalest out towards her and shot her through the head. She screamed, pinned to the back wall, colors draining from her face. She was turning into a grayscale blob!

I pulled an explosive cocktail from my belt, set it alight with the flintlock I stole from Tim and chucked the bottle at the gray, indeterminate thing that had taken up my mom’s place. The gray abomination ignited with a flash, thrashing and screaming. It was hurting, but it wasn’t dying. It disconnected from the wall, moving towards me with determination even as it burned alive.

The fire quickly spread across the living room. I fled up the stairwell and out of the farmhouse. Even though this was just a dream, just a memory, I still felt kind of bad about destroying my home. Smoke poured from the windows. The monstrous blob rushed at me from the stairwell, wailing with screams of an angry thing that was human and also not really. I slammed the door shut, jamming a metal climbing hook into the lock. The thing slammed against the door again and again, the wood buckling.

I struck the hook into the wooden fence around the landing area and leapt over the parapet, the bungee cord stretching out and slowing my fall.

Just as the cord was about to pull me back, I released the lock at the end of the rope. Nox made a small noise in my pocket as both of us fell down onto an enormous pine tree. I clung to the branches, the tree swaying back and forth.

The farmhouse burned above me. Moosy didn't seem to care. I slowly climbed down the pine, utilizing the magisteel claws on my hands and feet. I stood atop the mossy ground, not sure what I could do now. The Dream mage was a tough opponent and while he clearly didn't like being on fire, I didn’t know if it was actually an absolute deterrent.

“Hey Valerianne!” A voice came from the forest. I turned. It was my brother Tim. He smiled, walking towards me. I expected him to laugh at how ill-fitting the armor was that I had stolen from him, but then I remembered that this was a dream and that I had an enemy… an enemy that could take the form of other people. I wound up the arbalest as Tim approached and pointed it at him.

Tim stopped. “Aren’t you happy to see me?”

“No.” I said, shooting him in the heart. The arbalest Tim designed was pretty powerful. It was held together and powered by Green magic that he had constantly poured into the small seeds within the wood. The arrow knocked the fake Tim backwards into a tree. I rushed towards him as his face became sunken and gray. Before he could disconnect from the tree I pulled out a bear trap from my backpack, set it open with the Green seed activator and snapped it right over his head. The gray monster screamed and kept on screaming as I rushed around the tree, winding a rope around him, stabbing knives and shooting more arrows into his flesh.

Soon enough, he was tightly bound, held to the tree by everything that I had on my person.

The gray thing kept on screaming, its body shape shifting to and fro, turning into a variety of people, unable to escape from the ropes and the traps. I thanked my lucky stars that Nox had blessed me with sufficient lucidity within this dream, or I’d undoubtedly be the one tied to something and getting tortured for answers about Void magic.

"You will pay for thisssss…" The monster suddenly hissed with a male voice. "You have no power here, human!"

The Dreamancer started to slide through the ropes… as if his body was made from jelly.

Damn it all! I was quickly running out of ways to hurt him!