Herbal smoke tickled his nose, and an intermixing smell of charcoaled meat, sizzling on a grill, would have reminded him of a mouth-watering barbeque, if not for the sulphuric hint of rotten eggs, so characteristic of burnt hair.

The curtain of smoke parted, and the scenery had changed.

No longer in that room with the billowing smoke vortexes, he found himself back at the village entrance.

Watching from a distance, he could see a group of familiar looking guards encircling a figure made out of smoke, two small children by its side.

One of the guards took a graceful step forward, in slow motion, the pair of shapely thighs disappearing beneath the dark hems of a robe, not allowing a glimpse further up.

Taking of the mask, the guard, Enda, parted her glistening lips, forming words, but no sounds came out.

He was staring at the scene of his arrival.

If only he could see his own face, maybe it would spark some memories.

He walked towards the surrounded trio, barely noticing his brightly glowing companion looking up at him, her green eyes filled with worry, before stopping in front of a nebulous figure.

The tallest one.

Judging by his recollection, this one should be him. No face stared back at him, though.

Only shapeless smoke.

His jaw clenched and his grip tightened. Would he be denied even this? Surely, just a glimpse of his face wasn’t too much to ask.

How thick were his eyebrows? Did he have any identifying scars? Could they tell him a story, like, if he’d been in many fights? Did he win them often, lost some, or even most?

Strength left his face and his fingers loosened.

What color were his eyes?

Something tightened around his hand, and his eyes darted to the side. Two half covered orbs of green light, twinkling worriedly, peered up into his face. He returned the gesture, squeezing her hand gently, before refocusing his attention to the amorphous figure of smoke in front of him.

Just then, the girl of light began pulling on his hand, urging him onward, away from the unhelpful clouds of murky vapor.

Puffing up her cheeks, an annoyed twinkle adorned her face. She started yanking forcefully on his arm, trying to lead him into the forest. Did she want to show him something, or simply wish to lead him away?

A sudden bark stopped them. The light-being sighed before turning towards the origin of the sound. A young fox stood before the two, barking and yelping at them.

The girl tried to ignore it, and urged him on insistently. This only helped to infuriate the fox and she began jumping up and down.

He found it kinda cute. The little fox vying for his attention. He felt like picking it up, and scratching it behind the ears.

The girl halted, turned towards the fox and said something in that sped up voice of hers, an annoyed tinkling of the wind chimes echoing along.

The fox replied with barks and yelps. The girl just shrugged her shoulders, before crossing her arms, finding the vaporous sky suddenly intensely interesting.

After looking back towards the three figures surrounded by the guards, the fox trotted towards him, nudging his leg with her snout, pushing him onward, towards the forest.

Could that fox possibly be ...

The girl was sporting a vexed glare, the green orbs he identified as eyes pulsing angrily as they bored into him. Shaking her head, she grabbed his hand again and started leading him into the sea of trees.

His vision was covered by smoke again, but it was blown away even before he could dispel it with his free hand.

* * *

He was back inside the forest, looking at a man-shaped cloud of smoke bending over a wooden trap.

The warmth around his hand disappeared, and the girl was speeding towards the scene.

One moment standing next to, then dancing, twirling around the foggy shape, her eyes sparkling with an overjoyed twinkle.

Clearly she saw something he didn’t.

Couldn’t see.

She turned towards him, a beaming smile on her face. At least he thought so, before he had to shield his eyes from her blinding light, the dissonant melody of her sped-up voice and the wind chimes reaching him in waves.

“So this is where the two of you met ...”

A female voice mixed in. This one somewhat sultry and a little mysterious, but clearly understandable.

From the vaporous ceiling a shadow descended, landing before him in swirling vortex of smoke and fog.

The shadow increased in height, the shape becoming more and more recognizable.

Or not, as it remained an amorphous blob, supported by eight tentacles.

He tried to raise his awareness, focusing his concentration on the intruder, but the dull headache between his eyes cut his efforts short.

It was a weird feeling, trying to identifying the shadowy blob in front, connecting it with the almost sultry voice from before. The voice appealed to him. The shadowy blob, not so much.

It became even harder with said blob adopting an arachnid form.

The once sultry voice suddenly turned high-pitched. Rapidly rising thoughts weren’t terribly helpful; girls-concert-bleeding ears.

“Oh … so this is how a fay looks like in a dreamwalk … so interesting ... ”

The spindly legs turned back into tentacles and started prodding the glowing girl. She tried to dodge as best as she could, but the ‘attacks’ came too fast. Catching two of the tentacles with her hands, she tried to push a third away with her foot.

It was an unreal spectacle, to say the least. Almost like a childish fight between one being of light and one of darkness. Slowly darkness was overpowering the light, but, ah, the tides were turning when ...

The fox barked loudly, jumping between the two combatants.

The momentary distraction was enough for the brightly shining girl, and she fled, hiding from the shadow behind his back.

Her sped-up voice called out angrily at the shadowy blob, slowly returning to solidity, resembling more and more, the spider that came for the ceremony.

The arachnid looked saddened, her ‘shoulders’ drooping. She started mumbling in her slightly higher pitched voice.

“First time I see a fairy … just had to study her … only a few prods … not like you get many chances … especially their astral body … so pretty, hehehe”

A sudden image of a drooling arachnid flashed before his eyes.

OK, he decided, this had gone long enough. He needed some answers.

The consistently yelping fox, probably Enda, wasn’t helping.

“Can you understand me?”

“yes yes … dreamwalk … different plane … not actually speaking …”

He opened his mouth, trying to get a word in. The spider continued unabated.

“more like … telepathy, strange word, telepathy-telepathy-telepathy-tlepath … outh, bid ma dongue … wait I don’t have a tongue”

OK, this spider was crazy. Where’d that sultry seductress from before go?

“Where are we? What is this place?” Her momentary distraction with her anatomy, missing anatomy, allowed him to address her sternly.

“Told you … dreamwalk … memories … yours, I think … or hers … more likely yours … definitely yours”

The girl next to him started tugging on his sleeves … he had sleeves in a dream? …

The sound of wind chimes returned, accompanying that sped up voice of hers, sounding slightly slower than before.

“thkufsvinm”

“Fairy ... wants to thank you ... freeing her from that trap, most likely … wooden trap … “

The arachnid was circling around the scene of the nebulous ‘him’ opening the trap, prodding the wooden structure with her appendages, using them more like tentacles again, rather than legs. Somehow her shape seemed different, less like a spider and more … humanoid.

“” probably kids … shoddy work”

She was standing mostly on two legs now, thicker and more shapely than before. The other appendages, visibly thinner, switched between helping support her weight, and, occasionally, studying the surroundings, nudging this and prodding that.

The fox, larger than a dog now, started barking and howling again.

“Ke-t Ha-ew--vin’.”

“Fine, fine”

The shadow waved one of her arms, whirling up smoke, the scenery changing almost instantly.

* * *

They were back at the forest clearing he initially found himself in. The fox, the shadow and the girl all standing close to him. The girl, still hiding behind him, stuck out a light green tongue at the shadow woman.

The shadow spider … woman started speaking in her sultry voice again.

“Together, we shall ...”

Her voice rose sharply, into quirky fan-girl mode again.

“Oh … interesting … circle … must ask the Matriarch …”

Maybe he could find a long needle to rupture his eardrums? Or better, suture and needle, sew her mouth shut … great, she didn’t even have a mouth.

“... or maybe ... yes, Druanta would be better …”

The shadow woman was stroking her chin with one hand, while one of the long appendages, now growing out of her back, scratched at her temple. Then she returned to studying the surroundings, the four spindly arms … or spider-legs? ... growing out of her back moving about the grass, prodding the trees, brushing off leaves and even digging at the moss covering the ground. The foliage had covered a large circle, carved into the ground.

A figure of smoke was lying atop it, but as soon as the woman ran one of her ‘arms’ through it, it turned into whirlwind, joining the murky clouds hanging overhead, before being sucked into them.

“Quickly” the fox, now walking on its hindlegs, shouted excitedly, the scene starting to change just as she uttered the word.

The spider woman was less enthused, probably wanting to linger.

“Bugger, I was studying that.”

The girl on his side, the being of light, tugged at his sleeve again, looking up at him with green orbs twinkling worriedly. She was shaking her head emphatically. Something seemed to have spooked her.

“Dontgodangerous” accompanied with the familiar sound of metal wind chimes.

* * *

Everything went dark. The fog strangely absent this time. Something felt … changed.

Somehow, more lucid.

“This is … different...” The spider woman, sultry voice restored, uttered apprehensive.

“Where are we?” Enda asked, now looking far more anthropomorphic, her curves having been returned almost completely, fox fur still covering her body.

“Took you long enough...”

Only the girl kept her lips tightly sealed the entire time, looking worriedly left and right. She flinched when the sound of bolts being locked reverberated loudly.

Lights flickered into existence, marking a path in front of the quartet, erupting pair by pair along a wide hallway, illuminating a myriad of doors.

Some looked ancient, like moss-covered stone, others resembled heavy steel doors, and still others like … plywood office doors?

He started to move forward, but stopped, feeling a sudden tug, pulling him back. The girl’s light was growing dim, the only brightly glowing part, her fingers, desperately clinging to his wrist.

His free hand moved to her head, gently patting it. She looked up at him with widened green orbs, before staring at the floor again.

She was the only one of the three who didn’t change much since the beginning. He wondered if she knew this place, had any connections towards it. She knew something.

Bad memories, perhaps.

He moved his fingers from her head to her hands, before kneeling in front of her.

Just continuing to smile at her, caressing the back of her hands gently. He wanted to reassure her. Was there something he could say? Some magic words to make her feel safe?

After what seemed like forever, she nodded weakly, and the group set off.

* * *

They kept on walking through the hallway, trying various doors, all of them locked.

All but one. Forcing it closed again, they agreed to never mention it again.

Ever.

Reaching the end of the dark hallway, they stood before a huge double-sided door.

Almost two and half meters high, the door appeared to be made from solid wood, oak perhaps, reinforced with wide iron straps, fist sized nails securing them on the wood.

A huge lock, held in place by chains, was keeping the door shut tightly. Its keyhole was surrounded by what looked like two hooded figures, carrying long scythes, one held normally, the other upside-down. The blades reached from one figure to the other, completing the encirclement.

The chains appeared to grow out the Reapers’ backs, lodged between two lumps that might once have extended into wings.

As he moved closer to the door, the high-pitched noise returned. An unwanted companion.

An almost forgotten pain.

Only this time, even the others could hear it.

The girl of light kept shaking her head, whimpering something, but it was drowned out by an ever increasing shriek.

Like a warning. Telling them to stay away.

Covering his ears, he tried to back away, but stumbled, his sense of balance suffering from the sound. Tumbling backwards, he overcompensated forward, and trying not to kiss the floor, his hand touched the lock.

With an audible click, the lock sprung open, the scythes retracting into the Reapers’ robes, the chains that held it in place falling to the floor.

‘What’s the keyhole for then’, he intended to scream loudly. But other sounds muffled his voice.

The echo of the rattling chains, and the sound of the lock smashing into the floor, traveled down the hallway.

The humanoid spider and fox were looking at him accusatory, while the girl was cowering behind him, holding onto his back with quivering arms.

The door swung open and the quartet was bathed in light.

* * *

In an instant, they found themselves transported to a meadow. The sun up in the sky, sending warm rays of light at the group. The chirping of birds echoed in the distance.

Their mouths agape, the group was left confused.

They had expected something else. Someplace darker. Maybe some flames. Definetly no birds.

A gentle breeze blew from behind.

His gaze followed leaves and dandelion snow floating in the air, blown towards a solitary tree in the middle of the idyllic meadow.

A large crystal was standing in its shade. Something was circling it, a large creature of pure light, with several tentacles trailing behind it.

Something was trapped within the structure.

No ... someone.

The person looked strangely familiar.

The creature noticed them.

Enveloping the structure with its body, its tentacles drilled into the ground and its head turned towards them.

An almost earth-shattering shriek was sent their way.

It stopped just a suddenly. Its head staying locked on the quartet.

He felt like it was looking at him.

Staring at him.

One of the tentacles was pulled out of the ground and moved towards him gingerly.

Quivering even.

Like it was reaching for something precious.

Then smoke erupted around them, covering them, shielding them from the creature.

Everything went dark.

He opened his eyes, back in the village-chamber, the room still swirling before his eyes. Everything felt slightly out of focus.

His head felt like it was splitting apart, something alive trying to worm its way outside.

If this was how hangovers felt like, he probably was not a heavy drinker.

The spinning came to a slow stop, and he began recognizing shapes again.

To his right a coughing Enda, in front of him the worried face of the old granny.

He looked to his left and a small shriek almost escaped him.

A large cocoon was standing next to him, covered in webs, long strings connected to the walls and floors.

Author's Note:

Don't worry if this chapter leaves you a little confused. It's meant to. Although never having drugs myself, I have been informed that such trances can be quite disorienting and almost nonsensical, although this one appears to be quite lucid.

There's some hints and such for future developments and even arcs, but I hope I'm not too 'spoilerish'

As always, your input is greatly appreciated, either in the comments here, or the reader participation thread!

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