Nightmares

[Canary]

Feel free to post your nightmares here if you would like to share them.

[Ninube]

Ninube has many dreams, but three seem to repeat the most.

1. Ninube sees herself fading away into nothing. It is intermixed with her life before the Spider. The begging child. The thief in the dark. Someone who only existed at the edges of human civilization. Someone destined to die unmourned, unloved. She is not forgotten, but people never knew she existed in the first place.

Ninube will wake up from these dreams telling herself that Reiko saved her. Things are different. She has the Spider now. They give her purpose. They give her meaning.

2. Fu Leng laughs at her. He wonders why Reiko let her join the Spider in the first place. Reiko laughs. She never wanted her in the first place. She just needed more expendable people for the mission. Ninube can leave the Spider now. Why would they want some petty thief?

Ninube will wake up from those dreams with tears in her eyes. It's not true. It's not true. Right?

3. She's walking along a beach and suddenly a crab turns into a giant man and crushes her with a tetsubo. Sometimes a man turns into a giant Crab snaps her two.

Ninube will wake up from those dreams thankful that, despite how disturbing they are, they are not the other dreams.

[Kyosei of the Isawa]

Kyosei dreams of an enclosed cavern. One that seems to be pressing down, trying to crush him. Darkness all around, no light. A voice, one that is familiar to him, calls to him, begging for help, but Kyosei can't move, to try to help. The cavern dips lower, pushing against Kyosei's chest, pushing, rocks digging into him, keeping him from breathing...

Kyosei will wake, scrambling to get out of his tent. After the first one, he will have the flaps open, so it is never enclosed around him.

[Nozomi]

She knelt in lotus position, seeking to imitate the form that she had seen the Little Teacher use in the past. It was difficult, and she was having trouble maintaining her concentration. Thoughts bubbled to the surface and the slightest sound always seemed to draw the attention of her ears, so accustomed to being aware, waiting for the possibility of an enemy seeking her out. It was not easy to do as he did, and yet she tried. With every passing moment, her legs and knees ached from the uncomfortable position and she fidgeted more and more, not wanting to disappoint...

When she heard the footsteps behind her, her body tensed. It was the voice that calmed her, a familiar hand resting on her shoulder. "That is enough for today," she heard him say and her eyes fluttered open to see gnarled oaks of fingers. The digits were calloused and the knuckles looked rigid, hard like they had been tortured pounding into sand for years, made hard through only the means an expert could used. The hand was strong, docile and the voice soothing. Anything was possible when she heard that voice. It bore with it hope, and as she turned, she smiled, only for the blood in veins to run cold as ice.

For the Little Teacher had no face. "We will continue your lessons tomorrow, little one." As he spoke, she woke in a cold sweat, hand gripping for her tonfa, eyes wild in terror, heart thundering in her chest.

"God... I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." she whispered to herself, fighting to get back to sleep. "It's all my fault... I didn't want this..."

[Shinsei]

The Little Teacher, meanwhile, was having his own trouble finding rest. In his mind's eye, he saw the world rushing beneath him, grass and stone sailing past at breakneck speeds. He was wild, free, running with the wind at his back.

Shadows loomed on the horizon, silhouettes of people passing between tent and cart, laughing, discussing, living in the moments before the end of their journey. Shinsei's mouth split into a wide grin as he arrived among the people...

And then the blood began to flow in earnest, fists crushing, fingers ripping and tearing, lives winking out beneath the sudden assault, unable to rally against their fear and surprise. In minutes the camp was in ruins, every soul released from their mortal shells, and it was all his fault.



Shinsei winced and stirred in his sleep, but couldn't fully wake. It was only by the grace of warmth resting nearby that his fears were banished at all, and his mind sank into blissful, utterly black sleep.

[Jin]

Jin's nightmares are amorphous, shifting things as nightmares are wont to be. However most fit the theme of the path not taken - harnessing his powers for destruction and violence. Moving well past justice on those that had harmed him but reveling in vengeance and hate. Laughing as flames, his flames, consume those guilty of the slightest misdeed.

[Anjing Xia]

It seemed as though Xia tosses and turns for hours before finally drifting off into a fitful sleep.

When she opens her eyes the young Crab is in a huge palace built in the Kami's style. Tall pillars lead up to a roof so high it's shrouded in darkness while tapestries depicting the great deeds of her family and...when she looks closer, herself decorate the whole space.

Beside her is her husband, tall, brilliant, strong, kind, a keen mind and a-
"Chonky rat-rat to visit later, he's great breeder yes-yes"
And he's an 8 foot tall ratman?!?!?

She turns in a panic as the huge creature that was her husband swells under his kimono, his red eyes seeming to suck the light from the hall, blotting out any mention of the Crab or their accomplishments.
"Smol rat-rat clan has sent messengers, Emperor is to make us defender of the south and in return Seidou will be slave-servants of my people again!"
As if in slow motion a horde of ogres ride in on yaks surrounding the pair, hooting and hollering, their leader throws Shiba's proclamation at the ground in front of them. It's at the ratman said, the Empire has abandoned them for the Nezumi.

"This isn't right! The empire would never do that we....I worked so hard to help build the nation"
The rat leers
"Foolish hooman, the deal had to be struck after the expedition to close the pit failed, you pulled Fu-Fu-"
"Who?"
"Fu-Leng"
"Ah"
"Yes....you pulled Fu-Leng from the pit-pit but then had to sacrifice another as the hole hungered for a champion, and you chose someone worse than the traitor Kami, far-far worse."
There's a humanoid impression behind the ratman in the darkness, as it draws closer their features are revealed in the light from the Nezumi's eyes. It's....someone Xia sort of recognises by sight from the expedition.
"Uh hey....I'm the champion of evil now."
"How is that?"
The figure shrugs "Tragic I guess"
"Rough."
"Yeah."

Xia looks between the ratman and the dark figure
"There has to be a way to stop this, all of this! It's wrong, this isn't our fate."
They laugh, it's eery seeing high pitched squeaking from the massive figures
"No little Anjing, from where you're standing this must seem like an 18 leagues run of bad luck but truth is-"
They both draw long blades "The Day of Thunder was rigged from the start."

There's a flash of light and Xia starts awake in her sleep covered in sweat. She spends the rest of the night shuddering in the darkness.

[Jiyo Sora]

There was fire. Everywhere, fire.

He ran through the blazing Imperial palace, desperately looking for the children... any of them.

He stepped over Yuzuru's dead body, Han-Han's still form cradled in his arms, and tried not to notice the cruel way their killers had run a spear through them, transfixing them both.

He saw Shiba- his Emperor, the Kami who Would Have Knelt- facedown, his body riddled with arrows, but couldn't stop to examine him.

Tsubo, Karanoko, their child... all dead.

He ducked around a burning timber and saw her. Jiyo.

She was still clinging to life- of course she was, she was the toughest person he knew- despite the spear lodged in her midsection and the splintered hatchet blade lodged in the side of her neck.

She glared at him as he approached.

"Where were you?"

"I was... I came as soon as I..."

"WHERE WERE YOU?!"

Jiyo lunged to her feet, trying to seize him with her bloodstained hands, but she couldn't quite manage it. She slumped lifeless to the floor.

The children. If Jiyo had fallen here, then...

He stepped through an open door, just in time to see Koyama setting the last of the five heads on a stake in the fire-ravaged garden. The headless bodies looked pitifully tiny in the surrounding carnage.

Jin stood beside Koyama, nodding in approval. Chaihime walked up behind Sora, clapped him on the back.

"You had to see this coming Sora, eye or no eye, but it's done. Our work here is done. And we couldn't have done it without you."

Sora sat bolt upright, his eyes wide, his chest heaving, only a childhood spent among the Hikaru keeping him from screaming aloud.

[Shinjo Koyama]

Koyama experiences a dream that is a crossover between Inception and Groundhog Day, repeated, with overlaps, each rendition a bit more detailed and a bit altered. The notions of numbering is only to indicate significant changes as there are many more transitory phases when struggling for clarity and definition before the dream resets is the torment.

First is fast, he looks from the perspective of some small reptile-like creature that dies squeezed under a large foot.

Second is filled with more torment as the death is not instantaneous. The foot seems to be a hoof.

Third he bites the foot/hoof before he dies in torment.

Fourth he agonises long enough to realise his lizard bite has left a corruptibly green and gooey venomous saliva.

Fifth he lives long enough to see that the creature that has trod on him collapses in convulsions.

Sixth, after a long series of blurry renditions, reveals the creature to be Shinjo in her godly ki-rin form.

Seventh, is when the perspective shifts and he looks at himself through her eyes, a small pitiful draconid crippled beyond repair, a bonsai version of a dragon, crawling in agony.



Eighth is beyond what could be withstood, when not only does he see through Shinjo's eyes, but is also exposed to her emotions of anger, regret and despair with a hint that it might all be because of him in some way.

And when you'd think it can't get any worse than that, there comes Ninth. A creeping presence that had ever been there, the third witness that had ever remained outside of scope, perhaps the perpetrator of the shifting renditions, steps in does... things to dying Shinjo that Koyama's brain has chosen to shut off for how unspeakable they were. In his own crippled agony, he was forced to watch, however, begging for the light to go off and for the calm of death to invite him.

And this is when he awakens, tears having dug shallow beds between the swellings on his cheeks.

[Jiyo Ayumu]

Ayumu opened his eyes to nothing but darkness.

He could still smell though. All too well. The rot was unbearable. And coming from within his own carcass.

He was standing not on his own strength, but because he was lying against some sort of paper wall. And from the other side of the thin membrane came sounds and voices. He couldn't determine what they were saying, but he knew that it was of utter importance, that he had to reach for them or remain in the dark forever.

He pushed against the barrier with all his might. But instead of the paper, that were his own bones that broke, his body falling apart into pieces of putrescent flesh, arms first, then torso and legs, until nothing remained but his head. Still in the dark, still in the rot, still hearing without understanding.

[Hantei Kinsen]

A cool shade covers her eyes from the light above. She’s hidden underneath the foliage with predatory eyes over the movement underneath her. Suddenly, she’s found.

“Mother!” Kinsen hears her older daughter calling out to her, placing a wrapped item over a small tray and smiling happily. “I’ve brought you what you asked of me.”

She hears some solid steps, followed by the voice of a young man, saying, “Mother! I have also brought what you asked. I used all my strength to take this. I hope it is enough.”

Kinsen tries to reach them out, but the shackles on her neck do not allow her to move. She feels empty inside, and even willing to move, cannot. Her body is too heavy as she grew too much.

Behind what seems to be Genji, there’s a line of people formed up, each one with something in their hand. She tries to ask them who they are, but growls like an animal, instead.

Scared, they come forward with the gifts, bowing down to her. A young man rises, telling Kinsen, “Don’t you remember me, mother? I am your child with Akodo-kami. I’ve brought you a gift, too. Just like you asked.”

Two shades rise up at the same time, offering one large gift. While one smiles, the other say, “Mom. We are your twins. Our father has accepted us, and we brought what you requested. We were bastards from your lust for Bayushi.” The other corrects his sibling, explaining, “No, you fool, from Shiba.”

A thunderous laugh is heard, and a large shade brings up a big, round pack. “Even if Anjing raised me, the golden hair I bear doesn’t deny it, I must obey. I brought what you requested, mother. Please, accept it.”

Another, with a darker skin, rises in the same fashion, and says, “Mommy. It is me, your bastard daughter with Nanzi-sama. I’ve wrapped this fine gift to you. Daddy picked it himself.”

One of the forms rises up, overshadowing all of them in her height and strength. She says, “You once told you would be my mother if I ever needed. I need you so much, now. So, I did what you asked. Here it is.”

One by one they approach Kinsen, and unwrap their gifts, showing the delicacies they brought. Being polite, they use chopsticks to bring the food to her snapping mouth.

She takes bite after bite, drooling in gluttony with a frenetic appetite. She splatters the broth all around, trying to nib at every different treat she had asked for.

Still not satisfied, she finally manages to breathe, and takes a good look at the devoured children in front of her. She had eaten their limbs, eyes and ears and more. The only thing they manage to do is to accuse one another they didn’t bring enough to quench Kinsen’s hunger.

Enraged by what she had done, and by the lingering hunger tearing a hole in her belly, she screams loudly, trying to wake up.

Suddenly, Hantei’s light open her eyes. His head gently laid over chest as Kinsen caresses his long dark hair. “Good morning, dear husband. I’ll get us something prepared.”

As she lifts up, her husband's head rolls down her body and thumps on the ground, leaving a trail of blood marked on her robes. That’s the only thing that remained, as she had eaten all the rest.

She's awake.

[Reo]

In his dreams, Reo returns to the cave from a few days ago.

He can feel the splatter of black ichor on his face from his inspection of the wild dog. The cave, or something in it continues to sing, drawing him closer and closer, but no matter what he does, it stays out of his reach. It is endlessly tantalyzing, even as the singing in his head turns to mocking laughter.

He hears the same words from the cave repeat:

Such a difficult life you've led...Suffering at the hands of your fellows for something you could not help...

Reo... We've waited for you here for so long.

Reo... Join us. You will always have a home here...

We could even restore your leg... Make you stronger than your tormentors could ever hope to be...

If asked, Reo does not describe this as a nightmare.

[Doji Kaze]

Kaze's dreams take him to a forest both like and unlike the one in which he had gone to sleep. The shadows were as pervasive, the darkness as deep, but the leaves and bark knew other patterns. Bit by bit, the edges of a village come into view through the gloom. In it, clumps of people in gray clothing move to and fro, each of them with a bow slung across their back.

His consciousness passes through these few in silence, settling before the slightly deeper shadow of the entryway to a small hovel. In the light of a fire that belched thick smoke in the damp air, a woman---no, not a woman, a goddess---lying on a mat cried out silently as she struggled to birth a baby. One man in his late middle age and several young men surrounded her in that close, thick, smoky air. Two seats stood empty against the far wall. In a moment, the baby emerged and the woman reached out to touch him, but no sooner had she done so that she shuddered and died.

Still in silence, the dream reveals a new scene. The village is gone. In its place is the deeper darkness of the forest, in which one can see the baby, now a youth, curled up among a small pack of dogs. Though they could be seen panting and snuffling together, no sound can be heard. In a moment, the youth stirs and crawls to the hollow of a nearby tree, his expression falling when he finds the pot there empty. He rises and, in a low crouch, rushes through the trees to the edge of the village. In it, we can see the gray-clad villagers have decreased in number. The clumps stand farther apart, and look at each other with suspicion. The youth slips through the village unseen and unheard until he reaches the chief's hall. Peering over the lintel, he can see one of the young men, older now, who had been with his mother when she gave him life and found death sitting on a grand chair surrounded by other gray-clad figures.

The youth steps into the hall, kneels, raises his hands in supplication, though no sound leaves his mouth when it opens. The man sitting to the chief's right rises, gathering a small animal into his arms. With a cold expression, he waves a hand to dismiss the supplicant. The chief nods, and two other men move forward and grab the youth, drag him out of the hall, and wordlessly, silently beat him to death in the dust at the edge of the village.


Kaze wakes in silence, feels the oppressive dark of the jungle. He blinks slowly. His hand reaches out and finds no one there. He does not move, but he strains his ears to hear...and at the call of a nightbird he closes his eyes and weeps.

[Hanzou]

The arrow had been more shocking than painful. The attack was unexpected and the barbed head ripped through the membrane of his wings, leaving a large jagged hole. Hanzou found himself spiraling to the ground below, unsure of where he was, unable to see the hunters. He hit the ground with an audible crunch of bone, accompanied by searing pain. The wing was completely useless now. He would not be able to fly away.

He scrambled across the ground searching for a place to hide, looking for any way to escape the men he heard approaching. He could see them now, proud warriors in gleaming armor. Another arrow hobbled him further. There was nowhere he could go.

“Scree richt chect kessst kirrrrr….” He pleaded.

A tall, powerfully built man looked down upon him with hatred, as he raised his weapon to strike.

“You don’t belong here!”


Hanzou woke to find himself cowering from a threat that wasn’t there. Perhaps sleeping during the day had been a mistake.


- - -


Somehow, he had escaped the hunters. He made his way into the cave and fled deep into the darkness within. He now crawled painfully across the cavern floor, trailing blood behind him. In shredded robes, with broken limbs and open wounds, Hanzou felt helpless. He looked up into the shadows of the ceiling, at the many eyes peering down on him.

Some watched him with pity. Most looked down on him with scorn.

“Help me, please!” he begged.

One set of eyes grew larger, as a great bat swooped down to land beside him. He immediately knew who she was and felt a glimmer of hope. Then, his mother turned away.

“You don’t belong here.”


Hanzou woke with tears in his eyes. He wiped them away and gathered his things. It was night now and time for his watch.

[Miyako]

The forest burns. Everywhere she looks, left, right, up, down, flames dance and lap and spread from treetop to treetop, large branches dropping to the ground and sending showers of embers in all directions to light the forest floor. Whites and blues give way to oranges and reds as the whole of the forest becomes fuel for the Great Big Fire, burning, burning, burning away, the colors changing as less and less is left behind to burn. Eerie glows left everywhere as the branches and logs and dry leaves all come alight, their flames high before trickling smaller, smaller, and are soon gone, lines of smoke rising as charred and ashen memories of what had been are all that is left. Gusts of wind fan the flames in all directions, twirl and swirl about, lifting smoke and ash and mixing it into a dark choking stew lifted high into the air before being poured back down to blanket everything.

The village burns. Shadow-figures of human-like shape, all black, eyes red, jagged spikes of shadow sprouting all over them, begin the hunt. Screams upon bloody screams as man, woman, and child are brought low. Heads crushed, limbs torn asunder, bones snapped, necks twisted, stomachs ripped wide open for all the world to see. The bowmaker, clutching his own stomach to keep insides from being outside, forced in his dying light to watch as the bows of current and future hunters are snapped and torn to splinters. He falls over, and the shadow-figures are instantly upon him, dragging his lifeless body out as they tear the hut to the ground. Her own mother screams in terror as she runs out of another hut, pushing her legs with all her might, never looking back behind her to see that which brought her low. A razor-like arm pierces through her chest; she drops to her knees, gurgles, blood pours from the mouth, her life already over. Her body drops to the ground. She went quick. The other screams show others are not so lucky. Blood runs thick through the village, running down and pooling into puddles and ponds, and the shadow-figures jump and dance and splash in it like gleeful children in a summer's rain.

In the village square, a giant fat shadow-creature thing lurks and waits. Bright white pierces the darkness of the smoke: a devious grin of white sharpened teeth, mouth three times the size of a man, a forked tongue twisting about. And it is Hungry. The shadow-figures drag from the huts and the shops and the forest the bones and the entrails and the heads and the bodies of man, woman, and child, the animals of the farm, the creatures of the forest: all are thrown into the great big mouth, the chomping and clashing and gnashing of teeth tearing flesh, snapping bone, and in great big gulps does the life of the forest and the village all disappear. The Hunger does not subside: it wants more. And it will have it.

[Bayushi Umeno]

"DO pay attention Bayushi-san."

Umeno started just a bit and looked around. Where was she again? It didn't feel too strange that she didn't know, but she had to get her bearings quickly. That's right, she was in Stag lands, in one of their courts. That was why she was wearing 30 layers of kimono and carrying a fan the size of a large dog. She felt ashamed though, remembering everyone else was wearing 40 layers, and their fan's were the size of a pony. They were all so elegant, or so she kept telling herself. After all, that's what THEY all told her, and who was she to disagree?

She finally remembered to look to the man that had spoken to her. A small group of courtiers were around her, giving her disapproving looks as they slowly waved their enormous fans with seeming ease. Everyone was one of two shapes; either rotund or bone thin. Perhaps a more lucid Umeno would have wondered how such weedy, delicate looking men and women carried such huge fans with ease, but in her current state, it seemed perfectly normal. The man that had spoken to her was exceedingly pale, as was the style, with a high nose, overbite, and small potbelly gut despite his rail thin arms and legs. He was scowling no less than anyone else.

"Really now, we were trying to discuss the new rouge all the Kami have said the ladies of court should wear, and here you are daydreaming again," the man said in a nasally, almost squeaky voice. Some of the ladies around tittered. "You're still wearing last week's makeup for Heaven's sake! Were you raised by a rat man?"

She WAS wearing makeup she realized. She didn't mind a little, but as with everything since she'd arrived, it was never enough. She'd taken to wearing as much as she could without feeling silly, but apparently she was the only one in the court that felt more was indeed silly. Men and women both powered until their faces were as pale as snow, with red highlights to the cheeks. Their eyes were covered around with eyeliner, thick and gaudy, with nails as long as their fingers pained in the most garish colors they could.

Umeno wasn't certain how to respond, finally letting out a, "Sumimasen, Hantei-sama," meekly. The man gasped, as did all the toadies around him.

"Hantei-SAMA?! How rude! It's Hantei-Morpun now! Can't you remember proper etiquette at ALL Bayushi-san?" The man said, looking positively scandalized. Something inside Umeno made her remember that she caused some sort of new scandal every day. From using the wrong title or greeting, to eating the wrong thing or at the wrong time, to wearing the wrong color on the wrong day. She couldn't remember a single day that had passed without her being the talk of the court.

It had gotten to the point where Hantei-Kami had even had to write his brother Bayushi on the matter. Umeno would have understood some sort of censure or recall, but instead he had just ignored her, let her stay and continue to embarrass herself. There was no support, no care. It felt like to Umeno that the man she had dedicated to follow had abandoned her, left her to her own self once again. But it was worse now; she still knew she represented him and the Scorpion, that she still embarrassed them and made them look bad to the entirety of Rokugan, since all the clans and tribes had representatives here.

Why was she even here? She was a bushi, a warrior! She should have been out in the wilds and along the roads, hunting down bandits and guarding important people from attack. Umeno ached inside thinking about how much it hurt to be here, to be stared at, mocked and ridiculed, looked at as if she were an animal on display, constantly ruining the party. Then she remembered.

"KInsen-sama! Please, I need to see Kinsen-sama! If I can... if I can, I know somehow this will all be better..." she said in a tone on the verge of tears. She had come here for Kinsen's sake, to help her, to be with her. Umeno remembered why she couldn't see Kinsen almost at the exact same time that the 'nobles' finished laughing at her and the man spoke up again.

"That's Hantei-Yango to you! And she's never going to talk to you again after you fought those bandits as a part of that hunting expedition! Don't you remember?" She did now, but he was going to remind her anyway. "We all went out with Hantei-Kami and his wife to hunt pheasants. You're no good at tracking things, or using a bow, or even spotting the birds, so I'm not certain why we brought you along in the first place, but Hantei-Yango insisted, so we took you with."

"And then that bandit attacked. A woman of proper etiquette and poise would have held up her fan and given a proper shriek, but what did you do? Why, you hit him with a hammer! How barbaric!" All the others looked aghast, or would have if their horse sized fans didn't hide their whole face and then some. "Hantei-Yango burst into tears, and Hantei-Kami had to lead her away at the sight! How cruel of you to remind her or her past like that! And to top it all off, you used an overhand swing when proper etiquette dictates you should use a side swing for hammers! Honestly, even when you mess up, you somehow manage to mess up more."

Umeno was in tears now. Kinsen had never wanted to see her again after that. Not that Kinsen had been very keen to see her even before, after she'd paled from her time indoors, thinned from lack of exercise, and started wearing more layers of kimono and carrying a bigger fan that everyone else. How could she stand to be seen with such a muscle bound, tan skinned, bandit fighting, poor etiquette woman like Umeno after all? It would merely serve to embarrass her in front of her husband and children after all!

"And to top it all off," the man continued, as if she wasn't crying at all, "You stole from Hantei-Kami himself! Of course, we traced back your misdeeds to that rickety Kuwagaya village you're from and found out you'd stolen from them for years. It was only with Tengoku's grace that Hantei-Kami forgave you, and even allowed you to stay here in court. What a horrible, disgusting woman you are!"

Umeno ran away, crying like a child. She wasn't sure where she was going, or why, but she just ran. The world was a watery blur all around her... until she woke up.

Umeno was covered in sweat, and she realized she was awake. Lady Sun was just starting to show on the horizon, and most everyone was still asleep, or at least not moving around. She reached up and realized there were tear in her eyes, and she put her head on her arms, on her knees, curling up and letting the rest of her dream's tears out.

[Ongaku no Ryoko]

In the darkness of the night there was fire. Ryoko ran from wagon to wagon, the old oak crackling and popping as flames licked up the carvings which decorated each, paint burning in strange hues, and through it all the stench. Blood, smoke, burnt flesh.

As she passed the wagon of the mothers, she could see an arm lying across the threshold... an arm without a body, burning and melting away.

There were no screams, now, for there were none left to scream. None save Ryoko, and her voice, the voice of which she was so proud, couldn't make a sound.

Staggering toward the round wagon circle of the family leaders, the place that had always represented safety... the security of her people. The center of the tribe, where all decisions were made... where she had overseen the marriage of Joro and Tsuki just two years ago, played the song of the binding...

Bodies were stacked in a huge heap in the center of the clearing, mutilated and torn, as if set upon by wild beasts. The ancient forest of their winter camp loomed overhead, creaking and groaning in a stiff wind, casting shifting shadows and lending an eerie, dancing motion to the otherwise lifeless place. The wagons here had burned down to husks, wooden skeletons of what had once been homes, the tents hung ragged and limp, and the tribe... faces she knew, stared lifelessly back at her from the heap.

As she stumbled to the edge of the pile, the elements did not answer her call. The fires would not go out... the winds would not be still. There was no power in her, no chance of averting this catastrophe which was unfolded before her.

In the distant darkness, among the trees, hunched shapes began to move. Huge, muscular figures, familiar in form, but now terrifyingly alien in temperament.

There, on top of the pile, was another. A woman, with deep rust red skin, a great, wild mane of silver hair, and piercing golden eyes. She had Ryoko's horns... and she had Ryoko's face. Dressed in furs, with a great blood soaked iron club in her hand, she hopped down from her perch, and in her other hand was a child.

It was Tsuki's baby, crying silently.

The woman beamed at her, and in Ryoko's voice, she said, cheerfully, "Oh dearest daughter, I hadn't seen you come. Luckily, I saved one for you. Go ahead."

Unbidden, Ryoko's arms reached out, took the child. She looked up into the face of her mother, took a solid grip, and tore with both hands, hearing only her mother's voice echo in her ears. "I'm so proud of you, Ryoko."

[Taochusu]

He couldn't move. He just stood there looking. All effort to reach out for her dissipates into nothing. It doesn't feel like struggling or effort, it feels like there is no strength. Like the weight of nothing is heavier than anything he can do to resist it. He can't lift a muscle, he can't turn his head, he can't blink, he can't breath. Nothing happens no matter how much he wants it to. And then the shadow rolls in from the trees, like a fog or mist. But it is no fog or mist.

It shifts in a way that looks like there are limbs inside it, but nothing can be made out. It is beyond his ability to comprehend it. It grows and bends, forming mouths and eyes and claws for moments before they disappear and another one forms inches away, all over the formless mass. It glides over him, three eyes forming as it passes over that stare directly into his own. And he realizes that he doesn't lack the strength to move, he lacks the will. He suddenly can't ignore the dread in him. He can't scream, fight back, or flee. He can only look it in the eyes as the boundless thing shifts while the rest of it continues moving over him.

The eyes staring into his get closer and closer to his until he can see through all of it's other eyes. His family, his tribe, the people he has met, those on this trip... he sees all of them. Even people he has only seen and never met. Everyone. One by one he sees them devoured by the shadow mass pulled in through maws that exist only for seconds and only for the purpose of swallowed by them. It chews them up and he hears snapping bone and squelching flesh. No screams though, they are all just as terrified as he is and they can do nothing to halt their fate.

The eyes move away from his own and he is looking at them again when a mouth forms above him. A toothy maw with indescribable shape. Starting out as nothing more than a drip, salive and blood leack from it onto his chest, splattering on his face and the rest of his body. The flow increases as the sounds of bone and flesh being rendered into a horrifying soup of corpses gets louder overhead. Soon he feels the pool of blood and bone growing around him and leaving him covered. A lake of liquefied bodies with chunks floating around him forms, his body stuck on the bottom of it. He can see in it, breath in it, survive in it. And as he lays there at the bottom the pit of fear in his gut only grows. The terror becomes unbearable, but that doesn't stop it from growing and festering.

He doesn't choke or drown as he feels the flesh flow into his mouth and down his throat, then back up and out as he exhales. There is no taste except that of horror and death. The shadowy thing's eyes staring into his and daring him to move. The weight of it's gaze becoming heavier and heavier and his will becoming weaker and weaker. There is nothing to be done except survive in the death of everything he has ever known. Nowhere to look to other than into those eyes that now seem to shift and flicker in the shadows and the haze of blood.

He just stares up and this continues for so long that he cannot understand time anymore. Slowly, light starts to filter in, burning away the viscera and shadow, but id doesn't just disappear. Years go by with those eyes staring down at him. He slowly starts hearing voices and movement around him, but he doesn't know where it's coming from. Even after all the blood and darkness is gone, when the dawn sky is breaking over him, he just lies their unable to move.

Someone kicks his foot to get him to start moving when they see him laying there with his eyes open. But he doesn't move except for a shiver that finds it's way into his body. His mind having difficulty trying to figure out if he is still dreaming or finally awake. The sounds of the camp tell him that he's finally awake and he lifts his head to look around. Standing up he takes in the sight of the forest. Breathing deeply to try and shake the feeling of fear that still sat in his heart, he shakes his head and rubs his eyes. And when he opens them...

He couldn't move. He just stood there looking. All effort to reach out for her dissipates into nothing. It doesn't feel like struggling or effort, it feels like there is no strength. Like the weight of nothing is heavier than anything he can do to resist it. He can't lift a muscle, he can't turn his head, he can't blink, he can't breath. Nothing happens no matter how much he wants it to. And then the shadow rolls in from the trees, like a fog or mist. But it is no fog or mist...

[Togashi Saruko]

Once upon a dream, there was a young woman who was turned into a monkey. And like the stories often went when someone was turned into a monkey, they had to seek out someone to break the curse. Because of course it had to be a curse, right? True love! Yes! That was so often the answer in these stories. So the monkey knew she had to find her true love!

Already she felt full of hope as she traversed the cold northern mountains, searching the most distant places to where she had last seen her love. Her grabby little monkey hands made the climb to reach so high up easier even!

When she saw a great dragon soar overhead, she knew she was in the right direction, and she tried to call out her love's name, but all that came out was desperate monkey shrieks. She was sure she had to hurry, and hurry she did, until she finally found the dragon sitting quietly by himself, meditating. He didn't seem to notice her approach, so she hopped close and tugged at his hand with her small hands. With some annoyance, he shifted his hands away from her and continued to mediate. Since that didn't work, she shrieked and hopped on his back to get his attention - he had to know it was her! And she needed his help! But he knocked her off and spoke coldly, "go away, little monkey, you're bother me".

He didn't care. And no matter how many times she tried, he batted her away, sighing with annoyance or displeasure.

Crying, the young woman that had become a monkey ran away, fleeing into another place in the dreamworld...

...Once upon a dream, there was a young mother who had the most beautiful children in the world. Or at least she thought so. To her, they were the moon and stars of her life. Their scales were so pretty, their eyes shone with their father's light, and they so enjoyed to go out and explore and play. She couldn't find it in her heart to deny them anything... yes... this is how stories were supposed to go.

Two great hunters passed through where she lived, while her children were out exploring and playing. One was tall, beautiful, with dark skin and thick hair. The other even taller, handsome, with pale skin and the sunlight seemed to cling to him. They asked her if she had seen two terrifying beasts in the area that had scared some of the people. No... she hadn't seen anything like that, but they seemed to be good men, like they often appeared in the stories, so she pleaded with them that if they were to go hunting for these terrifying beasts that they would keep an eye out for her children, as she was concerned that these beasts might hurt her precious little ones. "They're the most beautiful children, you'll surely recognize them," she told the hunters. And so the hunters left. But she grew worried, for her children didn't come home that day.

The day after, the hunters returned, their sacks full - a sign of a successful hunt. "But did you see my children?" she asked, telling them that they hadn't come home. They said they hadn't seen any children, but assured her that at least the terrible beasts had been slain now and would bother no one else now. She began to sob, worried that the beasts had taken her children, and so she asked to see what they had caught - so she'd known what might have hurt her children.

The hunters' obliged and opened their sacks. And never had a more heart-piercing wail been heard before as she saw her two children in the sacks, causing all the birds nearby to fly off, into another dream...

... And another...

... And another...

Shirayuki. No. Saruko, stood battered and beaten, looking into the abyss. It looked back, she was certain. Like a huge... eye. Thing. She looked to her side, where she saw a young woman like herself, but with blood-shot eyes and blood streaming down from her palms and down her hands. She was thrusting her hands up in the air, chanting. Calling a name? But whose blood is that? Saruko wondered, and then realised... she herself was bleeding. Looking down at herself, Saruko saw her robes stained with blood. The crazed woman with the blood-shot eyes had brought her here, to the mouth of the abyss... as a sacrifice? As a blood vessel?

Before she could think more, the maw of the abyss rumbled and heaved, and a great figure began to rise from its depths. It was a man, or a god? His skin was pale and his hair dark, and his eyes shone with malice and evil. The woman... Reiko... seemed delighted.

This was no story. Nothing like this was a story. This was no dreamscape either, this was a nightmare. One of her worst fears of the past two weeks coming to light.

"I've brought them all here for you, Fu Leng. Now let the purge begin to make way for your glorious Empire!"

The fallen god easily grabbed Saruko, and she felt her spine snap, immobilizing her. "Use her to hurt Togashi. We'll hurt all of them," she heard Reiko said, and then she passed out.

It had been too late. And Fu Leng had manipulated them all.

This was no story. Not even a scary story. It was her most immediate fear - a fear that seemed more possible than the other nightmare-stories that had already worn her spirit down.

[Kyosei of the Isawa]

The night of the 12th day, after marching, Kyosei sets his tent up, leaving the flaps open on both ends. He hopes to avoid the nightmare about being trapped in the mine again. After a long struggle, tossing and turning, he finally falls asleep...

Kyosei smiles at his bubbly little toddler. Taro was a happy little boy, always struggling forward, always wanting to be somewhere else, always moving. In his arms was Hime - how Ouno-sensei had laughed at the name. "Every girl is Hime to their father!" he said.

But, she was Kyosei's first daughter. And so she would be Hime. Ouno was out at the moment. He and the other tribe leaders were having a meeting. And Kyosei's mate, Kaede, was busy in another room, giving birth. It was cold out, and the midwife was not yet come. While all had known of Kaede's pregnancy in the valley, she was not do to deliver for another 2 months!

A slip and a fall, however, had sent her into pushing at the baby early. The servants were doing the best they could, but they really needed the midwife to arrive soon. His job, till then, was to keep the children on the other side of the house.

"Papa! Papa! Look me!" Taro was struggling to climb onto the table. He had made it to the short legs, and used the table's edge for balance, but actually climbing on it was a new thing. Not that it surprised Kyosei.

"I'm watching, son." Kyosei smiled. The tubby toddler energetically raised his bottom, trying to swing it onto the table's surface. Kyosei smiled at the sight of his son attempting the improbable task of climbing onto a table at least 18 inches high!

"Master! Master!" Darono ran into the room.

"Yes?"

"Master... the birthing... I... I'm sorry... Master, the baby... "

Kyosei's eyes widened as he shot up with a shout! Shaking his head, he sat gasping in his tent. Trying to catch his breath. Trying to forget the pain of the announcement. The pain of the days and months that followed...