private Far from home. 1x1 with Nightmare Season

[Nightmare Season 617]

@Catpone Cerberus

He simply nodded to her after she looked at the fish. He figured that this would make it a bit easier next time she was hungry. He then stood up and tried to lift the crate with his horn. It was far to heavy. 

Levitation was a unicorn spell, and he was not a unicorn. Instead, he cast a different spell. This time a thick black smoke poured out of his horn and swirled around the bottom of the water filled box.

After a short time of this, it lifted up off the ground and started floating. He motioned for her to follow. He started to head back to his cave. This time, a cloud carrying the crate was following.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Nightmare Season
When the smoke started coming out of Nightmare's horn, Blue backed up and took a defensive pose, she stayed like this until the smoke settled under the box, but even then she was clearly wary of it, though that was probably to be expected. This time when Nightmare motioned Blue to follow, she almost didn't hesitate, and while she followed, instead of seeming wary of him, she was keeping her eye on the smoke that floated the box and once in a while looked around them..

[Nightmare Season 617]

@Catpone Cerberus

Nightmare led the dragon back to the clearing in the woods. He help the brambles up till she could pass inside before placing them back. He then took the fish inside of his cave.

one in the central chamber, he went into the left tunnel. This time he was in a section that he had modified into a kitchen area. Off in a corner he gently set the crate down. Then the smoke he manifested dissipated.

He gave a yawn, it was starting to get late. Hopefully his guest can sleep tonight. He had a mean to learn her language, but she needs to be asleep for that to work.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Nightmare Season

Blue followed Nightmare until he entered the cave, staying outside because even if she wasn't as wary of Nightmare as she was earlier, she wasn't ready to enter a unknown cave with him yet. 

During Nightmare's time inside, Blue made her way back next to the stream an laid down, she was getting tired too, but not because of the time, since she was used to hunting at night, but because she was injured and had just eaten. She just laid there and stared towards the sky. 

[Nightmare Season 617]

@Catpone Cerberus

Nightmare laid down in a mossy patch underneath his strange tree. His horn lit up, and from his old ragged saddlebags, he pulled out what looked like odd playing cards. He shuffled them then closed his eyes. The magic shot a few cards out of the deck that floated down in different position before him. When the last card settled, he opened his eyes and looked at them. He would read the fortunes to see what laid before him.

He also wondered, would the dragon outside come in? Would she stay outside? Or would she take off now that her wing and leg was bandaged and her belly fed. He would just have to wait till he could sense the sweet aroma of a dream or not at all.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Nightmare Season
Blue kept looking towards the sky for few moment before lowering her head on top of her forelegs, it didn't seem to her that Nightmare was coming back out, so she closed her eyes. It took some time even after that before she actually fell asleep, and when she finally did, she started dreaming almost right away, though it didn't mean she was in deep sleep, because due to the dangers of her homelands, she had learned to sleep 'one eye open' so to speak, which meant that even when she was in the deepest states of sleeping, she would still wake up to any unexpected sound, quick movement, or unfamiliar smells.

[Nightmare Season 617]

@Catpone Cerberus

Nightmare stayed awake till the familiar feeling of his food was present. There was a dreaming creature near by. He knew it almost immediately. He had been feeding on his roots for so long that the craving in him tried to take over. But he forced himself to remain strong. He stood up, and with his early years knew how to move without a sound. Without a trace. As he got close to the entrance he seemed to vanish. Just a mist, smoke that can't be seen. can pass through walls and had no scent.

His destination was the dream realm. The mind of a dragon who slept and dreamed outside. He could figure out some of her words by eating from her dreams. Sadly it will not make him a master with just one meal, nor will it erase any of her memories. His kind knew how to blend in, how to hide in the dream as they fed. Even if the subject looked for them they could not see them unless they wanted to be seen.

Though the dream realm is a mysterious place. Reality has no bearing on them. The sleeper is only there in mind, but he will be their in body. He could feel pain, get hurt or even die if he takes a misstep. But years and generations of feeding this way, pretty much bread into them how to remain hidden and protected. The one thing he hated most of all though, as his kind feed on dreams, they become warped and corrupted to become nightmares. Hint why they are called nightmares.

Nightmare Season figures if he only focused on only feeding during times when she is speaking, he could try and feed only on that and get a rough idea of what her language is about. It would at least give him a jump start on learning more. Though sadly being a dream, nothing is guaranteed. Even if she makes up new words it could hurt his understanding once he leaves her dream.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Nightmare Season

In Blue's dream, she was on the bottom of the cliff Nightmare had found here, trapped under the same rock as she had been, now and then shouting things like "hello?", "Anyone there?", and such in her language, among just general whimpering. After some moments of this, group of Timberwolfs arrived, but when Blue tried to breathe fire, only small cloud of smoke came out, again and again, until she became desperate and tried to get herself out of the trap, but not succeeding, and while all of this was happening, none of the wolves moved, and soon enough they broke to ash without any explanation.

Blue didn't get peace for long though, as not long after the Wolves disappeared, another dragon arrived, it was lot bigger and darker color than Blue, and it started right away criticizing Blue, how weak and worthless she was, and how the dragon should have killed her long time ago. Among this dialogue came up the fact that this dragon was most likely Blue's mother. Blue tried to defend herself when she got a change to talk, but only response she got was a swipe of the bigger dragon's claw that broke her out of her trap and sent her flying, the dragon followed her, continuing to criticize her and throwing her around....this was pretty clearly a nightmare.

[Nightmare Season 617]

@Catpone Cerberus

Nightmare Season entered a dream to a very familiar cliff. There under a rock was the blue dragon. This seems to be a review of the day’s events. She was saying a few words, or he hopped it was words, so he started to “eat” that section. Though it’s not the same thing as actual eating in the regular world’s understanding of the term. Instead of using his mouth and such, he simply absorbed the energy into himself. And greasy dreams after so long tasted good. 

When the other dragon showed, and he witnessed the violence after a little while, he stopped feeding. A nightmare already? Even though he was being very cautious as to how much he consumed to try and prevent her dream from warping. She was already having a terrible dream even with out his side effects.

 

He decided to lay low, in the mists that lay on the edge of the dream to watch. He would only eat tiny bits if there are enough words being spoken. He did not wish to eat more than that. Feeding on nightmares will make them far worse. And if things got dangerous he could be in danger. Also, this was a good chance to see who this dragon truly is.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Nightmare Season
Blue getting thrown around lasted for some moments more, and as she was getting hit again and again, she realized something, she wasn't getting injured, sure it hurt a lot, but there was no physical injures, and that could only mean one thing...she got up and face the bigger dragon, managing to dodge the next hit, she then spoke  "This isn't real, my mother would have already killed me." she got hit again but she endured it "Why would you even be here, why would you care, you refuse to acknowledge me being your blood, so why would you care what I do." suddenly the dragon disappeared and the environment changed, she was now in burned down forest somewhere, the few charred trees that were still standing indicated that the trees had been lot bigger than the trees in Everfree. Blue looked confused about the sudden change, even when she had apparently figured out that she was dreaming, though she soon started walking like she knew exactly where she was going, until she arrived to a cave that was partly covered by burned trees, and she looked at it with longing expression.

The peace was soon broken again though, as the sounds of flying could be heard again, and Blue, most likely instinctively, jumped into to the cave to hide. The same dragon from earlier started flying above the area, repeating variations of "come out where ever you are, I know you're here, i can smell your fear." and Blue could only shake as she was hiding in the cave, she may have figured out this wasn't real, but that didn't mean her instincts and such knew it. 

[Nightmare Season 617]

@Catpone Cerberus

Nightmare almost stepped out of the illusions of the mist to aid the small dragon. Though he knew that no true harm could ever come to her, except maybe some mental strain at most. However, he hated seeing others in need of help. But as he lifted up his hoof to step forth, the dragon seemed to have figured it was a dream. So he stayed his position once more. 

“Kudos young one.” He said. He did not fear being heard. He knew any sound he made would be shifted into the mist to match what the dreamer was thinking. Only once he stepped out would he be fully seen and heard. He was impressed with her. Not many could figure out a dream from reality, so she had some potential.

He listened to what she was saying, carefully consuming the parts dealing with her words. It was to soon to have her dream state corrupted by his feeding. When the world shifted and she started walking. He just stood still and looked on. A trick with dreams he was taught was that the world moved and not the dreamer. Though ponies, and creatures always felt like walking, swimming, or flying. The body is not actually there to have forward momentum. However what really happens is the shifting mists makes it seemed that way.

He looked on as she came to a cave, and then dashed in fear inside. Guess she once again forgot she was in a dream, but that was natural.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Nightmare Season
Blue was still shaking against the wall of the cave, but she started saying something, first too quiet for any sound to come out, but soon it turned to whispering "This isn't real, it's in the past, I flew away." she repeated variations of those words again and again to herself as she tried to stop herself from freaking out, the other dragon landed nearby and started searching for scents, repeating threats as it did, and it didn't take long until it seeming spotted the cave and started making it's way towards it.

Meanwhile Blue was still shaking and repeating, though what she was repeating had changed a bit, as she also said something along the lines of "She was wrong, I can survive, new creature isn't hostile.". The other dragon started destroying the cave to get in, but before it could reach her, it disappeared, and the terrain changed again, this time to slightly altered version of the opening she was sleeping in, there wasn't any noteworthy changes, just small inaccuracies expected from a dream. 

[Nightmare Season 617]

@Catpone Cerberus

Nightmare stood back and watched where he was at the destruction of the cave. He kind of understood the little dragon better. Though she did not really speak to much, he picked up a tiny bit of her language. 

After seeing the dream alter to his little clearing, he decided that it was enough for the night. With what she had gone through, he did not want to expose her to a warped nightmare. It could really affect her mind in this state. So with just a light snack of dreams, he turned away and vanished into a drifting smoke.

He returned to the spot in the entrance to his cave where he had disappeared before. Now the crisp air of the forest night wafted his fire mane and tail. It seemed like only an hour had past since his dream escapades.

Another thing he hated about that. Dreams could seem like hours or days, but could be only a few minutes. He looked out through the vines that hung down that made almost like a door and watched the little dragon for a spell. He then turned back and went to his bedroom and laid down. Time for his own nightmare of the past to begin.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Nightmare Season
Blue slept few hours after that, and woke up sometime in the night, she stretched a bit, and changed her position a bit in a way that she would be able to drink from the stream. She wasn't comfortable sleeping in the open like this, because even when she knew it was very unlikely that there was any of her kind around, she felt like she could get attacked at any moment, she thought about it as she drank, and after she had finished, she had made a decision.

She got up from where she was laying, and quietly made her way towards Nightmare's cave, after arriving on the entrance, she pushed her head in and sharpened her senses, after which she quietly sneaked in and laid down close to the entrance, hoping her new acquaintance didn't mind her sleeping there.

[Nightmare Season 617]

@Catpone Cerberus

Morning came and the light of dawn creeped into the cavern through small cracks in the ceiling. A beam of light struck Nightmare in his eye waking him. He was happy to wake. The dream he was in had taken him back in time when he was with his family. He did not like remembering those times, but it was his past and what made him who he was today.

He stretched his legs to the side and twisted his neck. One of these days he would try a bed not made of Stone. However, a bed that could catch fire was not a good idea. If he had a bad dream, it could erupt in flames. With his last stretch he got out of bed and headed to the central chamber. Once there he looked up at the strange tree that grew there.

He looked at the last ripples that flowed from the leaves to the roots under the ground. Normally he would dig a root out to eat, but he was full from last nights feast. He then turned his head to the corridor that lead to the outside.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Nightmare Season
Blue woke up around the same time as Nightmare and stretched, it took her a second to remember where she was, because her short wake time during the night hadn't really stuck in her memory, like hadn't any dreams from the night either. She made her way outside pretty quickly, but Nightmare would most likely be able to catch her tail going outside when he looked towards the entrance. When outside, Blue made her way to the stream and started drinking again, also letting out bit of smoke now and then to warm up her airways.

[Nightmare Season 617]

@Catpone Cerberus

Nightmare did not see the dragon exiting the cave. It was still dark in there since the sun rose on the other side of the ridge. That and he was preoccupied with the strange tree. After he was happy at what he saw, he headed out of his cave to see the morning. He gave a quick nod to his guest then headed for his little plot of farmland and started to water his crops. He knew about enough from last night to give her a -hello- in her language, but he did not want to get her hopes up before he could somewhat talk to her. So he remained silent. A few more nights possibly would allow him to start a very simple conversation. She was just to quiet in her dreams. But all-in-all, it was good. He could avoid corrupting her dreams at least from feeding on very few parts. Though that left him wanting more......

After he was done he looked around for the blue scales and what she was doing.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Nightmare Season
Blue watched as Nightmare came out, but after he made his way to the farmland she turned away, since it pretty clearly wasn't something that would concern her. She proceeded to move her injured leg and wing a bit to check their shape, the leg was pretty good, since it was only cracked at worst, but the wing would take at least another day to heal, which frustrated her because she hated being ground-bound. When Nightmare turned towards her, he would find her clawing shapes into the dirt, looking rather bored.

[Nightmare Season 617]

@Catpone Cerberus

As Nightmare laid his eyes on the dragon and saw her doodling out of boredom, he rolled his eyes with a slight smirk on his sad face. He walked over to her to see what she was drawing in the soil. Maybe if she were drawing pictures, he could try and get some words out of her to help him learn a few more words.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Nightmare Season
There were few shapes that were just that, shapes, but there were some that seemingly depicted actual things, there was few that could be seen as clouds, one that, though it lacked quite a lot of detail, was quite similar to the landscape in her dream, and the one she was currently drawing looked like a low-detail version of and dragon. Blue looked towards Nightmare when he came closer, but it didn't seem to interrupt her doodling, she didn't really have any specific reason to draw anything she did, she just drew lines and saw what became of it. 

[Nightmare Season 617]

@Catpone Cerberus

Nightmare laid down next to the drawings opposite side of Blue. Using his magic, he grabbed a stick and made his own drawings. After he had a few drawn up he started to point to each one and say what it was.

"Tree."

"Deer"

"Cave"

"Fish"

"Bird"

 

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Nightmare Season
Blue tilted her head when Nightmare laid next to her and started drawing, still continuing her drawing without problem until it was finished. She tilted her head to the other side when Nightmare talked and pointed at his drawings, but after a second she seemed to realize what he was doing, and pointed at the pictures in the same order, trying to repeat what Nightmare had said. It being her first time, it was far from perfect, but it was aright enough that it was clear that she tried to say them.

She then pointed at the pictures again, but this time she said,
"skjall" (tree)
"tekir" (deer)
"waere" (cave)
"xiiva" (Fish)

For bird she just shrugged, she hadn't been taught the word for them because they weren't prey and due to lack of living trees were generally so rare in her homelands that most of her kind never saw one. She then pointed at her own drawing of the dragon and said,
"darastrix" (dragon)

[Nightmare Season 617]

@Catpone Cerberus

Nightmare thought it strange that she did not have her own word for a bird. Even his own kind knew what a bird was in the ever shifting sand dunes. But he simply shrugged it off. When she started to copy his tactics we was a bit relived. At least now when he starts trying to hold a conversation with her after a few more dream escapades, she probably would not think about it.

Nightmare would continue his picture word training till the dragon was finished with it.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Nightmare Season
Blue repeated the words in both languages several times, after some repetition, she started to learn to say the words Nightmare was trying to teach him, sure it wasn't perfect, but it was pretty good considering how little time it took. This of course wasn't that much to go off so she was quite far for actually speaking this new language, if she was going to ever learn it fully that is, but it was still something, and the fact that Nightmare was even trying meant lot more to her than he probably could ever imagine.