fiction - ljidol week 20 - open topic
Jun. 6th, 2017 06:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hwango1,747 words
What the - ? Do you have any idea what time it is? Why aren't all of you asleep? For that matter, didn't you think that I might be asleep? Well, I'm certainly awake now. I suppose a quick story would be alright before you all go home and go to bed.
Once upon a time, there was a child who was afflicted by the most terrible nightmares. Now, some of you are immediately suspecting faeries are the culprit, because as I'm sure you recall, faeries with spare time on their hands often pour nightmares into the ears of children who don't go to bed when they're supposed to. However, that's not the only source of nightmares. Actually, the world is a terrifying place filled with all sorts of things that can give you nightmares.
As it happens, however, faeries were not pouring nightmares into the ears of this child, whose name was Travis. Travis always went to bed on time, always did his chores, and was always respectful to his elders. Yes, I think it's fair to say that he is the most blatantly unrealistic thing in this entire story, and that includes the talking cat and the pillow made from pure starlight.
Now, before we go any further, I realize that I should make sure you understand exactly what dreams are and where they come from. Unimaginative people will tell you that dreams are just your brain cooking up a soup of images and impressions made from recent and random memories. Others might tell you that they are the result of unfathomable alien intelligences fiddling with our minds in order to send us cryptic messages or prophetic visions, or sometimes just remind us to refill the bird-feeder. The truth, however, is...most of them are indeed memory soup. Yes, I know what I said, but the sad fact is that even unimaginative people are right some of the time. But I did say that only most of the dreams are soup. It isn't common, but sometimes dreams are your restless mind visiting the Realm of Dreams.
You may think that sounds all fuzzy and nice, but the truth about the Realm of Dreams is actually rather sad. Once it was a "real" place just like our world, but it has long since fallen into disrepair. Physical laws have faded, continuity has broken down, and it is rare for things to make any kind of sense. Considering the tragic shortages of supposedly "common" sense in our own world, it's enough to make you worry that we're next, and perhaps gravity or some such thing could stop working properly at any moment as our own world tips over the edge into a slow crawl towards oblivion. But I digress.
As I was saying, sometimes your dreams take you to the actual Realm of Dreams. This can cause your dreams to be particularly intense, or just particularly strange, as they pick up stray pieces of the Realm of Dreams that have nothing to do with your memories. It's easy for a dream you have there to become disturbing or frightening, and then that dream can easily turn into a nightmare. No, faeries often make their own nightmares, which is why faerie nightmares are usually so much worse.
Let's try to get back on track here, or poor Travis is going to think that we've forgotten about him. Travis had real nightmares. Travis was afraid to go to sleep each night, and often awoke in the middle of the night crying out in terror, his heart racing, and his whole body trembling. Sometimes he would remember details, but more often he would just be left with a vague sense that he had been in terrible danger, and possibly still was even though he was now awake. This was because Travis was indeed visiting the Realm of Dreams, and while he was there he was being stalked by a hypnagogian.
Hmm. Let me try to think of an appropriate metaphor. If you're counting sheep to try to fall asleep, then the hypnagogians are the wolves waiting for one of those sheep to stray from the flock and for the shepherd to let down his guard when he goes to chase after it. No? Well, then let's just say that they're monsters and leave it at that.
Now, Travis no more knew what a hypnagogian was than you do. He just knew that he had awful nightmares, and wanted them to stop.
He told his parents about his terrible dreams and asked them what he should do, and they told him that dreams are nothing to be afraid of and not to worry about them. This was because, like many adults, they were idiots.
He told his friends about his terrible dreams, but before he could even ask them for their advice they were already making fun of him and calling him names for being afraid of his dreams. This was because, like many children, they were cruel and insecure and didn't want to admit that they too were sometimes scared by their dreams.
A wise old man at the edge of town? That would have been nice, certainly, but I'm afraid not.
No, next he told his story to the scruffy old cat that lived in the abandoned barn at the edge of town and asked it what he should do. He wasn't really expecting an answer from the cat, but sometimes it was nice to talk to someone who didn't tease him or dismiss his fears as being silly.
"You are in terrible danger," said the cat. It did not elaborate on this pronouncement, however, instead running off to chase after a moth.
Travis was deeply unsettled by this. On the one hand, perhaps the presence of a talking cat meant that he was actually asleep at that very moment. On the other hand, perhaps the talking cat was real, and it thought that he was in terrible danger. One just naturally assumes that talking animals know what they're talking about. This can be a dangerous assumption, but it seemed equally unwise to simply dismiss its warning out of hand.
As the day wore on, Travis became more and more convinced that he must be awake, because otherwise he was having an incredibly long and, apart from the talking cat, rather dull and uninteresting dream. Having convinced himself that he was awake, he found himself very reluctant to actually go to sleep. When it was time for bed he dutifully crawled under his blankets, but as soon as he was left alone he sat up in bed and tried to think of ways to stay awake.
He had heard adults talk about drinking coffee to stay awake, but he didn't have any coffee. He though about getting out of bed and walking around, but was afraid of making too much noise and getting caught by his parents. He would have read a book, but he didn't have any books in his room, and even if he did there wasn't enough light to read by, since his pillow made of pure starlight was actually rather dim. What do you mean, "what pillow made of pure starlight?" I mentioned it earlier. Where did he get it? Probably from some kind of mysterious traveler. He's slept on it for years, why would he suddenly suspect it was causing his nightmares? Look, it was incredibly comfortable to sleep on, okay? You're focusing on the wrong details. The mysterious, unearthly pillow is just a red herring.
Eventually, Travis nodded off while trying to think of ways to stay awake, which is irony for you.
He found himself in the Realm of Dreams. The moon shone impossibly large and bright in the sky. Looming over him was the hypnagogian, and in the scouring moonlight its twisted antlers cast writhing shadows on - what? I never said they looked like wolves, that was just a metaphor.
Anyway, the hypnagogian leaned down towards poor Travis, its dead black eyes ensnaring his gaze. It got closer, and closer - and then a nightmare fell on its head.
In his attempts to avoid sleep entirely, Travis had of course stayed up far past when he was supposed to go to sleep, and a faerie had come to pour nightmares into his ear, not realizing that Travis was already having a nightmare. The hypnagogian and the nightmare became hopelessly entangled, and the ensuing struggle woke Travis up, where he found a faerie looming over him holding an empty silver carafe.
Having been caught in the act and seen by Travis, the faerie immediately panicked and spirited the two of them off to Fae, barely remembering before morning to deposit a changeling doppelganger in Travis's place, who, since he was not afflicted by nightmares, was better liked by Travis's parents and friends than the original Travis had been, and they never realized anything was amiss until it was much too late.
Travis was glad to be safe from the terrible thing in his dreams, since he was now cut off from the Realm of Dreams and subject to entirely different sorts of nightmare. Also, most of his attention was taken up by adjusting to the fact that the faerie turned him into a horse. Eventually, he escaped from his captor while the faerie was out pouring nightmares into the ears of disobedient children, and I think he even managed to get himself turned back into a human at some point, so things turned out pretty well for him as these things go.
The talking cat never did manage to lure the hypnagogian fully into our world via a child's nightmares, and to this day is probably still looking for another child to torment with horrible dreams in the hope that its evil plan will eventually work and it will get to eat a hypnagogian.
The lesson to be learned here is that a good night's sleep is incredibly important, and all of you should have been in bed hours ago. That, and if you have a secret evil plan, don't go blabbing about it to people, particularly not people who are vital components of it. If that talking cat had just kept its mouth shut, it probably would have already succeeded by now.
Now, all of you go home and go to bed. And be careful not to walk into my bird-feeder in the dark on your way out. I just refilled it.
What the - ? Do you have any idea what time it is? Why aren't all of you asleep? For that matter, didn't you think that I might be asleep? Well, I'm certainly awake now. I suppose a quick story would be alright before you all go home and go to bed.
Once upon a time, there was a child who was afflicted by the most terrible nightmares. Now, some of you are immediately suspecting faeries are the culprit, because as I'm sure you recall, faeries with spare time on their hands often pour nightmares into the ears of children who don't go to bed when they're supposed to. However, that's not the only source of nightmares. Actually, the world is a terrifying place filled with all sorts of things that can give you nightmares.
As it happens, however, faeries were not pouring nightmares into the ears of this child, whose name was Travis. Travis always went to bed on time, always did his chores, and was always respectful to his elders. Yes, I think it's fair to say that he is the most blatantly unrealistic thing in this entire story, and that includes the talking cat and the pillow made from pure starlight.
Now, before we go any further, I realize that I should make sure you understand exactly what dreams are and where they come from. Unimaginative people will tell you that dreams are just your brain cooking up a soup of images and impressions made from recent and random memories. Others might tell you that they are the result of unfathomable alien intelligences fiddling with our minds in order to send us cryptic messages or prophetic visions, or sometimes just remind us to refill the bird-feeder. The truth, however, is...most of them are indeed memory soup. Yes, I know what I said, but the sad fact is that even unimaginative people are right some of the time. But I did say that only most of the dreams are soup. It isn't common, but sometimes dreams are your restless mind visiting the Realm of Dreams.
You may think that sounds all fuzzy and nice, but the truth about the Realm of Dreams is actually rather sad. Once it was a "real" place just like our world, but it has long since fallen into disrepair. Physical laws have faded, continuity has broken down, and it is rare for things to make any kind of sense. Considering the tragic shortages of supposedly "common" sense in our own world, it's enough to make you worry that we're next, and perhaps gravity or some such thing could stop working properly at any moment as our own world tips over the edge into a slow crawl towards oblivion. But I digress.
As I was saying, sometimes your dreams take you to the actual Realm of Dreams. This can cause your dreams to be particularly intense, or just particularly strange, as they pick up stray pieces of the Realm of Dreams that have nothing to do with your memories. It's easy for a dream you have there to become disturbing or frightening, and then that dream can easily turn into a nightmare. No, faeries often make their own nightmares, which is why faerie nightmares are usually so much worse.
Let's try to get back on track here, or poor Travis is going to think that we've forgotten about him. Travis had real nightmares. Travis was afraid to go to sleep each night, and often awoke in the middle of the night crying out in terror, his heart racing, and his whole body trembling. Sometimes he would remember details, but more often he would just be left with a vague sense that he had been in terrible danger, and possibly still was even though he was now awake. This was because Travis was indeed visiting the Realm of Dreams, and while he was there he was being stalked by a hypnagogian.
Hmm. Let me try to think of an appropriate metaphor. If you're counting sheep to try to fall asleep, then the hypnagogians are the wolves waiting for one of those sheep to stray from the flock and for the shepherd to let down his guard when he goes to chase after it. No? Well, then let's just say that they're monsters and leave it at that.
Now, Travis no more knew what a hypnagogian was than you do. He just knew that he had awful nightmares, and wanted them to stop.
He told his parents about his terrible dreams and asked them what he should do, and they told him that dreams are nothing to be afraid of and not to worry about them. This was because, like many adults, they were idiots.
He told his friends about his terrible dreams, but before he could even ask them for their advice they were already making fun of him and calling him names for being afraid of his dreams. This was because, like many children, they were cruel and insecure and didn't want to admit that they too were sometimes scared by their dreams.
A wise old man at the edge of town? That would have been nice, certainly, but I'm afraid not.
No, next he told his story to the scruffy old cat that lived in the abandoned barn at the edge of town and asked it what he should do. He wasn't really expecting an answer from the cat, but sometimes it was nice to talk to someone who didn't tease him or dismiss his fears as being silly.
"You are in terrible danger," said the cat. It did not elaborate on this pronouncement, however, instead running off to chase after a moth.
Travis was deeply unsettled by this. On the one hand, perhaps the presence of a talking cat meant that he was actually asleep at that very moment. On the other hand, perhaps the talking cat was real, and it thought that he was in terrible danger. One just naturally assumes that talking animals know what they're talking about. This can be a dangerous assumption, but it seemed equally unwise to simply dismiss its warning out of hand.
As the day wore on, Travis became more and more convinced that he must be awake, because otherwise he was having an incredibly long and, apart from the talking cat, rather dull and uninteresting dream. Having convinced himself that he was awake, he found himself very reluctant to actually go to sleep. When it was time for bed he dutifully crawled under his blankets, but as soon as he was left alone he sat up in bed and tried to think of ways to stay awake.
He had heard adults talk about drinking coffee to stay awake, but he didn't have any coffee. He though about getting out of bed and walking around, but was afraid of making too much noise and getting caught by his parents. He would have read a book, but he didn't have any books in his room, and even if he did there wasn't enough light to read by, since his pillow made of pure starlight was actually rather dim. What do you mean, "what pillow made of pure starlight?" I mentioned it earlier. Where did he get it? Probably from some kind of mysterious traveler. He's slept on it for years, why would he suddenly suspect it was causing his nightmares? Look, it was incredibly comfortable to sleep on, okay? You're focusing on the wrong details. The mysterious, unearthly pillow is just a red herring.
Eventually, Travis nodded off while trying to think of ways to stay awake, which is irony for you.
He found himself in the Realm of Dreams. The moon shone impossibly large and bright in the sky. Looming over him was the hypnagogian, and in the scouring moonlight its twisted antlers cast writhing shadows on - what? I never said they looked like wolves, that was just a metaphor.
Anyway, the hypnagogian leaned down towards poor Travis, its dead black eyes ensnaring his gaze. It got closer, and closer - and then a nightmare fell on its head.
In his attempts to avoid sleep entirely, Travis had of course stayed up far past when he was supposed to go to sleep, and a faerie had come to pour nightmares into his ear, not realizing that Travis was already having a nightmare. The hypnagogian and the nightmare became hopelessly entangled, and the ensuing struggle woke Travis up, where he found a faerie looming over him holding an empty silver carafe.
Having been caught in the act and seen by Travis, the faerie immediately panicked and spirited the two of them off to Fae, barely remembering before morning to deposit a changeling doppelganger in Travis's place, who, since he was not afflicted by nightmares, was better liked by Travis's parents and friends than the original Travis had been, and they never realized anything was amiss until it was much too late.
Travis was glad to be safe from the terrible thing in his dreams, since he was now cut off from the Realm of Dreams and subject to entirely different sorts of nightmare. Also, most of his attention was taken up by adjusting to the fact that the faerie turned him into a horse. Eventually, he escaped from his captor while the faerie was out pouring nightmares into the ears of disobedient children, and I think he even managed to get himself turned back into a human at some point, so things turned out pretty well for him as these things go.
The talking cat never did manage to lure the hypnagogian fully into our world via a child's nightmares, and to this day is probably still looking for another child to torment with horrible dreams in the hope that its evil plan will eventually work and it will get to eat a hypnagogian.
The lesson to be learned here is that a good night's sleep is incredibly important, and all of you should have been in bed hours ago. That, and if you have a secret evil plan, don't go blabbing about it to people, particularly not people who are vital components of it. If that talking cat had just kept its mouth shut, it probably would have already succeeded by now.
Now, all of you go home and go to bed. And be careful not to walk into my bird-feeder in the dark on your way out. I just refilled it.
