A Dreamer's Tide

Prologue

It all seemed fine and normal, for Luz Noceda, today was just like any other day in the human realm. Going through what seemed like the same cycle day in and day out. Waking up and going to school, despite not getting enough sleep, was normal. She rubbed her tired eyes as she grabbed her bag. The bag had multiple pins and patches of all sorts on it. Just to let everyone know that it was hers and hers only. From then on, she proceeds to put on her shoes and leave her room as ready as she'll ever be for the long day ahead of her. Luz walks into the kitchen, and finds her mom in there, her breakfast sitting idly on the table in front of her. Like always, she made small talk with her mom while trying to wake herself up fully with orange juice. She stopped to eat before racing out of the door so she could catch her bus, not wanting to miss it like she did the week before. Then her mom called out to her,

"Have a good day at school, Mija! Remember, no dream-catching there!"

"I won't, mom! I promise!" She called out, shutting the door behind her.

Luz rushes out just in time. The bus stops in front of the house, and she gets in. She took an empty seat and sat down. Even through her tired daze, she felt as if all eyes were on her as she glared out of the window. She wasn't exactly normal; that was a given. Yeah, she's typical of the 'weirdo' kid, but even still, she wasn't exactly fully human. Luz has some sort of ability of sorts, though only a few people know about it. Somehow, in some way, she can manipulate other people's dreams. Every time she goes to sleep, she wakes up more tired than refreshed. She didn't understand how that was even possible, but it was. That alone takes a toll on her grades and how she acts around others. People found her strange, but she tried her best to give it her all in everything. It's one thing after another at this point. Luz lets out a sigh and leans back against her seat. Now recalling something that she's seen in someone's dream. It was a little girl holding a flower in her hand. It was a tulip, and the little girl handed Luz the flower and hugged her. As if she had just saved her from something unknown to her. This took her by surprise, but at least she made someone's night. That was all she needed to keep going like this.

Yet today felt different. For some reason, however, she felt like something was off. She didn't know what it was, but today felt like it was going to be peculiar and might just slip her mind at the last moment. When the bus finally stopped, she and the other kids got out and went inside the school building. She didn't see her friends around, so she just went to her locker and proceeded to do the combination to open it. It took a few moments to get it open. Inside were her things. From her school books to her favorite Azura books. Her fanart and other drawings were neatly in there, along with some magnets and stickers and a whiteboard she kept in there for reminders and such. Luz grabbed her book and was about to close it. However, Luz was interrupted when she was met with her locker being abruptly slammed shut. Startled, she almost dropped her books, but she caught herself just in time, all except for a paper she dropped. She looked at who did it, and frankly, she wasn't surprised. It was one of the cheerleaders, Avery Right (my head cannon name for her, btw). She was the first of many who bothered with Luz like this. Avery scoffed as she walked away from Luz, saying,

"Hey dreamer, maybe if you weren't in your head so much, you'd see that not everything is made up!" She spoke with a bitter laugh that seemed like it could echo if the hallway was empty, which wasn't for the time being.

Luz just watched as her two other friends stood there and laughed at her before they walked away alongside the cheerleader. Sighing, Luz picked up a piece of paper that flew down and put it on top of her stack. After that, she decided not to think about it any more than she should and went to her first class. Just like always, school goes by like any other day. Feeling bored and exhausted at the same time. So much so that she gets called into the office to make sure everything is alright. Luz blames it on her studies, knowing that she couldn't tell them anything outright unless she wanted to deal with other problems down the line. They didn't need to know after all. It's not like they'd believe her to begin with. She didn't want to go to Reality Check Camp since they had recommended it the year before to her mother. Luz didn't want to go there since she felt like she didn't need it. Either that or she did, and she just didn't want to do something like that. Sometimes she wonders what would happen if she did something like that. Maybe then they could figure her out. After school, her mom picked her up in her car. It was just another silent drive back to her house. When they arrived, Camila looked at her daughter with a worried glance.

"Is everything okay at school, Mija?" Her mother asked, "You've been quiet here lately."

"Yeah, just tired, mama," Luz admits with a yawn.

As they spoke, the car was parked as it usually is.

"Right, of course, are you hungry for anything? We could stop somewhere if you'd like," she said sweetly to her daughter as she shut off the car and got out.

Luz just shook her head and got out of the car. Her mom, close by her, went inside as well. They took off their shoes, and then Luz headed straight to her bedroom while her mother went to the kitchen.

"Call me if you need anything; I have to study for a test tomorrow," Luz said, shutting the door behind her.

Despite what she said, Luz went to her room and laid down on her back on her bed. Looking up at the false stars that were stuck onto the ceiling a year or so prior. She reached up only to take her hand back from it. The day got late, and she decided to go see what her mom was doing, only to realize that she had gone to work already. Leaving a note to do her chores and to eat something before she went to bed. After realizing this, she went outside to the front porch. It was nice and dark out. The cool breeze blew the leaves from the ground, taking them further into the forest. It was the type of night that you would wish never ended. Luz always enjoyed the forest view; it was calm, not to mention peaceful. Nights like this made her imagination run wild, creating scenes in her mind like the many she'd seen or read about in her fantasies. An interactive imagination is perfect for a place like this. The ways the mind can be manipulated into being seen as a being of importance, whether hero or villain, didn't matter to her. Both sides had their own story to tell. Being at the center of their lives was all they needed to get a kick out of their lives. After all, every hero has their origins in coming to greatness. Then Luz took a deep breath and then froze for a moment. That odd feeling started to creep up again, causing her to shiver. The feeling that something wasn't quite right trickled again within herself. Along with this, she heard sudden movement in the backyard. A twig snapped behind her; the sudden noise made her look around herself for a moment. Knowing well that one crazy conspiracy guy was still out there somewhere, she ran inside and grabbed her baseball bat from inside before running out to the old abandoned house.

"Alright, creep, come out already before I call the cops again!" Luz shouts into the night.

Luz notices a shadow run past her, her eyes as gold as ever. She gasped, looking in the direction the shadow went. Maybe it was an animal? She wondered. Before she could even think of that possibility, something rather valuable was dropped. Luz went over and picked it up; the item was a key of some sort. Its design was like no other; it was a rather unique key, to say the least.

"Hey! Wait! You forgot your key."

The mysterious figure ran off into the night. Unaware of what they've dropped in the midst of it. Luz looked at the key. The key itself was a brown and yellow key that had an owl-like eye at the center of it. She twirled it between her fingers in awe of the strange key. It seemed important enough to not just abandon it. Not wanting to be called a thief, she ran after the shadowy figure into the night. The crisp air made the wind cooler as the leaves swished by naturally. However, she was not aware of what kind of adventure this would lead to.

～～ ✦⁺˚⋆｡°✩₊～～

(A//N: Hey there! It's been a little while huh? Yeah, sorry about that. I haven't been posting lately since they blocked Wattpad on my school computer (like they block that but not ao3?? I have an account on there btw the same user) so it's getting harder to post things like this to its full extent especially since that they're might be more grammar errors and such since I'm typing on my phone. Once I get a job I'm planning on buying a laptop of my own so that way I can post more and not have so much storage in my phone. I do have a lot of drafts this one being one of them and I think it's about time I posted something fanfic related to a fandom I surprisingly haven't written like an official fic for yet better yet it's an Au fic of toh! I don't know how many will see this but if I should continue let me know since I have a few ideas that I'm willing to explore with this since the official series is completed (loved it). Once I get things sorted out I will try to clean up any errors or edit it a bit so yeah! Anyway I'll catch you guys later have a good day/night ~💜)