Dominance

Chapter 16: A Sprinkling Of Torment

The atmosphere was exceedingly heavy. Every breath felt exaggerated and full of sorrow. It was a crushing weight on Sara's heart. A metaphorical dark hole that couldn't be crawled out of no matter how she fought. A feeling of sinking further and further down with any struggle to no avail. The small, but admittedly unusual, dither of Aleron's presence was the only relief from the crushing despair. As Sara clung to it, she could feel a mental push of him trying to resist the close desperation. Sara resisted straight back, desperately trying to clench on.

Sara was trying her best to piece this experience together but ultimately had to turn to Aleron for guidance.

"Is this a memory of Twister's?" she asked Aleron directly.

Aleron's form moved to peer into the cage. Both the little Twister and Aleron stared at each other momentarily in silence. Aleron's blazing amber orbs met Twister's bright azure blue. When Aleron turned back to Sara there was a sour grimace on his face. He sucked in a breath through gritted teeth and mumbled something else Sara couldn't catch in a foreign language.

"A mind doesn't work like that. It's not possible for a Dreamwalker to perceive themselves into a memory alone. And dreams do not play out as precisely as past experiences. Most likely we are in a dream inspired by a combination of memories and emotion."

"So you're a Dreamwalker?" Sara asked Aleron. She didn't exactly know what that was but was going with an uneducated guess.

Aleron's grimace returned at her question.

"No. It is you that is a Dreamwalker," he answered matter-o-factually.

Sara responded with a blank stare, implying for Aleron to continue with an explanation.

"Individuals with extrasensory perception or psychic abilities are sometimes able to link or associate their gift together. In your case, although you appear to have little control or understanding, you have the ability to enter another similarly gifted mind while they are in an unconscious state."

"So you're saying we're in Twister's dream because we are all linked with our minds".
Sara had a hard time computing that even after she said it.

She looked back to the fatigued and listless child. He'd huddled into a ball with his face pressed against the bottom of his prison, no longer associating Sara or Aleron's presence.

Sara attempted to push her hands through the cold bars as far as she could, only to have Twister recoil further backward into the cage. His reaction felt like a physical slap to her spirit.

Sara sunk to her knees. The pressure in this nightmare was so emotionally draining and she was flooded with woe and anguish.

"With the exception of you currently dragging me here for a reason I cannot fathom, I don't have any direct connection to your Drachund. That is a very unique and specific bond only between the two of you. I am able to see the connection, of sorts, only because of my capabilities-" Aleron stopped briefly to consider his next words. Or perhaps he was reminiscing. "-as that of a seer."

"I don't have any kind of special bond or connection to Twister."

"Don't you?" Aleron responded with a tinge of amusement.

"I-" Sara couldn't really think about it too deeply at the moment. "Nothing like this has happened before, so why now?"

Aleron sat down in a graceful manner, crossing his legs and rubbing at the foundation of his horn where it met his scalp. Being parallel to Sara, he still appeared obnoxiously tall even with the shortened distance of him sitting on the ground. Even high in a ponytail, his elegant white strands of hair were so long that they splayed down onto the floor behind him.