Wild Creatures

Chapter 134

The dream starts off outside.

Wei Ying can't explain it, but he knows for sure that it is a dream, but he also knows that it's a special one.

There's an alley, a dirty one, and a newspaper flies by him, with the date: 24th November 2023. He hears a sound and it's like the mewling of tiny little kittens. He has to go in there, and his feet are being pulled into that alley. To say it was unclean and smelly would be kind, because it definitely is the kind of place to be scavenged by nocturnal creatures. Bits of fish and open sandwiches litter the ground and maybe it's foxes? Or raccoons? They've made a real mess of someone's rubbish.

It's as if Wei Ying is right there.

He can smell the decaying food spilled around him, and the air is too warm, filled with the pungent smell of frying onions. He's not alone but he can't tell who's with him. And still, his feet are pulling him further into that mucky, filthy alley.

Towards that sound.

It's pitiful, their crying noises, tugging at his heart until he's almost running towards it. There's a box wedged in between the vents for the air conditioning for that building.

His hands shake as he crouches down, and he can see his hands reaching for the flaps of the cardboard box, and he's just about to open it-

Wei Ying jerks awake suddenly, shivering.

Strong arms quickly gather him close, stroking his hair and wiping his wet cheeks.

"Wei Ying!!?"

"I...it was a dream." Wei Ying tells him everything, committing it to memory, every little detail. "It's going to happen on the twenty-fourth of November. Today's the first of September, so we have nearly two months to figure it out, right?"

"Mn." Lan Zhan is more worried about him. Wei Ying is still trembling in his arms and he's not sure what it could be about a couple of kittens that could make Wei Ying so disturbed, so jittery.

He hums his mother's lullaby and gradually, Wei Ying calms enough to fall asleep again.

It had been shocking at first, to hear and feel the spike in Wei Ying's heartbeat, and then feeling his uneasiness, his erratic breathing, and Lan Zhan knew this wasn't normal.

He thought it was another nightmare; Wei Ying had his fair share of those after the events at Wen Laboratories, and each one was traumatic for them both. But this was perhaps included in the handful of prophetic dreams that Wei Ying had experienced which weren't bad, but made him feel a certain way.

Lan Zhan had his doubts on whether or not Cangse Sanren's gift could be called one, because in his opinion, knowing about events before they happened, sucked.

Big time.

If it was for something harmless like a surprise party, and the recipient found out, that just spoiled it for everyone, but if it was for something frightening like, say a car crash for example, that would stress everyone out to no end. Plus, what if the prophetic dreams led people to behave differently, making the trajectory of events different to what was written in Fate?

For his part, he hates Wei Ying feeling troubled in any way.

He feels helpless that he can't take away any of the suffering Wei Ying undergoes, that he has to stay on the edge of it all, watching his mate go through his pain, or the stress of whatever he has seen will come to pass, and it's terribly frustrating for him.

But he can do this:

He pulls Wei Ying closer, making sure to wrap himself around him, hoping that the strength in his body makes Wei Ying feel safer.