title: the Nactmer
authors: Teri, Stana
Date: Mon, 24 May 1999 23:13:36 EDT

***
Estela looked funny, walking with her eyes shut most of the
time. Teri
didn't really know why she bothered. With her eyes open,
Teri could see
everyone- and even though she didn't have that good of
spacial visualization,
she
knew what approximately 10 or 20 feet was.

 With a roll of her eyes, she looked forward again and
tried to squash the
irritation growing within her. Shinji's aloofness and his
plastered
half-smile were wearing on her nerves. She felt
increasingly cold the farther
they walked, and the damp blackness had long since soaked
her through. She'd
tried to conjure up a sweater, or
something else besides a sodden tank top to wear-- but her
concentration was
so
fragmented by the strange feel to the dream and by the
constant increasing
pressure of distance she felt from Shinji.

Fog had crept up, yet the grey-green mist seemed to glow
faintly, even
in the almost-night. Twisted, lightning blackened trees
reached towards the
travellers, as the vegation grew closer. Still, they could
barely see
around their immediate surroundings. Teri stumbled on a
stick and caught
Shinji's arm for support, then snatched her hand back as
she felt him pull
away.
She could feel the anger welling up inside her...

"What the hell's the matter with you?" she snapped.

Shinji blinked and looked at her. "Nothing," he replied.

"Don't give me that nothing crap! You've been acting
weirdly ever since--"

"I told you," he said, with that half-smile back on his
face,"Nothing's
wrong. I'm just... thinking. No need to worry."

"I'm not-" This time Teri cut herself off and halted,
pursing her lips.

Shinji kept walking ahead, and Teri fell into step with
Stana as she passed.
"I don't know what the hell's going on here," she fumed.

"Lover's spat?"

Teri shot a whithering glance at Stana. The older girl
laughed
apologetically. "I take it back, I take it back."

Teri paused a moment, looking warily at Stana this time.
Were both
Shinji and Stana simply daffy, or was it SHE who was going
insane? First
Shinji
becomes a aloof, plaster-smiled idiot and then Stana turns
into her normal
self? Teri pressed her fingers to her temples and exhaled
deeply. This was
getting
too much... and all this fucking fog with it's dour
"feeling"!!!!! She was
going to scream soon...

Stana looked thoughtfully at Shinji for a moment, eyes
somber. Clip
snorted from beside and she let her mind drift for a moment
in the
knowledge that he was close.  Granted he was still
insufferable-but he
was real.

She looked around at the gloomy expanses, wondering what
they each saw.
Even in this dream gone bad, she could catch faint hints of
the dream
within. Discordant harmoony lifted on the foul wind.

Suddenly there was a jarring inside of her. Like someone
had just
slapped her in the side of the head and pointed to a sign
that said
"dummy." She dropped her one hand into Teri's and watched
the other
grab hold of the half blind Estela.

"Protect us." she said to Clip, not waiting for his
confirming whinny.

"What are you planning Stana?"

"Me? Nothing. _We_ are going to find that damned book-and
not by
stumbling around in the dark. " In her mind she heard a
voice echoing
"we are all searching to become one..."

Teri heard it too. With a small grin she nodded. "That's it
isn't it?"

"I think so. We're not working together. Kum bai ya my
ladies."  She
reached out her other hand to Emily and watched her fingers
curl around
the others, fingers intertwining.  "God save the heroic,
for truly are
they touched by Him."

Clip watched as the three forms flickered brightly against
the night.
The red, green and blue layers pulsed outward, pushing
against the
encroaching shadows. His hide tingled as he was enveloped
in the glow,
and whickered with satisfaction as  they reached further
out.

Where they touched, dreams replaced the nightmare.  Light
overpowered
the darkness and still they fought the fog, stretching
outwards.  He
saw a shadow slinking towards them and stamped warning.
The tri-colors
enveloped it with a screech.

The Unicorn threw a look over to the mortal boy and saw him
standing at
ease, the inscrutable half grin still masking his face.  He
saw
something else too.
he Unicorn leapt, interposing his body between Stna and the
Shadow
creature.
With a cry of frustrated rage the Shadow beast could not
halt its rush
and impaled itself on the Unicorns Alicorn.
   Clip snarled in disgust as darkness exploded around
them. The
rainbow from the girls flickered uncertainly and then died.
  Stana took two steps back and abruptly sat down before
she fell down.
Clip stood over her protectively, teeth bared against the
encroaching
darkness.
  "Something tells me we wont be able to try that again."
she said with
a crooked grin. "Oh well so much for my "bright" ideas.
 Teri caught the pun and glared. Estela shook her head
wearily.
  *Hist* Clip warned *some-thing approaches*
  The others turned to where the Unicorn stood at bay, ears
flat and
Alicorn cocked agressively. They heard the young voice
first.
  "You be a dream wanderer and not know of me, Horse head?"
 The
darkness began to release a small figure in its midst.
   "It's a child!" Stana exclaimed.
***

Shinji narrowed his eyes at the child. *Great,* the Other
thought, *one more
to add to the fun.*   Standing a few paces apart from the
group, he watched
impatiently as Stana and Emily bent down to the child.

"What are you doing here?" Estela asked incredulously,
smoothing grey-tinged
hair from the child's pale face. Her hand brushed the nubby
beginnings of
horns and she nearly snatched her hands away. "You're not..
human?"

"Human?" the child repeated, an oddly wry smile on his
face.

Clip neighed and scraped his foot in the mush. Stana tilted
her head and met
the Unicorn's glance. Turning her attention back to the
child, she asked:

"What are you doing here?"

The child tilted its head and lifted its arms for stana to
pick it up.  She
did so, warily, looking at Estela as if for help.

"I can take you where you want to go," the strange boy
said, his lilting
child's voice at odds with the sly tone.

Estela and Stana exchanged looks, and Estela cleared her
throat as she closed
in. "And-- where is that?" she asked softly.

"The fortress," the boy chirruped.

"What is your name?" the water elemental asked, curling a
strand of her dark
hair behind her ears. "And how did you come to the Aethyr?"

The child's laughter made them jump-- the sound echoing
dully around them.

"You're not in the Aethyr anymore, silly. You're in the
Nachtmer. My name is
Ramdek."

***