Unlikely Friendship
Just a small thing I wrote for my friend's birthday. It describes how our two characters most likely would have met as well as the general antics they would get into.
The dragoness lay in her bed in the throes of a restless sleep. It had been a rough day and her subconscious mind was trying to cope within her dreams. Her mate had been ignoring her more and more over the past months. Things had finally reached a boiling point and she forced herself to leave him. Worst of all was the loneliness. She only had forced acquaintances from school and her family was out of the question. Her brothers were rude and often chose her to pick on, her being the only woman in the house. Being raised by a father who believed women were only fit for cleaning and cooking didn't help much. She dreamed in that sort of half dream that meant she wouldn't feel rested in the morning. However, even if she had been fully awake, she wouldn't have been able to notice the unexpected intruder. It appeared from the shadows, crawling from under her bed from an esoteric path only he could see. He was an Alp, a creature that haunts dreams and turns them from bad to worse. And yet, he was a strange breed. Unlike the common monsters of his name, he was quite tall and thin. He dressed in fine clothes of an age long passed and a distant land, but most striking was his head. It was a carved Jack-o-lantern lit by an ethereal flame. He looked down upon the sleeping dragoness with curiosity. She reminded him of someone from an epic many years ago, uncountable years no mortal creature could fathom. He moved to her sleeping body and stood on her with ease. He was light as a feather, though in mere moments he could increase his weight enough to crush even her sturdy bones. He knelt down and moved his face near hers, just enough to let his consciousness slip into hers.
In an instant he found himself inside her dreams. He explored dreams fairly recently as of late. Dream lands were the only place he couldn't see into from afar and it provided quite a lot of insight about the thoughts of whoever he chose to visit. He scanned the area to get a grasp for her levels of imagination. He was in a run down building and, judging from the desks and white boards, it was a school. The dragon girl sat in the corner, but no other people could be seen. "Hmm. School, representing a feeling of confinement and forced conditions. Dilapidated, indicating that these issues have been here for some time. Total isolation as a representation of loneliness and neglect. He turned to the dreamer. She seemed to be writing something, but when she took notice of the personified nightmare standing in the room, she panicked and scrambled to hide her papers. The Alp approached her wanting to know what she had been committing to paper, but also hoping to frighten her with his visage. Only a little. He wasn't trying to be cruel to someone he could tell was already on hard times. "I'm sorry teacher! I was just getting everything ready!" she yelled as she searched frantically for her backpack. Her mind caused her stress by not having it be with her when she needed it. A common fear of being unprepared. "What is it you're working on?" He said as he peered over her with his looming posture. Words didn't appear legibly within dreams and could change in an instant. She saw him as an authority figure and she would explain vocally when asked. However, she hadn't been writing words at all. The Alp saw drawings in various stages that, unknown to the dragon, were ideas for her art hobby forming in the back of her mind. "You like to draw?" Asked the creature to start a conversation. "Yeah, but I'm not that good at it. I'm trying to find my homework, but I can't find my backpack!" "Nonsense!" he shouted excitedly. "The work of an artisan should never be put after menial and pointless busy work. And while we're on the topic, I'm not your teacher. You're dreaming right now and I'm merely a visitor."
The world around the two changed, imperceptibly to her but quite obvious to him. The minor details that behaved inconsistently became more stable as the dreaming girl moved to a higher stage of sleep. "Well yeah you're not my teacher. You're... a scarecrow!" "I am not a scarecrow! I am a Nyxian Alp, bringer of nightmares!" He boasted with a slight exaggeration. The confusion of him for a scarecrow was a common misconception, yet one that irritated him. "Ahuh. What's your name then?" She asked knowing what his answer would be. "Most call me Jack, as you can see." He gestured towards his face. "So you _are_a scarecrow!" she teased with a snide grin. "Listen you speck! You're obviously going through something right now and I am so graciously offering my help." "Oh, right." The dragon commented as she lost her enthusiasm. The world suddenly grew dimmer as her problems came back to her mind. She delved back into a deeper stage of sleep in which she had less control. Jack took the time to male himself scarce, hiding from her view. A loud crashing noise startled the dragon and, completely forgetting about her visitor, she bolted from the room. She ran down the hall, checking every door only to find it locked. She looked down the lengthy passage to see a beast seeking for her. It was quite wolf like, but large enough that it scraped the ceiling despite its hunched over posture. She continued to flee and attempt to open doors until finally one opened. The doorway lead to her boyfriend's room where he sat casually looking at a computer screen. She begged and screamed for him to help her, to save her from the coming beast. "Hold on Ki, I'm in the middle of a match!" he said as she tried to run at him. Suddenly her foot became tangled. She looked back to see a tangled mass of hair growing as it wrapped around her leg. She hit the ground with a thud and clawed at the floor to keep herself from being pulled back into the hall. She tore at the knotted hairs and shredded them with her claws, but it was too late. The werewolf had caught up to her. She screamed and her corporeal body squirmed and twitched. Just as the monster loomed over her, ready to devour, a blade shot through its chest. Jack had felt it time to intervene. "Keep in mind, no matter how frightening something may seem, you can always fight back." he stated casually from behind the beast. He approached her and lent a claw to help her up. She was hesitant, but with forceful effort, he pulled her to her shaky feet. She was naturally drawn to laying down, a symptom Jack recognized as her mental body trying to resynchronize with her physical body. The chemicals that numbed her body and helped her stay still were wearing off. She was slowly waking up. Despite how he pulled on her arm, she collapsed down onto the ground again. Jack turned and saw the beast still struggling despite what would be a mortal wound on a living creature. "Persistence shows you put more weight onto your problems than they're worth. You should relax more." he advised as he approached the wolf again. He wrapped his claws around its throat and squeezed with all his might. It was a sadistic pleasure he found himself frequently doing to a helpless victim. Luckily it wasn't a real creature suffering because of him. The dream faded as he continued until finally the dragon woke on her bed. She rubbed her eyes as she tried to recall her dreams. She remembered only the most recent events, but it was still foggy. She could only recall being attacked by one of her reoccurring nightmares but something had saved her and gave her life advice.
She shuffled out from her sheets and groaned. Despite the last few moments of her dream, she had managed to get some rest from it. She stretched while she continued to dwell on what she had imagined. Finally she recalled the tall and dark monster who had been friendly to her for some reason. He was dressed like a medieval villain and acted like a pompous neck beard. "What a nerd." she muttered to herself. "Excuse you!" Jack accused in an attempt to startle her in addition to making his presence known. She nearly jumped through the roof from his sudden speaking. Before she could cry out of fear he clamped his claw around her beak. "I told you I was just visiting your dream. You should be well prepared for me to be real." She struggled for a moment before calming down. He removed his claw."So what's your name?" He asked. "Uhh, I'm Ki'eruu" She answered with uncertainty. She was still trying to comprehend that her mysterious visitor was real. Meanwhile, Jack looked at her full body now that it wasn't covered by her bedding. She was covered in black scales with a stripe of purple plates going down the center of her body. In her dream she had been tall and thin, but her actual body was more rounded and slightly shorter. "So what, you just break in to teenage girls rooms and invade their dreams?" She asked accusingly. She didn't actually feel insulted or creeped out by him. He just happened to react amusingly to her teasing. "Hardly. You just happened to remind me of someone. And all besides, you seem like you could use some company." She sighed and sat back down on her bed. "Yeah, My stupid ex always ignored me because he was so into his game. I even offered to play with him, but he doesn't want to!" "Honestly it sounds like you did the right thing leaving him." "How did you know I left him and he didn't break up with me?" "It's because I can see everything." He answered with a mischievous grin. She didn't know it, but he actually wasn't joking. Sudden a loud male voice rang out from within the house. "Ki! You better not have your boyfriend up there!" followed by the creaking of stairs. Without a word, Jack dived under the bed and into the shadows underneath. Ki's father threw open the door and looked around suspiciously. "Who were you talking to?" He questioned. "Nobody, Dad. I just woke up. And I broke up with my boyfriend." "Oh really?" he questioned mistrustfully. He approached her bed and flipped up the covers enough to look underneath. However, he saw nothing by some minor clutter. "Hmm. Well I'm glad he left you. He was a scumbag anyways. He was making you slack off with your chores. Oh, that reminds me! I've got a lady friend coming over tonight so you're going to have to clean up the kitchen really good. She might be your future step mother, so I need to make a good impression." "Yes, sir" she responded while resisting the urge to shudder. He left the room and shortly afterwards Jack crawled out from under the bed. "How did you do that?" Ki asked with mild amazement. "Same way I came here in the first place." he responded esoterically. "You were drawing something in your dream. What was it?" He asked as if the interruption had never happened. "Oh, let me show you!" She answered, then suddenly remembered she needed to keep her voice down. She found a nearby drawer and pulled it open to reveal a sketchbook. "I recently bought some really good colored pencils. I've been working on this for like a month now." Jack peered over her shoulder to see a remarkably complex piece of work. It depicted a dragon, though one quite unlike her own species. It was a massive being, the size of the cosmos themselves. It was all manner of colors and surrounded by galaxies and astral bodies. It was long and serpent-like, and in place of horns, it had antlers stemming from its forehead. Its claws held two mysterious tools, and though Ki herself didn't know why she had drawn it that way, but she liked it. Yet Jack knew exactly what she had drawn. It was an ancestral memory from a previous life, one he had observed and written about. It was the dragon god Vehznous. "It's very well done. Have you considered selling your art? You might even be able to work by commission." "I've been thinking about it, but I just don't have time. Once summer break starts I might be able to start though." She said, then looked at a nearby clock. "I have to get ready for school now. Please don't tell me you're going to stalk me there too." "I don't stalk." Jack protested. This girl had a habit of rubbing him the wrong way, yet he knew it was just a way of amusing herself. Jack looked at the window to the room and saw it lit from outside. "I suppose I should be leaving as well. I don't exactly like sunlight too much." "Alright. Vampire Scarecrow." She mocked him once more as he started to climb under her bed again. He merely grunted his disapproval before disappearing.
He was certainly interesting, Ki thought to herself. He seemed to be out of touch with modern style, but she only saw this as an opportunity. When she got back from school, she would show him all kinds of things he probably didn't know about. She would show him video games, talk about movies. Hell, he might even be able to help her find a new boyfriend. While it was quite an unorthodox meeting, she knew he would be a great friend. Nobody else would know, but she could always have someone to talk to when she needed. For the first time, it wasn't just some random person she happened to get along with at school. It wasn't some guy just looking to get with her and leave on a whim. It certainly wasn't that disgusting leech of a person who pathetically feigned interest just to get free art. He would be a friend for many years to come.