Run come! On Don't stop it's behind us, I shouted to Mandy who was almost at the edge, by the time we reached the end of the gap and managed to jump out of the dream, but we were not safe we still needed to get back to the colony, and we had no idea how to lose the hunter.
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Before I continue I think you should know, that I am not like you, I am a dream keeper, but the truth is that I am only a guide for the fairy collectors, who are in charge of fixing bad dreams before they destroy people and take a little of their vital energy in return and the one who follows us as a fairy hunter, is practically an evil part of my offspring.
Our tribe needs the vital energy that the fairies collect in their working days and they need protection and therefore we offered it, but there are individuals who did not agree, and not only wanted a little vital energy, but all, but as only fairies can collect it, they need to hunt them, to put them to work for their benefit and well, returning to the story...
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We were hiding in one of the many forests of the world, hoping to find another person with a dream, for all dreams are connected, they are not only our way of finding sustenance, but also our means of transportation, and we cannot open a portal to the tribe until we find a dreamer and are sure that no hunter is following us.
Are you not tired? - Mandy asked me while breathing heavily on my shoulder, I answered her flatly no as I stood up, and she just kept talking – you should rest we have some time running away – to which I replied – I can't rest when we are being chased, I might end up dead and if you get caught believe me you won't want to stay alive.
When I finished speaking I looked at her and saw a red dot on her neck and I jumped to defend her receiving the impact of the tranquilizer directly in the chest and seeing through Mandy's tears I could only tell her survive, and I will find you, and she started to run while I dropped to the ground.
Moments later…
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I start to get up (luckily the amount of anesthesia for a fairy would only leave me unconscious for barely 15 minutes), but 15 minutes was more than enough to lose all trace of Mandy or the hunter.
In desperation, I begin to remember all possible means to not lose them and I begin to follow the small places that were more alive and full of life, as that is an effect of the passage of a fairy for that place.
Running until no more power in that forest with only a couple of hours before dawn and without Mandy by my side and no way to return I was desperate, until I found a human camp and in the distance I managed to see the movement of a shadow I approached slowly, and it was the hunter that, indeed, had not found MAEDI yet but which worried me even more, because I did not know what trouble could be Mahdi at this time.
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Several humans were still awake guarding the tents and I remembered that Mandy never got along well with children due to her strange taste for scaring older people, so if she was in that camp she would definitely be hidden in a tent for adults and that was something that no hunter would expect, since children are always the first ones to be sent to sleep.
So I slowly approached one of the bigger tents and in one of the corners I found the little and adorable Mandy fairy scared and not knowing what to do, when she saw me she hugged me tenderly and started to cry, I tried to calm her down and explain to her how we could escape.
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We left the tent little by little, it was only 3 hours before the sun came up, and we had to suffer the consequences of not being in a dream. First we got as far away from the forest as possible and with the help of the energy that was collected we made one of the greatest distractions possible.
When all the pieces began to move, the humans, like the hunter, headed towards the intense light that appeared in the forest, and we took advantage of the moment to enter one of the dreamers.
Upon entering the dream we found that the boy was actually having a nightmare (like a horror camp), as soon as we arrived the first thing we saw was the little 6-year-old boy crouched in a corner shivering, so we approached him and asked him what he had and with a face of terror and confusion at the same time he only managed to stammer a few words that were food.
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Both Mandy and I looked at each other trying to understand what was happening when out of nowhere a huge marshmallow with fangs devoured the house in front of us, and at that moment we understood that the nightmare was about a lot of monster food.
As we noticed that the boy would wake up at any moment it was necessary to keep him asleep as long as necessary, so I mounted him on my back and started to run from the monster food until we found a cave where I tried to convince him to calm down and wait for us (which was a lie, but he was not in any danger of death unlike us), we came out of the cave and I met Mandy's penetrating and accusing look to which I answered with a simple: I'll get over it.
We started running to the edge of the dream as fast as we could before the boy woke up for some reason, and although I couldn't see the hunter anywhere, I was sure it wouldn't be long before he appeared.
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Surprisingly we reached the edge of the dream, and we could open the portal since the hunter was nowhere to be seen, I told Mandy to start joining the dream with his home, which he did while he still had an evident face of anger for the child.
A few minutes passed and the portal opened, when I felt the presence of someone approaching from behind us, I decided as quickly as I could and took off my necklace, gave it to him and threw Mandy into the portal when Mandy reached his home and the chief of the tribe saw my necklace he would quickly understand that he must close the portal.
So now I was in a duel of endurance to stop the hunter long enough for the portal to close, I pulled out my hand knife and started running towards him, he shot three arrows at me with his crossbow, I managed to dodge the first two, but the last one hit me in the leg and made me lose my balance.
I stopped his attack with one hand while he stopped mine with the other, we struggled for a couple of minutes until we were at the edge of the gap, the portal was practically closed and Mandy was safe when suddenly I heard a very loud sound that caught us both off guard, the boy had woken up from his nightmare, and we were trapped by the infinite darkness.
S&S Monthly Invitational : September
Prompts: Genre: Science Fiction / Thematic Prompt: Dreamland/Dreamscape
