[Gift] A World of Dreams

The moon hung in the night sky, stars freckled in its dark navy expanse. Crickets chirped, owls hooted on occasion, and the steady sound of a flowing creek all worked together to create a beautiful ambience in the air. Surely by now, most, if not all, residents of the area would be asleep by now, waiting for the sun to rise again and begin the next day. Which meant it was time for a certain spacecat to perform her duties again.

Dione sat in a dense brush of leaves, sitting in a tree. It gave them a good vantage point over the town of Starville. They were in Umbra Woods, a favourite spot of theirs due to it being a very peaceful place at night, for the majority of nights that is. There was a certain duo they often caught in there, but for tonight, they seemed to be absent, which was good, as they didn’t need to be as hidden now. Maybe it was a shame most cats didn’t spend a night here. All of these sounds are so peaceful and are the perfect way to lull someone into a relaxing sleep.

No matter. It’s time to dream hop.

Focusing, waves of magic channelled through her horn, making it glow. In a few seconds, a bright white cluster of stars appeared in front of her, surrounded by rings that matched her own. It was her portal into the dream world. Once it had been fully cast, she stared at it for a second, curious about where it would lead. Dream-hopping was a complicated task, and therefore she could never choose which dreams she entered; it was always random. A theory was that dreams built of strong desire or emotion were easier to enter, which is why she could step in and protect others from their nightmares so easily, as it was easy to find them. She took every opportunity she dream-hopped to try to learn how to do it more effectively, but this is what she could do for now. It worked, and that’s all it needed to do.

Let’s see who’s dreaming tonight… Dione had one last thought before leaping through the portal, it disappearing behind her as she made her way through.

Dione emerged from the other side of the portal. Looking around, it looks like moon was just in Umbra Woods again, though in the sky high above the trees. How odd. Did moon just teleport? They were sure they casted the right spell. Oh well, time to try it again. Dione began to prepare the spell again until a giant shadow whooshed over moons head. Was someone here? Quickly, moon dived down to hopefully get out of sight of whoever that was, hoping she could remain disguised in plain sight due to her fur colours matching the night sky so perfectly. Not long after the first figure flew over her head, a second one followed, though much smaller. Looking up, Dione was able to spot them, and upon doing so was able to figure out moon was actually in a dream, and had not simply teleported.

One of the figures was a large purple dragon, and the other was a small brown spacecat with bright green spacedust. These were Iris and Leif, she recognized. Both of them were no strangers to her. They were the aforementioned duo, after all. She would catch the two in the forest often, as well as being part of their many dreams and sometimes their nightmares. This particular dream seemed to mimic reality almost to a tee, with a minor exception; that being that Leif was currently tailing Iris, who was soaring high in the night sky with his own set of wings. They were brown at the base, with the feathers tipped white, and they were covered in clovers, much like the rest of his body.

“Iris! Wait up!” 

His voice called as he flew after them. Both of them moved around in the sky in a playful nature, like they were playing a game of tag or something. There were a lot of crazy maneuvers done by both of them, at points Leif purposefully closed his wings to enter a free fall, only to pull up at the last moment. The whole time he was laughing cheerfully, as well as shouting out with eagerness at the sense of flight.

Dione smiled. It didn’t take long for them to figure out whose dream this was. Leif’s dreams were always endearing like this. Most of them focused on times with family and friends doing something simple. It gave off the feeling she already had all she could ask for and more in her life when it came to who was in it and what she wanted to accomplish. However, even a cat like that still has dreams of something more, which was clear to see with the addition of the wings on her back. Dione would notice some of his dreams included her with different traits to her appearance. Some examples include a new shooting star tail, spacedust for hair, a fluffy mane, some rings, and one time even a dragon form of her own. The most common one Dione would see was the wings, which looked the same each time she dreamed of them. It was clear she thought about having them a lot.

There was also the way she was moving. She was flying so carefree, pulling off all these complex moves perfectly, and even being a bit of a daredevil. Leif is usually content with simplicity and humbleness, choosing not to be flashy. Dione could also recall from nightmares of hers that she seemed to have a fear of heights, so perhaps this was an outlet. A wish to both overcome that fear, as well as be in a space where she could try new things.

The two of them continued to dance in the sky. At one point, Iris clamped their claws around Leif and pulled him in close. Even from so far away, Dione could see how pleased he was. What a pleasant dream. Perhaps it was best to leave him be for now and move on to the next dreamer. Moon cast open another portal, and jumped through, wishing the next dream would be as charming as this one.

The complete change in atmosphere was instantly apparent. For one, she was no longer outside, but somewhere in a dark room. It was also not silent anymore, as all she could hear was thousands of cheers. Where was she? A bit of light leaked from around a corner, which gave her basic visibility Looking around more, she noticed piles of twisted cables, lots of technology, speakers, and tons of black boxes. Above her, studio-style lights hung from the rafters. Putting all the clues together, she figured out she was backstage at a concert.

The voices from behind the wall began to count down from ten. The show was about to start. Despite this not being Dione’s scene, she figured she should check it out before she left. Maybe she could figure out whose dream this was if she did.

Dione peaked their head around the corner of the stage just as the audience finished counting, followed by an eruption of cheers. She spotted four spacecats making their way onto the stage while the crowd was still going wild, with Dione recognizing three of them. The cat who had taken centre stage was Zephyr, sprouting a devil tail instead of his usual wolf-like one, his mismatched wings, floating crown, and surrounded by rainbow-coloured sparkles. Next was Blaze, holding a bright pink and blue electric guitar. Seated at the drums was Ghost, who was holding her drumsticks high in the air. A fourth cat was holding a bass guitar, but Dione didn’t recognize them. It was really strange since they had seen them in other dreams before, but never their own. Of the cats she did recognize, they all looked visibly older, more like young adults than teenagers.

“WHAT’S UP, COSOPOLIS??” Zephyr shouted into the microphone, causing the crowd to get even louder.  “ARE YOU READY??” He asked again, resulting in a similar reaction. The band began playing their instruments. They were playing excellently, but also extremely loud. Dione covered moons ears in an attempt to muffle it, but it had no effect. 

Moon could not tell whose dream, in particular, this was since nearly everyone in the band had had one like this at least once. Maybe one day moon will figure it out. For now, moon had seen enough, and moon wasn’t a fan of how loud it was in here, so moon decided it was time to go. Casting the spell again, Dione disappeared from the portal and the dream concert.

The next thing Dione saw was a small living room, orange light filtering in through the partially opened blinds. The room was decorated with potted plants in nearly every corner. It was also lined with filled bookcases. The wooden flower was covered with a large green carpet with a wooden coffee table in front of it. Behind that was a couch, and upon it, two creatures were resting. One was a bipedal, mostly hairless kind of thing that Dione is she had seen before, but only in dreams, but the other was a spacecat she knew as Fen. He was seated on the creature’s lap and was being stroked by its appendage. Both of them seemed asleep, and very content. These creatures showed up often both in Fen’s dreams and nightmares, it seems they had complex thoughts about them. It was clear he was enjoying this moment as the room filled with soft purrs, however. From Dione’s understanding, he used to live among them and that he missed these creatures greatly. It gave the dream a bittersweet feeling. All Dione could do was hope he kept enjoying it, and that he wouldn’t be too upset when he woke up. 

There was not much more to observe here. She should leave Fen to his dream, and move on to the next. With one last look at the slumbering cat and their companion, she opened a portal into a new dream and left the current one.

Dione found herself in a complete void. There was nothing around her except pure darkness. Where was she? Is anyone even here? She began to stroll around, hoping to find anyone, although she didn’t know where anyone could even hide in a completely wide open space.

“Why did you leave?”

What was that? Was someone there? Dione looked around for the source of the voice, but couldn’t see anything. Were they imagining it? It was only a whisper, so maybe it was. 

“Why do you get to stay? Are you forgetting us?” 

There it was again. I guess they weren’t imagining it. 

The whispers continued, growing louder. Dione spotted silhouettes start moving around. They were hard to see, given how dark the space was, but it didn’t seem to matter too much, as these shadows didn’t seem to have a defined shape anyway. They began creeping forward in a stalking motion. Following the line of movement with their eyes, Dione spotted what they were creeping towards: A gray sodacat named Toffee, who was cowering under her paws, crying. 

Dione had landed in a nightmare.

The shadows continued to creep up on her, continuing their whispers:

“Why is it you?”

“Why can’t we be free?”

The shadows got close to it. One of the shadows reached out to touch the sodacat. Toffee let out a yelp and swiped the shadow. The shadow cried out in pain as blood began to spray. Toffee looked in horror at its blood-soaked paw and bolted away from the shadows in tears. The shadows began to chase, still chanting their ominous messages.

Dione had seen enough, it was time to step in.

Toffee had run enough where she had hit a wall, cornering herself. She looked back, watching as the shadows continued to close in on her. With nowhere else to go, she cowered again, covering her face as the whispers filled her brain. God, she hated this.

In a flash, Dione appeared in between the shadows and Toffee. They spread their wings wide, and they began casting magic.

“BEGONE,” Moon spoke in a commanding voice. In a flash of light, the shadows all disappeared, and the layout of the space changed. It was no longer a black empty void, but a space mimicking the night sky full of stars. Confused at the new voice and the flash of light, Toffee uncovered their face and looked up at the tall spacecat, wide-eyed.

“Wha-” She spoke, clearly confused. Dione turned to the sodacat, with a soothing smile on her face.

“Do not worry. They are gone. This is all just a dream. Nothing can hurt you anymore.”

“But-” Toffee began but noticed her paw. All the blood was gone without a trace. She then looked around her starry surroundings. She was still confused. “Who are you?”

“I am Dione, I am the guardian of dreams. I can see the dreams of all creatures, and I do my best to make sure everyone has sweet dreams.”

“Thank you for that…” Toffee continued. “I don’t like that dream…”

“I could only imagine.”

“If you’re the guardian of dreams, how come I haven’t seen you before? I’ve had that same nightmare plenty of times…”

Dione looked sorrowful. “I am sorry. I try my best, but there is only one of me, and plenty of dreams to look after. I wish I could have stepped in sooner.”

“It’s… alright. I appreciate your help…” 

Dione nodded. “Will you be fine? There are more dreams I must see.”

“I’ll be ok.” Toffee seemed to be fully calmed down now. “Thank you again.”

With one final wave goodbye, Dione exited Toffee’s dream, pleased she was able to help someone tonight.

After a few more dreams, Dione stepped back out into the real world again, returning to Umbra Woods. They had come out just in time to see the sun begin to rise.  It washed a palette of gorgeous colours that bounced over all the leaves, making everything look like a painting. More birds were chirping now, as they began to start their day, much like how everyone else was about to.

Watching the sky in all its wonderful beauty, she hoped that all the cats she visited ended up having pleasant nights and that everyone she could not visit had sweet dreams. If only she could get to everyone, it would please her greatly. For now, she was exhausted, and it was time for her to rest. She did not need to worry about her dreams, as seeing the ones of others was always enough for her. She flew off, disappearing into the sky, waiting for the night to return.