Was It All Just A Dream? No...It Was A Nightmare

[Eryn Xaltyr]

Cool blue eyes narrowed and she stood abruptly, stalking around the room. She looked away from the man, her eyes surveying her new surroundings in more detail. Slowly she moved about the room, acting as though the crimson man didn't exist. Suddenly she stopped, turning to face the man and walked toward him. She took a seat upon his desk, sitting directly beside him and caught his gaze with her own.

"Who are you?"

She wasn't thrilled about having to play his games, but now she was starting to suspect that he was actually doing it so he could teach her. Whatever his reasons, she just wanted to know who he was, she wanted a name to go on.

"I know you're the jester out...side of all this, but what do I call you?"

For one of the first times during the entire encounter with this man, she sounded calm and more than a little tired. Crossing her legs at her ankles she just stared at him, head tilted to the side with a calmly curious look upon her face.

 

[Disciple]

"Call me Disciple." The man said as his lips curled away from his teeth in a singularly unsettling manner. 'Disciple' was a name that probably meant nothing to her; but the legends about him were quite real and well after all this time. It was the usual campfire tales, really. Boogeyman come from the unknown reaches of space to steal away those who did wrong, blah blah. It was all quite droll to him.

His eyes had followed her the entire time she'd moved around, and then finally rested on hers as she took her seat on the desk.

 

[Eryn Xaltyr]

Head still tilted to the side she nodded, the ghost of a smile touching her lips. "Alright." She remained seated on the desk for a moment, holding his amber gaze until finally when the silence between them stretch on toward an uncomfortable level she looked away. She stared out the large windows behind him, slowly getting her mind wrapped around what she needed to do to wrench control from him. She stared at the icy wind swept setting that stretched out before her, a small frown slowly finding its way to her lips.

This won't do...

She continued to stare out the windows, watching as the wind whipped across the icy terrain. As she stared at the world stretched out beyond the windows, she began to block everything else out and a strange tingling sensation swept across her body. Goosebumps erupted across her skin, but otherwise she didn't react to the new sensation as it grew in strength. With a bored expression upon her face she began to contemplate changing the scenery to something more familiar. As her mind wandered to a forest back home, the world around her began to melt and before she realized it she was seated upon Disciples desk within a dense and dark forest.

Blinking she came out of whatever daydream she had slipped into, the tingling in her limbs slowly subsiding as she looked around at the new setting. Brow furrowed in slight confusion she slipped from Disciple's desk, leaving him where he was, and started to wander off. Mesmerized by what she had done; at least she had hoped she had been the one to do it, she ran her hand across one of the massive trees, smiling.

 

[Disciple]

Disciple kept her gaze until she started to actually use her abilities, whether or not she realized it. Thankfully she left his gorram desk alone when terraforming their surroundings and before long they were within a forest which she likely knew from somewhere; he wasn't much familiar with it.

Already, though, she was surveying her work. He stayed seated at the desk, gaze tracking her as she moved away from him and further into the clutches of this feigned nature. "About time you figured it out."

Standing slowly he walks around the desk and leans back against it, folding his arms across his chest. "Now, what else do you think you can do?"

 

[Eryn Xaltyr]

Blue met amber for just a moment before Eryn turned her attention away from Disciple once more, a thoughtful look upon her face. "Anything..." Smiling she felt the same tingling sensation from before creep through her limbs as a sudden wind kicked up. Hair trailing behind her like a bloody banner, she looked up and saw large black clouds covering the sky. Thunder rumbled and lightning streaked across the sky as she closed her eyes, laughing.


"I love storms..."

 

[Disciple]

"How poetic.", he mocks as he watches her changing the environment further. Soon, soon she'd have unlocked all of her potential herself and he could wake her from the stasis. But he couldn't do that too soon or this work would be for naught. "Any particular reason you love storms?"

So many had different reasons; smell, sound, the sensation of rain upon the skin. Personally he simply saw it as an advantageous weather event well suited to the infiltration of the enemy, but not many thought the same way he did. No one did, actually.

 

[Eryn Xaltyr]

She rolled her eyes at Disciple, slowly growing used to his constant attitude. Leaning against one of the massive trees she looked up at the black sky, smiling as lighting streaked across it. "I love the power of them...The raw furry and strength behind something so simple. I've always been in awe of it and found peace in the chaos of a storm." The lightning flashed off her fangs and for a moment her eyes glowed, like an animal’s when a light is shone upon them at night. "So many people run and hide from the destructive power of a storm, fearing its ability to topple trees with its wind..."

As she spoke a sudden gust of wind hit the area and the trees groaned in protest, though Eryn seemed unaffected as the wind didn't topple her petite form. With a low groan that sounded much like a dying beast a massive tree began to lean perilously and then there was a thundering crack as it broke at its base. With a dying scream only a tree could make it fell toward the ground, nearly landing atop Disciple and his desk; Eryn smirked in response.

"Or spark a fire with a single lighting strike."

Once again her words brought about the furry of the storm as there was a blinding flash of green and a loud crack as a tree to her left was struck by lightning. Despite the rain soaking the area the tree burst into flames, the flames licking the sky. They danced in the rain and wind, moving from tree to tree until they were surrounded. Pushing off the tree she was resting against she moved back toward Discpile taking a seat upon his desk once more.

"Or the sheer power of the rain alone."

Suddenly the rain intensified and the water began to run off the ground, the earth beneath their feet unable to absorb the sheer volume of water. As the ground got softer the desk started to shift, the water threatening to wash it away. All the while Eryn was smiling, delighted with the newfound power she had. She lay back upon the desk, the water seeming to roll off her as though she were incapable of getting wet.

"I used to play in storms as a child...pretending that I command them..."

 

[Disciple]

Disciple simply watched, entirely amused by something. The enigmatic man allowed her whatever fun she could get before he smirked widely and the world around them faded away. In fact, everything was gone now - including him. She was literally standing in blank space. And then, suddenly above her came a vortex which drew her from the land of the immaterial and out into the real world.

What was the real world?

A medical cot onboard a poorly lit ship, the Jester sitting in the corner, one leg crossed over the other and hands folded in his lap. "Welcome back to the land of the real, Eryn." There it was, the sing-song crazy voice was back - as was that hideous rictus grin plastered on the front of his mask.