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five-rivers · 7 months

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Dream Lantern Chapter 1

For Ectoberhaunt 2023 Day 5: Hunt.

The person who entered the small examination room wasn’t a doctor. They weren’t even human.

Danny, who had been hunched in the less-than-comfortable chair in the corner, waiting for the doctor to get to him, sprang to his feet. “You!” he hissed, green sparking from his fists and his rings snapping into place and sweeping outward to transform him. “You did this!”

At first glance, the person in front of Danny looked human, but that was only at first glance. The ridges of their eyes curved smoothly, owl-like, into the bridge of their nose. Their hair, too black, formed a widow’s peak so sharp Danny wasn’t sure it couldn’t draw blood. They wore a black suit that was about ten times too formal and old-fashioned to even exist in Amity Park.

But all of that could be brushed aside. Sometimes people just looked or dressed strangely. The real indicator was the eyes, which were red from lid to lid and faintly luminous.

“Yes,” said Nocturne, gloved hand touching their face as if to make sure it was still in place. “Did you think someone else could have?”

“Put them back!” demanded Danny. “Or I’ll–”

“Or you’ll do nothing,” said Nocturne. “They are hostages, boy. I’m sure you realize this already, or you would have attacked.”

Danny bristled. “What do you want?”

“Your help.” They laughed, showing off teeth that were both too white and too sharp. “You like that, don’t you?”

Danny scowled. He couldn’t deny the way his core had twitched at the word ‘help,’ but even full ghosts weren’t mindless slaves that could be programmed and activated by their Obsessions’ triggers. Besides, he had better people to help.

Like Tucker and Sam. Jazz. His parents.

They were elsewhere in the hospital, in comas so deep Danny couldn’t touch their minds at all. The doctors had kept Danny here, just in case he was about to slip into a coma, too, but knowing that it was Nocturne, rather than just suspecting it…

He wanted to fight. He wanted to force Nocturne to let them go, to wake them up.

But… hostages.

“With what?”

“With retrieving something,” said Nocturne.

“And if I help, you'll bring them out of their comas?”

Nocturne lazily raised a hand. “I swear it.”

“Fine. What is it and where is it?” If it was something dangerous, he could always sabotage it. He had experience with that kind of thing.

“Oh, you mistake me, child. I will retrieve it myself. I only need you to accompany me to do so. A being of your… nature is required.”

“What, a half ghost?”

“A creature neither alive nor dead,” said Nocturne. “I think you fit that requirement quite nicely.”

The way Nocturne leered at him made Danny’s skin crawl. He forced the ectoplasm swirling around his hands to recede and landed.

“Fine,” he snapped, again.

Nocturne reached out towards his face and Danny swatted their hand away.

“I’ll go there awake, thanks.”

“Very well,” said Nocturne, still smiling. They turned and opened the door. It no longer led back into the hospital. Nocturne’s form liquified, and they oozed through the door, gaining volume as they did so until they were in their massive usual form. The one that could hold and crush Danny in the palm of a hand.

Danny swallowed. He hadn’t realized Nocturne could make portals like that. He followed, and the portal shut behind him.

Nocturne’s smile grew smugger. They turned and made a sweeping gesture. “Behold,” they said, “the Plain of Dreams.”

There… wasn’t much to look at. There was a big island there, sure. One large enough that the other side vanished into the horizon. But the surface of the island was flat and gray, devoid of any point of interest except for size.

“You live here?” asked Danny.

“Once,” said Nocturne, almost wistful. “But there is no time for reminiscing. You have a role to play here.”

“Which is?”

“That of a lantern.” Nocturne reached into the invisible folds of their robes and pulled out a glittering, golden, jewel-studded cage, one shaped like a lantern and floored with rich, plush bedding. They pinched the door open and held it up in front of Danny.

“No,” said Danny. “I’m not getting in there. If you need my glow or whatever for your thing, well, guess what? I glow just as well out here.”

“It’s not quite that simple,” said Nocturne, circling him. Danny turned, trying to keep eyes on Nocturne’s face and hands. “You must be neither alive nor dead, awake nor asleep, willing nor unwilling. Caged, but uncaptured. Hungry, but full. Complaisant, but steadfast.”

Danny’s skin prickled again. He did not like this, and the fairy-tale-like phrasing was not helping his nerves. “I don’t know that I’d call myself complacent.”

Nocturne chuckled. “Different word, little ghost. Or… I can seek out more friends of yours. The girl in red, perhaps?” They switched directions so fast Danny couldn’t keep track of them. Their next words were whispered into Danny’s hair. “She still dreams of you, you know.”

Danny flinched away, glaring, but he couldn’t hold Nocturne’s gaze for long. He frowned at the cage instead. He did not like it. At all.

“I get to leave at the end?” he asked, knowing full well he couldn’t hold Nocturne to that in any meaningful way. Even Nocturne’s word that he’d let his family and friends go didn’t mean much.

But what else could he do? He’d already tried to wake them up himself, and he didn’t know what else Nocturne could do to them when they were in that state.

“Yes, yes, and I’ll wake your family. We have already discussed this. You are wasting time.”

“We hadn’t discussed this, actually,” said Danny. “We’ve barely ‘discussed’ anything.”

“I can send them deeper,” said Nocturne, voice low and dangerous. “Do you want that, child? Perhaps their doctors will notice when they stop breathing on their own. Perhaps not.”

Danny, core making an awful whining sound, raised his hands in surrender and flew into the cage. Nocturne, moving swiftly, closed it behind him.

The exhaustion he’d been holding back all day (or was it all week? All month? All year? Since he died the first time?) poured over him. Against his will, he sank slowly to the blankets and pillows at the bottom of the cage, clouds of golden dust rising around him as his weight settled. His eyelids fluttered, and his vision became blurred, uncertain.

Nocturne threaded their long, pointed fingers through the bars of the cage and pressed one against Danny’s chest, over his core. Inky, starry blackness flowed from Nocturne’s finger and into Danny. He could feel it being pressed into his core, and his core drank it in, growing colder. His aura flared out involuntarily, to a brightness that was almost painful. He groaned and tried to turn his head against one of the pillows.

“That wasn’t so bad, now, was it?” asked Nocturne in a falsely sweet voice. It echoed weirdly, the words warping around their edges, morphing into other voices, other conversations. “A simple waking dream. Look.”

With some effort, Danny raised his head as Nocturne thrust the lantern-cage forward. For a moment, bright colors streaked dizzyingly across his vision, like fireworks and flowers, but then–

What lay before him was not the gray and featureless plain he had seen only moments before. Instead, ringed by the golden haze of dreams was a vibrant forest, decked with vivid colors and bright flowers, brighter and more numerous than they ever would be in reality. Or maybe jungle was a better word. In the distance, majestic mountains rose from the middle of the jungle, tinted blue and purple, glittering cities of gold and crystal built on their slopes. A flight of butterflies bigger than birds exploded from the near edge, and swooped around Nocturne and Danny in a rainbow whirlwind. Some of them had wingspans longer than his arm.

“What,” Danny might have said, aware that his words were slurred into unintelligibility, if they were spoken at all, “is that?”

“The Dream Wilds,” said Nocturne.

They reached into the cage again, adjusting Danny’s position so that he was halfway between sitting and lounging, hemmed in and supported by blankets. They might as well have been chains, and even as that picture developed in his mind’s eye, it developed in reality as well. Blanket twisted around his limbs and grew darker, the fabric taking on a metallic sheen. Pillows grew heavier… but also softer, pulling him yet deeper into the half-dreaming state Nocturne had forced on him.

He was, really, horribly comfy.

If it wasn’t for his hazmat suit and its boots, Danny could almost be convinced he was bundled up in his own bed. Then, he blinked, long, slow, and sleepy, and he wasn’t wearing his hazmat suit anymore. Instead, he was wearing a set of pajamas that, if he’d seen them in the real world, would have sent him into paroxysms of envy. They were a set, a button-down shirt and a pair of pants, the type of pajamas he liked the most. They also were sewn with tiny star-shaped sequins in the pattern of real constellations.

Danny knew they weren’t real. Unfair.

Nocturne chuckled and tugged on Danny’s newly-bare toes.

“Don’t,” mumbled Danny, sleepily, not coordinated enough to twitch away. “Let’s get this over with already.”

“Yes,” said Nocturne, gliding forward. “Let’s.”

The Plain of Dreams was only the greatest of the many places in the Ghost Zone where the ethereal and otherwise elusive energies of dream gathered. It had been tamed, once, and inhabited, brought to the kind of civilization only known in the dreams of visionaries. Crystal cities of philosophy. Hidden villages in perfect harmony with nature. Utopias of justice, science, and art.

But those realms were long gone. When the rulers of the Dream Kingdoms saw the approach of Pariah Dark's armies, they ordered the caged dreamers on whose dreams the foundations of the cities were built woken and released, and their cities faded back into the wilds, and the wilds themselves faded and sunk into slumber until only fragments and memories remained.

There were ways to navigate them, if one had the right tools. Ways to access the Dream Wilds where they slumbered, still beautiful, rich, and powerful. Even with those tools, however, the Dream Wilds were still immeasurably dangerous.

Even in the Ghost Zone, there were few places where one could be destroyed by their own passing fancy.

It had taken years upon years for Nocturne to find the lantern-cage, a relic from one of the Dream Kingdoms, traded to a traveler and sold on as a curiosity not long before Pariah took the throne. Cages not unlike this, but far grander, had held the forever-sleeping dream-architects who had made up the foundations of the great Dream Kingdoms. The only other Nocturne had ever heard of beyond the borders of the Dreamlands had been from their own collection, melted down to be reforged as part of the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep.

The success of that plan had made the sacrifice worth it, but Nocturne still resented it, and the lost opportunities it represented.

All too often, Nocturne found themself dreaming of what would have been, if they had still had their own lantern-cage. If they had been able to travel back, to reach the Dream Kingdoms before they fell to ruin entirely, to enter the great halls with a dreamer, and once again let dreams be true.

But even dreams must bow to time.

The cage was not all Nocturne needed, nor the only preparation they had to make. Among other things, the cage was useless without the proper dreamer.

The Dream Kingdoms had, for the most part, used volunteers. Specially selected, educated, and prepared, quite literally pampered beyond the dreams of sloth, the dream-architects of old had been remarkable. But even they were unlikely to have had the qualities Nocturne sought.

And seek they did, searching high and low, throughout both the Infinite Realms and the human world. But no matter what dreamer they brought to the Plain of Dreams, no matter how long Nocturne wandered, their lantern did not light the way.

They had thought it must be a matter of power, and set to collecting dream energy from wherever they could, even going to the human world to gather it from living sleepers. That particular endeavor did not go well, and they returned to the Realms with less than what they’d started with.

But then they found that old record, and its list of odd requirements. Neither alive nor dead, awake nor asleep, willing nor unwilling. Caged, but uncaptured, hungry, but full, complaisant, but steadfast. A liminal dreamer was required, and not just any liminal.

There were only two liminals that Nocturne knew of. He could, with some effort force either of them to fulfill most of the other conditions. Waking dreams were well within his capabilities, the right pressure on an Obsession would have any ghost, full or otherwise, walking into a cage. Hungry but full was trickier, but the lantern-cages were designed to help regulate what their inmates absorbed, among other things that allowed their function of bringing dreams into reality. A glut of dream energy and a dearth of more traditional forms of sustenance would do nicely for Nocturne’s plans, and if the requirement was more metaphorical, they could adapt.

The difficulty lay in 'complaisant but steadfast.'

The elder half ghost was widely regarded as a coward, having fled from too many fights he himself had started. Even if he wasn't, Nocturne had tasted his dreams. Vlad Masters relished every bit of power he could hold over others, and resented any he could not subjugate or suborn.

The younger… Any being that could escape a dream crafted by Nocturne had to be described as both willful and strong-willed. Yet, while the child had dreamed of being recognized and praised for the service he provided, in the waking world he provided those services unasked and unrewarded.

It wasn't ideal, but it would have to do. Nocturne wasn't about to make more of the creatures.

From there, their preparations were relatively simple. Phantom was young and brash, not stupid. He may have managed to defeat Nocturne once, but the circumstances had been vastly different. Then, Nocturne had been gathering dream energy and assessing the potential of dreamers. They had been spread thin, distracted.

trapping a whole city in slumber.

Which led to the present moment.

As during their first encounter, the boy was far more susceptible to dream sand than even ordinary humans. Nocturne could not recall at the moment whether or not Plasmius had fallen asleep as quickly, or if the weakness was unique to Phantom, but that hardly mattered. What mattered was that he was working.

Where Phantom's aura fell, the Dream Wilds and all their flora and fauna became real, material, some might even say alive. The radius of the effect was miniscule. Nocturne could easily see beyond it, past the golden air and verdant leaves, to where the Plain of Dream was as drab and flat as ever. Phantom was not one of the great dreamers of old. Nor, Nocturne could already tell, would the masterworks once crafted by those dreamers be making an appearance. Phantom's conception of the Dream Wilds was too simple, too imperfect to support such complexities.

Butterflies. Really.

Even some of Nocturne's earlier dreamers had done better, reached further.

And yet… the texture, the depth of color, the quality of light… Yes, with Phantom as their lantern, he would reach the ruins at the heart of the Dream Wilds, and finally claim what they had sought for so long.

Lantern in hand, they glided forward, beneath the boughs of the great trees.

Danny had expected it to be dark under the trees. It had looked dark. Instead, every leaf, every branch, every flower, every crawling, flying, or running thing, every wisp of colored mist was illuminated by Danny’s own aura, which showed no sign of dimming. The shadowless quality of the surroundings added to their dreaminess, another layer of unreality on top of the haze, blur, and dazzle.

Danny slowly turned his head back towards the way they’d come from. The way he thought they’d come from. Already, the open Ghost Zone sky was entirely hidden from view. They could have been walking for hours, not… not…

How long had they been walking? Had it been hours? He couldn’t tell.

Danny really didn’t like this. But he couldn’t really do anything about it. He was in a cage, and Nocturne still had his family hostage. Plus, moving and thinking felt like swimming through honey. Soft, cozy, comfy honey that made him sleepy. The way the cage swung helped with that, a gentle, lulling, rocking motion that had him drifting, distracted.

He blinked hard, rousing back to the half-asleep state Nocturne had put him in. Being caged was one thing. Being totally unaware of his surroundings while caged by an enemy was something else.

“Where are we going?” he asked.

Nocturne said nothing.

“Where are we going?” he repeated, adding volume in the hope that it would let his words carry more clearly.

Nocturne looked down at him contemplatively, clearly weighing options. Then they smiled, sly, smug, and indulgent. “We hunt the Beast of Dreams. A chimera with many forms and faces, it guards the way to our destination. Three times we must face them, and three times we must gain their tokens, else even your light will not shine on our path.”

“What if we, um.” Danny licked his lips, trying to recover the thread of his question. His tongue felt heavy in his mouth. “What if we can’t find them?”

Nocturne tsked at him. “What a terrible attitude to have,” they scolded. “It’s almost as if you don’t care about your family at all. After all, if you are useless, so are they.”

They stopped their glide and reached through the bars of the cage, touching Danny’s shoulder where it joined to his neck. Normally, with his hazmat suit, it wouldn’t even be exposed, but now Danny shivered as Nocturne pushed more energy into him. He whimpered as his aura burned ever brighter in response. His core hummed, high and strained, but his heart beat steadily, and his breathing stayed deep and slow.

“Guide me, little lantern, little light,” whispered Nocturne. “I seek the Beast in the guise of Falsehood, where it lairs at the Gates of Horn and Ivory. Show me the way.”

Danny had no idea how Nocturne thought he could navigate when he had never been here before and could barely see past his own aura. No direction seemed better or more notable than any other direction.

Finally, his eyes landed on a group of trees practically exploding with white and purple flowers. He twitched his fingers in their general direction.

Nocturne withdrew their hand and started moving in that direction at once. Danny let out a sigh as his core gradually returned to a more relaxed state.

They were looking for 'The Beast of Dreams in the guise of Falsehood.' What did that even mean? What did that look like? Some kind of animal? Like a fox? A snake?

"The being we go to meet is the very essence of the deception of dreams. It is that which makes you forget that you are dreaming, that which make you think the dead are living, and the living, dead, that which calls you late to events long past, that which casts you in a thousand roles whose lines you have never learned. It is illusion and confabulation, a fabulist beyond all others. He speaks truth only in service to greater lies."

Danny… understood some of those words. Maybe if was more awake, he'd know more of them.

“Even so, within the bounds of this, our trial, he will be forced to some measure of truth. He must set a true price for his token, when asked three times, and when that price is paid, he must hand it over. But even such a small honesty is one it despises, and it will seek to mislead us.”

“Mhm,” said Danny. Beast guy would lie, and lie a lot. Not much different than dealing with Nocturne themself. Must be a dream thing.

His eyes drifted to the trees and flowers outside the cage. Periodically, glossy leaves reflected his aura back at him, making him blink and wince. The trees here were really big, most of them towering even over Nocturne. Which made sense, if Nocturne was from here, and they had those huge butterflies to contend with. They’d fit their scale. It still felt weird to Danny, and didn’t help with his deepening sense of unreality.

He blinked again, and his blink must have been longer than he'd thought, because when he opened his eyes, they were no longer walking, but standing under a massive apple tree. Its branches spread wide and hung heavy with brilliantly red fruit. No other trees grew under its shadow.

To either side of the trunk, set into the hedge-like mass of greenery beyond the reach of the single great apple tree, were two tall gates made of pale materials. Flowering vines grew around them, holding them shut as effectively as any chain.

Speaking of chains… he shifted uneasily, and listened to the soft clanking of the blankets around him. Yeah. They were still messed up by… whatever was going on. It wasn’t as if Nocturne had actually explained anything, and–

Something in the tree moved. Danny startled as he realized that something was an immense snake. Patterned in poisonous green and red, it blended in almost-perfectly with the surrounding leaves and apples.

Normally, he wouldn’t blink twice at a giant ghost snake. He’d fought more than his fair share of them. Cobras, boas, vipers, rattlesnakes, you name it. But this ghost radiated power far beyond that of a normal animal ghost, and he felt himself shrinking down among the pillows and blankets in an attempt to hide.

He knew it wouldn’t work. He was glowing too brightly.

“Nocturne,” said the snake without moving his mouth. His was deep and smooth, and reminded Danny of Vlad and, oddly, Clockwork. “What an unexpected pleasure!” It extended its head down, beyond the lower branches of the tree, as if in greeting. “I see you have a new lantern with which to light your way. I wish you good fortune on your journey, and hope you gain everything you seek.”

Danny winced at the use of the word ‘wish,’ but Desiree didn’t immediately jump out of the bushes, so he forced himself to refocus on the conversation in front of him.

“Falsehood,” said Nocturne, “I come for your token. What price have you set for it?”

“Is that any way to greet a friend? It has been so long since your last visit, and you have not even thought to introduce your new friend.” The snake lowered itself partially to the ground, the end of his tail still hidden in the trees, and began to circle Danny and Nocturne. “He looks delectable. I would love to just gobble him up. That’s a joke, dear.” It twisted to look more fully at Nocturne. “I would never dispute your ownership of anything, after all. Much less the light you steer by.”

“Enough,” said Nocturne. “What price have you set for your token, that I might move forward?”

The snake shook his head. "Moving forward, my dear? Is that what you call this? I must congratulate you indeed. And in such a timely manner, too, for just the other night, another lantern-bearer came by, and took for herself the last of my to–"

"What must we pay to receive your token?"

"You won’t let me have even the smallest morsel of fun," complained the snake. "Your mother taught you no manners. But very well.” It turned away from both of them, somehow conveying the sentiment of sulking despite its body being a tube. “In exchange for my token, I require either a thing that is both true and false at once, one lie that will become true, or one truth that will become a lie.”

"Any one?" asked Nocturne suspiciously.

"The merchant cares not if you pay in gold or silver, only that he is paid."

"I want an answer, not a riddle."

"That is my sister's domain, not mine."

“Oh my gosh,” said Danny. “Just do it. If he doesn’t give you anything, then you know he lied.”

“Stupid child. What do you think he means by ‘will become?’ So long as even a fraction of this place is held in reality, he has the power to make it so, and his games are far worse than those of the jinn you play with.”

“I know the rules as well as you, if not better,” protested the snake. “I would not break them.”

“You would if you could.”

“I will not break them, then. It is the same. If you do not, perhaps I will assume you did come just to visit. There are so many things you have missed when you were away, dearest. It breaks my heart.”

“I doubt that. This place is an abandoned ruin, the merest shadow of what it was.”

“And many places are, since the reign of the Pariah,” said the snake, mildly. “Yet, even so, you have come here, dreamer in hand. Do you imagine that everything is where you left it, even as you say that this place has fallen? Perhaps. Perhaps not.”

Nocturne shook their head. “I will not listen to your lies. You won’t trick me. Not again.” They hung Danny’s cage on one of the lower branches and started to pace, hands behind their back.

The snake sighed, and, to Danny’s alarm, wound around the branch he was suspended from to peer into the cage. His eyes weren’t like a normal snake’s. Instead of pupils, they had several spirals in varying shades of red, green, and black, and rotated slowly, hypnotically. Danny found himself unable to look away, his awareness of Nocturne and, indeed, the rest of the snake fading.

Until, that is, the snake spoke again.

“It is just as possible for a lie to be told for a greater truth, as it is for a truth to be told for a lie. I do not care for you, but my games, as you call them, are for the greater good of all.”

Danny blinked his eyes, which had begun to water, hard. Crap, that was scary. Not quite to the level of Freakshow’s staff, but scary. The only thing that kept him from trying to find a way out right now was that even if he escaped, his family couldn’t. He needed to stay here, stay strong, for them. He’d already tried everything he could do on his own.

“You will accept a statement that is both true and not in exchange for your token?”

“Yes. Or one truth that will become false, or one falsehood that will become true. I’m not terribly picky.”

“And you only want to hear this thing, not wipe it from my mind?”

“I don’t even have the power to do that.”

“I know for a fact you do. You only want to hear this statement, and you will accept that as payment?”

“Oh, are you asking me three times? It is almost as if you don’t trust me. That’s hurtful, after our long acquaintance.”

“Will you, or will you not, accept a statement both true and false as payment?”

“I will, I will!” The snake sniffed loudly, a sound Danny didn’t even think snakes could make… Then again, this snake was talking, a ghost, and maybe also a dream (Danny was unclear on that point), so, really, they were already far beyond that point. “I know you don’t consider me worthy of respect, but shouldn’t you at least respect the rites and rules? It will go much more smoothly. Quickly, too, if that’s something you’re after.”

Nocturne smothered a growl. They raised a knuckle to their lips, the starry blackness of the digit standing out starkly against their mask-like face. “Then my payment is this: the path I seek is the one that leads to the Crown and Cup of Dreams.”

The snake laughed, an odd, barking noise. “And you say I never taught you anything.”

Nocturne opened their mouth as if to argue, expression pinched and sour, but then closed it, thoughtfully. “You are trying to distract me. I have given you payment. I expect your token in return.”

The snake sighed long and heavy. It wound its way onto a nearby branch and pointed its nose at one of the apples. “Any of these apples may serve as my token.”

Nocturne quickly picked the apple the snake had indicated. Then, they flew to where Danny’s cage still hung.

In Nocturne’s hand, the apple was large. Big enough that it wouldn’t look strange if they tried to take a bite out of it. Big enough that if it was hollowed out, Danny could fit in it comfortably. But that wasn’t what Nocturne did. Instead, they brought the apple to the bars of the cage, and as it passed through them, it shrunk down until it could fit easily in Danny’s hands.

The perspective made Danny’s head swim. It didn’t work. But it did, and it was, and Nocturne was pressing the apple against his lips.

“Eat,” they said. Despite their earlier anger, that smug, teasing smile was once again bending the corners of their lips upward. “The purpose of these tokens is to ensure the lantern can light the way.”

Danny leaned away from the apple, squinting at it. "No," he said.

It wasn't as if Danny's parents had ever sent him to Sunday School (the Holy Spirit was bad enough. The Holy Ghost? You got the picture), but Sam had always been delighted to share the darker stories, and Tucker’s parents went to church on Sunday mornings, whether Danny was staying over or not. Plus, he did try to pay attention to literary symbolism in English, even if Mr. Lancer didn't think so.

A snake offering apples? Bad news.

Maybe if Nocturne was the one being told to eat it, or if Danny's friends and family weren't on the line, he wouldn't have said anything, because screw Nocturne. But they weren't and they were.

"This isn't your token. You're lying."a

The snake chuckled. "Clever child."

Nocturne snarled and darted forward, clawed hand closing around the serpent's neck. The edges of their form were flared out, like feathers or fur. The apple fell down and vanished among the pillows and blankets.

"I have paid your price. I fulfill every requirement to walk this path, and you have no right to keep it from me!"

The serpent evaporated and reformed deep among the branches of the apple tree. “You call me a liar, when you tell such untruths yourself! Every right is mine, and mine alone! Nor was I paid.”

“I gave you my statement, both true and untrue. You will not cheat me. Not now.”

“Did you?” asked the snake, clearly delighted by this turn of events.

“How dare you speak of rules and respect, when you desecrate this ancient rite? How dare you stand in my way, when I–”

“Indeed! Who else should stand in your way? My sisters and brothers? All those with a greater claim to this path?”

As it turned out, despite everything, Danny had been paying attention to the whole conversation, even if he hadn’t followed all of it. Nocturne had been sure the snake couldn’t lie if he was asked the same thing three times… so maybe he didn’t.

“If the token is for me,” he said, slowly, “is Nocturne the one who has to pay the price, or is it me? When you said ‘you’ earlier, you were talking to me, weren’t you? I’m the one who needs to say one of those three things?”

The snake approached again, and Danny hastily averted his eyes. "I like this one, Nocturne. He reminds me of you, when you were younger, and better behaved." He paused, significantly. "And smarter. Yes, little light, you are the one who must answer me, if you desire my token. Of course if you do not…"

Danny understood what the snake was implying, but he did, in fact, need that token.

He really hated hostage situations.

But if what Nocturne had implied about the snake’s powers was true, maybe he could use this. After all, nothing said the lie had to be his.

"Nocturne said they'd bring my family and friends out of their comas if I help them. Can I give you that as the lie?"

The snake started laughing. Danny, meanwhile, felt like his brain had been peeled out of his body and he was floating over his skin. The persistent misty softness had converged on him, and now he was floating.

"I had doubted before, but now I understand how it is that you were the one to defeat Pariah Dark. Nocturne, dear, he has to be able to take the token. I doubt keeping him like that will prevent him from vexing you, anyway."

“I can make him take it.”

“As you would. Now–”

“You have not been this cooperative before.”

“Perhaps I simply want you gone. You are, as I have mentioned, incredibly rude. And ugly. And I find what you are doing to be repugnant, as you yourself would, had you given it thought beyond your base desires. Not that you listen to me–”

“You’re going to try to pass off something random as your token again, aren’t you? And then you’ll claim it is because you didn’t give it to him, you cheat.”

“Me? A cheat? Never. Or only at card games. It is very difficult to play a hand when you don’t have any.”

“You aren’t even a snake. You only look that way because of how he’s dreaming you. But what I don’t understand is why you seem to want him awake. You’re never this transparent.”

“Are you sure I want him awake? Perhaps that is only what I want you to think. Ah, and now you’re tying yourself in circles. A shame. Once you were good at this. Or at least passable. And you wonder why you couldn’t even hold the dreams of a single human city, much less the power that passes through here.”

“I am the Master of Dreams, and–”

“Only because there was no one else qualified.”

There was a long silence, and Danny felt himself drifting back to the surface of awareness. That had been… strange.

“Give him,” said Nocturne, their voice gravely with suppressed rage, “your token.”

Danny noticed with some alarm that the snake was wound around the cage. When did it get so close? Why did it get so close? His scales flashed at him.

“Take two,” said the snake.

“What?”

“Take two of my scales. Together, they make my token.”

“And… am I supposed to eat them or something?” That… was that the right thing to ask? Everything was still a bit floaty. “Don’t laugh,” he said, crossly as the snake started to snicker. It did that a lot. “I’m serious. You wanted me to eat the other thing. The, um, the apple. Are you going to make me eat these, too?”

“Take them and find out.”

Danny glanced back at Nocturne, but they didn’t make any objection this time. Carefully and slowly, he crawled over the blankets to the bars of the cage. Because of the way the bottom of the cage was curved and how the pillows and blankets were ever so slightly higher near the outside edge, he had to hold onto one of the bars to stay in place.

“Any two?” he asked.

“No, the two you get by adding one and one.”

Danny glared at the snake for a moment, but quickly returned to looking at the scales. Each one was only a little smaller across than his palm. They glittered, and Danny blinked sleepy tears out of his eyes. He adjusted his grip on the bars and resisted the temptation to lie down.

He really didn't want to do this.

"It won't hurt you?" he asked. That wasn't his main concern, but… in the moment, it was a concern.

"No more than pulling free a hair."

Depending on the hair, that could hurt quite a bit. He reached out and grabbed a scale at random. It slid free with surprising ease.

Most of it was green, but the edge of it was vivid red, as if it had been rolled in blood. He tucked it quickly into the pocket at his breast, and reached for the next scale. This one was green all over, a smooth gradient from one side to the other.

He let go of the bar and slid back into the cozy nest in the center of the cage as if guided by an outside force. Even without Nocturne’s intervention, the blankets and pillows tucked themselves in around him. If anything, he felt even more secure than before, only head and hands free.

But he was sitting there, holding the scales, one in each hand.

In dreams, occasionally a dreamer is seized by knowledge or need apropos of nothing. They know that this is their grandmother's house, even though it's obviously the grocery store. They know they must hold the cards with only their left hand, or otherwise they'll lose, never mind what game they're playing. Sometimes, too, the dreamer simply acts. The impetus for their actions obscure, not originating from their own thoughts. Jumping from cars, yelling, fighting, eating, smoking, cheating on tests, being unable to stop.

Danny, not thinking about anything in particular, raised the scales to his eyes. They sunk into his skin without a trace.

At first, he rubbed his skin and eyes furiously, hoping to find a way to peel them off, but then…

He saw.

He could see.

Before, it had been difficult to keep his eyes open, impossible to see past his own aura, but now everything looked so clear, from the leaves, to the apples, to the grass, to the gates and the ruins beyond them.

"You see, now," said the snake, kindly. "The purpose of my token is to shield your eyes, so you can see. And, I suppose, better guide the one that carries you. Before, you burned too brightly for your own good, but now…"

Danny nodded as the snake spoke. Vaguely, he felt as if he shouldn't agree with him, but what he was saying made sense. He did see better. He saw more.

Most things were still misty, out of the corners of his eyes, but directly in front of them, they were clear and crisp. Sharp. Well defined.

He could even see the path on the forest floor, where it ran underneath them and to one of the pale gates - which didn't look nearly as overgrown as he had originally thought.

(There was something very wrong with that thought, with all these thoughts. But this thought, in turn, slipped away and disappeared.)

“Which way, child?” asked Nocturne. “We have wasted enough time here.”

Danny’s tongue felt heavy in his mouth, so he pointed instead. It was strange that Nocturne could not see the path. Nocturne walked that way, lantern in hand. And when had he picked the cage back up? Danny was missing something.

“Nocturne,” called the snake. “I meant what I said.”

“About what?”

“All of it. Give my sister-self my regards.”

#ectoberhaunt #23 day 5 #23 prompt hunt #23 calendar science #eh23 #ectoberhaunt23 #danny phantom

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