She was sitting on a tree branch in a tree that overlooked a huge garden. She was enjoying time for herself when the branch she was resting on was jostled. She looked around now noticing the sky was a weird colour. It was a dark green instead of a bright blue. The sun was giving off a rainbow of colours. She thought this was weird as well but just shrugged it off and looked around for what had disturbed her. Seeing nothing she leaned back so her back was resting against the trunk of the tree. She closed her eyes and enjoyed listening to the wind rustling through the leaves of the tree. However, once again as she was getting comfortable the branch was jostled once more. This time with more force. She sat up straight and looked around again but again saw nothing. She decides to climb down out of the tree to find whatever had decided to disturb her peace. She climbed down and once at the bottom she looks around the garden but still does not see anything. She shrugs and turns to climb back up the tree when something slams into her back knocking her to the ground.
She gets up quickly and turns around to see what had knocked her down. She just briefly glimpses something brown and shiny as it disappears into the garden. She runs after it but whatever she is chasing after is very fast. It has run out of the other side of the garden and over the hill that was on the opposite side of the garden from the tree. As she is running to try to catch up her feet get caught on one of the vines of the squash plants and she falls down. She quickly stands back up and looks up at the hill now seeing that the grass of the hill is a bright vomit inducing shade of neon pink. She just shrugs and continues on her way to the hill being more careful and paying attention to the various things she could trip over in the garden. She reaches the other side of the garden and looks at the top of the hill but does not see anything there. She continues up the hill. Slowly panting as she thinks she is definitely out of shape. She finally reaches the top of the hill and looks over the other side to see if she can find whatever knocked into her.
However, what she sees just confuses her. A forest is before her but the odd part is that the tops of the trees’ leaves and branches are resting on the ground and the roots of the trees’ are branching and reaching up towards the sky. They are upside down trees. They are also an odd colour like everything else she has seen so far. The trunks and branches are various shades of midnight blue and the leaves are a bright white. Also the grass that starts around the trees is a bright yellow and hurts the eyes just to look at it. There is also a small stream that she would have to cross to reach the forest. The colour of the water is an off-putting black. She continues down the hill keeping an eye out for any movement that would give away the position of whatever had hit her. She reaches the stream still not seeing anything. She glances down at the stream startled when she sees her reflection. Her eyes are glowing and are a deep dark burgundy colour, and her hair is a bright blue. She is pretty sure that those are not supposed to be that colour. Last she remembered her eyes were hazel and her hair was platinum blond. She decides to ignore it for now and hops over the stream not getting any water on herself.
The stream was only a foot or two wide which was easy for her to hop over. She continues over to the forest but before she gets within a few feet of the edge of it, her foot gets caught in something else. She lands hard on the ground. She slowly sits up and looks at where her foot is caught and finds that part of her foot is in a hole. She tries to wiggle it to see if it is stuck. It moves easily and she pulls it out. She looks down into the hole to find it is a foot wide and long and only goes down a few feet. She sees something shiny inside it.. She reaches down into the hole to pick up the object to examine it. As her hand closes around the object she feels something sharp cut her hands. She quickly pulls her hand out of the hole with the object to examine her injured hand and the object. The thing she pulled out was a hunting knife and she had grabbed the sharp end of it, cutting herself. She quickly drops the knife to the ground so she can put pressure on her wound to stop the bleeding. However, as she goes to do so her wound stops bleeding and fades away as it was never there. She just shrugs and picks up the knife to take a closer look at it.
The blade end is curved and very sharp and about nine inches long, well the handle is about four inches long and made out of wood that has been covered with leather to help protect it. Other than that there is nothing special about it. She shrugs and wraps it in a cloth she conveniently has in one of her pant’s pockets and puts it in her belt to hold it.
She hears branches snapping in the forest and looks up to locate whatever made that noise. What she sees wants to make her go back to the safety of her tree. She sees what looks to be a giant beat at least twice the normal size of a grizzly bear. Its body and head are that of a bear, but its paws remind her more of a tigers. The tail it has is very long and thin and looks like a lion’s tail. The animal slowly emerges fully from the trees out closer to where she stands. Once it fully emerges from the trees she can see that its eyes are a deep purple colour and its fur is stripped black and white like a zebra.
She backs up a few more steps but for each step she takes back it moves three steps forwards towards her. Within minutes it is standing within six feet of her when it comes to a complete stop. Its eyes have been on her since it stepped out of the forest and has not once blinked. The bear animal pulls back its lips on its muzzle as if trying to smile at her since it was not growling. She sees that it does not have the normal teeth a bear would have and seems more like a set of teeth a rabbit would have.
“Hello there,” She startles as she hears the bear before her speaks. Its voice is very deep and sounds like gravel grinding against each other.
She does not know what to think so she replies, “Hello.”
The bear tries to smile again before giving up and continues talking to her, “I am glad you have followed me.” She was confused as she was sure that whatever knocked into her had been brown and not black and white like the bear. She also was not following anything as she had just wanted to see what had run into her.
“I was not following you as I just wanted to know what had bumped into me and that thing was brown and not black and white like you are,” she replied.
The bear grunted, “Of course, it was me you were chasing then if you were not following me. Just watch my fur.”
She again watches as the bear's fur changes colour before her eyes. It changed from black and white to dark brown and light brown. She held in an awed gasp at what she assumed to be some kind of magic.
“That was amazing, can you only change between those two colour schemes or can you change into other colours too?”
The bear huffed, “I can change my coat to any colour I want but we are now getting off track. I have proven to you it was I, you were chasing after.”
“I don’t know if you were as I only saw a brief glimpse of brown before I started giving chase,” she replied.
The bear decided to ignore this and continued on, “Anyway you can see that I am an animal of some sort,” before he could he was cut off..
“No, I thought you were a tree that came to life confused as to why it could suddenly speak,” she replied sarcastically.
The bear growled at her causing her to stop talking. The bear continued on, “Anyways, as I was saying. I am an animal but not just any type of animal. I am a Dream Animal.” The bear then puffs out his chest as if he is very proud of this fact.
She just stares at the weird creature before her before saying, “You're a what now?”
“A Dream Animal,” he says as if she should already know what that is. She continues staring at the bear as he just stares back. The staring contest lasts for five minutes.
She finally replies “Am I supposed to know what that is?”
He appears baffled and says, “You don’t know what a dream animal is?”
“No I do not. Why otherwise do you think I would be asking,” she says hotly.
“Oh, well then I should probably explain what I am then. Ell a dream animal is a dream animal that shows up in your dreams,” he stops there.
“No really, I would never have guessed that from just the name. Wait a minute are you saying I am currently dreaming and none of this is real. That this is all just some part of my mind conjuring this up?”
“Yes and no. Yes that this is a dream and everything around you came from your subconsciousness. But also no as you have not imagined me as I am a visitor to your dream. If you want to you could also call me a Dream Walker as well as a Dream Animal. A simpler way to say it would be a Dream Walker Animal.”
“So you basically have invaded my dream for some reason,” she deadpans.
“No I am just a visitor but we have gotten off track once again. As a Dream Animal I have a purpose for every dream that I visit. What that purpose is you may ask. Well I shall tell you.”
“No, I thought you were going to tell me the meaning of life.”
“Quiet you, Anyways the purpose we visit each person is different per person. In your case I am here to grant you a great gift,” the bear pauses again but this time just for dramatic effect.
The girl by this point is fed up and says, “And what kind of gift are you going to give me?”
“The gift to see into another layer of existence that no one else can see into, of course.”
“And why would I want this gift to see into another layer of existence?”
“Because everyone wants to see more than what they can and wonders what is in other planes of existence.”
“Yes, some people maybe, but I am not one of those people.”
“There is also another reason you are getting this gift. It is because you are the only one who can use it wisely and will use it responsibly.”
“There is another reason too isn’t there that you have not yet gotten to.
“Yes, you were also destined to get this gift as you are going to help someone accomplish a great feat.”
“Okay, are you going to explain, which plain of existenceI am going to be able to see into?”
“Sorry, but I am running out of time so you will just have to figure that part out for yourself.”
“What do you mean you are running out of time?”
“You will be waking up soon and I still have yet to perform the ritual that will give you your gift.”
“You have to perform a ritual in a dream to give me a gift?” she questioned flabbergasted.
“Yes now please be quiet while I concentrate,” the bear requests of her. He then comes closer towards her, stopping inches away from her before getting into her personal bubble. It then stands up on its back legs and places its paws on her shoulder and then leans its muzzle towards her face.
Before anything else can be done she asks the bear,”You are not planning to eat me as part of the ritual are you?”
“No, now be quiet,” the bear continues till its face is two inches away from her face. It then takes a deep breath in. When it does this it changes from black and white to a bright neon pink and neon orange, two colours that should not go together. Then breathes into her face with its mouth open. As it breathes out a mist comes out of its mouth that comes out and envelopes her form. This mist is a rainbow of colours and they are constantly shifting. The bear finally breathes out the last of the mist. It then leans forward so its nose is resting against her forehead when she feels a sharp pain at the point of contact. The pain starts at her forehead then starts to envelop her head then her entire body. It feels as if she is being pricked by a needle from the inside outward. The pain lasts about 10 seconds before it abruptly stops. The bear pulls away from her and steps back a few feet before it drops back down on to all four paws. The mist surrounding her still floats and shifts colours.
“The process is almost done- I just now need you to take a deep breath in,” The ear commands her. She takes a deep breath and as she does this the mist surrounding her enters her mouth and into her body. She feels an intense cold feeling travel throughout her body before it is a burning pain. It then slowly fades away as if it never happened.
“There it is now done, I hope you use this gift wisely,” the bear says.
You are not going to tell me which realm I am going to be able to see into or what my destiny is are you?”
“Unfortunately not as you are going to wake up in the next minute and I have other dreams I must visit. Farewell,” as the bear says this he is slowly becoming transparent and fading away.
“Wait, you never told me your name. You do have a name right?” she asks.
“Yes it is Bum…” before he could finish saying his name he disappears completely.
“Well okay then, I wonder if his name was something like Bumblebee,” she mumbles to herself.
The girl slowly felt the word that she was in disappear and fade away as she slowly started to wake up. She slowly blinked her eyes allowing them time to adjust to the bright light shining through the window above the headboard of her bed. She slowly sits up and looks around her room. Registering that nothing really changed in it from the time when she fell asleep. Her bed was still a twin size and the sheets and cover and pillow cases were green. Her desk was still in the corner of her room covered in homework that she had yet to finish and was due soon. Her food was mostly clear and had a dark green rug and a few articles of clothing on it. The ones that had missed the hamper kept by the door of the room. To the right side of her bed was her dresser as she did not have a closet for her clothes. She didn’t see anything different around her and was just wondering if it was just a really, really weird dream she had.
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