Lunamor

Jenny got up and moved a bit closer. “Terrance?” Maybe he slept with his eyes open. That felt like something he would do.

“Are you ok, Terrance?” Jenny would look silly if the Terrance from Elsie’s dream hadn’t been real, but she had to check. She needed to help him, if possible.

Suddenly, Jenny opened her eyes. She found herself back on the train. Elsie must’ve woken up. Immediately, she looked around for Terrance.

Jenny would stay there until Elsie woke up. She couldn’t abandon Terrance. He might need her help.

Jenny wasn’t sure what to do, so she carefully sat down. She’d wait for a while, see if Terrance came back. Hopefully he’d woken up, but she didn’t want to take any chances. ”I might be able to pull you out of it and into my mind, but I don’t know if it’s any better there. I’m not sure what it would do to Terrance if he’s still in this dream, either. It’s probably safest if you stay here. I won’t let anything hurt you, ok?” All of her powers seemed to be amplified in dreams. Was it what she was truly capable of, or just an exaggeration?

Poor Elsie kept crying. Jenny wanted to go hug her, try to make her feel better, but she didn’t dare leave her spot. She looked around, straining to find any trace of Terrance. She looked down into the void as well, checking to see if it had changed at all. @The Aspiring Archivist

“That might not’ve been the real Terrance. You’re dreaming right now, and strange things can happen in dreams.” Jenny didn’t think that was what was probably going on, but she didn’t want to frighten Elsie. She almost asked what she meant by Terrance choosing to die over accepting her help, but figured pushing the subject would just make Elsie more upset. ”The traitor thing we already knew from the prophecy we were given at the beginning of the quest.”

Good luck, brother. I'll see you later.

Jenny looked over her shoulder, not leaving where Terrance had been. Maybe he’d reappear at some point. ”Hi Elsie, it’s Jenny.” Despite her fear, or perhaps because of it, she defaulted to her natural instincts and waved. ”What happened?”

“No!” Jenny waved her hand where he had been. Maybe he’d turned invisible again. Maybe he’d woken up. Or maybe this wasn’t the real Terrance. It was just a dream. He had to be fine. He had to.

“Terrance?” Why was he in Elsie’s dream? Was it the actual Terrance, or a version the girl’s mind had conjured up? Jenny thrust her arms forwards, sending a horizontal pillar of earth crashing into the one he lay atop. It was sturdy enough that this caused only a faint shuddering motion. She quickly scurried across it and went to Terrance. She tried to assess his current state, desperately hoping that she had gotten to him in time.

Finally, Jenny gave into her exhaustion and fell asleep, smiling slightly. She once again found herself sitting in darkness. She could faintly hear something whispering. It sounded like the voice, but was far away. Maybe she could escape before it noticed her. Forming her hands into fists, she slammed them below, shattering the ground beneath her like glass. As she fell downwards, the murmuring faded. After falling long enough that she wondered if she was floating, Jenny heard sobbing. She slammed into a field, barely managing to stay on her feet. The sky above her was blood red. That probably wasn’t good. She looked to the side, and noticed that Elsie was next to her. She was crying. What had happened? Jenny looked in the direction the girl was facing, and saw that the field dropped off into a cliff. Peering over the edge, she saw a void. Within it was a figure. It looked like a human. Was Elsie crying because someone had fallen in? She had to rescue them. She held out both of her arms, palms raised towards the sky. She stared into the void. There was no earth for her to raise. But they were dreaming, so that didn’t matter. Jenny heaved her arms upwards, sending a pillar of earth rising upwards from nowhere. It slammed into the figure, not quite hard enough to do any damage but certainly enough to knock the wind out of them. The pillar pushed the figure out of the void. Jenny dashed over to see who it was and make sure they were okay. Her tower of earth somehow held strong, despite having no clear origin. @Random Bystander

“But I like the horses…” Jenny was too stubborn to let herself fall asleep, so she stayed in the limbo one found themselves in after waking up in the middle of the night to get a glass of water. It was somewhat more restful than being wide awake, at least.

Jenny rested her head on Ed’s shoulder. She’d forgotten how hard sitting up could be when you were tired. She noticed a pure black horse out of the window and, despite her exhaustion, managed to point a slightly shaking finger in its direction and excitedly announce its presence. She wondered what it was named. Hopefully it was something befitting a beautiful steed, like William.

“Sure.” Jenny reluctantly let go and started stumbling back to their seats. She liked it when she and Ed could be alone, but that was rather difficult on a train stuffed with people. Being away from their group wasn’t a super great idea, either, since any of those people could be a monster in disguise.

“I think sitting down is fine.” They hadn’t bought enough tickets for her to have room to lie down on the seats, and she wasn’t a particularly big fan of the idea of lying down on the floor. She could sleep sitting up if she had to.

“Just really tired. I’m still healing. Tomorrow morning I should be fine, though.” Their ambrosia was very handy. Jenny felt a bit bad for eating so much of it, but at least they had gorgon blood as a backup. Her eyelids began to droop again, which was extremely annoying.

Eventually, Jenny nearly collapsed. Standing there with her eyes closed, the sound of Ed’s heartbeat had briefly lulled her to sleep. His arms around her prevented her from falling, but she still blushed with embarrassment. She probably should’ve sat down, but she didn’t want to move.

Jenny nodded. It made her sad to think that Ed apparently didn’t have anything to live for before he’d met her. It had admittedly been the same for herself, though. Thinking about how awful that had felt just made her more sad for Ed. She was glad he didn’t have to feel that way anymore. Since her head was pressed against his chest, she closed her eyes and listened to his heartbeat. It was a comforting reminder that he was ok.

“Um… don’t die?” Jenny always felt bad when she didn’t know what to do to help, so she figured that she should give Ed an answer since he’d been asking that so much. She also genuinely wanted him to follow that request, although he was probably already planning on doing that. Still, it couldn’t hurt to remind him.

Jenny smiled weakly. This quest would’ve gone far worse for her had Ed not been there to calm her down. She slowly forced herself to relax. Staying tense would just exhaust her more. She hugged Ed back, but not quite as tightly. Her arms felt too heavy for that.

Something in Jenny felt indecisive. That emotion then withdrew, the saturation leaving along with it. She would’ve felt more relieved were it not for the fact that her put-togetherness had also faded away. Her posture slumped a bit and she once again was on the edge of pushing herself too far. “Hugs are nice.”

“Terrance was upset because he thought he was a monster. I made eye contact with him and got really spooked. I think with the way he’s been talking about things, it’s been bringing up some not very good thoughts in my head. The dread amplified them.” Jenny felt strangely embarrassed. She kept losing any progress she made when it came to improving her self image, despite all that Ed was doing to try to help her.