Of Nightmares and Immortals

[Umbra-Conceal]

Naito had fled the art gallery soon after the couple had. He could still feel his heart pounding  a little as his mind went back to his brushing with the other being. The elder he\'d run into before had warned him enough times about Their kind for him to be slightly leery of them.
 
 His pounding heart slowed and eventually evened out as he slowly and surely began to calm down after his wild flight. Being outside and among the wide open always had a calming effect. The moon touched greenery added a soft blurring of edges to his surroundings that always made him feel like he was in a dream.
 
 He drew past the mismatched Japanese bridge and gave a light shake of his head before passing on. It was not that he didn\'t mind water, it was just he didn\'t feel like being near it right now. He followed the gravel path until he drew up near a old and peeling gazebo, that as he drew closer looked like it had seen better days.
 
 The paint had faded and in many places peeled off to show the wood under it. A creeper vine of some type of green and silver leaved ivy was trying its best to overrun one side of the small  structurer that to Naito just gave it a little more character. He could see small mismatched patched of ground flowers, vined flowers and even  hanging flowers tossed about in some planners idea of order and seemed to have failed in at lest that part.
 
 He drew closer and stood under the roof placing himself in the thick of a creep bush of wild roses that had taken over the more cultivated ones that originally had been planted. He loves their dark red color, and plan yellow centers. The wild roses bared nothing in common with their tamed and cultivated brethren. A sweet breath of wisteria brought him to a spot where the trees branches had meangled in with the other handing vines and smiled reaching up to touch the soft purple flowers, and to collect some of their scent onto himself.

[Existentially Odd]

Kerr walked slowly and ruminatively through the park on his way to his home that night.  He\'d left Mandy in the foyer of her building, as promised, sharing numerous embraces and a few kisses, too.  The next time she contacted him, would definitely change both their relationship and their views on the world around them.  He knew that it was necessary for her to have that space, make that decision, but he was impatient already for her to tell him yes.  And then there was the matter of his new mortal acquaintance, Ben.

Both situations had him in a quandry, and since it was only just on two in the morning, he\'d found himself taking the long way home, attempting to get his head around it all.  Hands coddled elegantly in the pockets of his navy suit pants, he dawdled around, paying more attention to the grass or the path beneath his feet than anything else.

At the sound of bells, he looked up and noticed a gazebo, writhing with plantlife so thick he could barely make out anything within its shadows.  It was only a couple of metres away.  But the little tinkle was familiar... from the art gallery?  He approached quietly, finding as he rounded the side that only part of the gazebo was overgrown, it had plenty of open sides, and within the darkness he could see perfectly well (and sense what he couldn\'t see) the odd-looking creature from the gallery.

"Hello again," he greeted convivially, fully expecting him (her?) to run again.  He only hoped they would stay long enough for him to ask what they were... though he couldn\'t simply come out with it like that.  It would be far too presumptuous.  He\'d have to engage in some conversation first, no doubt; if the flighty being permitted it.

[Umbra-Conceal]

At the, \'Hello,\' directed at him, Naito pulled his face back from the flowers and turned to look over his shoulder, offering first a smile to his guest before he could clearly see who and what it was.
 
He made a half strangled \'eep\' sound before doing just what Kerr had thought he\'d do, only he didn\'t manage it this time. He\'d tried to turn and run but in a show of rather tasteless grace, tripped over his own feet and landed with a rather undignified, "Ow."
 
In doing this, Naito managed to do two things: first he\'d caught his foot twisted into one of the many trailing vines that had ended his short flight with a trip to the ground, and second - he\'d also managed to dislodge some of the hair covering his slightly pointed ears.  This also brought the delicate and eloquent metal working of his circlet into full view.
 
Seeing as he had little hope of getting away, Naito sat on his hands and bottom crying. He slowly brought tri-colored eyes up to Kerr, following from his eye level at the man\'s legs all the way up the vast distance it took to reach his eyes. He did have one passing thought - They sure were very pretty to look at.
 
"P-please.... don\'t eat me.....I don\'t taste good, I.. I am sure we taste okay, but Elder said we taste bad but could be addicting because our blood\'s so powerful!"  Naito gave a slight hiccup and knew he was babbling. He also knew his light alto voice would still make him sound like a girl but he simply waited for the vampire to fall upon him in hunger, tensed up and eyes squeezed shut.

[Existentially Odd]

As if it wasn\'t hard enough for Kerr to keep a straight face at the comical tumble the creature had taken, she then went ahead and started blubbering about tasting bad and not wishing to be eaten. He remained silent for a moment, pressing his lips together to be certain that the laughter wouldn\'t leave him at the most inappropriate time. He had to clear his throat sternly, then he felt he was fairly safe from adding insult to the stranger\'s injury.

"I\'m not interested in eating you," he assured the delicate beast, taken by the revelation of the ear and the circlet. The phrasing she\'d chosen gave him the confidence to ask what he wanted to know up front, though - for which he was grateful. He took a few steps forward and held a hand out towards the pretty supernatural, wanting to help her to her feet but feeling she wouldn\'t want to simply be grabbed.

"Tell me... what manner of creature are you, anyway?  And how is that you come to know what I am?" he asked curiously, leaning his left hand on his knee as he remained in his bent-forward position, arm extended. He didn\'t wish to make any startling movements and frighten her anew.

[Umbra-Conceal]

Naito remained frozen for a second before the reassuring tone\'s of Kerr\'s voice reached half deaf ears and slowly peeked open one eye shortly followed by its pair.
 
Naito blinked once and looked at the offered hand before resigning himself and with a faint exhale of breath through his nose lightly took Kerr\'s hand before allowing the man to pull him up of his own rump. He in all honesty could not keep the creeping blush from his cheek as he gained his feet with a faint and embarrassed " Thank you. "
 
It took a moment for Naito to processes the rest of Kerr\'s question before he lifted his head up and half tossed his hair out of his face with a simple flicking gesture of his head. Naito gave a slight squaring of his shoulders still yet to claim his hand back as he answered both questions with a little bit of embarrassment.
 
"Your.. feeling and the faint smell on you, told me what you were... Um your kind are hunters and my kind while not normally preyed on...are still prey animals." Naito kept his bell like alto voice clear even as he spoke soft under his breath, staring squarely at the center of Kerr\'s chest-finding it easier to talk through his flush of color and embarrassment that way. He\'s following answer was even more hushed and colored with the same emotion as his first answer.
 
"I\'m.... a pooka..." He could do nothing to stop the heated flush over his cheeks, lord that name sounded so...girlie and feminine "ah...night..mare".

[Existentially Odd]

Kerr listened intently, finding the explanation very logical - up until the girl described her species. Or was it a race? He had no idea. He let go of her hand - pleased that at least it was far more pleasurable to touch than shaking Arvis\' hand had been - and frowned down at the delicate being with a genuine look of perplexion.

"I... I\'m very sorry to admit this, and I mean no disrespect, but... I have no idea of the particulars of your... of nightmares or pookas. Which is it, by the way?" He smiled hopefully, clasping his hands behind his back.

[Umbra-Conceal]

Naito took his hand back slowly as he felt it freed and lightly placed them at his side. He braved a chance then and looked up through his fall of silky deep indigo hair, the red\'s and yellow rings of his eyes matching the odd color.
 
 "Either is fine. Different beings call us different things. As for what I  am..I could try and explain it to you, but it would just be easier to show you."
 
 Naito gave a slight look around. The park was devoid of life, and did not see the harm in relaxing a little bit more.
 
 "Your kind can receive images right,in the mind?"

[Existentially Odd]

Kerr smiled reassuringly and nodded.  "That is correct, you\'re going to... show me what you do... uh... what you are... mentally?" he asked.

This was an intriguing concept indeed; he only ever communicated mentally with his family, so he was rather keen to see what it would be like to do so with not only a relative stranger, but a being of another species entirely.  He was struggling to recall if he\'d ever heard either Nightmare or Pooka before (even though he\'d admitted to being ignorant) but still his memory yielded nothing.

"Should I... remain here?" he added, the idea suddenly occurring to him that he might be better off sitting down (though discerning seat from tangled vine around the gazebo\'s perimeter would certainly be a challenge), or that the creature might be more comfortable elsewhere.  She seemed secure in the shadows, however.

[Umbra-Conceal]

Naito nodded a second before giving a faint look around before tentatively reaching one small bird like hand up and very lightly placed cool fingers on Kerr\'s forehead.
 
 While it was easier to this the other way, this would work just as well. Naito did not so much as link them together nor read thoughts, but he could imprint images. All Kerr would see would be that same scene they were in, however what would be failed to realized until later, was they where in-fact in Kerr\'s mind for the time being. To all outside appearance they would seem frozen in place.
 
 Naito once assured he\'d made the link solid enough to allow the dream like sequence dropped his hand down and took a step back easily melting into shadows then nothing, before appearing out of the same shadow.
 
 The form different were once a slender body had stood and melted into, a large sleek black horse stepped out. it would take a moment longer to see past the deep indigo colored horse to see the same silver circlet appear now has a headpiece, the red gem replaced by a long red spiral horn, yet still even as black hooves pawed the ground the beasts coat shimmered as if moving before a long pair of demonic wings detached itself from Naito\'s back.  The same tri-colored eyes looked backed at Kerr before the shape melted into nothing.
 
 This was the image impressed into Kerr\'s mind before real-time brought them back to reality and Naito slowly opened his eyes once more, slowly lowering his hand back to his side and looking away just a little.
 
 "It was only a dream image..if I showed you the corporal form it would be much more impressive.."

[Existentially Odd]

The transference of the image to Kerr\'s mind was rather more forceful than he\'d expected - Sawyl and the twins were far more insidious - but it wasn\'t unpleasant, just... different. The image itself was powerful, he couldn\'t help but be awed by the size and majesty of the horse, and could scarcely believe that the petite person before him could become that.

"You can become that beast?  That horse? That big?" he asked, his hands roughly describing the shape of the horn he\'d seen in the centre of the creature\'s forehead. He looked her over from head to toe, his gaze fully assessing the outfit, the curves, the hair... which, now that he looked at it, resembled greatly the mane of the Nightmare. He found he couldn\'t judge the age of the person before him; for a girl she certainly lacked any mature curves, so she had probably not undergone puberty yet.  Assuming her kind underwent such human-style changes.  The thought also struck him that \'she\' could, in fact, be a \'he\'; the being was extremely androgynous.  But how could he work that question into the conversation?  He was as amused as he was aghast at the thought of bringing it up.

[Umbra-Conceal]

Naito listened for a moment before turning his head back to look at Kerr. He was still having trouble in thinking his alter-side was really that impressive.
 
 "Am, still rather small. There are more powerful beasts."
 
 Naito half gave a lighter sigh before lightly crossing his arms in front of his chest, both hands lightly holding on to the fabric of his shirt. He turned his head again looking pointedly at a flower near him before saying anything more.
 
 "Yes,.. I\'m male." He kept his voice light as if trying to pass the statement off as nothing.

[Existentially Odd]

Kerr blinked at the... boy... in shock and embarrassment. How stupid of him not to realise that his thoughts would be monitored - just because he rarely bothered listening in as people conversed with him, didn\'t mean that everyone else suffered under the same burden if they also shared his capabilities. He cleared his throat and clicked his tongue stud against the surface of his teeth while he searched for something to say.

"Sorry," he eventually settled on, his expression as awkward as he felt. "I didn\'t mean to... uh... insult you. I think you\'re a beautiful horse!" he exclaimed, hoping to drown out the negative by ending on an upbeat, positive declaration. It also happened to be the truth, which was a bonus. He pondered briefly whether he should have used the term \'stallion\' instead of just \'horse\' but then figured that it was probably a good thing he hadn\'t because there was also \'colt\' and \'gelding\' to consider and... any of them could have simply added insult to injury. He hastily wiped the thoughts from his open mind as soon as he\'d finished entertaining them.

[Umbra-Conceal]

Naito hide the faint tugging of his lips that the smile he was trying to suppress was dead set on creating, in the end he lost. The smile was a little slow coming, but the slight stamperring of the man in front of him drew it out in full force. What drew his giggling laughter out was the slight off-track thoughts that zipped by after. It was a little amusing on how different people reacted to know the cute little \'kid\' in front of them was a creature born of pure fantasy and dreams.. or in his case the fevered dreams of a dying girl.
 
His laughter was soft, like the sound of brook water over shallow river rocks, then grew into a fluttering sound of bells before he turned and looked at Kerr his laughter stopped for now, but the sun-bright smile he had could not be so easily banished.
 
"I am not insulted..really. I am a horse... but I am not a stallion, stud, colt, or gelding. My kind do not have offspring. We are born as old or as young looking as we will ever be... in dreams." Naito stepped back for a moment and held his arms up and out showing is young almost teenage body. "I will never appear older then this. I might maybe get a little wiser looking, but not older." Naito smiled again and dropped his arms at his sides.
 
He was secretly a little saddened by this. While others of his kind were born of extremely powerful dreams by the people that created them, Naito had been the product of a insane woman with a taste for young kids while she lay dying of a fever. Even fevered dreams were powerful, and as such he was not powerless...but the unfocused dream had left him an outcast even among his own kind; he was oddly colored in the eyes and had no clear defining line of being male or female in appearance.  That and he was a runt.

[Existentially Odd]

"Intriguing," Kerr murmured honestly, his gaze raking the proffered body obediently.  It reminded him of his beloved companion, trapped forever in a form that he didn\'t like, endlessly perceived inaccurately and with superstition (from his kindred, anyway).  Sometimes the underestimation was good, sometimes it was bad, and Kerr could only assume the same for this being.  He realised that he had no way of identifying the creature by name.

"So all your kind are created from dreams?  What\'s special about the dream that... causes the creation of a Nightmare, then?  I mean... people dream all the time, so are there millions of you running around or is there something special that must occur?"

[Umbra-Conceal]

Naito gave a slight shake of his head tossing his hair to one side then the other, much like a horse tossing it mane from side to side the free ends of his hair sweeping back and forth gave the appearance of a dismissive flick of a tail.
 
 "All dreams have a power in them. But the dream itself must be powerful. Nightmares feed on these dreams as we pass from one small beacon to the next. If we come across one of great power - that is just right - then the visiting nightmare can use that to... create offspring."  He became a little quiet, then continued. "A Dying dream has even more power, and it is often the sleeping part of the brain that gives us form."
 
Naito stopped and dropped into silence.  That last part had struck home. "Even this form is rare for us to take. Very few manage to create a human form, but even then we are not wholly without some markings to give us away." Naito reached up and pointed to the red gem in the middle of his forehead.
 
"This is my horn in this form, the silver circlet is merely a way to hide it in plain sight. Our ears are longer and a little more pointed, but can be covered easily with our manes, or other such things. Some of us retain our tails, or even hooves on the back feet...a few of us even train our wings." Naito\'s voice dropped even softer at the naming of wings. "But this is only what I know. An Elder-mare also dwells in this city, although I have yet to see him once.  He would know more than I."