During Ciera’s comma during the Last Olympian
Ciera’s dreamy grey eyes opened to find her in familiar surroundings. Her bedroom; a place in the Land of Dreams her father had given her. A place she was taken to while her body remained lifeless in sleep, death’s imitator. In a sense, it was like a cabin at Camp Half-Blood except it wasn’t a cabin. It was a room in her father’s castle.
The sanctum was a gothic style room the size of a cabin with gothic style furniture, wall designs, and wardrobe. It was a place black and grey happily bonded with other dark shades to create a dreary but cosy work of art; imagined by Ciera. Upside down candles illuminated the room with white light from the ceiling. Paintings of angelic imps came to life and soared around the room before retreating to their silver frames. Just for laughs, Ciera had an image of Darkrai, the Pitch-Black Pokémon, painted on one of the room’s four walls. There was a large door leading to a balcony outside made of stained glass which constantly shifted its ambiguous patterns. Through this door, she was able to return to her body in the Real World.
Ciera pushed the black comforter off of her as she jumped out of the large king-sized bed. She pulled out a silver key encrusted with a few black stones from under her grey school shirt. Her bare feet pounded against the grey granite as she made her way to the balcony’s mystical doors. The key was her gateway between the Land of Reality and the Land of Dreams. At first glance she thought there was something different about the key. However, Ciera shrugged it off.
She inserted the silver key into the key hole, but failed in unlocking the doors. After two more tries, she huffed in frustration and ran her hands through her brown tree bark hair, removing the bangs off her forehead.
“Damn. He changed my key. Again.” Ciera said in annoyance.
She was completely stuck in the Dream Realm. Morpheus was very much serious when he said she would not be taking part in the war.
The teenager sighed in defeat and placed the key necklace on the nightstand by her bedside. Ciera moved to her wardrobe, opened its dark wooden doors, and stepped inside closing the doors behind her. She then exited fully changed from her former school’s uniform of blue and grey to a long black dress decorated with gothic ruffles. Ciera took a good look in the full sized mirror in the door of the wardrobe and was satisfied with her apparel. After returning the doors to their usual closed position, she picked up her silver key necklace and hung it around her neck.
The demigod exited the shadows of her inner sanctum into a corridor of the castle.
------------------------------------------------------------------
The castle’s interior was very similar to that of Ciera’s abode with upside down candles providing a perfect lighting system making the environment less frightening. As Ciera walked down the corridor, she looked into some of the few random pictures that adorned the dark grey walls. Some of these golden frames depicted dreams of mortals. Some beautiful, some frightening, but the majority were in between.
Slowly Ciera descended a long flight of stairs, leading to the main chamber and the exit of the palace. The main chamber was the powerhouse of the Land of Dreams. The half blood held two handfuls of cloth from her gown to prevent her bare feet from tripping on it during her descent. Whoever said you can’t get hurt in dreams, that rule did not apply to a child of Morpheus. Damage taken in the Land of Dreams was transferred to the body in the Land of Reality upon awakening. It had happened a few times and the experiences often led her to be confined to her bed in order for her body to recover.
The sound of fluttering wings greeted Ciera’s ears coming from her left as she was halfway down the stairs.
A sweet, eager chirp sounded in the ear shouting out to the demigod.
Ciera paused her venture and looked in the direction of the chant and fluttering and a smile formed on her face. It was Aislin her close friend from the Land of Dreams. She held out her right palm allowing the small black glob to cease its flying. Aislin was an imp with two forms. In her current form, the creature resembled a small cute round plush toy with a black exterior along with feathery, black angel wings and a black tail. The imp’s ice blue eyes looked up happily to the daughter of Morpheus before enveloping herself in a white light. Aislin fluttered off of Ciera’s hand took on her second form.
The imp took on a more humanoid shape of a girl with skin which was a very bright shade of brown, long curly black hair and ice blue cat eyes. When she smiled revealing her teeth, anyone can see that her two front canines on the top row were sharp. It was hard to make out her smile as it had thousands of meanings, - “I am happy.” “I am mad, but want you to think I’m happy in order to get you back later.” “I am mischievous.” “I love ice cream.”- Just to name a few. Where her ears should have been were black angel feathery wings. Aislin wore a white Greek style dress. Since she was always light on her feet, the imp did not where shoes. Why would you if you had wings sticking out of your head enabling you to fly?
After the imp’s transformation, she flapped her wings landing two steps in front of Ciera and took a bow.
“Show off.” Ciera softly clapped at the performance.
Aislin recovered from her bow, folded her arms across her chest, smiled, and rolled her eyes. - The imp never really spoke actual words. She would emit small shrieks and sounds, but never directly speak. However, Ciera understood her unspoken language very well. – Translated, this gesture meant “That’s how you imagined me milady.”
Aislin was an Imaginary Friend created by Ciera. Most children formed Imaginary Friends and after a while, no longer need them. This realm was their domicile.
Ciera rolled her eyes in agreement.
The imp touched the silver key dangling from Ciera’s neck with a questioning face. Translated this meant, “Locked in again milady?”
“Yup. Dad doesn’t want me anywhere near the war.” Ciera nodded answering Aislin’s question.
The imp then made a sad face and hugged Ciera. Translated, this meant “I’m sorry Lord Morpheus joined Kronos’ team.”
“It’s okay.” The demigod was released from her friend’s embrace. “It’s not your fault. He made the decision.”
Aislin nodded and made a sad face and pointed upwards to the ceiling. Translated, this meant “I have chores to do. Things have gotten hectic since Morpheus left.”
With those words a couple of younger looking imps, one boy and one girl approached them each wearing black jeans and t-shirts with the words “Imp Corp.” Imprinted on them. They slightly bowed to the daughter of Morpheus. Ciera waved ‘hello’ in return. Aislin gave her friend one last brief hug before flying off with the other two imps.
Ciera continued her descent down the stairs.
Ciera entered the palace’s main chamber. When she entered, her eyes laid upon the various Greek pillars, each standing at least 90 feet high, holding up the ceiling of candles. In the center of the chamber, there were three large thrones in the form of La-Z-Boys surrounding a hearth glowing with a mystifying shade of indigo. One of the thrones was occupied by a fifteen foot high Phantasos, one of Morpheus’ brothers, the one who was responsible for creating ambiguous, unreal dreams.
He very much resembled his brother, but instead of looking middle aged, he resembled a teenager. Another difference included the white angelic wings positioned where his ears should’ve been. Around his head of light blonde hair was a crown of black poppies. He wore torn denim jeans and a black shirt with white designs depicting indescribable patterns and a quote in red writing which said, “Dreams Rule. Reality Sucks.” Basically, he closely resembled a teenage boy who took the time out of his busy schedule of dating the homecoming queen’s worst enemy and playing the electric guitar long enough to play “Let’s Pretend” with his five year old brother, but didn’t have time to pick up shoes from his closet to wear.
In front of Phantasos’ throne knelt a small light blue elf wearing a torn up green and yellow school uniform giving a report.
“Thank you Bernard. I will send someone as soon as I can.” The god spoke to the elf as he summoned a silver iPad out of nowhere and tapped it a few times. This action despatched a group of Imaginary Friends to battle Phobetor’s Dream Demons and help people get through dangerous nightmares.
“It’s been done.”
Bernard stood up, bowed to Phantasos and vanished, going off to assist the other Imaginary Friends. With the elf’s departure, the minor god released a sigh and his iPad faded away. Soon after, he brightened up again as he noticed Ciera’s presence advancing toward his throne.
“Lord Phantasos.” Ciera said briefly bowing at his throne.
“Lady Ciera.” He replied and nodded his head.
Ciera looked into the god’s completely bizarre eyes. Where the white should have been was indigo and the iris was white. They almost made him look demonic, but in them she saw creatures that most humans thought were myths, unicorns, fairies, gnomes, you name it. She could imagine herself soaring through the skies on a mighty dragon and diving to the bottom of the ocean with a majestic whale. Animals spoke human tongue. Anything was possible. And it was a world where rules of science and logic were meant to be broken. Understanding past between the two of them as Ciera was a frequent visitor to his confusing journeys and this Realm.
The godling’s demonic eyes sparkled as his form shrunk to the size of an average teenage boy.
Minutes later, Phantasos was on a role blurting out crazy ideas on how the Imaginary Friends will leave Phobetor’s Demons in the dust. The wings on his head fluttered excitedly, making him float off the grey granite floor. Now that he had finished being serious, he returned to his normal weirdo self. He had transformed from the dude dating the homecoming queen’s worst enemy and playing the electric guitar, to the dude playing games with his younger siblings. He began flying all over the place as if he just got hyped up on sugar and caffeine. Through his demonic white and indigo eyes one could see many possibilities. This usually occurred after Phantasos was serious for a long period of time. Everyone needs a break from work sometime.
“Uh, Phantasos?” Ciera’s naturally quiet voice strained to capture the excited godling’s attention.
Ciera twisted and turned her body in every direction, with her gothic style black dress twirling, trying to catch up with her blabbering uncle. Ciera was trying to ask her uncle to help her get back to the Land of Reality. The demigod sighed and closed her dreamy grey eyes as she ran her hand through her tree bark brown hair. She knew it was close to impossible to break Phantasos’ ritual of blurting out silly ideas. But she couldn’t help smiling at the thought that this ritual helped to inspire some of the shows she liked to watch on television and books she liked to read. She herself would’ve happily joined him like she usually did, but she wanted to get back to the Real World so her aunt wouldn’t fear that she won’t awaken.
Phantasos zoomed by her at extreme speed causing the demigod’s long hair to fly out of place, and slightly throwing her off balance, and ruffling her black dress for the umpteenth hundredth time. If you were lucky enough to even grasp what he was saying, he most likely was deciding if the team should use Bakugan or Pokémon to combat the Demons.
A very tall male dark grey coloured imp with white swirly tattoos and grey wings and long grey hair dressed in an Imp Corp. T-shirt and jeans came up to Ciera and handed her a megaphone. The imps were very much as used to this event as Ciera was.
“Thanks Alfred.” Ciera gratefully accepted the device.
She turned up the volume to the max. Alfred placed a pair of white fluffy earmuffs on his winged head and jogged out of the chamber. Ciera always wondered how imps were able to hear when there were wings where their ears should be. She perished the thought and raised the megaphone close to her mouth.
“Phantasos!” Ciera’s voice bellowed throughout the megaphone. No effect.
“PHANTASOS!” She yelled again.
Still no effect on the godling. Ciera rolled her eyes and decided desperate times called for desperate measures. Being the daughter of Morpheus allowed her some powers in the Dream Realm like creating lightning in the background for special effects, or making stuff come out of nowhere. Unfortunately, this left her weak depending on how big the effect was. So she decided to do something small. In her right hand, a plain red brick appeared.
Sorry Phantasos. She thought as she threw the brick towards the minor god with incredible accuracy. If this wasn’t the Land of Dreams, she wouldn’t have been able to hit Phantasos in square on the back of his head, damaging his crown of poppies, and breaking his blabbering.
“What the f?!” Phantasos shouted recovering from the blow.
The minor god looked to the direction from where the brick was thrown and saw Ciera tapping her bare foot on the grey granite floor waiting for him. Phantasos chuckled and scratched his head knowing exactly why his niece impaled him with a brick. The demigod was lucky that her uncle was more understanding than some of the other gods who would have ‘catch so much feelings’ and incinerated her.
“Sorry about that.” He said sitting back on his La-Z-Boy throne.
With a snap of his fingers, a new crown of black poppies circled around his head.
“As I was trying to say earlier.” Ciera began as she stood in front of the throne. “I need help getting back to the Real World. Any ideas?”
“Um..it’s something called unlocking-your-balcony-doors-with-that-silver-key-around-your-neck.” Phantasos said as if stating the obvious.
“Cant. I’m grounded.” Ciera said folding her arms across her chest. “Dad swapped my key. Again.”
“No need to fear! Uncle Phantasos is here!” The godling summoned a gold key, jumped off his chair and fluttered down. “We can try my key.”
With the snap of his fingers, he and Ciera had teleported to Ciera’s room in the castle. The pair appeared in front of Ciera’s balcony. Phantasos handed the half-blood the key who attempted to unlock its mystical doors. She turned the key and tried the handles, but the door, as it did earlier with her silver key, did not open.
“It ain’ working.” Ciera simply said turning around to the imp looking being.
“WHAT? Impossible!” Phantasos switched places with Ciera.
He attempted to unlock the doors himself with no results. He even said some sort of chant in Ancient Greek. Nothing. He took a step back with a hand to his chin, thinking. A light bulb appeared over his head as he snapped his fingers and grabbed a crowbar.
“This will only take a second.” Phantasos confidently said as he wedged the tool between the balcony’s doors.
Here we go again.
Ciera got tired of standing up and teleported herself to her bed where she laid down. Knowing her uncle, if that crowbar failed its mission, he would find a bazillion other techniques until that lock was opened. She could imagine the glow in his strange demonic white and indigo eyes.
The demigod sighed and closed her eyes.
Some of you may ask, “How the Hades is it possible to fall asleep in the Land of Dreams?” The answer is, “How the Hades should I know. Who do I look like? Morpheus?” Well, I don’t. Except for the eyes. The only physical trait I share with my godly father, is dreamy grey eyes that when stared at too long can make you loopy and sleepy.
The demigod opened her eyes again to find herself in her inner sanctum. At first she was relaxed and closed her eyes again, but then she jolted up at the sound of a huge explosion.
“What the Hades?!” Ciera shouted as smoke began to fill the room.
The smoke quickly cleared revealing Phantasos, a large TNT bomb, an Infernape, a small white dragon, three black cats, one wrecked sanctuary, and one pissed off demigod glaring at her godly uncle.
“Oookkkaayyy. Apparently, my big bro changed the lock on me.” Phantasos said rubbing the back of his head. “And there’s no way to get you back to your body.”
Phantasos chanted something in Ancient Greek and the place began repairing itself. The picture frames took their places back on the walls as the angelic imps held in them brushed off their gold and white robes. Darkrai’s form rose out of the shadows and placed itself back on its designated wall. Shattered pieces of furniture gathered together until they looked as if they had never been destroyed. Phantasos dismissed the creatures with a wave of his hand making them vanish.
Ciera released a sigh.
“Well, I guess I’m stuck here for a while.” The demigod got out of her bed and began to walk toward the balcony.
She opened it without the use of a key. This action revealed the Dream Realm beyond the castle and allowed a calming breeze to blow through her hair. A dark night sky illuminated with billions of sparkling stars and a full silver moon. Mountains and meadows, forests and jungles, seas and oceans, cities and towns all filled the Land of Dreams. Imaginary Friends in a variety of forms, wizards, ogres, trolls, elves, mermaids, imps, fairies, you name it roamed around. A few Imaginary Friends known as Shapees went to the Realm of Reality to take on the forms of lonely children’s friends. The Shapees appeared either as shadows or bright light. Some just hanging out while others prepared themselves to enter the Land of Reality to put mortals to sleep and guide them through their nightmares. Animals of all kinds, lions, tigers, wolves, whales, eagles all spoke human tongue. It was a realm that looked like a story book. A realm that was close to impossible to describe in words.
“Well since you’re stuck here, you can help out.” Phantasos stood at the side of his niece looking out into his world and snapping her out of her thoughts. “Some of your uncle Phobetor’s pets need to be fed. Think you’re up for it?”
Ciera smiled and closed the balcony’s ambiguous double doors.
“Bring it on.”
Phantasos vanished, returning to his throne room while Ciera made her way to the wardrobe and stepped inside. A few seconds later, she exited wearing denim shorts and a black graphic t-shirt inscribed with “Sleep. Death’s Imitator” with a few skulls on it.
After a brief check in the mirror, the daughter of Morpheus exited the shadows of the room into the shadows of the corridors and into the world she considered her second home.
...
Thank you all who enjoyed it. The next story has more than one chapter, but I'll put them up later. Also, my characters and I get in some crazy conversations, so I might post them up if such matters arise.
Ciera’s dreamy grey eyes opened to find her in familiar surroundings. Her bedroom; a place in the Land of Dreams her father had given her. A place she was taken to while her body remained lifeless in sleep, death’s imitator. In a sense, it was like a cabin at Camp Half-Blood except it wasn’t a cabin. It was a room in her father’s castle.
The sanctum was a gothic style room the size of a cabin with gothic style furniture, wall designs, and wardrobe. It was a place black and grey happily bonded with other dark shades to create a dreary but cosy work of art; imagined by Ciera. Upside down candles illuminated the room with white light from the ceiling. Paintings of angelic imps came to life and soared around the room before retreating to their silver frames. Just for laughs, Ciera had an image of Darkrai, the Pitch-Black Pokémon, painted on one of the room’s four walls. There was a large door leading to a balcony outside made of stained glass which constantly shifted its ambiguous patterns. Through this door, she was able to return to her body in the Real World.
Ciera pushed the black comforter off of her as she jumped out of the large king-sized bed. She pulled out a silver key encrusted with a few black stones from under her grey school shirt. Her bare feet pounded against the grey granite as she made her way to the balcony’s mystical doors. The key was her gateway between the Land of Reality and the Land of Dreams. At first glance she thought there was something different about the key. However, Ciera shrugged it off.
She inserted the silver key into the key hole, but failed in unlocking the doors. After two more tries, she huffed in frustration and ran her hands through her brown tree bark hair, removing the bangs off her forehead.
“Damn. He changed my key. Again.” Ciera said in annoyance.
She was completely stuck in the Dream Realm. Morpheus was very much serious when he said she would not be taking part in the war.
The teenager sighed in defeat and placed the key necklace on the nightstand by her bedside. Ciera moved to her wardrobe, opened its dark wooden doors, and stepped inside closing the doors behind her. She then exited fully changed from her former school’s uniform of blue and grey to a long black dress decorated with gothic ruffles. Ciera took a good look in the full sized mirror in the door of the wardrobe and was satisfied with her apparel. After returning the doors to their usual closed position, she picked up her silver key necklace and hung it around her neck.
The demigod exited the shadows of her inner sanctum into a corridor of the castle.
------------------------------------------------------------------
The castle’s interior was very similar to that of Ciera’s abode with upside down candles providing a perfect lighting system making the environment less frightening. As Ciera walked down the corridor, she looked into some of the few random pictures that adorned the dark grey walls. Some of these golden frames depicted dreams of mortals. Some beautiful, some frightening, but the majority were in between.
Slowly Ciera descended a long flight of stairs, leading to the main chamber and the exit of the palace. The main chamber was the powerhouse of the Land of Dreams. The half blood held two handfuls of cloth from her gown to prevent her bare feet from tripping on it during her descent. Whoever said you can’t get hurt in dreams, that rule did not apply to a child of Morpheus. Damage taken in the Land of Dreams was transferred to the body in the Land of Reality upon awakening. It had happened a few times and the experiences often led her to be confined to her bed in order for her body to recover.
The sound of fluttering wings greeted Ciera’s ears coming from her left as she was halfway down the stairs.
A sweet, eager chirp sounded in the ear shouting out to the demigod.
Ciera paused her venture and looked in the direction of the chant and fluttering and a smile formed on her face. It was Aislin her close friend from the Land of Dreams. She held out her right palm allowing the small black glob to cease its flying. Aislin was an imp with two forms. In her current form, the creature resembled a small cute round plush toy with a black exterior along with feathery, black angel wings and a black tail. The imp’s ice blue eyes looked up happily to the daughter of Morpheus before enveloping herself in a white light. Aislin fluttered off of Ciera’s hand took on her second form.
The imp took on a more humanoid shape of a girl with skin which was a very bright shade of brown, long curly black hair and ice blue cat eyes. When she smiled revealing her teeth, anyone can see that her two front canines on the top row were sharp. It was hard to make out her smile as it had thousands of meanings, - “I am happy.” “I am mad, but want you to think I’m happy in order to get you back later.” “I am mischievous.” “I love ice cream.”- Just to name a few. Where her ears should have been were black angel feathery wings. Aislin wore a white Greek style dress. Since she was always light on her feet, the imp did not where shoes. Why would you if you had wings sticking out of your head enabling you to fly?
After the imp’s transformation, she flapped her wings landing two steps in front of Ciera and took a bow.
“Show off.” Ciera softly clapped at the performance.
Aislin recovered from her bow, folded her arms across her chest, smiled, and rolled her eyes. - The imp never really spoke actual words. She would emit small shrieks and sounds, but never directly speak. However, Ciera understood her unspoken language very well. – Translated, this gesture meant “That’s how you imagined me milady.”
Aislin was an Imaginary Friend created by Ciera. Most children formed Imaginary Friends and after a while, no longer need them. This realm was their domicile.
Ciera rolled her eyes in agreement.
The imp touched the silver key dangling from Ciera’s neck with a questioning face. Translated this meant, “Locked in again milady?”
“Yup. Dad doesn’t want me anywhere near the war.” Ciera nodded answering Aislin’s question.
The imp then made a sad face and hugged Ciera. Translated, this meant “I’m sorry Lord Morpheus joined Kronos’ team.”
“It’s okay.” The demigod was released from her friend’s embrace. “It’s not your fault. He made the decision.”
Aislin nodded and made a sad face and pointed upwards to the ceiling. Translated, this meant “I have chores to do. Things have gotten hectic since Morpheus left.”
With those words a couple of younger looking imps, one boy and one girl approached them each wearing black jeans and t-shirts with the words “Imp Corp.” Imprinted on them. They slightly bowed to the daughter of Morpheus. Ciera waved ‘hello’ in return. Aislin gave her friend one last brief hug before flying off with the other two imps.
Ciera continued her descent down the stairs.
Ciera entered the palace’s main chamber. When she entered, her eyes laid upon the various Greek pillars, each standing at least 90 feet high, holding up the ceiling of candles. In the center of the chamber, there were three large thrones in the form of La-Z-Boys surrounding a hearth glowing with a mystifying shade of indigo. One of the thrones was occupied by a fifteen foot high Phantasos, one of Morpheus’ brothers, the one who was responsible for creating ambiguous, unreal dreams.
He very much resembled his brother, but instead of looking middle aged, he resembled a teenager. Another difference included the white angelic wings positioned where his ears should’ve been. Around his head of light blonde hair was a crown of black poppies. He wore torn denim jeans and a black shirt with white designs depicting indescribable patterns and a quote in red writing which said, “Dreams Rule. Reality Sucks.” Basically, he closely resembled a teenage boy who took the time out of his busy schedule of dating the homecoming queen’s worst enemy and playing the electric guitar long enough to play “Let’s Pretend” with his five year old brother, but didn’t have time to pick up shoes from his closet to wear.
In front of Phantasos’ throne knelt a small light blue elf wearing a torn up green and yellow school uniform giving a report.
“Thank you Bernard. I will send someone as soon as I can.” The god spoke to the elf as he summoned a silver iPad out of nowhere and tapped it a few times. This action despatched a group of Imaginary Friends to battle Phobetor’s Dream Demons and help people get through dangerous nightmares.
“It’s been done.”
Bernard stood up, bowed to Phantasos and vanished, going off to assist the other Imaginary Friends. With the elf’s departure, the minor god released a sigh and his iPad faded away. Soon after, he brightened up again as he noticed Ciera’s presence advancing toward his throne.
“Lord Phantasos.” Ciera said briefly bowing at his throne.
“Lady Ciera.” He replied and nodded his head.
Ciera looked into the god’s completely bizarre eyes. Where the white should have been was indigo and the iris was white. They almost made him look demonic, but in them she saw creatures that most humans thought were myths, unicorns, fairies, gnomes, you name it. She could imagine herself soaring through the skies on a mighty dragon and diving to the bottom of the ocean with a majestic whale. Animals spoke human tongue. Anything was possible. And it was a world where rules of science and logic were meant to be broken. Understanding past between the two of them as Ciera was a frequent visitor to his confusing journeys and this Realm.
The godling’s demonic eyes sparkled as his form shrunk to the size of an average teenage boy.
Minutes later, Phantasos was on a role blurting out crazy ideas on how the Imaginary Friends will leave Phobetor’s Demons in the dust. The wings on his head fluttered excitedly, making him float off the grey granite floor. Now that he had finished being serious, he returned to his normal weirdo self. He had transformed from the dude dating the homecoming queen’s worst enemy and playing the electric guitar, to the dude playing games with his younger siblings. He began flying all over the place as if he just got hyped up on sugar and caffeine. Through his demonic white and indigo eyes one could see many possibilities. This usually occurred after Phantasos was serious for a long period of time. Everyone needs a break from work sometime.
“Uh, Phantasos?” Ciera’s naturally quiet voice strained to capture the excited godling’s attention.
Ciera twisted and turned her body in every direction, with her gothic style black dress twirling, trying to catch up with her blabbering uncle. Ciera was trying to ask her uncle to help her get back to the Land of Reality. The demigod sighed and closed her dreamy grey eyes as she ran her hand through her tree bark brown hair. She knew it was close to impossible to break Phantasos’ ritual of blurting out silly ideas. But she couldn’t help smiling at the thought that this ritual helped to inspire some of the shows she liked to watch on television and books she liked to read. She herself would’ve happily joined him like she usually did, but she wanted to get back to the Real World so her aunt wouldn’t fear that she won’t awaken.
Phantasos zoomed by her at extreme speed causing the demigod’s long hair to fly out of place, and slightly throwing her off balance, and ruffling her black dress for the umpteenth hundredth time. If you were lucky enough to even grasp what he was saying, he most likely was deciding if the team should use Bakugan or Pokémon to combat the Demons.
A very tall male dark grey coloured imp with white swirly tattoos and grey wings and long grey hair dressed in an Imp Corp. T-shirt and jeans came up to Ciera and handed her a megaphone. The imps were very much as used to this event as Ciera was.
“Thanks Alfred.” Ciera gratefully accepted the device.
She turned up the volume to the max. Alfred placed a pair of white fluffy earmuffs on his winged head and jogged out of the chamber. Ciera always wondered how imps were able to hear when there were wings where their ears should be. She perished the thought and raised the megaphone close to her mouth.
“Phantasos!” Ciera’s voice bellowed throughout the megaphone. No effect.
“PHANTASOS!” She yelled again.
Still no effect on the godling. Ciera rolled her eyes and decided desperate times called for desperate measures. Being the daughter of Morpheus allowed her some powers in the Dream Realm like creating lightning in the background for special effects, or making stuff come out of nowhere. Unfortunately, this left her weak depending on how big the effect was. So she decided to do something small. In her right hand, a plain red brick appeared.
Sorry Phantasos. She thought as she threw the brick towards the minor god with incredible accuracy. If this wasn’t the Land of Dreams, she wouldn’t have been able to hit Phantasos in square on the back of his head, damaging his crown of poppies, and breaking his blabbering.
“What the f?!” Phantasos shouted recovering from the blow.
The minor god looked to the direction from where the brick was thrown and saw Ciera tapping her bare foot on the grey granite floor waiting for him. Phantasos chuckled and scratched his head knowing exactly why his niece impaled him with a brick. The demigod was lucky that her uncle was more understanding than some of the other gods who would have ‘catch so much feelings’ and incinerated her.
“Sorry about that.” He said sitting back on his La-Z-Boy throne.
With a snap of his fingers, a new crown of black poppies circled around his head.
“As I was trying to say earlier.” Ciera began as she stood in front of the throne. “I need help getting back to the Real World. Any ideas?”
“Um..it’s something called unlocking-your-balcony-doors-with-that-silver-key-around-your-neck.” Phantasos said as if stating the obvious.
“Cant. I’m grounded.” Ciera said folding her arms across her chest. “Dad swapped my key. Again.”
“No need to fear! Uncle Phantasos is here!” The godling summoned a gold key, jumped off his chair and fluttered down. “We can try my key.”
With the snap of his fingers, he and Ciera had teleported to Ciera’s room in the castle. The pair appeared in front of Ciera’s balcony. Phantasos handed the half-blood the key who attempted to unlock its mystical doors. She turned the key and tried the handles, but the door, as it did earlier with her silver key, did not open.
“It ain’ working.” Ciera simply said turning around to the imp looking being.
“WHAT? Impossible!” Phantasos switched places with Ciera.
He attempted to unlock the doors himself with no results. He even said some sort of chant in Ancient Greek. Nothing. He took a step back with a hand to his chin, thinking. A light bulb appeared over his head as he snapped his fingers and grabbed a crowbar.
“This will only take a second.” Phantasos confidently said as he wedged the tool between the balcony’s doors.
Here we go again.
Ciera got tired of standing up and teleported herself to her bed where she laid down. Knowing her uncle, if that crowbar failed its mission, he would find a bazillion other techniques until that lock was opened. She could imagine the glow in his strange demonic white and indigo eyes.
The demigod sighed and closed her eyes.
Some of you may ask, “How the Hades is it possible to fall asleep in the Land of Dreams?” The answer is, “How the Hades should I know. Who do I look like? Morpheus?” Well, I don’t. Except for the eyes. The only physical trait I share with my godly father, is dreamy grey eyes that when stared at too long can make you loopy and sleepy.
The demigod opened her eyes again to find herself in her inner sanctum. At first she was relaxed and closed her eyes again, but then she jolted up at the sound of a huge explosion.
“What the Hades?!” Ciera shouted as smoke began to fill the room.
The smoke quickly cleared revealing Phantasos, a large TNT bomb, an Infernape, a small white dragon, three black cats, one wrecked sanctuary, and one pissed off demigod glaring at her godly uncle.
“Oookkkaayyy. Apparently, my big bro changed the lock on me.” Phantasos said rubbing the back of his head. “And there’s no way to get you back to your body.”
Phantasos chanted something in Ancient Greek and the place began repairing itself. The picture frames took their places back on the walls as the angelic imps held in them brushed off their gold and white robes. Darkrai’s form rose out of the shadows and placed itself back on its designated wall. Shattered pieces of furniture gathered together until they looked as if they had never been destroyed. Phantasos dismissed the creatures with a wave of his hand making them vanish.
Ciera released a sigh.
“Well, I guess I’m stuck here for a while.” The demigod got out of her bed and began to walk toward the balcony.
She opened it without the use of a key. This action revealed the Dream Realm beyond the castle and allowed a calming breeze to blow through her hair. A dark night sky illuminated with billions of sparkling stars and a full silver moon. Mountains and meadows, forests and jungles, seas and oceans, cities and towns all filled the Land of Dreams. Imaginary Friends in a variety of forms, wizards, ogres, trolls, elves, mermaids, imps, fairies, you name it roamed around. A few Imaginary Friends known as Shapees went to the Realm of Reality to take on the forms of lonely children’s friends. The Shapees appeared either as shadows or bright light. Some just hanging out while others prepared themselves to enter the Land of Reality to put mortals to sleep and guide them through their nightmares. Animals of all kinds, lions, tigers, wolves, whales, eagles all spoke human tongue. It was a realm that looked like a story book. A realm that was close to impossible to describe in words.
“Well since you’re stuck here, you can help out.” Phantasos stood at the side of his niece looking out into his world and snapping her out of her thoughts. “Some of your uncle Phobetor’s pets need to be fed. Think you’re up for it?”
Ciera smiled and closed the balcony’s ambiguous double doors.
“Bring it on.”
Phantasos vanished, returning to his throne room while Ciera made her way to the wardrobe and stepped inside. A few seconds later, she exited wearing denim shorts and a black graphic t-shirt inscribed with “Sleep. Death’s Imitator” with a few skulls on it.
After a brief check in the mirror, the daughter of Morpheus exited the shadows of the room into the shadows of the corridors and into the world she considered her second home.
...
Thank you all who enjoyed it. The next story has more than one chapter, but I'll put them up later. Also, my characters and I get in some crazy conversations, so I might post them up if such matters arise.
