Ribbontail: Enter Emalia
Chapter 36: The Boat Dream

Author's Note: Please read my artist's comments before continuing. :3
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“Aah I tell you dudes, this is the life!”

In a manner most befitting his personality, O’liday stretched all four limbs at once and let himself fall straight off Ribbontail’s back. The feliulf was laughing as he tumbled backwards onto the ground, crashing into the soft grasses below.

“The grass at your feet, the wind in your fur, and best of all- no more of that bogus desert sun. Phew!”

Ribbontail could not help but smile while she and PuppetRibbontail stretched and began to relax alongside him.

For almost two whole weeks the three friends had been traveling, heading steadily west under the guiding star’s directions. The going was unusually easy and uneventful, for the most part. There were very few other Emalians they met, most of which were either non-speaking or overly-shy (no thanks to PuppetRibbontail). So instead the three friends exchanged their stories and opinions on things and tales alike, pleased to be out of danger and back on track.

There had been a major stroke of luck, too. As it turned out, Infin had left them just on the borderline of the Sandstone desert. Having spent a good week on a non-stop caravan ride, they certainly did get far! Only a couple days after restarting their journey the three noticed a gradual increase in foliage, which quickly grew from patches of dried weeds to miles upon miles of thick, loamy grasslands. With it came a sun that blazed far less fiercely, and the traveling therefore was less painful.

Ribbontail heaved a sigh of relief as she scrambled to get her halter off, tugging it over her head and letting it fall to the ground. She shook her fur back into place.

“Yes, I couldn’t agree more,” she breathed, pawsore, “At least now we can relax easy, huh?”

“Amen to that, dude!”

Sleepily Ribbontail sank down into the thick brown grasses. It was a familiar sight, these plains, much like the savannas back on Earth. Brown-yellow hills of grass rolled off into the distance, the commodity broken only by the occasional tree or patch of dirt or sand.

The three friends lay on the ground in the thick brown grass, unwinding after a day’s traveling. This had become a daily tradition of sorts for the three of them, and they were always more than happy when the time came.

Ribbontail stretched her tired limbs. “So where do you think we are, guys?” she asked her two companions.

With a shrug O’liday sat up and looked around. “Hmmm I dunno. Looks like we’re somewhere near the edge of sandstone desert. Pretty soon we should be coming to the Cadead Swamps, or something like that. I’ve never been too good with maps. But my dad used to say that the swamps have got a lot of nasty Eclipsians. Uugh, no good.”

Uncomfortable, Ribbontail shifted. The ever-pleasant PuppetRibbontail quickly aided her master with a fond nuzzle. O’liday seemed to see this also, and with a smile he lay his attire in a neat pile on the ground.

“Ah but don’t worry,” he said as he nudged Ribbontail’s side with his elbow, “There are more than just nasties in those parts. Heck, these places have got TONS o’ friendly people.”

That was a relief, at least.

Plenty of friendly people was what Ribbontail enjoyed the most; the shy desert Emalians didn’t seem to enjoy their presence at all and she was very disappointed. Stretching, Ribbontail lay down on the ground and began licking her tired paws.

She muttered, “Well that’s good. I’ve been here almost three months and I’ve only met a few Emalians.”

O’liday assuredly patted her back. “Hey no worries, dude. There are billions of people out there. Ya just got to know where they all live. You’ll meet more people in one swamp day then you ever will in a desert month.”

“Ah.” For a second Ribbontail paused, trying to decrypt this last sentence, “let’s just hope they’re as nice as Kerberos was.” (Almost, just almost, Ribbontail added ‘and Infin’)

“Right! That’s the spirit, man!”

Letting out a deep sigh, Ribbontail watched as PuppetRibbontail snuggled down in the grass nearby. It was refreshing to be able to relax for once. Lowering her snout down to rest on her paws, Ribbontail threw O’liday another question.

“So what about these plains? Do you know anything about these?”

“Naw, dude, not really. It’s just a few hundred miles of savannah, between Sandstone and the Cadead lands. I don’t think there are many people living here-”

O’liday extended a paw over across the distant plains, where a pair of giraffes grazed lazily on the treetops. There were some other animals with them- water buffalo or gazelle, perhaps.

“-aside from the non-speaking guys. But they never have much to say, even to a god like you. Hehehe.”

With the late afternoon shadows creeping through the savanna grasses, Ribbontail yawned. She watched as O’liday fell to cleaning himself, licking his fur with his little pink tongue and humming an upbeat song. Were she more rested, Ribbontail would have wanted to explore the rolling hills around them; she’d never been to such lands.

But for now she was happy to rest.
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Back when she lived on Earth Ribbontail recalled having had no dreams but ones she now knew as “regular ones”. She favored regular dreams far more than her divine ones because- frankly- they were better. They had no meaning, no rules, no requirements, and they altogether were quite simple. Regular dreams were a muddle of memories, thoughts, and feelings tossed together as she slept.

Therefore she preferred having regular dreams as opposed to her formal, controllable god dreams. They could actually be quite interesting!

Ribbontail dreamt that she, O’liday, and PuppetRibbontail were aboard a cruise ship of some sort. Animals of all shapes and sizes bustled about the decks, playing and yelling and basking in the warm sun. Ribbontail sat with her paws on the side railings. As though this were an everyday event she stared out into the deep blue sea, her golden eyes filled with boredom.

“Hey dude!” called O’liday from behind. He and PuppetRibbontail were both sprawled out on lounge chairs, and Ribbontail turned slowly to them. “Try my sauce! It goes great with ice cream!”

Then suddenly O’liday held an ice cream cone in his hand, and a packet of hot sauce in the other. Ribbontail watched with quiet apprehension as the feliulf drizzled the reddish-orange liquid over the ice cream.

“Puppet likes it too, see?”

PuppetRibbontail was sunning herself in the chair next to O’liday, holding a hot sauce ice cream cone of her own. The big sunglasses that the spirit wore glittered in the sunlight as she tilted her nose down, gazing playfully over the lenses at her master. It was quite a comical sight. Yet most curiously Ribbontail simply stopped, stared, then whispered, “Shucks” before turning to gaze back out at sea.

“Shucks, yeah...” O’liday echoed, then stopped in mid-sentence. Everything in the dream stopped for that matter; the people hurrying about on the decks, the people relaxing in the sun, everything froze in that instant as though time had stopped.

It was then that a rumbling overtook the cruise ship, growing to a roar as a sound like thunder rumbled at their feet. Then suddenly screams erupted along the decks. Before Ribbontail and her friends could react people were fleeing their direction, rushing past in a mob of fear and desperation.

As their fellow cruise-goers rushed by, O’liday murmured, “What’s going on? Is there a-”

His voice was cut off when he suddenly turned and transformed into a seagull, letting out a shrill squawk as he flew away. PuppetRibbontail proceeded to follow the gull; she evanesced into a balloon and drifted along in the breeze.

As the din of the crowd grew farther and the O’liday-gull and PuppetRibbontail-balloon vanished, Ribbontail found that the cruise ship’s sunny decks had become desolate. She was perfectly alone.

“What’s going on...?” she thought.

It was then that the ship grumbled again, a sickening moan echoing from the bow of the ship. Terror and shock flashed across Ribbontail’s face. There was a great spray of water- a column of foam and blue- then some hulking beast erupting from the water right onto the cruise ship. Immense, white, and cloaked in a mist of seawater, it thundered over the railings to stand there as wide as the ship itself. Chairs clattered and wood and metal splintered as the aquatic brute lifted its face and let out a thunderous, terrifying roar.

“OmenBeast,” Ribbontail breathed as she saw the thing’s face. OmenBeast, easily ten times his normal size.

Shimmering as seawater spilled onto the decks, an oversized OmenBeast stood there with teeth bared and eyes bulging. It reared up and those massive limbs lashed at the air, and once more a deathly howl boomed from its mouth. The ship bucked, lurching as OmenBeast stood there screeching at his tiny foe.

Ribbontail did not stop to face this Eclipsian again.

Spinning about despite the unsteady rocking, the little wolf bolted down the deck, paws skittering on the wood. Yet she had only started to flee from the beast that she ran face first into Sasha. The great white dragon stooped over her, majestic and beautiful, and she waved an arm back to the Eclipsian.

“Running?” the goddess questioned, “Ribbontail the Cunning, gods do not run. Stand and fight, young one. Do not fear Eclipsians!”

That was all the motivation that the dream Ribbontail needed. The wolf turned to lunge back across the decks, cutting into a full run straight for the horrid OmenBeast. But again Ribbontail was cut off halfway. This time she collided with the catlike Eclipse, all white fur and flowing robe. He instantly lashed out at Ribbontail with his claws.

He hissed. “Coming to fight my children, are you? Only a fool would try that!”

Fear strangled all confidence from the goddess. Again Ribbontail whipped around, yelping when she saw Sasha positioned right behind her. The young Ribbontail was sandwiched between the two biggest rival gods of Kuutamo, all the while with the din of OmenBeast pounding her ears.

“Stand and fight, be brave!” lovingly from Sasha.

“No! Run and save yourself, like you always do!” dauntingly from Eclipse.

Ribbontail grew terrified when the two gods vanished into thin air, leaving her alone on the decks with OmenBeast. OmenBeast, who had returned and stood there as terrible as ever. Her eyes turned and stared at the dream-warped OmenBeast, warped out of proportion and standing there thrashing and screaming at her. Big, brutish, vile, and challenging her with all his might. He could kill her with one stroke. He could destroy all with his claws and rend the life from her friends.

It was here where she would make her decision. She would have to stand to fight, charge to her foe and go tooth-and-claw against him, like any rightful god should.  Or she could once more play fate and run, following the crowd of cowards like her human-raised mind has taught her to.

Indecision clutched at the dream Ribbontail’s heart. Then, as if shoved by an invisible hand of decision, she chose neither: over the railing and into the deep blue water she tumbled.
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Ribbontail came out of her dream flailing in the grass, calling out a muddle of names, fighting against invisible water. She did not realize that she had awakened until she kicked out to club O’liday square in the face with her footpaw.

Rolling dazedly onto her belly, she lay there panting and staring at O’liday. He was sprawled on the ground rubbing his nose.

“Ouch dude, what’s up?” he mumbled.

Too tired to react, Ribbontail blinked the sleep daze from her eyes and yawned. Then she lay her head down on her paws. It was cold out; evening perhaps, with the shadows of the late afternoon creeping over them through the grasses. Ribbontail felt PuppetRibbontail snuggled against her then, perhaps offering help.

“I’m sorry...” she yawned again, and lifted a paw to rub her tired eyes. “Really sorry. I was just having the weirdest...”

Lack of wakefulness made Ribbontail lose her train of thought, and again she lay her head down. This was the equivalent of rolling over and tucking herself back into bed; she was too tired to do anything but.

“Dream? Yeah I’ve had dreams like those too,” O’liday meowed. She felt the feliulf hop over and give her a pat on the head. “But at least I don’t kick people, dude. Geez...”

Ribbontail mumbled something entirely indistinguishable in response. O’liday went about his business elsewhere; he seemed to have been eating a dinner of nuts and grasses, and he happily went back to it. Yet after snuggling her nose down beneath her paws, Ribbontail’s mind began to awaken and she recalled the strangeness of the dream. It had seemed so real, despite it being no more than a tangled bunch of images. OmenBeast... he too had seemed real in the dream.

Lifting her head after a great number of minutes, Ribbontail stared at her feline companion.

“Hey O’liday...?” she muttered, her voice tired, “How much do you know about Eclipsians?”

O’liday looked up from the pile of food he was picking through. “Huhmm?” His mouth was full. After swallowing, he meowed, “enough I guess. Why?”

There was a momentary pause from Ribbontail, and a soft whisper of savannah  wind played against her fur. She rested her chin on her paws. “Can they come back to life?”

“Hmm... ah some can,” O’liday replied after a few seconds. “Some of the bigger and older ones can, but others don’t. I dunno dude, what do you think I am, an Eclipsianologist or something?”

“Do you think that OmenBeast can?”

All she got in reply was a shrug and a quiet, “Hopefully not. I’m wishing that guy STAYS dead. But man, you never know with those Eclipsians.”

Then O’liday went back to eating his dinner. Although she was still awakening, Ribbontail felt pangs of worry bubble from the back of her mind. The dream reminded her vividly of that fierce, terrifying Eclipsian: the grueling teeth, the rippling muscles, the sheer desire to kill. Part of her remembered somebody- was it Kerberos?- who told her that some Eclipsians returned from the grave to live once more. And the message behind the dream, of fight and flight and the fiasco behind her cowardice, left her no more calmed about it all.

“Hopefully,” Ribbontail thought as she snuggled back down against PuppetRibbontail, “Hopefully it was just a silly dream.”