In the Nightmares: Part One

      Siena didn't know who they were, but she remembered being chased. She knew someone was going to come. She had to leave.

      "Don't turn around," a voice said from behind her. Siena jumped. She didn't recognize the sound of it. It was a female voice, and sounded light but yet eerie at the same time. Siena was tempted to turn and look, but she didn't. She kept her eyes on the water.

      "Who are you?" she asked. She wasn't afraid of whoever it was behind her, just curious.

      "You don't need to know who I am," the voice said, "but listen to what I have to say. Don't turn around. They can't find you unless you let them. You're safe inside your own thoughts. Remember that."

      The voice was fading now, and the whole world was getting darker. The sun had not yet gone down all the way, but all of the colors in the sky were darkening. In only a moment everything was completely black, and Siena was unable to see. There was nothing but silence, until the Cybunny heard a low growl from behind her.

      Remembering what the voice had said, Siena didn't want to turn around. But she wanted to know what was there. She would just take a quick glance - that would be all. She quickly turned around, and screamed in terror at what she saw.

     ~*~

      "Siena! Siena!" Someone was calling. Siena sat up, still screaming. She opened her eyes and the darkness was gone, replaced with the faint blue light of early morning. She was sitting in a sleeping bag on the ground in a dark green colored tent. A green Wocky was standing in front of her.

      "You had the dream, didn't you?" the Wocky asked quickly, still shaking Siena a little as if she thought she might still be asleep. "Did you see the monster this time?"

      "It was the same as it is every night, Kiri," Siena told her. "I saw the thing behind me, but I can't remember it now."

      "That's alright," Kiri said, stepping back. "We'll find out what it means. We have to."

      Siena nodded her head, not looking directly at Kiri.

      "I'm tired," she said.

      "That's alright," Kiri said. Her tone was not overly sympathetic, but she seemed to understand somewhat. "You can go back to sleep. I'll tell the others you needed some extra time to rest. We'll just take a quick trip into town and see if we can't find out any more about the current situation from the Neopets there."

      "Are you sure you don't need me to come?" Siena asked, yawning.

      "We're sure," Kiri said. "You just rest."

      Then Kiri left the tent. Siena allowed herself to fall backwards, her head landing on the pillow. The other pets would be leaving now. It was a good thing that Siena didn't share a tent with anyone - it would be too hard for her to sleep. Many of the others shared a tent with up to nine other pets. Aside from Kiri, Siena was the only one who got a small tent to herself. Kiri had insisted that having other pets in Siena's tent might make it hard for her to remember her dreams. That, and because Siena's constant waking up in the middle of the night screaming might have bothered anyone sharing a tent with her.

      But now Siena just wanted to rest. As she tried to get to sleep, she thought about her life. It had changed so much in the past few months ever since she joined the league.

      The league was a large group of pets who had united together to help protect Neopia from attack. There were groups of these pets all over Neopia, trying to find out what they could about the current war.

      Siena herself knew little of the war. She didn't even know who she was fighting against. But they were called the evil ones, and they often caused bad things to happen in Neopia. Siena had not been a member of this league for more than a month or two, but it felt like a lot longer.

      She had once not had a real home, then one day she met a blue Kacheek named Neela. They spent the day playing together, but when it got dark a storm started. Neela had said that Siena could spend the night at camp with a group of pets that Neela knew. That way Siena could have shelter from the storm. Siena agreed, but she awoke screaming before the sun came up. The other pets were woken up by the sound, and asked what was wrong.

      Siena then explained to them a dream she had had that involved the campsite being attacked and burned by pets from the nearby forest. The others didn't pay much attention to her story until later that day when a large group of Neopets came out of the forest with torches and attacked the camp.

      Fortunately, everyone was able to escape the camp uninjured. But the pets began to regard Siena cautiously, as if they thought that it was her fault. Siena was prepared to leave quickly at the end of the day, but then Neela told her that the leader of the group had asked to talk to her.

      The leader of the group turned out to be a fierce looking green Wocky named Kiri. Based on the look on Kiri's face, Siena was sure that she was going to be punished somehow for causing such misfortune on the camp. But she still was not afraid - what could this pet possibly do to her? Instead of running away or shaking from fear, the Cybunny calmly asked what she had been called on for.

      That was when Kiri told her what the group was exactly. She explained that it was a league of pets that were united against the evil ones who had attacked Neopia many times. The members of the league all had certain qualities that made them helpful to have around. Some were good with magic, others were strong fighters, and some were very intelligent. Kiri said that Siena's ability to predict the future with her dreams might be exactly what the league needed to help it in the future.

      So Siena agreed to join the league. After that she had several dreams that the league was able to use to discover and stop some of the evil ones' plans. The helpfulness of her dreams allowed her to become a very important member to the league very quickly, and gave her a position as one of the most important members. But her dreams soon started getting confusing and more difficult to figure out. Some of the smartest members of the league worked with her to decipher them, and still could only figure out a few.

      But this latest dream was the most confusing yet. Siena had had it every night for a week, and spent all of her free time thinking about what it could mean. But nothing made sense. It seemed like if she could just remember what had been standing behind her in it, she might be able to understand. But she could never remember.

      Then, Siena heard the sound of someone opening the door of the tent. She opened her eyes and sat up, looking to see who was there. Standing in front of her was a blue Kacheek.

      "Hi, Neela," Siena said.

      "Oh, sorry," Neela said, sounding apologetic yet very excited about something, "I didn't realize you were asleep. I just wanted to get you to come see what we found."

      "What'd you find?" Siena asked, interested.

      "Well, come and see," Neela squealed. "We were on our trip to town, but we stopped along the way when we saw it. They're having all of the smarter pets take a look at it now to find out what it is. But I'm supposed to be helping clean up the campsite now, so I've got to go."

      "Clean up the campsite?" Siena asked. "You mean we're leaving already? Didn't we just set up camp here a few days ago?"

      "Yeah," Neela said, "but Kiri's afraid of someone finding us. She says she doesn't want us staying in one place for very long anymore, at least not until we figure out a little more about the evil ones' plans."

      Siena nodded her head as a fire Eyrie walked over to the tent and stood next to Neela.

      "What are you doing?" he asked Neela, sounding a little annoyed. "Didn't I just say that all of the strong pets were supposed to be helping clean up the campsite?"

      "Yes," Neela said. "Sorry, Albin."

      "Then get to work!" Albin said, practically yelling. "Kiri's just about ready to make someone else head of the strong pets, and you not working could make me lose my position. Is that what you want?"

      "No," Neela said, laughing a little. "You need to calm down a bit. I'm sure Kiri wouldn't give away your position so easily."

      "I wouldn't be so sure," he said. "She's been disappointed in our work lately, and you know how she gets when she's angry. She'll just take away everyone's positions, so I'm not taking any chances. Now get going."

      "I'm coming," Neela said. "Bye, Siena, and don't forget to take a look at what we found." Neela then left the tent. Siena yawned and sat up. She would have to go and see whatever it was that the pets had found.

      She then got up and left the tent, looking around at the campsite. She realized that she had rested for a long time - the sky was bright enough that it must have been the middle of the day by now. Throughout the camp, everyone in sight was hard at work cleaning up the place by moving around tents, or doing some magic spells to help remove all hints that pets had ever been there. Some were cleaning the area where the fire they cooked at the night before had been, and others were packing up supplies. There were at least fifty pets doing some sort of work around the camp. Siena didn't have to do any work - the league needed her whether or not she tried to do anything to help. But she still liked to do her part. Maybe she would help out Neela with her job later.

      But right now she wanted to take a quick look at what the pets had found on their trip. As Siena looked around she saw a large group of pets gathered together in the distance. There were more pets there than there were cleaning up the camp. Siena headed over to see what they were looking at.

      She walked over to take a look, twisting the silver bracelet that she always wore. It was very special to her, for her own reasons. The group of pets had only once been in a battle while she was a part of it, and it had been a quick one. They were fighting Neopets who worked for the evil ones, and Siena had spent most of the battle fighting a particular yellow Zafara. Somehow Siena had managed to scare this pet, and she had run away from her, dropping a silver bracelet. Someone had engraved intricate designs onto the bracelet, and the letters CH. Siena kept the bracelet, and sometimes wondered about where it came from.

      Now Siena reached the area where the pets were gathered, but the crowd was much too thick for her to even get a glimpse at what everyone was looking at. She had to get in somehow. Maybe if she asked they would let her get a little closer.

      "Excuse me," Siena said politely, "but could I please take a look for a second?"

      The pets stopped to look at her.

      "Siena wants to take a look; move over, everyone," said a Mynci that was standing next to her. He moved over, and others started to follow his example.

      "Oh, Siena?" one of the others asked. "Well, she can surely take a look."

      "Yes, let her see if she has anything to say about it," another said. In a moment, all of the pets had cleared a path for her.

      Siena walked up to the object in front of her to take a look at it. It was nearly twice her size, and looked very strange. The front of it had a pointed shape, while the rest of it was like a cylinder. It was black in color, and looked like some sort of new technology. The Virtupets Space Station logo on it was clearly visible.

      Siena had heard of the space station and the technology created there, but she didn't know much about it. She didn't really know what to say about this strange piece of equipment.

      "It's nice, isn't it," a voice said from behind her. She turned to see Kiri standing there.

      "Yes," Siena said, "but I'm not sure what it is."

      "We aren't either," Kiri said, "but we're having our most intelligent members study it. They'll surely find out what it's for, and we'll put it to good use. But we have other matters to deal with now. There are some important things we need to discuss with you. Could you come with me?"

To be continued...