[SpringsSong]

Felina--no, Natasha--looked around nervously as she approached the area in Roraldi that the mysterious Alek had told her to meet her at.  Normally, Felina--Natasha--was not one to disguise her true appearance, but ever since her loyal Barghest companion had told her that it was possible, however unlikely, to meet another Dream-Walker in a dream, she had not only majorly altered her appearance (when she would normally have black hair streaked with ice-blue and wear black and blue, she had blond hair and wore colors reminiscent of a Blossom pet--and even took the form of a Blossom Magistrey!), but she also gave herself a different name.

That name was Natasha.

The previous night, she had met that mysterious Alek once more.  The two of them had talked casually, had a little fun on the beaches of Jawan, and just as she was torn from the dream-scape, she could hear him make a request--one that she had found the slightest hint odd, but nonetheless, she saw no reason to not comply.

Bring a dress with you tomorrow... a dress that one would wear to... I believe it is called a prom, he'd said.

Normally, such a request would have baffled Fe--Natasha.  Why would he want her to bring a dress that one would wear to Prom?  Her prom dress was gorgeous, yes; but... the request was still the slightest hint odd t her as she allowed her shoulders to relax under the shawl that she was wearing to keep the cold from penetrating her skin.

Why Roraldi?, she'd wanted to ask him, but she was too far gone from the dream-scape, and she did not think that sending Luktor in her place would go over well, especially since Luktor still called her by her true name and not her dream name.  So, she'd just accepted that, whatever he had planned, it would involve her being in a dress... with dress shoes.  She was used to dress shoes; as a musician, she was accustomed to having to dress up for concerts.  However, she was not accustomed to walking around in them...

...much less dancing in them.

...what in Yepha's name... makes me think he wants to dance...? Natasha asked herself after a few minutes, even though she knew why: he'd asked her to show up in a dress that one would wear to a prom.  Proms involved dancing--along with other slightly unsavory acts, but the main thing was the dancing.

He'd better have a good reason for this...

[1.2]

[[Note to self: Felina and Natasha are the same person, just different forms and personalities.  The same applies to Alek and Basilick.  When in a dream, they go by Natasha and Alek; when not, they become Felina and Basilick.  Also, with my post count, to keep it consistent with my calculator, one post = .2.]]

[SpringsSong]

The young Magistrey woman was not the only one to alter her appearance in dreams.  The man she had met there might have had brown hair in his actual form, but his eyes were truly purple, not green; he had brown tattoos, not the orange ones he sported, and he was a Wood Battleheart, not a Hollow one.  He knew, however, the risks of revealing his true identity to a woman who was nothing more than a spectre to him at this point--he did not know if he was dreaming her up, or if she was truly real.

He wasn't about to form an emotional connection to a spectre without creating some sort of a barrier between the spectre and himself.  To him, the logical option was to create an illusion that would travel through the dreams with this gorgeous young woman, and if she turned out to be nothing more than an illusion...

...only Alek would suffer, not Basilick.

The thought did not enter his head that this Natasha was, indeed, only an illusion--but controlled by an equally-real Dream-Walker, just like himself.  The thought that she was probably wondering the exact same thing about him--was he real, or was she dreaming him up; was the real Natasha--whose name probably wasn't even Natasha--creating this spectre named Natasha so that she would not suffer if Alek turned out to be a dream?

Finally, though, he arrived in the Roraldi Forests and saw Natasha there, her shawl caching the rays of the moon and her beautiful, golden locks reflecting some of that light.  It was as though he'd just seen an angel when he finally realized that she was truly there, and he approached her, his own outfit clearly indicating that they were going to go dancing.

"Natasha," he said, smiling as he held out his hand.  "I am delighted that you could come tonight..."

[1.2]

[SpringsSong]

Natasha blinked as she heard her name called--but, at the same time, she also wanted to turn around and reveal her true form and ask who this "Natasha" was and why he was calling her "Natasha", but then, she remembered that this handsome young man was probably just a figment of her imagination, and that was why she existed in this plane: so that if "Alek" didn't actually exist, only Natasha would suffer...

...or would she?

"Alek," she said, smiling as she took his hand, giving a small curtsey as she did so.  The little charm in her hair caught a few glints of the moonbeams above as she did so, scattering rays of color around as she moved to stand up straight again, finally noticing the fact that he was in a tuxedo.

"Why... why such the fancy dress?" she asked, recalling how he'd been in a pair of jeans and a dark orange shirt the night before.  Everything within her was screaming the exact same thing, even though she was trying her best not to jump to conclusions now, when she truly knew nothing about what was truly happening in this dream.  She held her breath for a few moments as she turned around, thinking she had heard something.

Calm down, Natasha... he's probably just taking you to a fancy dinner, that's all... a fancy dinner, yes. Natasha told herself, looking back at the other curiously.  She could feel Luktor trying to reach her from another dimmension of the dream-scape, but she had to shut him out.  The next time he tried to get her attention, she shut him out ful-force.

Can't talk... I'm going on a date with this mysterious Alek, and you'd ruin everything for Felina if you came here now...

[1.4]

[SpringsSong]

Alek smiled as he looked over her carefully, noticing how the moon caught certain highlights in the color of her gown and sent prisms of light onto the forest floor.  He could only marvel at his change in her appearance from yesterday, in her light-chocolate jeans and pale pink top... she looked like the very image of perfection if he ever knew it.  However, his attention was rattled when she asked him why he was dressed up so nicely.

So mentioning prom had no meanig for her... obviously Barakka has no proms... he thought to himself as he rememered the extravagance of his school's prom.  There had been all sorts of foods, music aplenty--provided by two students who were DJs at his school--and, of course, dancing.

He hadn't partaken in the dancing, however.  There weren't any girls at his school that he was truly interested in, so he had not danced with any of them for fear of misleading them.  That was one thing he did not want to do, or even subject himself to--misleading a girl who thought he had affections for her when he knew that nothing good could come from it.

"Well..." he said hesitantly, looking around the forest as he remembered how it had been the night of his prom.  "Here in Lambastia, we have gatherings once a year that are only for those between the ages of seventeen and twenty-one.  It's... called prom, for whatever reasons.  There's often food and music and partying... and dancing until the wee hours of the morning," he explained, sweeping his hand over the dream-scape and transforming it to look as it had the night of his prom.

"I was... hoping that, maybe, we could dance," he said, lowering his head as he bowed, hoping that Natasha would not lash out at him in any way.

[1.4]

[SpringsSong]

So, he had gone to the simply evil thing known as prom in his land as well... Natasha supposed that all of the pieces were starting to fall into place as soon as he mentioned it, but then...

Then, he mentioned dancing.

"I'm... flattered that you wish to dance with me, but I'm afraid I have no natural abilities in that area." Natasha said quickly; a reaction that was very much so like what Felina would do if this were in real life, but it was not--and Felina was supposed to be staying out of this entirely.  After a few minutes, she shook her head and chuckled slightly.  To refuse to dance was a reaction that would be expected of Felina, but... Natasha was a little more daring than that.

"However..." she started to say, smiling as she let her shawl fall to the ground, revealing her shoulders bare as she curtsied again, "I am willing to learn how to dance, if you are willing to teach me.  As I said, I have no natural talent in this area, and I doubt that I ever will possess natural dancing abilities.  My talents lie in the realm of music."

Even as she said this, she smiled as she shook a bit of the "moon-dust" from her hair, and a clarinet appeared, its deep, black color catching the reflection of the moon.  Without even waiting for a request, she began to play a lilting melody, her eyes sparkling as she did so.

[1.6]

[SpringsSong]

"So, you do have proms in Barakka... I am sorry for assuming that you did not; I've never been to Barakka before... but I think I mentioned that to you last night when we were in Jawan," Alek said, shaking his head.  "A friend of mine lives in Barakka, but he lives closer to the Ree'ne Sea than you said you do," he added after a moment, looking around.  He closed his eyes for a few minutes as shades of Basilick came through in his nature, but then, he remembered that he could not allow that in this realm.

When Natasha mentioned being a musician, however, his eyes lit up as he turned around and pulled out his guitar, smiling as he strummed a few chords gently.  He listened intently as Natasha played her lilting melody, blinking as her hair seemed to gain ice-blue highlights, but as soon as he blinked and looked again, the highlights were gone; a trick of the moonlight on her hair and nothing more, he told himself.

"Well, if you could dance as beautifully as you can play, then all of the other girls at your school would have to keep a tight leash on their men, because they'd all want to dance with you... and I'd find myself having a hard time not wanting to dance with you, myself; however, I... I'm not one to dance with just anyone..." Alek said quietly, plucking at the strings of his guitar gently as he watched Natasha play her clarinet.

And if I were to ever meet you, I would definitely have to watch myself, as you probably do not look like that in your real life... I know that I look a fair bit different from this in real life... Alek said to himself, watching her every move as she let the music take her.  And this is almost better than dancing, in my opinion... I could listen to her play for hours, and I would just be sitting here, plucking at the strings of my guitar to match her melodies.

[1.6]

[SpringsSong]

Natasha blinked as she saw him pull out his guitar, but she had no objections to the sudden accompaniment of the guitar; she quite fancied acoustic guitar accompaniment with any instrument, and this was exactly what she would have envisioned if she were to pick an accompanist for this song of hers.  After a few minutes of playing--and a few randomly placed twirls as she "danced" with the music, she stopped and faced him, a small smile on her face.

"You're quite a fine musician, Alek... where did you learn to play?" she asked, staring at him in amazement.  "I don't think I've ever heard someone that's been able to compliment my melody that well without asking me to play it ten, fifteen times over.  They all say they like it, but they can't figure out the quite simple chordal system I used with it--it's most frustrating when I have to write out the chords for them."

Truth be told, Natasha knew that her system of chords for this song was complex for those that were playing concert-pitched instruments, but not for those that were playing clarinet or trumpet or one of the two saxophones that were also in the B-flat key.  However, the people that played the concert-pitched instruments thought that something in D-flat was too complex.  For her, that was the key of E-flat, which was honestly quite simple.

Alek, however, was not the other musicians at her school, obviously.

[1.8]

[SpringsSong]

Alek continued to strum at the guitar as Natasha spoke to him about how she was stunned that he was able to pick up on the subtleties of her melodies.  For him, there was no real trouble in picking up melodies, no matter what weird compound key it was in.  In fact, things like this just came naturally to him; it had to be all those years of figuring out songs on his guitar by ear, for he'd never once taken a music class.  After a few minutes, he stood up and let his guitar fall back against a tree and vanish.

"To be quite honest, I never even took guitar classes--in fact, I've never gone into a single music class in my entire life.  Honestly... I'm not even really a musician.  I'm an athlete, not a performer.  I've been meaning to tell you ever since we met a couple days ago, but I didn't think it was the best idea for me to tell you about how I'm... a well-known athlete here in Lambastia.  I figured that... such knowledge would push you away from me."

He bit his lip as he said this; she knew that he was a Battleheart, and that was often enough for someone like her to figure out all of the missing loops.  She could do a search for all Battlehearts that were into sports in Lambastia, and that would return... at least four Battlehearts on the Winter Circuit.  She would have to overlook the fact that he appeared as a Hollow Battleheart, though, for there were none of those on the Winter Circuit.

"...th-that's not to say I-I have any feelings for you, of course... I-I mean, this is only a dream... and when I wake up tomorrow morning, you'll be gone..."

[1.8]

[SpringsSong]

"...what?!"

As Natasha said this, her clarinet slipped from her hand and crashed to the ground, disintegrating before it could hit the floor, however.  She took a few staggering steps back as she stared at Alek in shock, stammering and pointing at him as she stared at him, her eyes widening again as she continued to stare at him.  What had he just said...?

"...and when I wake up tomorrow morning, you'll be gone..."

"Did... did you just say... 'and when I wake up tomorrow morning, you'll be gone...'?  What do you mean by that?  Are you not just a figment of my imagina--" Natasha started to ask, but then, she heard him say something else that made her stop and do a double-take, and that was the fact that he said that he was a well-known athlete in Lambastia.

"You... are?  What Circuit?" she asked, staring at him in shock.  She could almost hear Luktor say something about him being a real person and not a figment like all of the others, but she was still shutting out Luktor's voice as adamantly as she could.  She was not going to be fooled into thinking he was real before she knew for a fact that he was a real athlete, and in knowing that, being a real person.

[2.0]

[SpringsSong]

Oh, sweet Zu'hai... was she reacting this way because she wasn't a figment of his imagination that had been placed in this dream, or...?  He blinked, though, as she started to ask whether or not he was a figment of her imagination.  After a few seconds, he shook his head and turned to the east, knowing that, soon, the sun would start to rise and one of them--or both of them--would disappear from the dreamscape.

"I should hope I am not a figment of your imagination... if I were, then you would have created a very real Winter Circuit athlete, and to be able to create an athlete of any sort would be quite terrifying power to have, especially if you did not realize you had that power." Alek said, frowning as he took her hands and looked into her eyes gently, noticing that they were a little oddly colored for a Blossom Magistrey.  He did not mind it any, though; after all, in his human form, his eyes were inverse from how they were when he was a Hollow Battleheart.

After a few more minutes, he let her hands drop from his, frowning as he looked back to the east.  The sky was reddening fast, which meant that the dawn was coming... and one of them would be torn from this state in the forest unwillingly.  He looked back to her, his eyes soft as he placed a hand on her cheek.

"All I can tell you if you decide to research my position as a Winter Circuit athlete is that the only similarity is my quadruped form and home region--nothing more.  Name, species, human-form appearance?  All different..."

[2.0]

[SpringsSong]

"I should hope I am not a figment of your imagination..."

As soon as he said this, Natasha took another several steps back as she stared at him, her eyes about to pop out of her head--her Glacial Magistrey-colored eyes; not her Blossom Magistrey-colored ones.  She could not believe that she was hearing this; he was not a figment of her imagination--and, judging from his reaction to her reaction, she wasn't a figment of his imagination, either.  Her jaw slackened considerably as she stared back up at him, her eyes wide.

"...only your quadruped form of a Battleheart and home region of Lambastia will be the same..." she said after a few moments, thinking about what this meant.  If he was saying that only his quadruped form was the same between the dreamscape and the real world, then... then he had to have the same ability as she did.  She smiled as she turned away from him for a moment, lowering her head.

"If you ever look me up, then I can say the same thing, except... obviously in the musician collective, not the Circuits.  Just look through all of the Magistreys there; I shouldn't be too difficult to find." Natasha said, smiling as he took her hands, and then, he let them drop, looking at the sun in the sky.

"...crap.  I'm going to be late for my slot on the radio show..." she said as she looked around, trying to get her bearings.  "Um... if you can get radio reception, just find the channel for the Musician's Collective.  They select a few of us from the school to perform..." she said, and then, she ran off into the forest.

[2.2]

[SpringsSong]

She's... to the point where she's playing on the radio...? Alek asked himself as she ran off without giving him a chance to say "good-bye" or to ask where they were going to meet that night in the dreamscape.  He supposed that did not matter; they would find each other one way or another, for they had a guessing game to play with each other that night, as well as a chance to actually dance.

...she left her hair clip and shawl... Alek noted as he bent over and picked up the little silvery and lavender items, holding them close for a few moments as he sat down and leaned back against a tree, humming thoughtfully as he looked up at the sun in the sky.  He would need to wake up soon, and he would have to find the radio station frequency for the Musician's Collective.  If he found that, then he wouldn't have to research anything about Natasha, but she would have to research him.

At least I gave her the Circuit that I'm on, he thought to himself.  A lot of my Battleheart friends went onto the Summer Circuit, not the Winter one.  There's only three others on the Circuit that I'm in... he thought, shaking his head as he felt his consciousness slowly being peeled from the dreamscape and into the real world.

[2.2]

[SpringsSong]

Crap, crap, crap, I am so late for this performance... Felina thought to herself, holding her clarinet close as she ran into the radio station, showing them her performance pass as she made a dash for the elevator.

She didn't know if Alek--whatever his real name was--had truly heard her say that she would be playing on the radio, but she could hope.  She knew that he would not recognize her at all; in her Blossom Magistrey form, she had no tattoos, but in her Glacial Magistrey form, her body was magnificently decorated with them.  She also wore looser clothes in her Blossom form, while in her Glacial one, she wore tighter-fitting clothes.

"Sorry I'm late, Professor," she said to the man that was standing by one of the doors, tapping his foot impatiently as he waited for her.  "My brother must have turned off my alarm or something last night when I had completely dropped off... he's been known to do that," she said, and he nodded slightly, pointing to the inner room where the microphones were.  She knew what that meant well enough; her time slot was up next, whether she was ready or not.

When am I ever not ready for my slot on this show? she asked herself as she walked in and listened to the professor and the host talk about the program at the school, and then, he cleared his throat--her cue.

"And now, with one of her own special compositions, we give you our rising star, Felina..."

[2.4]

[SpringsSong]

When Basilick came to, he was surprised to find the shawl and flower hairpiece from Natasha's dress that night in his hand, his eyes blank for a few minutes as he tried to remember how he would have come into possession of a lady's shawl and hairclip, and then, it dawned on him.

Natasha left these behind... wait a second.  I'm... going to miss her playing on the radio... he thought to himself, sitting up and turning on his radio, quickly flipping through the channels, listening for but a couple of seconds before moving onto the next frequency.

"And now, with one of her own special compositions, we give you our rising star, Felina..." he finally heard on one of the stations.  He had been about ready to flip to the next station when he heard this, but he paused for a few moments to listen to this station.  He knew that, if he heard a clarinet--

...and there were the first few notes that Natasha had played the night before when she had played for him in their dream, the tones lilting as they rose and fell and spun around, and he imagined her "dancing" as she played, her gorgeous cyan eyes lidded as she played.  He sat there in silence as he listened to it, imagining the guitar chords beneath his fingers as she continued to play.  He had even moved to get his guitar, but even as his feet hit the ground, his bedroom door opened.

"Good, you are awake," his mother said, smiling.  "You need to get ready for your trip to Roraldi, honey--the team's going to be heading there tomorrow for their retreat, you know--why are you listening to the Musician's Collective channel?  That's different for you..."

"That's... just where my radio dial was," Basilick said, knowing he was lying.  How was he supposed to explain that he had met a world-class (or so he thought, in his opinion) clarinetist in a dream a few nights ago and had seen her every night since?  He continued to listen to her play as he began packing: skates, clothes, bathing suit, everything he would need for a trip to Roraldi with the skating team.

[2.4]

[SpringsSong]

"...and that was the composition that Felina affectionately calls... um, what did you call it, Felina?" the man in the other room asked, and Felina smiled.

"I call it Oracion de Corazón--The Heart's Prayer," she said, her glacial eyes sparkling as she said this.  "When I was little, my parents were going through a turbulent time in their lives.  There were nights where I was afraid that one of them would come into my room at night and either tell me to pack up my things or just sweep me up and jump out of the window.  I would play a few notes on my clarinet and write them down--now, at the time, I was... six?  I didn't know how to read music then, so I wrote it in my own special way--without a time signature, and without a key signature; just the notes and a number beneath it to indicate its duration.  I built on it for several years..."

Here, she paused as she drew in a breath.  She knew that only part of what she said was going to be true, but she could tell that "Alek" was listening, because in the back of her mind, she could hear him plucking at guitar strings.

"If someone who goes by the alias of Alek is listening... he's the new person that this song is dedicated to.  He came into my life at just the right time, and I cannot thank him enough for inspiring me to continue on my career--as most everyone who knows me has heard, I have tendinitis--and it is a painful, painful thing to have." Felina said, lowering her head.

"Well, thank you, Felina.  Now, it's time for us to reveal the winner of our week-long trip to Roraldi Forests..."

It likely won't be me... Felina thought to herself, biting down gently on her reed as she waited in anticipation.

[2.6]