It would be better to wait.
Once they’d made it out of the cavern, they ended up on a grassy plain under a vast night sky.
“Be careful,” Mal warned. “The sky is only an illusion, and so is the ground. They randomly reverse, so be ready when it happens.”
“What are we supposed to do when they reverse?” Naerith asked.
“Stay along the left wall. When the room rotates, run up the wall. Keep going until the room stops moving.” It was a laughably easy challenge to overcome. The only real danger was to anyone walking in the middle. When the room flipped, they’d fall to their death. As long as they were quick, anyone walking next to the left wall would be fine.
“I don’t see any walls,” Clayton said.
“They’re behind the illusion. Just stay with me and run when I tell you.”
“Be careful. I’ll probably fall and take you with me,” Clayton half-joked.
“I don’t think you will. You’ve been pretty stable since we left the Real.” Mal hinted. If Clayton figured it out on his own, then all the better.
Claytonhmmedand took Mal’s hand. “I’ll hang on to you just to be sure.”
“Naerith, love. Should we start shamelessly flirting too? It seems like it’s in fashion in the Real.” Elena batted her eyes at her husband dramatically.
“Any time, my precious reason for living. I breathe only for you.” Naerith put a hand on his chest and mimed a widely beating heart.
“Oh, shut up,” Clayton snapped. Mal noticed Clayton continued holding his hand, so he kept his mouth shut.
The room only rolled over once as they traversed the plain, and to be on the safe side, Mal scooped Clayton into his arms and dashed up the wall, depositing Clayton onto his feet safely.
Naerith and Elena nimbly skipped their way up the wall like it was something they did every day. It was nice not to be travelling with amateurs.
When they landed beside Mal and Clayton safe and sound, Naerith complained, “Elena, if you really loved me, you would have carried me to safety too.”
“Next time, beloved. I didn’t want to show off in front of our new friends, but it looks like they won’t mind, so I won’t hold myself back anymore.”
Since Naerith was twice as broad as Elena, Mal was mostly certain they were joking.
They exited the plains between one step and the next. There was no transition, just a blip as reality shifted them to another zone.
“Ugh, not this one,” Mal groaned.
“Why? What’s wrong?” Clayton went on alert, fists up like he was about to punch an invisible attacker.
“Put your hands down. There’s nothing to hit, unless you can punch emotions. This is probably a dreamwalker trap. It’s supposed to dredge up internal bullshit that might cause you to turn on your companions.”
“Why would that be a trap for dreamwalkers? They’re universally known for being well-adjusted.” Once again, Clayton jumped in to defend his precious dreamwalkers.
“Just because everyone knows something doesn’t make it true,” Mal said testily. Clayton really knew how to punch Mal’s jealousy button. “Some dreamwalkers are balanced inside, but a lot of them are simply repressing their inner garbage. If a dreamwalker comes in here unprepared, they’re likely to tear themselves and anyone else with them apart.”
“So what do we do?” Clayton turned to their companions, only to see they’d vanished.
“I had no problem in here. This zone spat me out almost immediately, but you…” Mal was suddenly talking to thin air. “Red?” He spun around, but there was nothing but Mal and mist.
Fuck.
Chapter
Twenty-Eight
MAL
