I turned around, and he was a few feet behind me. I smiled broadly, glad my subconscious had accommodated me. It seemed to be doing that a little less when it came to these dreams, but this time Corbin was even still wearing the sexy sweatpants that he’d answered the door in. Yay, subconscious!
“Corbin! I was just thinking of you! I’m glad you came. And I know you aren’t dead, because I’m sleeping on your chest!” I proudly proclaimed.
I realized when I said it that it didn’t make much sense, but Corbin just walked towards me, putting his arms on my shoulders and looking at me, as if checking to make sure I was alright.
Aww. It was kinda sweet and gave me warm fuzzies. But then Corbinwassweet in real life, so it made sense that dream Corbin would be sweet, too.
“Hey, are you gonna turn into a hellhound again? That happened the last time you were here with me,” I explained.
Corbin smiled and kissed my forehead before pulling back to answer. “Yeah, I tend to do that. I’ll try not to, but I think that’s probably up to you.”
I turned around so that my back was to his chest, and he obliged my unspoken need to be cuddled up by wrapping his arms around me.
“I love cuddles. And I didn’t want you to turn into a hellhound last time. I like dream Corbin. We could get up to all sorts of fun stuff,” I joked.
Corbin hummed thoughtfully behind me. “I think,” he said slowly, “that you ought to treat me like I’m real and not a dream.”
I turned around to look at him, raising my eyebrows.
“I am Corbin, and I’ll remember what you say even when we wake up.”
Hmm. That was interesting. Dream Corbin wanted to be real Corbin. I wondered if there was some hidden meaning there. Maybe my subconscious was telling me that I could trust real Corbin just as much as I trusted Dream Corbin?
I turned back around, letting him wrap me up in his arms again.
“Okay,” I answered simply. “I feel really comfortable with you in real life, so I don’t think that’ll be a problem. Maybe I’ll tell you about the dream when I wake up.”
Corbin squeezed me tightly for a moment. “I’m glad you feel comfortable with me.”
He may have been ready to say something else, but I suddenly had a strange feeling. I held up my staff, stepping out of his arms. He let me go willingly and remained quiet, following my lead.
Something was… off.
I heard a caw, and Crow flew in. I turned toward Corbin and watched as she landed on his shoulder. I nodded once at her, andshe bobbed her head at me, making me grin in return. Corbin reached a hand up to absently scratch her neck.
I was glad she was here, but there was that weird feeling… I turned back around, scanning my surroundings. There was the dock with the river behind it, and then a clear area with grass and dirt where the people gathered. Off in the distance there was forest, but I’d never much thought about it. It was just kind of in the background.
Now, though, it felt… I didn’t know. Ominous? Alive? It didn’t just feel like a background. I felt twitchy looking at it.
“I think something is in the forest,” I told Corbin.
Corbin stopped scratching Crow and looked at me, then he looked out at the forest. He looked vaguely surprised for a moment.
“Yes, there is. I couldn’t tell until you said something.”
“What is it?” I asked, although it was kind of a silly question because Corbin wouldn’t know.
Corbin looked at me, and he tilted his head. The resemblance to Crow made me want to laugh, but the look of concern on his face stopped that. Okay, maybe hedidknow what was out there. Crow flew off his shoulder towards the woods, so I turned back around to look at them. The trees were suddenly really not that far away. At all.
I wasn’tscaredof the woods. I felt perfectly safe. But I didn’tlikesomething in those woods.
I sighed, staring at Crow sitting on a branch on the tree closest to us. She was above a path, though I swear there hadn’t been one there before.
I had the urge to stamp my foot and pout, because I didn’t want to go down that path. It felt like I was a little kid and I was gonna need to eat beets or something. (No, not like a kid eating broccoli. I always liked broccoli, even as a kid. I think it gets a bad rep. They’re little trees! You can make a village in yourmashed potatoes! But beets? Eww. Because, I’m sorry, but beets are gross. My grandma ate them pickled or something, and they smelled awful. I tried one once and nearly threw up because they were so nasty. The smell of them still gives me the ick.)
Corbin was still looking at me seriously, obviously unaware of my inner beet monologue. Interesting. The man in black always seemed to know what I was thinking, but obviously Dream Corbin didn’t. And despite how interesting that might have been, I knew I was just stalling.
“We have to go into the woods, don’t we?” I whined.
