Dream: Enhanced

Date: 10/21/2019

My name was Noir. I was a young man who was attempting to keep my group alive. We were all runaways of varying reasons. My twin sister, Cora, and I were running because of the experiments our parents put us through. Another member was Terrance. He had a gift for teleporting and dreamwalking he couldn't completely control that somehow was contained in the presence of all of us. Another person, Alexi, was a shifter. Literally able to take on most animal forms. It did take a toll on his body though when he would come back from the creature's form. Then finally there was Chris. She could manipulate the energy around her into weapons or barriers if needed. Sometimes more than that. This was my group. My little rag tag family. Here's our story… or rather… my part of it. "I can't remember much." I stated as Terrance got our fire going for the night. "That's fine. Not all pieces are needed to tell the story." Terrance told me. Cora was asleep in her sleeping bag next to me. She had refused to leave my side despite me saying I wouldn't be far from the tents. Alexi and Chris were already asleep in their tents. "You say that but it felt like a warning. There was a woman who was trying to get to Cora. She had something that looked like a perfume bottle in her hand that she seemed to be protecting." I looked down at Cora then back at the flame. "Cora had taken the bottle from her and spritzer herself and the woman with it. The woman seemed important to her." Terrance set up some cooking sticks and placed our skinned rabbits on them. He was planning to cook the food now so it would be edible when it was time to leave. "So this woman, have you seen her before?" Terrance asked me. I shook my head. I watched him work as I tried to remember. "Not outside the dream. But I know she's real and that we need to find her… for Cora at least." Terrance nodded as we heard footsteps coming towards us. I could hear the gnashing of teeth in the distance. Two white ferrets raced through the grass and up my legs into my arms. Both were bloody and wounded. How they made it this far I'm not sure. The gnashing sounds grew closer. We woke the others as I held the ferrets in my arms. They were terrified of whatever was coming. "What's going on?" Cora asked as she climbed out of her sleeping bag. "Possible threat. Roll up the bag. Time to pack up." I explained. Chris and Alexi broke down their tents and rolled up their bags. Cora touched each item and shrunk them to pocket size, sliding them all in her purse. She looked me at that point. "May need to flash cook the food if we're taking them along." Cora told me. I handed Terrance the ferrets and manipulated the fire to scorch the food. Moments later the fire was put out and our food was wrapped in a bag for a later meal. Alexi started up the van so we could get outta there. Terrance handed the ferrets back to me. That's when they appeared. A man with four dobermans growling and snarling, ready to pounce. He chuckled when He saw the ferrets in my arms. "So that's where the rodents went." His tone was cruel despite his almost playful expression, "You can have them if you want but I'll need a trade out." "Not happening." I told him as Chris prepared to shield us, "If this is how you treat defenseless animals I can only assume you treat people the same way." Cora got in the vehicle quickly and Terrance kept close to me. We were a family but we tried not to publicly use our abilities. This guy might force our hands though. "That's no good. See without a toy these boys get a bit wild." The man said and snapped his fingers. One of the dogs charged us. The ferrets climbed up to my shoulders as Alexi slammed his fist down on it. His eyes changed to an almost feline like as he growled low at the dog, "Stay down if you want to live." The dog whimpered as its tail tucked between its legs and it dropped to a cowering position. The other dogs saw this but kept growling. Their tails however were now tucked as well. The man watched in amusement and annoyance, "Fine. Keep the rodents. Keep that stupid mutt too but I will get compensation when next we meet." He waved his dogs to leave. The singular frightened one still with us. Alexi ran his hand gently over the dog and whispered to it in a language I didn't understand. The dog calmed and passed out. "Seems we have new pets." Terrance stated as he looked at Alexi and I. Alexi shook his head. "No, these aren't animals. They're children. I can see them. He's taken children like me and forced them to do his bidding. This poor boy… those two sisters… we need to heal their animal bodies before we can help the human ones." "For now let's get them in the van. The sooner we get away from here the safer these three are." I told him. Alexi nodded and picked up the doberman. We all piled into the van where Terrance got to work as the medical guru that he was. He'd been trained in both human and animal practices. A major help when your main line of defense is a human that can become almost any animal. We drove off and setup camp in an abandoned warehouse not far from a town. Alexi slowly helped the doberman return to their human form. A boy of maybe 10 years old. Alexi gave the kid some of his clothes and helped him steadily back into the van. The two ferrets were next. One at a time they both returned to their human forms. They were about 6 at most. Twin sisters who were terrified out of their minds. Chris and Cora gave them some of their clothes. Our clothes were all big on the three but it helped them for the time. "It's ok. We aren't gonna hurt you. We want to help get you all home." I told them calmly. They both clung to me and shook their heads.  "No home. He took home." One of them said as the other cried. I pulled them into a hug. "Ok we'll figure out a safe place then." The boy peeked out from the van and looked to them. "I.. I'm glad you're ok… I'm sorry that the others hurt you… they… we were all scared…" The girls just nodded at him. We got them all safely strapped into the seats and drove off to get supplies since we now had more mouths to feed and three kids to help heal. (I know there was more but can't remember.) (I awoke not long after that part.)