I bolted from the busy street.
A little while later, I found myself in a park.
“A swing set…” I muttered to myself.
The relatively large park had all the usual playground equipment. Feeling somewhat wistful, I sat on one of the swings. Without lifting my feet off the ground, I rocked back and forth lightly, heaving a deep sigh.
“How silly to get hurt in a dream,” I continued muttering to myself.
Yes, this was most certainly a dream. Embert’s reaction shouldn’t have bothered me. Despite knowing this, I heaved another sigh.
“Phew,” an unmistakable voice called from behind. “I finally caught up with you.”
“Why…?” I mumbled.
Embert circled around and placed his hand on my cheek. “I thought you might be crying. It worried me so much that I chased after you.”
Embert’s hand was as gentle as ever. At last, the tears spilled from my eyes despite all my efforts to hold them back.
“Sorry,” I apologized. “It’s only natural that you wouldn’t recognize me, Em. I shouldn’t have let myself get hurt like this.”
In all likelihood, he wouldn’t understand what I was saying. Though he did look at me with a puzzled expression, he reacted to something entirely different than I expected.
“Um, did you just call me Em?” he asked.
Jolting, I averted my gaze from him. Only I—or rather, Ally—called him by that name. When I tried to run away again, overcome by an indescribable sense of discomfort, Embert grabbed my wrist.
“Why do you keep running away?” he asked. “And why do I hate the idea of letting you go?”
These words caused me to stop in my tracks.
Still holding my wrist, Embert circled around to face me. “Who on earth are you?” he asked. “Why am I so reluctant to let go of your hand when this is the first time we’ve met?”
He didn’t appear to be lying and didn’t let go of my hand, either. Thus, we stared at each other without moving. At that moment, someone called out from behind, “It’s time to move to the next site, Mr. Bartis.”
Embert lifted my hand. “This might seem abrupt, but would you take this?” While speaking, he took something golden out of his coat pocket. “I found this in a shop earlier and felt an overwhelming impulse to buy it. Yet, for some reason, I want you to have it now.”
With that, he placed an adorable, miniature golden birdcage in my hand.
“Why?” I asked.
Embert grinned. “Let’s meet again. No matter what, I’ll come find you.”
With that, he jogged over to the person calling for him.
“Em,” I mumbled. Heart racing, I stared down at the birdcage he’d given me. It appeared to be a small container. “This is cute, but something about it being a birdcage bothers me…”
I continued staring at it with somewhat mixed emotions. No sooner than I opened the tiny door with my finger, a blinding light engulfed me.
“Wha—?” I asked.
When the light disappeared, I found myself inside a large birdcage with terrifyingly elaborate decorations.
Embert placed a hand on one of the bars from outside the birdcage. “Beautiful, isn’t it?” he asked with a chuckle, looking at me with rapt attention. “I had the finest artisan in the capital craft it for me. Now, I can keep you to myself forever.”
Without another word, Embert turned around, walked away, and vanished into empty space.
“Wait!” I exclaimed, reaching a hand through the bars.
Though I should have been alone, I felt someone grab my hand. As I jolted awake, an unfamiliar ceiling filled my vision.
“Wait, what?” I mumbled.
While I struggled to grasp the situation, a familiar voice asked me, “Are you okay?”
Turning towards the voice, I found Embert sitting in a chair beside me and holding my hand.
“Embert?” I asked.
“That’s right,” he replied. “You seemed to be having a bad dream. Are you okay?”
“Oh, um, yeah. I’m fine. More importantly, where are we?”
I sat up and looked around but still didn’t recognize the room. Even so, Custode and Squishy were also sleeping on my pillow. As I looked at their adorable faces, Embert hit me with a most unexpected response.
“It’s my bedroom,” he said.
“Come again?” I asked. “You’re joking, right? Why am I here?”
How did I wind up here, of all places? This has to be some kind of prank.
“It’s not a joke,” Embert assured me with a charming smile. “You fell asleep during the ball, as you appeared to be quite tired, and I carried you here. Heh, you certainly looked adorable sleeping on my bed. I had trouble restraining myself…”
Okay, got it. This is definitely a dream.
“Oh, wow, is that right?” I responded carefreely after coming to this realization.
At that moment, a familiar roar echoed from the other side of the door.
“Move aside!” Father bellowed. “If you stand in my way, I’ll cut the lot of you down along with this door!”
Wait, what? I thought, panic starting to set in. This is still a dream, right? Yeah, definitely. I’m not wrong about that, am I? No, I can’t be. If this isn’t a dream, I’m screwed.
“Tempting me first thing in the morning?” Embert asked, his grin changing into an altogether different expression. “Very well then, I’ll respond accordingly. I’ll rub those adorable fox ears to my heart’s content. Perhaps we should show your father.”
Embert approached me with an ecstatic expression, the bed creaking under his weight.
Is this what it means for a nightmare to become reality?
“Calm down, Em, okay?” I pleaded. “Look, let’s just go back to sleep. That way, we’ll wake up for real.”
“That sounds wonderful,” Embert replied. “Yes, I’ll let you sleep as much as you want after I’ve finished doting on you.”
This is bad. No matter what I say, nothing will get through to him right now.
Embert continued approaching me, finally driving me to the edge of the bed.
I might be in serious danger.
“Custode, Squishy, wake up!” I cried at the top of my lungs.