She snores, you know?

 

But apart from that, it’s such a lazy, sleepy mixture of sounds that surrounds us here. Cicadas buzzing in the waving, dry heat. Running water from the little creek that is babbling just next to us. I cover my mouth as I loudly yawn, my back laying on the lush green grass, as I stare up towards the distant ceiling. It almost looks like the sky. They really went through the trouble of painting it blue and everything, haha. Without getting up, I lift an arm and just lazily extend it upwards towards the sky. I’m not sure why, it just feels like the right thing to do.

 

  A warm breeze wafts over us, swaying the ocean of soft grass gently around our sleeping bodies. The soft yellow light of the world bounds and reflects off of the green shimmering surface, like daylight bounding off of the grand sea. Birdsong drifts around us with early year candor. Pressing my arms and legs outward, I stretch my body out long, my back popping again as I do so. It’s so comfortable here. Warm. Sleepy. Turning my head over, I look towards the monk. She’s laying there fast asleep next to me.

 

  A loud snore breaks the silence and my eyes twitch. Rubbing them, I sit up and stretch some more, another powerful yawn escaping me as I look around. Something heavy presses down on my lap and I look down at Madison who is also fast asleep. That weird hand coming from my body reaches her surface and strokes along her spine. She mumbles something and shifts around. Ah…

 

  What a nice nap. It was so quiet. I yawn again. I must have been really tired. The other hand that comes from my body goes to the monk and strokes her hair, she makes a weird mumbling noise too and I can’t help but laugh, as she also squirms and shifts around. Hands are a fun thing. I wonder how long we’ve been asleep, guy? I feel like I was really bothered about some stuff but, I guess it was nothing that a good night’s sleep couldn’t fix.

 

  A good… Something spasms in my body as my arms jolt together at the sentence. A good night’s sleep… A good night’s sleep…? I hear the trickling water running off behind us, not far in the distance. Sleep…. Sleep! The hands find their way to my face, as I adjust my eyes again. Sleep! I hate sleep. I hate sleep. I hate-

 

   My fingers press down as I look around us at the meadow that we find ourselves in the midst of. Where am I, why aren’t we running? We aren’t we working? My legs wobble as I rise up to my feet. There’s no time for sleep. Thook-thook. Thook-thook, I look around with my eyes. With my eyes. Warm daylight surrounds my body. Something flops down against the grass and I look at it with my eyes. Madison stirs, having fallen to the grass. Her covers open as she yawns, but she just nudges herself over against my leg and falls back asleep.

 

Doesn’t she know that there’s work to do? Where are we? I remember -

 

My brain itches, I try to scratch it, but my finger won’t go through my ear no matter how hard I press. Damn human body. I opt to shake my head instead, maybe if I shake it hard enough, my brain will scratch itself against my skull?

 

  Anyways, I remember us coming up the stairs. I hold my head, feeling a little dizzy now. Birds call all around us, it’s a perfect day. Like one on the end of spring, but juuust before the birth of a warm summer. It’s perfect. The insects are buzzing, the birds are out and about. The water is running off in the distance. It’s making me so…

 

My head nods forward as my eyes fall closed again.

 

*Thwack*

 

“Ow!” I shout, looking around for the jerk who hit me. My eyes narrow as I glare at the hand down below, that is firmly attached to my body. I look at it, it looks at me. We’ll settle this later, you jerk. For now, we have work to do.

 

I bend down and shake the monk.

 

  “No, just five more mirghllmm…” she turns over to the other side, her hand clenching my leg to pull me back against her. Cute. I look down to Madison and shake her. The response is about the same. Also cute. But frustrating. What’s wrong with you people, don’t you have any CONVICTION?! My eyelids sleepily droop, so I poke my fingernail into my eye to keep myself awake. It works. I sigh. Grabbing Madison, I unclench the monk’s hand from my leg and replace it with her. Instinctively, the monk pulls her forward and clutches her tightly as they sleep. Ah, I’m a little jealous now. But there’s no time for that. There’s so much to do!

 

I step away from the two, trying to remember…

 

We came up the stairs, to this next floor. Floor… uh… what floor are we on, guy? Huh? What’s that? Seventy-seven, you say? Wow, we’ve really made some progress in this life, huh? But why did we…

 

I yawn and in response, I poke my eyes again so that maybe they’ll finally learn.

 

  Grass crunches beneath my boots as I walk alone over the dream-scape meadow, vibrant flowers sparsely dot the landscape. Enough to attract the eye, but not enough to be visually overpowering. It’s not like with the miller’s floor. Everything here is more… subdued. Sleepy. Quiet. It’s as if there were crystal bodies holding us tight, making us a part of them in some perfect, dense silence. Like being inside of a glass bauble that the sun shines in through. Something catches my eyes to the side. Three hunched over figures, laying in the grass.

 

Huh?

 

  Walking over, I kneel down and look at them. They look so peaceful too. The hero-party. The priestess and the wizard are coiled together like a snail eating its own tail. The hero, laid out on his back, lays to the side on top of his cape. I suppose it’s the only way to comfortably sleep in a suit of armor, though the word comfortable might be a stretch here. I yawn again, stretching out once more, tempted to join them.

 

Wait.

 

I blink, using my eyes to see. The hero-party? What? Guy, are you seeing this? I bend down and place a finger on the wizard’s face, poking into her cheek.

 

“No, I want a red Unicorn not a bl-mrmm…” she nestles herself tighter against the priestess’ legs, who lets out an odd squeal as she is compressed.

 

Haha.

 

HAHA!

 

  They’re sleeping so tight. Sleepy-sleepy, ratty-ratty! That doesn’t rhyme, I know. It just felt like the right thing to say, get off my back, guy. Sheesh. The hand runs along her face as she sleeps, as my eyes widen, as I stare down at her subdued form. My finger raises up to the bridge of her nose and strokes along her eyelids. Her eyebrows. They’re so soft. I bet…

 

I lean in closer, moving towards her face. I bet her eyes… I bet she doesn’t need them while she’s asleep… I bet… wait.

 

  I look up to the hero and rather than stepping around the two beneath me, I drop down on all fours and scamper over them, so that I can look closely at his face. At his eyes that are closed. At his eyes. I’ve always wanted his eyes, guy, remember? Remember? You know? Remember when I started talking to you, I told you about them? It was the first thing that we ever spoke about, haha. I guess I am a little obsessed, but you know? You know? It’s good to have something you love! It’s good to have some CONVICTION. I press my ear against the side of his neck and I listen.

 

‘Thook-thook’

 

I smile. I’m so happy. You got this for me, guy? It’s what I always wanted, It’s just what I always wanted! You really are a good friend, that you remembered after all of this time. Haha!

 

The hands claw against my own face again as I feel so flush and happy and invigorated. I…

 

  Wait. I look around, a thought comes to me. Where is it? Where is it? I scan the area. There! I see it. Just next to her. Crawling back off of the hero, I scamper towards the wizard’s bag and dig inside. She better not have… She better not have! I narrow my eyes in suspicion, as I undo the straps and dig through the pile of clothes and baubles inside.

 

My fingers graze something, rough, thin. I pull it out and look at the brown parchment paper held in my hands. She better not have.

 

Untying the string that is binding it shut, I look at the things inside. At the dried, cured meat. At the food. At MY FRUIT! OOH! OOH! My free hand beats against my chest. OOH! She stole my fruit! She stole my fruit! OOH!

 

  I grab fistfuls of the dried jerky and shove it into my mouth as I glare at her. She stole my fruit. Bad! Bad! I reach into the bag to look for something. For something to teach her, to finally make her understand that she can’t steal MY fruit. My fingers wrap themselves around something long and sharp and I narrow my eyes.

 

This is it.

 

OOH!

 

 

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