The paradox of the Raven - Hunter x Reader

chapter five

Chapter 5
dream

Y/N

I'm walking through a haze, it's like a memory long forgotten. There's a certain lost nostalgia about this place that I can't shake off. I take it all in. The air is light, feathery, it smells like spring grass- or violet clouds- or the setting sun after a long day... But around me all I can see is a spinning vortex. Greens and blues fill the space around me, but when I put my hand through it, it fades away. Like how when walking in fog you can always see what's in front of your feet, even if beforehand it was shrouded by a gray veil.

There's light, shining all around like pixies bobbing up and down. At once a feeling of home-ness fills me. This isn't the human realm.. It's not the boiling isles either, but at least there's magic here.

Magic..
I extend my hand once more and sparks of light join in with the distant, dancing spheres. It worked.. A smile falls over my face but it doesn't feel like anything. The haze has spread to my brain, a thick mist dampens all my emotions.

I walk. I come across one of the lights, up close its a perfect cube not a sphere. But even this seems to be faded around the edges, a parchment singed on flame. My fingers slip through it, somehow this doesn't worry me. It looks solid, but something inside of me already knew I wouldn't be able to touch it. The cube emits a faint buzz, which struggles to be heard over the white noise in my brain.

I leave it.
I walk.

"Who's there!?" A shadow comes across my path and all at once an icy chill seeps into my skin. My mind clears from the haze and everything is sharp as knives, cold. My eye widens as my whole body tenses. A shudder runs down my spine. The voice is loud, echoing, child-like.

"How did you get here? No-one is supposed to be here!"

And at once the scene changes. I see the inside of a cage, observing from a bird's eye perspective. Blue stars shoot across the sky. Do they have faces!?

Everything darkens and at once I can see them. The child sits atop one of the stars, his legs kicking the air. The young titan sits next to him.

"I found you!" The collector laughs, his eyes piercing right through me. "I found you, I found you! You don't have magic do you? DO YOU?" They laugh and laugh and laugh whilst King sits there motionless, just staring into the beyond.

Stop laughing. Stop laughing. Stop-

My eye snaps open, and my vision adjusts to a blurry room. The sound of running water from the kitchen pulls me to my senses. I attempt a spell, no magic, just as I thought.

It was just a dream.
Just a dream
Why can I still hear that awful laughter in my ears?
I need to clear my head.

I seem to have found myself in this same position a lot recently. Just... waking up from a nightmare. The human realm must really have taken a toll on me; I find my legs shaking as I try to stand. Get a grip, y/n, it really wasn't that bad. It wasn't that bad. IT WASN'T THAT BAD.

I feel like yelling at myself. I haul myself to my feet and into the kitchen where to no-one's surprise the light is on.

I almost trip over my slippers, they're rabbits- they were Luz's and I quite like the small creatures. I swear I'm not going soft.. I just like rabbits leave me alone.