Subnova: Dream Walker

Chapter 3 - Amita

The dog stepped further into the alley, its dark scraggly fur weighted down by the heavy rain. Her amber eyes were focused on the prey before her, a small rat that paused in the centre of the path to lick its paws. The dog rolled back her shoulders, each rising and falling with every slow and calculated step forward. She stifled the growl rising in her chest. She watched the rat twitch its whiskers. Then she pounced.

Her claws scratched at the empty space she landed on, looking up with wide eyes just in time to see the rat scuttle into a gap between a dumpster in the wall. Edging her way towards the dumpster, she searched the abyss for her prey.

"Amita."

The dog growled.

"Amita," the voice said more sharply from behind.

She spun around with a snap of her jaws, a loud guttural bark rising from her. There was a human in front of her, tall and thin, his dark hair plastered to his face in thin wet strands. "Amita, I know that's you."

The dog didn't understand his words. They were just sounds in the darkness to her. The rain hammering the ground, the way the droplets flicked onto her paws, the feel of the weight against her whiskers. She rose her amber eyes to his blue ones.

Amita... that was her name...

"It's me," the words didn't come from her mouth, they came from her mind. She projected them into the space between the dog and the boy.

"Good," he replied in the same manner. "Now run!"

Before she could ask why, the Oneiro disappeared. His figure dispersed in a wave of smoke and ash. In his place landed a large powerful creature with orange fur and thick black stripes. Its claws gleamed in the moonlight. The tiger stared back at Amita and she did the only thing that she could. Amita ran.

She daren't look back. She didn't have to. Amita could hear the tiger's powerful strides as it splashed against the puddles. The tiger unleashed a loud vibrating growl from deep inside its chest. Just like goosebumps on skin, the fur on Amita's back raised up even under the weight of the rainfall. A burning ache began to spread across her muscles, and she wasn't sure how much further she could endure.

Her ears pricked up. The splashes were becoming more frequent, the tiger must have increased its pace. Amita forced her legs to move faster. As she ran past an alleyway, she caught a glimpse of another set of amber eyes watching her from the darkness. They were joined by two more pairs, all staring straight back at her with a ferocious hunger.

A pack of wolves emerged from the shadows. Like the sound of a beating drum, her heart thundered in her ears. The rain was beating down so heavily now that she couldn't even see where she was going. She was chased through darkness by a trio of high pitched howls.

There was a sharp corner ahead. Amita braced herself, but the ground was so slippery, she skidded onto her side. A whimper cut through the air. Her left hind leg scraped across the cement, tearing away her dark fur and cutting into her skin. The pack of wolves weren't far behind, and neither was the great Bengal tiger. Growls resonated in the air, harrowing against the midnight backdrop. Amita flattened her ears to drown out their threats. With her good right side, she tried to push herself up. The pain seared straight up her left leg and she fell back to the concrete.

They were closing in around her. She had to try again. Her left leg was shaking, the moment she let her weight fall on it, the leg gave out beneath her and threw her back to the floor. The rain had turned a light red as it washed away the blood from the gaping cut in her leg. Amita allowed the weight of the rain to press against her body, it pushed her closer to the ground. The rough gravel of the concrete scratched her belly. Her instincts told her what to do, if she rolled on her back and bared her neck to the wolves they might view her as submissive, they might take her into the pack yet the human mind wouldn't let her. She would lower her head but she would not bare her throat.

The animals had encircled her, growling in unison and exposing their sharp teeth. Amita whimpered. She was going to die. In a dream.

Wait. It was a dream. She could control her own dreams. Amita lifted up her head, she tried to stand up but her legs couldn't support her. Summoning all the breath she could muster she growled with all the strength she could get from her underbelly. The other animals faltered. Amita locked eyes with the tiger that was walking through the centre of the pack. She stared into its eyes with the intensity of her last growl and all of the sudden, the world seemed to have shifted.

Amita was no longer looking through the dog's amber eyes. She was staring back at them. The dog fell limp onto the ground and Amita watched as the wolves began to edge forward.

No.

The dog was her prey not theirs. She took a huge powerful step forward, her large orange paws thundering on the ground. She was the alpha. The wolves pulled away from her and she was a tiger. One of nature's most impressive killers.

"You cheated," a voice snapped.

She was ripped from the tiger, now stood next to the Oneiro in her human form. It felt strange, like wearing a human shaped suit. Her skin was naked and the rain made her shiver, she had never felt so exposed before. Only her anger was enough to warm her, "I cheated?"

"Yes, you manipulated the dream."

"I possessed the tiger!" she yelled squaring on him, her long dark hair whipping her face.

"By manipulating the dream," he repeated calmly. "Enlighten me Amita, how do you plan to manipulate reality while you're awake? You know you need physical contact to possess something, you can't just look into its eyes as if it's your one true love and you're in a romance novel."

"Fuck you. Have you ever tried touching a fucking tiger?!"

He shrugged, "It's a dream, the tiger can't kill you."

"They always say if you die in a dream you die in real life, I'd rather not be the one to test that theory."

"It's not true," replied the Oneiro.

Amita looked up and met his eyes, their piercing blue gaze had begun to cloud over. "And how would you know?"

The cloud left his eyes and with a terrifying harshness gazed back, like staring into a black hole as it threatened to consume her, "Because I've seen people die in dreams. And then I saw them alive again the next day."

Her throat tightened. He had always seemed cold but looking at him like this. If he had seen people die in their dreams, dreams that he had the power to manipulate. No, she didn't want to think about that. Yet she owed it to herself to do so. Her life was in his hands, if he had tried to kill people in their dreams, she needed to know. Before the question could leave her lips, before her suspicions were confirmed, he interrupted her and she was relieved she never needed to ask. "How did your scans go today?"

"Nadda, zip, zilch," she replied. "They found absolutely nothing."

"Good, we can't have them knowing what you can do."

"Am I critical to the escape plan?" she said with a wink and grin.

He humoured her for a moment, a glint of fire finally catching in to his icy eyes. "Only if you can learn to control your powers, like I've been trying to teach you. Now are you ready to try again?"

Amita groaned, "Do I have to?" When he gave her his usual disapproving gaze, she threw her hands up in surrender. "Okay, okay, I was just joking. Simmer down Obi-Wan."

He shook his head. "The dog's dead," he gestured to the scene beside him. The dog lay on the floor, a pool of blood surrounding its leg. There was no visible sign of injury and Amita didn't remember seeing one of the wolves or the tiger kill it. Did that mean?

"Pick a new body," the Oneiro said.

The wolves were still huddled around the dog, the tiger large and powerful in between them. A frozen scene, a portrait of time. Amita stepped towards one of the wolves and pressed her hand against the nape of its neck. When she closed her eyes, she felt herself yanked from her body and thrown into the wolf.

Her eyes snapped open.