Sides of a Hero

5. A New Storm

Roman sat up suddenly in his bed, feeling a sudden rush of energy surging through his part of the mindscape. With a snap of his fingers he was fully dressed and running through the door that led to the imagination kingdom.

The door took Roman to the top of some castle stairs in his fantasy realm. The normally beautiful kingdom was being hammered by a massive storm with purple lightening.

Small impulses and imaginary characters were fleeing the village and heading for the castle, which was the only place left untouched by the lightening. Roman hadn't seen a storm of this size since Thomas was very young. That meant Nightmare was back... But that impulsive figment hadn't been around in years. Why was he back now?

"Estelle!" Roman called out into the storm. I took only a moment for a silver dragon to emerge from the clouds and land in front of the Prince.

"Prince Roman." Estelle bowed her head in greeting. "We are evacuating the village and bringing everyone to the castle, just like we use to."

"Well done, Estelle. How far has the storm spread? Which territory direction did it come in from?"

"It didn't come from any direction. It just formed right on top of us and has been growing in size since."

"Ok. I need to go and help Thomas. Get all unnecessary characters and creations to fuse together to save on space and ensure all impulses are accounted for. I don't want them to add any more fuel to that storm."

"Understood," Estelle nodded and took flight once again to pass on Roman's instructions.

Roman sunk back to his room and headed for the common area to check on the others. He had a bad feeling that this storm was affecting them too.

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Patton was laughing and chasing Foster, Thomas' dog, through a field of flowers. He was having so much fun, until ... he wasn't. Patton sat up, suddenly feeling very sad about...everything. The positivity of nostalgia all gone, leaving nothing but sadness and heartache.

Patton shook his head and looked around the room as the feeling quickly faded. "Well now, that was not ok."

He got up and headed to the common area. Opening his door and going straight to Logan's office like door and knocking hard and with purpose. Now did not feel like the time for silliness.

Logan opened his door, fully clothed, and took in the sight of Patton in his favourite cat onesie. "I take it that you felt the disturbance as well."

Roman suddenly burst through his door. "Are you two okay? I've got a nightmare of a storm thrashing the fantasy realm right now."

"Oh my goodness," Patton gasped. "Is that why happy time with Foster was cut short?"

"I did sense a sudden increase in Thomas' heart rate. But why is Thomas having a nightmare? We haven't had issues with Nightmare in years."

"That was my question too, Captain Obvious. We need to wake Thomas up. We can look for the Nightmare King later."

The three sides sunk out to visit Thomas without another word.

They rose up in Thomas' bedroom, to find their host curled up on his side clutching his blankets close to his chest.

Patton went straight to Thomas and started gently shaking his shoulder. "Wakey, wakey, eggs and bakey." Thomas tensed up further but did not wake.