Jeremiah snapped his eyes open and sat up straight, then took a look at his wrist, which didn't have a watch on it.
Seven o'clock. Just in time to be late, as usual.
Jeremiah got dressed and got ready for whatever he needed to be ready for the day ahead of him, whatever kind of day that was. Once he was done with all of that, he dashed into the eating room, which was now next to his room, and, as soon as he saw that everyone else was there, shouted out, "I HAVE SOME NEWS!" Everyone, after many an experience, wisely turned their attention from their cinnamon rolls to him.
"Well, tell us in your own words," Heather allowed him.
"Thanks, Heather. Anyway, as it turns out -- okay, well, first, I'm a Master of Hope now."
"But weren't you always a master --" Alex began.
"Nah, nah, nah. As you can clearly hear, the M and H are capitalized now. There's a clear distinction," Jeremiah corrected.
"Huh. Showed me. Continue."
"Okay, so, I'm a Master of Hope now, I earned that by passing a little final test. But that's not the important news! The imp --"
"I just remembered my dream!" Alex suddenly said.
"But --" Jeremiah tried.
"It was like: I went into a convenience store, but it wasn't really a convenience store, it was an amusement park..."
"That is a weird dream," Belle remarked, then was about to turn her head politely back to Jeremiah when August asked Alex, "What happened at the amusement park? Do you remember?"
"Well, I walked in, you know, and It went from inside a building to this huge, open place. Of course, there were roller coasters everywhere, and I wanted to go on them, but I was too short for all of them. As it turned out, I was actually an extremely short person. Like, three feet tall."
"That's...odd," Heather commented, then almost asked Jeremiah what was so important when Alex suddenly remembered a detail from his dream that was obviously important.
"Oh! That's right! You know how Jeremiah sometimes hovers in that 'T' position and glows like a star and it looks really awesome? Well, I think Jeremiah was the sun. Up in the sky, I could see a T-shaped shadow in the middle of it," he added.
"Alright, now can --" Jeremiah tried.
"That reminds me of the dream I had!" Penny began, likely just to spite Jeremiah at this point. "It had Jeremiah in it, and I think he was being used as a stage light in some sort of Broadway show..."
"What about the glowing thing that I do is so important to your lives that it roots itself in your subconsciouses?" Jeremiah wondered aloud. "Anyway..." He was cut off yet again.
"Jeremiah was in my dream, too, but I'm not going to tell any of you what happened in it," Heather added.
"Same with me, actually!" Belle related.
"What? What is with you guys?" Jeremiah cried out.
"Yeah, seriously, Belle. What happened with Jeremiah that you won't tell anyone about it, huh?" Heather questioned.
"Not just Belle! What happened in your dream, Heather?" Jeremiah accused, then, knowing that he wasn't going to get anywhere now, grabbed a cinnamon roll from the buffet table and sat down.
"Anyone else want to share their dreams? And by anyone else, I mean August," Jeremiah asked, taking a bite out of his roll.
"Well, thanks for asking, Jeremiah. I, in fact, do have a dream to share. I'm sure everyone will appreciate it when you hear what I have to say. And boy, do I have something to say.
"You see, I was walking into the jungle when I saw a door on top of this ancient stone staircase. The door was made of stone, too, and it didn't have a doorknob or anything. I walked up to it, and suddenly, it opened. I, of course, walked through.
"On the other side of the door, there was this world of demons, angels, and witches and such. People could, like, turn into weapons and had other people wield them...It was weird. Especially the sun and moon, which both had creepy faces. Anyway, I met up with these people that helped me get situated, and I tried to look for the answer to this sort of question that I think was really important. However, there was this bad guy who could alter reality, and he was pretty scary.
"Then some good guy who could do dream stuff tried to kill some sort of really annoying assassin by going into his mind, and these two people with hats -- a guy with a trilby and a girl with a fedora -- stopped the fight and argued with each other until the guy gave up and just handed the girl a few Hershey's kisses and everyone exited the dream.
"Then a lot of bad stuff happened and it seemed like the bad guy that could alter reality was going to win, but then Jeremiah came in, and he demanded a duel from some sort of card game against the bad guy, and he won, and everyone was freed and everyone was happy. Except for the bad guy. He, you know, lost. And everyone hated that card game part. Everyone."
"Well," Jeremiah started, not really knowing where to start with what he had just heard. "That's pretty weird. Way weirder than the one where I was the sun, or even the one where I was a stage light. What about Belle and Heather? Do you guys finally feel the urge to share your marvelous dreams?"
"Uh, no," Heather replied, glancing furtively side to side.
"Definitely not," Belle added, paying plenty of attention to her cinnamon roll.
"What about you, Jeremiah? Don't you have a dream to share?" August wondered.
"Unless it's that recurring nightmare that you have and refuse to tell anyone but Heather about. In that case, we understand, but have an increasing want to hear about it," Alex assured him.
"Oh, it's not that nightmare. But I do hate that one. Anyway, I, in fact, do have a dream to share."
"Alright, tell us the whole thing," Penny told him. "We can't interrupt now that we have all shared our dreams.
"Well, if you must ask..."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hurricane arose from his pool. Water seeped off of him like his pores were a thousand waterfalls as he stepped up his steps and onto the cold stone floor of his underwater lair. He wore a cloth that covered most of his legs, but not much else except for a shark tooth necklace, the thing that allowed him to control all of his shark men.
Hurricane held out one open hand. His anchor, the most trusty weapon he had, flew into that hand. He gripped it with some intensity, then finally opened his eyes.
Spines, his messenger and butler of sorts, was standing in front of him.
"Spines," Hurricane noted, pleasantly surprised. "I was just about to call for you."
"I know, sir," Spines told him. "That's why I was here already. That way, no one would have to hear your thunderous voice at the first thing in the morning. You frighten even Clyde, you know."
"Even Clyde? I thought he was the toughest out of all of them. What a ninny."
"Perhaps it is not his fault that you frighten him, but yours? You are quite the predator. You're not known as a killer whale, rather than an orca, for no reason, you know."
