The Day of Thunder

[Chuchu]

All at once the Dreamwalkers find themselves in the other world. Chuchu springs up from her place on the ground, chirping happily in exultation as she bounds around the two she's brought with her. Only once she's run her manic joy dry does the shaman stop to appreciate the scenery.

The white walls of the palace dwarf not just the small nezumi, but Ai and Hikaru as well. They stand stark and imposing against the candy-pink sky of the dream. The flowers, though, in all their colors, are much more inviting, the vast garden around them an endless paradise. Chuchu seems pleased with this place and its open paths and wide pavilions -- what a perfect training ground!

[Nanzi Ai]

Ai appears as a child running through the grounds, unaware she is dreaming. She looks back and forth before getting a mischievous grin and starts digging up Mother's perfect flowers.

[Chuchu]

Oh! They must have ended up in one of Ai's dreams; Chuchu giggles a little, enjoying the feeling of it, like her own dreams of home. She looks up to Hikaru, curious to see how he fares.

[Doji Hikaru]

Hikaru looked around, his pale eyes wide, his mouth ever so slightly agape. "This... this is Lady Doji's garden. Or... something like it." He said. Then he swallowed. Somehow, he knew he was dreaming. Was he really speaking? Was he hearing with his ears?

He reached out, letting his fingers brush over one of the white walls. "I can feel it..." Hikaru said, frowning as he looked up. "But they are not so high." He paused, turning, watching as Ai ran by. Ai as she had once been, a child. "Perhaps this is how she saw them, then." He said, his voice soft.

Turning, he looked down at the little Nezumi. "I think I remember this day. Or a day like this, long ago." Smiling gently, he looked at Ai. "She was so young then."

[Nanzi Ai]

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A nurse maid was horrified as the young girl made a mess of the flowers. When she gets close Ai gets up and runs to another spot throwing dirt at the poor servant with gleeful laughter. She shouted, “Take that stupid bandit!”

“My lady, please… think of your mother,” the maid exclaimed. “We need to be working on your letters!”

“No! I am tired of stupid poopy letters. I’m a soldier, I only need a sword,” she retorted before running to a tree and started climbing.

“Get down!” the servant exclaimed.

“I am on an adventure!” Ai replied she scampered up the tree. “I’m a Thunder I can do anything!”

[Chuchu]

"Perhaps this is how she saw them, then."

Chuchu nods. "Perceptive. You've begun practicing the third principle -- seeking out the incongruities between this world and the waking dream."

“I am on an adventure!” Ai replied she scampered up the tree. “I’m a Thunder I can do anything!”

A hand briefly reaches out before pulling back. The Doji woman -- Ai's mother -- this was a time before she'd been trapped here. A child who's never gone without her parents until now, Chuchu can't help but want to leave Ai to the memory for a moment, even as the present bleeds into the past.

Maybe they would see the future as well.

The nezumi looks up at Hikaru and, softly, asks -- "What happened?"

[Nanzi Ai]

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The air grew frigid, cold, yet there was no frost or even clouds in the sky. Ai frowned and a woman as tall as the tree she climbed stood their with a look of slight disappointment, beautiful, radiant, and yet somehow distant despite her immediate presence. She spoke in a beautiful voice, but not to Ai directly, “Your daughter is terrorizing my garden, again.”

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A shadow grew over the garden opposite the woman, a large man of darkened skin and soft green glimmering eyes spoke with a deep rich voice, “She is your daughter as well, Nanzi raises her well, but still she needs more than letters.”

The giant woman said, “Reign her in, these activities are unseemly.”

Nanzi chuckled, his laughter rippling across the garden and he replied, “Thunder cannot be contained, dearest wife. Let her play, just a little while longer then Nanzi will take her to the fields for training.”

Doji responded with a serene tone, “You encourage her worst habits.”

[Doji Hikaru]

Hikaru looked at the tall woman, and in an instant a whole series of emotions flickered across his handsome features. Wonder, desperate hope, disappointment, sadness. He sighed, closing his eyes and shaking his head. "Lady Doji... but only a dream of her." His jaw clenched, the strain evident in even his soft dream voice.

He took a deep breath, opening his eyes, as the next figure approached. "Her husband, Lord Nanzi." Hikaru explained to the shaman. He frowned. "I believe that it happened like this. But... she sees them differently than I do. Even as her daughter..." A strange, troubled look was on Hikaru's face.

Blinking, Hikaru gave the image of Lord Nanzi a sudden, sharp look. "Why do his eyes glow green?" He asked. He looked to the child, frowning. "Why does she imagine him so? What could it mean?"

[Nanzi Ai]

Ai continued to climb higher and higher into the tree… but she never could get to the top. There was always more tree to climb. Maybe she got bored and she climbed down and found her training sword and ran to another section of the garden away from her mother’s gaze.

Her father seemed please watching her train, hours pass by like minutes and her hands get callouses and bloody from the training but she never relents. He spoke proudly, “Nanzi sees his Little Thunder has grown strong, but is she swift?”

Ai replied, “Hai!”

“Nanzi cannot hear little Thunder, perhaps she has gone mute,” he said with a smirk.

Ai shouted, “HAI!”

[Chuchu]

"Why does she imagine him so? What could it mean?"

Chuchu gently takes Hikaru's hand in hopes of comforting him. "This Lady Doji may be a dream, but she's here in the Dreaming, and if we want to find her, we can. Maybe not tonight, but we can." Watching the scene with him, she squeezes his hand. "It is strange, if that is not how you remember him... it may be what she saw when you were not around... or..." Her head tilts. "Why don't we ask her?"

Ai shouted, “HAI!”

Releasing his hand, the shaman walks towards her, calling, "Do you want to play?"

[Nanzi Ai]

"Sure, let's play bandits... I'll be the samurai and you be the bandits," she replied not really registering the strangeness.

[Doji Hikaru]

Hikaru had never been comforted by a Nezumi before. He blinked as the little furred hand squeezed his. It was perhaps a little bit too surprising to be actually comforting, but, well, in a way that worked just as well.

Smiling gently, Hikaru went over, kneeling down to be at Ai's current height. "Ai-sama, do you recognize me? It's Doji Hikaru." When Ai had been the age she appeared in the dream, Hikaru had either been in training for his gempukku, or had just completed it. He'd had a graceful puberty, appearing much as a smaller, thinner version of the man he was now, with fewer worry lines, but just as serious of an expression.

[Nanzi Ai]

She looked up and said, “Hikaru-senpai, look how much stronger I am getting!” She emphasizes her strength with some wild swings of her wooden sword. “Soon we can go out and fight bandits together and monsters like ogres.”

She points at Chuchu, “That’s the bandit!”


Nanzi chuckled and said, “That’s a nezumi, one of the rat folk, Littler Thunder, Nanzi has met many. Nanzi told you many tales of them when he rescued your Honored Uncle.”

“Well it’s a rat bandit then!” Ai countered. She then grinned at Hikaru and said, “Let’s go on an adventure! After we beat the rat bandit.”

[Doji Hikaru]

Hikaru glanced at the Nezumi, concerned. In fact, she was about the same size as child Ai...

Gently, he smiled at Ai. "Actually, this is our friend, Chuchu-san. Perhaps we can all go on an adventure together. She can be our spirit guide." Hikaru nodded. "And you can show her your strength."

[Nanzi Ai]

"Really? That's nice, hello Chuchu-san, what's a spirit guide? I want to play bandits and samurai. Spirit guide sounds boring," she responded.

[Chuchu]

Chuchu, having very little understanding of what a bandit is -- fortunately she'd only seen a handful on her journey north, and slipped past them without worry -- still does her best to play the role she's been given. "Grr!" The nezumi play-growls, thinking a bandit more like a bad spirit than a thief. But at the mention of a guide, she squeaks out, "No it's not! You're a Dreamwalker too, 'cause I gave part of my Name to you. You just forgot." She looks up to Hikaru and sighs before resigning herself to what will come next; it's sad to take something so simple yet so sweet from Ai.

Still. They came here for a purpose.

"This," The shaman says, "Is what a Dreamwalker can do." Delicately she pinches the air at both her sides with her tiny fingers to slowly lift the veil from reality. With a twirl she brings forth churning lavender clouds. They fall heavy to the ground, licking ankles hungrily as they spread across the garden. Within the fog's pale depths images glimmer, twisting and shining with meaning, almost perceptible to the eye but just beyond human ken. Everything dream the fog touches gains a glittery sheen. "If you tell me why your papa's eyes are green, I can teach you!" With a giggle Chuchu skips up onto the top of the fog, kicking and pulling shapes as she goes to create a plush seat for her to flop on just out of Ai's reach.

[Nanzi Ai]

“Honored Father has beautiful eyes, everyone says so! Like Hada-ojisan,” she responded. She seemed confused and continued, “What’s a dreams walking? I never forget! I know everything,” she responded with waving her wooden sword at the nezumi.

“My name is Ai, you didn’t give me my name! Right Hikaru-senpai!”