Gently, the white haired boy took Lee's hand, making her rise a little bit off the ground, just like he was, and then led her to where the others were. He let her go with a smile and then sat down, this time managing to come in contact with the dragon scales. It has always been a puzzle to him as to why he couldn't walk normally, but then again gliding from place to place was fun as well, especially since he could go quite high up if he wanted to. When he made to grab one of the spikes in the dragon's crest he noticed the scrap of paper that Rae had given him. Reading about his worries gave Daniel what he considered to be a brilliant idea. This is going to be such fun! It's like he's asking for it! the boy thought looking at the smirking youth. With a straight face he called out to him:

"Don't worry, Rae! The dragon won't move a muscle unless I command it to!" While saying this he made the dragon rear its head and turn it so that it would be behind Rae, where it puffed a cloud of smoke over the boy. After seeing his plan through, Daniel barely managed to keep his composure long enough to add "And I'd never let it harm any of you." before he burst into laughter.

His entertainment was cut short when he noticed what Eliza had been calling out about: the shadows were slowly making their way towards them, adding a vintage touch to the places they moved over. So not only were the others real but they were dreaming as well. And as fun as he considered his dreams to be Daniel didn't think anyone else would agree, especially when he himself often doubted this.

"So... um... where are you suggesting we go? I agree with any direction as long as it takes us as far away as possible from my... um... fantasies."

(( Ok, whatever. I mean we could go anywhere in my opinion since this is dream land and it doesn't have to follow the rules of reality. I mean I was thinking of going to the moon and finding it was made of cheese or something. But anywhere else is fine as well. In fact to get things moving faster, you can say the dragon goes wherever you want, no need to ask for my approval or anything, like my char said he is your pawn in this respect. ))

((Hm. What about a land of fairy tales? We might be able to find the source that's causing all this as well as give us time to think of a better plan.))

Rae jumped up when the dragon puffed a cloud of smoke all over him. He stared at the dragon in sheer terror. I knew it! It is going to eat me!

So convinced of his thought, he almost missed Daniel promising them safety. That much, he supposed, was good news. So perhaps he had just overreacted and just assumed that Daniel was evil? Whatever. It's not like it matters really.

He blinked. When he heard Eliza speak. What? Daniel's dream? She makes it sound as if we're all real people whose dreams had been mashed together. Tch! Like that's possible!

But he couldn't help but agree that they should get out of there as fast as possible. There seemed to be black blob all around the forest.

He tried to speak, but no words left his mouth. That's getting really annoying. If only someone could read my mind whenever I wanted to speak...

((way to be subtle, okugi))

"Uhm, 'Daniel's Dream'? Lee questioned, quirking an eyebrow at Eliza. But a second later she had to grip for her life to the dragon's steely scales as it moved quickly to be nearer to Rae. Who looked absolutely petrified. She was so amused by the expression on his face that she forgot not to look at his head directly

And promptly his thoughts sounded loud and clear in his head. ANd she answered before she remembered that she wasn't supposed to be hearing them. "Technically this is a dream, so pretty much anything's possib-...oops."

Eliza frowned 'Am I the only one who's figured it out?'. She watched the shadows nervously and heard Daniel ask for directions. "It doesn't matter where we go! Just fly!"

Hearing Eliza's command and keeping his eyes on the advancing shadows, Daniel made the dragon rise up in the air and then fly over the city since it seemed to be exactly opposite to the forest. The cause of his worries now out of sight he relaxed, his mind on his new companions. He thought about the terrified face Rae had made and smirked, proudly. He thought about this whole strange affair of them being all real, with mixed up dreams, what a fool Eliza was for letting on what she knew and how stupid Lee must be for taking such a long time to realize this. And it occurred to him that the last thing the girl had said didn't make complete sense. There was no real reason she should have apologized like that! Careful, the first sign of possession is odd slips of the tongue! his inner voice spoke up. Slowly he turned around to face Lee, praying that none of the shadows had slipped by unnoticed.

"Lee...who were you talking to just then?" Daniel asked, worry and suspicion in his voice. His icy, black eyes scrutinized the others, as well as their surroundings, although there wasn't much to see on the dragons back or in the distance as they had already risen above the clouds.

Rae quirked his brows when Lee spoke. Did she just answer me? Are you telling me that all this time, she understood all my thoughts? Rae blushed. Ah fudgebuttons! That means she heard about all those embarrassingly unmanly thoughts of mine! Wow... that sounded wierd. Makes me sound like some sort of a macho freak. Bleh. Maybe I should stop talking to myself in my head. That is the first sign of insanity...

Wishing he could grumble to himself, Rae sighed. But this is a dream. As Lee said, anything's possible. I bet if I wanted to, I could fly by jumping off of the dragon.

It was then that Rae realized that they were no longer on the ground. Surprised, he flapped his hands wildly, trying to calm himself. He knew he looked riddiculous, but he was slowly sliding off again and did not relish the idea of his body touching the now-far ground. Blushing furiously, he tried hard to reclaim his long-gone balance.

You know, I was hoping that riding a flying dragon was better than riding a bike through a bumpy trail...

Eliza was concentrating on her balance, which took allot since the scales on the dragon were so slippery. It was similar to riding a horse, but if you fell off this particular mount, you would fall to your death. Glancing back, she noticed that Rae was losing his balance altogether, she paled and yelled to Daniel "Hey! Rae is slipping! Is there any way you can stop him from falling??"

"I wouldn't worry about that" Lee called before Daniel could answer. Having just pinched herself hard a few times she was pretty sure that this was either the weirdest dream ever, or maybe she was comatose? "You never finish falling in a dream. You wake up before you hit bottom, if you don't, you...' she trailed off. 'you die in your sleep' was how her thought finished, but, that was probably not a good thing to dwell on. Especially if she /couldn't/ wake up. She'd chosen to ignore the inquisition as to who she was talking to

Gee, thanks a lot. Rae thought when he heard Lee's answer to Eliza's question. Yes, let's let poor Rae fall and see if he wakes up or not. If he wakes up, this was all a dream. If he doesn't... since it's a dream, it shouldn't hurt. Besides, Rae is already half-dead with his bloodied chest. He might as well as be the first to die. And the best of all is that this is just a dream!

Rae was rather surprised at how sarcasitc he was in his dreams. Maybe I'm going to grow up to be one of those cranky grandpas who always sits in his porch, screaming, "Get off my lawn!" to random kids walking by?

Shuddering at the thought, he finally caught his balance. He gave an okay sign to anyone who was watching him at the moment. It'll be so nice to go back to the real world where I can speak...

Daniel was sitting cross legged between the dragon's shoulder blades, holding on to one of the spikes in the dragons crest with one hand. Seeing as Lee hadn't answered his question and didn't seem she would ever do so, he put on a calm face, concentrating on keeping the dragon under his control. In reality he was all tense, on alert for any other strange behavior from her. This made him miss what Eliza had said and he only caught up with events when the girl in the blue tunic spoke. Turning around he saw none of them had grabbed a hold on the dragon. Stupid people, don't even know how to ride a beast. Of course it's a bumpy ride! How could they even expect otherwise! he thought before calling out loud to them:

"You should all grab a hold of something. And don't worry Rae, in my dreams when people hit the ground they get hurt at the most but don't die!" he said, winking to the boy. And then they have a couple of shadows to worry about, which is worse than death. , he completed mentally while watching Lee. If we already have a shadow with us there is no use running away from them anymore. Might as well land and have room to fight it. his thoughts trailed on so he made the dragon glide below the cloud cover. Looking around he noticed they were now over a mountain range. He reasoned this to be perfect, especially if they could find a cave in which to seal the dragon. "Okay, hold on tight because we're going to be landing pretty soon!" he shouted above the rushing wind.

Eliza watched Rae until she was sure he had his balance back. She heard Daniel say something about holding unto a scale and cursed herself for not doing so before. She grabbed hold of a nearby scale just as the dragon started to fly down.

Well... I feel stupid. There was something to grab on a dragon's scale? How do you do that without... hm... I don't know, skinning your hands? Cursing mentally in his mind, Rae closed his eyes and held his breath as the dragon began to fly towards a mountain. And what does Daniel mean by, "In my dreams"? Could what Eliza said be true? Or... or am I just making this up as I sleep? I... just don't know anymore!