_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
There never was much to Vern's dreams, or at least not in creativity. For him it was always a return visit to old moments of his life, in particular the harrowing moments where his life had come so close to an end. Currently this one had him turning a corner of some nondescript building, followed by two fellow soldiers. Even their faces were vague, and it looked like the two of them were both wounded. They had been moving cautiously, as they had to be wary of some enemies. They then began to run, as it seemed they were now being bombarded by some kind of attack from some unseen enemies. Vern had no clue what the attacks even were or where they were coming from, he just knew that he needed to get the hell outta the line of fire. He turned, looking to see one of the soldiers he had been running with had fallen to the ground. They laid in a pool of red, not moving. He was urged on by the remaining soldier, and so he kept running towards another corner to get themselves out of the line of fire. As he rounded the corner though, he was greeted by a soldier dressed in a uniform of the enemy they were fighting. Both Vern and the enemy had caught each other by surprise, but the enemy had been moving this way with his weapon at the ready; it recognized Vern almost immediately as an enemy and it made the only sound that Vern had heard during the entire dream. It was the sound of ignited gases exciting the barrel of its rifle, propelling a bullet towards Vern.
As the bang of the gun reached his ears, Vern shot up from where he was sleeping, eye wide as he looked around in confusion. He quickly looked around to see just where he was and what was going on. He was sitting next to some brush, a small campfire only a few feet away from him. He saw the white haired woman he was travelling with standing nearby, blood splatter here and there on her as she held onto a feather. He continued his search, seeing the masked Aku sitting against the tree saying something, but Vern was still a little out of it and couldn't really understand. The other were here and there, still asleep, as well as the carcass of a deer. It made Vern blink slightly, then his gaze settled on the prone figure that was Yuna spitting some leaves from her mouth before speaking. "Oh, good morning Aku!" she said, her's being the first words that registered in his mind as it fully came to from its groggy state.
"Ugh..." was all Vern could muster as he laid back down, "Well, you're definitely better than a bullet." he muttered as he put his hands over both his eyes. He laid there for a few moments, just collecting his thoughts before taking a deep breath and sitting up again, letting his hands drop as a flat slab of rock rose up out of the ground behind him. He leaned back against it as he yawned then ran his fingers through his hair. "I didn't miss anything too excitin' now did I?" He simply asked, looking out towards them.