Lost in Dreaming

Who: Olivia and Judiel
When: night
Where: California and Elsewhere

They'd been camping for several nights now, and Judiel thought successfully so. They were out far enough that they felt nice and isolated, but not so far that they couldn't drive to the nearest service station for fresh water and supplies. He'd been righteously enjoying himself, sleeping out on sleeping bags with the top tent-vent open to the stars and the fresh air. It felt wonderful, being outside so much, and he honestly didn't miss Marquette in the least. It was warmer where they were, but not overly hot, and scenic. The hiking and fishing were good, the company even better. The longer he spent out there with Olivia in the wilderness, the more he felt for her.

They'd settled in for the night as usual, after dark and after the fire had died down, bellies full and mostly nude in the sleeping bag. The electric lantern he'd brought plenty of batteries for was on in the corner with a t-shirt thrown over it to mute the light. But it wasn't pitch-black, at least. Judiel had drifted off pleasantly, not expecting to wake up until the morning light bothered his eyes enough to make them open. It didn't turn out that way, however. Hours before light ever touched the sky, he frowned reflexively in his sleep, consciousness bubbling up rapidly as he realized that he was much colder than he should've been.

He reached out instinctively for the warm yielding flesh of his woman, and his eyes popped open as his hand clenched on dirt. There was no Olivia. There was no sleeping bag, either. He was laying on the grit and rocks and scrub of the ground. In nothing but his boxers and goosebumps. Judiel sat up, looking around wildly. There was no tent to be seen. His heart started to pound and he shot to his feet. "Olivia!" he called as loud as he could. "Olivia!"

In answer, somewhere off in the foothills, something howled.

Olivia was enjoying herself much more than she thought she would. Not that she hadn't been expecting fun with Judiel, and the idea of camping was an exciting one, but deep down she had been afraid she would have found out she definitely wasn't an outdoorsy kind of girl. Only... she sort of was! She loved hiking, despite the burn in her lungs from years of smoking, and fishing, the stars at night and the fire. Doing really naughty things to her boyfriend out in the open with the moon shining brightly above. Yes, it was definitely something she had needed to refocus herself. And she was finding that her feelings for Judiel were running deeper than she had ever really intended to let them. But it wasn't scary, and it didn't thrust her into panic. It was... oddly calming even while she was surrounded by significant emptiness in other aspects of her life.

She had fallen asleep that night with him behind her, his arm draped over her body underneath the sleeping bag. It was peaceful, listening to the wilderness, sharing the warmth with him. She slept well - until she heard him call for her. Or at least she thought she did. Olivia didn't know what time it was when her eyes snapped open. All she knew was that it was dark outside but for the very dim light of the lantern with Judiel's t-shirt covering it. She blinked a few times to clear her vision, wondering if perhaps she had been dreaming. Only the sound of his voice was so clear that she was almost sure Judi had woken her. Shifting on the sleeping bag, she turned over toward him. Only he wasn't there. Pushing her hair out of her face, she sat up, confused. The tent was still zipped, but if he had gotten up to go to the bathroom, surely he would have zipped it to keep the bugs out until he returned.

But he'd called for her, hadn't he? Maybe he was hurt, or needed her... Olivia groaned a bit as she pushed herself up, her t-shirt skimming the hem of her pajama shorts. She unzipped the tent and climbed out into the darkness, rubbing her hands over her face as she searched for him. He hated the dark, so he would have taken a flashlight. She searched for any sign of light in the trees, or around the tent, but saw nothing but shadows.

"Judi?" she called, holding her breath as she listened for an answer. When she didn't get one, she took a few more steps. "Judi!" When she heard nothing, she started walking, ignoring the uneasy pounding of her heart. He had to be somewhere.

It took a few moments for the fact that he could see what was around him to really sink in. The moon had been fat, but the world was kind of ... not as black and white as moonlight generally made it. There were colors, and they were swirling. Judiel looked up and saw a sight that was entirely misplaced for the area of the country he was supposed to be in. The northern lights painted the sky above, shifting through their rainbow colors at lazy speeds, and painting the moon itself. ... both of them. Two huge full moons rested side by side up there, one a mirror image of the other. "Fuck me," he cursed softly in Spanish, dropping his eyes to look around him again. Wherever he was, he wasn't at the base of Mt. Shasta anymore, though it loomed in the distance still.

He shivered, getting a chill as he thought he heard his name whispered on the breeze that kicked up around him. Wrapping his arms around his bare torso, and not having much other choice, he started to walk. Back towards ... well, where he thought their camp should be, just from judging on the angles of the mountain. "Olivia!" he called out again, at the top of his lungs. Because he couldn't be alone here, could he?

Olivia stopped and rounded on the woods to the left of her. She swore she heard something, but there was no one there. She shivered and started walking again. She started to call his name, growing more agitated and worried every time her voice quieted in the night and she got no response. She finally got worked up enough that her body began to tremble as morbid scenarios began to race through her mind. The first of which was Ohgod, he left me. But he wouldn't have done that. The car was still there, and his things. He wouldn't have left her in the middle of the night. He wouldn't have left her at all. And then she started thinking of wild animals, and what if he had gone to the bathroom and something attacked him.

Nausea rose quickly inside of her and she turned to race back to the tent, ignoring the tiny twigs and rocks that poked into her bare feet. Tearing open the tent flaps, she crawled inside and felt around until her hand closed around the flashlight. He hadn't taken it. Flipping it on, Olivia retreated back into the night and started out again, her calls for him growing more frantic. This was like a really bad dream. All she could hope was that she would either wake up... or that Judiel would appear out of nowhere and laugh at her for being so worried about nothing. Then she would beat him over the head with the flashlight for scaring the crap out of her.

Judiel squinted into the darkness. There was a breeze around him, and in it he thought he heard ... something. He walked faster, bare feet that rarely ever saw anything but carpet and shoes getting poked and prodded by rocks and sticks and ... something squishy he wasn't even going to think about. He cracked his big toe against a rock and stumbled a bit with the flash of blinding pain. Judi cursed loudly in Spanish, pain-tears blurring his vision for a second. He straightened up, panic starting to well up in his chest, and without knowing where exactly where he was going, he started to run. Which probably wasn't the best of ideas, but this whole place even felt different. He called out her name between gasps for air. Some rational part of his brain way in the back said he needed to stop, get his bearings, calm down, but it was kind of really hard to do. Especially when -- there! Up ahead, he thought he saw the bobbing light of a flashlight, and heard his name. At least until he tripped, skinning the palms of his hands and knees as he caught himself. When he looked up, it wasn't there anymore. "Olivia! Can you hear me?!"

Another rustle of the wind sounding like her name and Olivia jerked the flashlight around to illuminate and peer into the darkness. Something fucking with her mind was what was happening! She didn't know how far she had been walking, how long she had been calling his name, but her throat was growing sore and her entire body was cold and shaking. Judiel was nowhere to be found. Olivia was growing more panicked because she didn't know what to do. Who did she call? Did they have a Ranger service somewhere out here? Should she get in the car and drive until she found help? She hadn't paid much attention driving in, how the hell did she find her way out in the middle of the night? She didn't know where to go, or how to get around.

Biting hard on her lip to keep from breaking down and crying, Olivia continued to walk and search. The darkness and night sky was no longer peaceful, but eerie and foreboding. But she wasn't going to let herself be afraid. Judiel was gone, and she wasn't going to stop searching for him until she found him.

Judiel saw the elusive flashlight beam once or twice more, and thinking he'd caught her scent on the air had him spinning around in a couple of useless circles. Fear had his chest tight and constricted; the campsite should've been here, it should have, with her in it, and there shouldn't have been two moons and he was thinking that he might know where he was, and it was a terrifying thought. Because that didn't just happen. You didn't go through a gate on fucking accident. While you were asleep. He was just opening his mouth to call out again when he saw the animal standing several feet away and looking at him. It was dog-shaped and lanky, though it's limbs were longer than any coyote's he'd ever seen. It's mouth hung open in a panting grin and luminous violet eyes just stared at him. The coyote sort of ... glowed, on his side of things, like some luminescent deep-sea fish. Only silver, instead of greenish. It stared at him for a moment, then turned it's head to look behind itself, as something else in another world was running up on it.

Every second that passed seemed like an eternity. She was trying to block out the nightmarish scenarios of what could have happened to him that continued to surface in her brain, but it was hard to keep her mind clear when she was so scared and worried. The worst was not knowing what to do. God, just please let me wake up from this. It was all a bad dream. A nightmare. It wasn't happening and Judiel was laying right beside her right now, his body tucked against hers, his breath on her neck. That's exactly what was going to happen when she woke up. Any second now... God, please!

But it felt real. The cold, and fear and emptiness. The grass beneath her feet and the goosebumps covering her body. And Judiel not answering her calls. Sucking in a deep breath, Olivia prepared to shout his name again when the movement ahead caught her eye. Startled, Olivia jumped a bit in place and quickly shone her light upon the shadow, fear creeping deeper inside of her when she saw it was an animal. A wolf or something, she wasn't sure. "Holy shit," she muttered, chest clenching with a different kind of fear. She was going to be attacked and mauled to death now. What better way to end this nightmare?

Judiel physically startled when he heard the mutter. It was loud and clear and her voice, not a whisper, but as though she were standing right next to him, amplified by the strange air. He took a couple more steps toward the ghostly coyote, which looked back around at him serenely. He didn't feel that it was any danger to him, it was just another part of this bizarre place. Somehow, he'd gotten through into the Dreaming. Some-fucking-how. And he just hoped to whatever gods there were that Olivia wasn't in here with him. He knew the stories well enough. "Olivia?" he said again, in a more normal tone of voice. He'd heard her, he swore he did.

Olivia's heart leapt into her throat at the sound of his voice, and she nearly buckled under the weight of relief that flooded her. "Oh, Jesus, thank God..." She stepped back from the animal and whirled around, expecting to see Judiel there. Only he wasn't. Confused, she turned all the way around, searching for him in the dark. Her light landed back upon the animal who wasn't looking back at her anymore, but was staring at something in front of it. Only there was nothing in front of it. "Judiel?" she called, heart thumping loudly in her ears. "Where are you? Are you hurt? I can't... I can't see you."

He could hear her. He could hear her! Keeping his eyes on the ghost-yote, he moved in a little closer, because the sound seemed to be emanating from the animal, strange as it was. "I'm here, I'm -- ... I don't know. Can you hear me okay? I'm not hurt, are you? I think ... okay something fucked up is going on, you can hear me, right?" The connection was so tenuous, he was already terrified of losing it. The coyote blinked at him serenely, licked it's chops, and sat down in both worlds, settling on it's haunches and glancing back over at Olivia with her flashlight.

Could she hear him okay? Of course she could! It was like he was standing in front of her, only he wasn't. That animal was. Holy crap, he wasn't the coyote or whatever it was, was he? Because it was looking at her again, it's eyes blinking against the brightness of her flashlight. "I can hear you," Olivia said hoarsely before clearing her throat. Was she tripping? Maybe she was on acid or something and didn't know it! "All I see is this animal a few feet in front of me. It keeps looking at me, but then looking forward like something is there, but I don't see anything." Olivia released a sharp breath and lifted a hand to her forehead. "Where are you?" Her tone was still a bit panicked, and much more desperate now. "I'm..." Scared. "I don't know what's going on."

Oh God. Sweet Christ, did he want to put his arms around her. And just cling, so desperately. Shove her in the car and drive the fuck away from this place. But they were separated by something vast and invisible, and he was in this alien world and fuck. Judiel fell down to his knees in front of the glowing coyote, that only looked over at him again. "I think ... I think I'm in the Dreaming," he said, looking at the animal but talking to Olivia. "I can hear you, though, I just ... you're not here either. Don't ... don't be afraid, it's ..." It was what? Okay? Because it was decided not fucking that. Where in the fucking hell was the gate, and how did he get back through it? "I don't know what happened either, but I think I recognize this place, and you're ... I'm not supposed to hear you, but I can, so ... just ... don't go anywhere for a minute, okay?" While he tried to get his breathing under control and think straight.

The Dreaming? The Dreaming? With gates and Faes? They had been sleeping near a gate? How was it that he disappeared but she hadn't? "How is this even possible?" she asked, staring more closely at the coyote. The animal could see Judi. She could tell that much by now. If not see him, hear him, like she could. But how could she not be afraid? He was in another fucking realm. "I'm not going anywhere," Olivia promised, her voice firm on that. "I'm not leaving. I just... the gate... where is it? Can you get back through?" She sas back at the panicked thought that she didn't know what to do. "Are you okay?" she finally asked, taking a deep breath to calm herself. Or at least try to. "Your breathing... don't panic, okay? Just... breathe. We'll figure this out. We just need to figure out where the gate is and when it's going to open again."

"I don't see it, I don't ... all I see is fucking desert and the northern lights and there's two moons and that ... cactus over there is fucking huge," he said as he looked around. No gate. They all sort of looked different anyway, but it didn't make sense that he'd managed to get through one in his sleep and she hadn't. He didn't sleepwalk, he never had, he hadn't gotten up to piss ... god. But at least he could still hear her, that was something. 'Where's the gate?" he asked, this question directed at the ghost-coyote. It looked back around at him and it's jaw dropped open. "In the mountain," a new voice that was mostly in his mind said. A voice that actually came from the animal before him. In the real world, it was a short series of soft yips and growls, but in The Dreaming ... Judiel sat back hard on his ass, startled in a way that he shouldn't have been.

Desert. Northern lights. Two moons. There was the thought again that this was a dream. Olivia couldn't even imagine what he was seeing. She was fascinated and worried for him at the same time. She supposed she was damn lucky she hadn't been taken in with him. That would have been decidedly... very, very bad for them both. "It has to be somewhere," Olivia muttered and took another look around her, as if the Dreaming gateway would just suddenly magically appear before her. No such luck. "Judiel?" she called, after he had been silent a few moments - far too long for her liking. "Are you there? Are you okay?" Don't leave, don't leave...

"Yeah, I'm here, I'm --" he was cut off with surprise as the ghost-yote suddenly stood up and started to trot away, in the direction of the mountain. He watched it, consternated, and wondered if it was doing it on her side of things as well. A second later he realized that her voice had more or less been coming from the animal and he might lose her if it got too far away. Judi scrambled to his feet, the faint wheeze in his chest sounding again. "Olivia! Follow it, if it's going! Go with it!" he called toward the coyote, doing that himself.

It seemed the coyote was the only connection she had to Judiel and the Dreaming. As it started walking away from her, she seized with fear for a moment because his voice seemed further away. But she listened to him and hurried after the animal. Her entire body protested being out in the chilly weather, and she knew her feet were going to be aching in a few hours, but at the moment, none of it really bothered her. If she lost touch with him, she didn't know when, or if, she would hear from him again. "What's going? Is he taking you to the gate? I don't know where it's going... it's dark. Is it dark where you are?" Olivia asked, only feeling mildly at ease when she was talking, or hearing Judiel's voice.

"I don't know," he said honestly, following after the coyote at a sort of a jog. The ground was treacherous, and he tripped again, though he made sure not to make noise as he caught himself. He didn't want to worry her any more than she already was. Though now he was worried for her, being that she was running around the wild in the middle of the night after some animal. Were snakes around at night? Or did they get under rocks or what? He couldn't remember. "It's dark, yes," he answered belatedly, keeping his eyes on the glowy fur in front of him. "Um, are you dressed? Olivia, you probably need ... shoes ... or to go back, maybe, I don't ... I don't know where it's taking me. Us."

Despite the stressful situation, Olivia couldn't help but quirk the tiniest of smiles at his concern over her wardrobe. Shoes were the last thing on her mind. "I'm fine, Judi..." She was trying to keep up with the coyote, hoping that it wouldn't break into a sprint, because running was the last thing her lungs wanted her to do. "I'm not going back for anything... if I go back and this thing disappears, I don't know if I could find you again. Wherever it's taking you, or us, we'll deal with." She kept the flashlight shining ahead of her, doing her best to avoid anything that she might trip over. "Are you... you're probably not dressed very warmly, are you? Is it cold there?"

Was he cold? It was hard to focus on small things like that when he was concentrated on following the canine. "Um ... no, I'm okay," he said, becoming aware that it was warmer than it probably should have been for the time of year and the darkness. "Are you? If we're going to the mountain, you really need boots ..." He trailed off and had an idea. Judiel whistled loudly toward the coyote. "Hey!" he called. It had spoken to him a minute ago, maybe it would ... understand something. Maybe. It stopped and looked around at him, which translated into it looking back at Olivia in the more solid world, and he could swear he thought it was questioning him. "She doesn't ... she needs boots," he told it, halfway feeling stupid. She also probably needed better pants, a jacket, and the walking stick they had. "Try to lead it back to camp," he told Olivia, "I can't tell where we are."

"I don't... the camp too far away," Olivia said. "I don't want to lead you away from the gate - if that's where he's taking you - just so I can put something on my feet." She felt silly making the coyote turn back around and take her to the camp when Judiel was stuck in the Dreaming. "If you're making the trip barefoot, then so am I."

"Yeah but ... " he started to protest, looking around himself. Though he couldn't really argue her straight logic. He was more likely to run into dangerous things that would be best faced with shoes on his end. One could never predict what the Dreaming would throw at you. Which really made him wish he had some clothes. The ghost-coyote, apparently tired of waiting for him to make up his mind, turned and started walking again. Judiel followed, cursing softly in Spanish under his breath. He didn't like this, he didn't like it at all.

Olivia lifted an eyebrow, waiting for more of his counter argument. But she didn't really get one, and the coyote seemed impatient enough with both of them that it started off toward the mountain again. She followed, keeping her flashlight ahead of her. Olivia only hoped it didn't take long for the animal to get Judiel back to her - if that was even what the thing was planning. She couldn't read it's mind after all. Animal telepathy would have come in really handy at this point. "I would say this is probably the strangest conversation we've ever had," Olivia told Judiel with a small smile, wanting to lighten the mood and get past the panic inside of her. "You think anyone is going to believe this actually happened?"

The muse gave a chuckle, though it was kind of uncomfortable. He didn't like this situation, really. He wasn't so much worried about what would happen to him on his own side of things, more what could happen to her. Which was probably kind of foolhardy, but that was love. He was torn between not wanting to lose the connection with her, and insisting she go back to camp and sit and wait. Not that she would listen to him anyway, he knew better than that. "Probably not. This ... isn't at all how it's supposed to work, you know. Gates are obvious, gates are there, they're not ... fucking sneaking around plucking people up one by one, it just doesn't ..." make sense. Strange as it was to try and apply logic to a place like this, there was supposed to be some kind of rhyme and reason. As he passed them, he noted that the scrub bushes around him moved, leaning and stretching out their limbs in his direction as though they were begging for something.

"I've never actually... I don't know much about how the Dreaming works," Olivia admitted, wincing as she stepped on something sharp. She lifted her leg and bent over to brush the underside of her foot before catching up to the ever moving coyote. "I just hope there wasn't a particular reason it picked you up and left me here. What does it look like there?" She was curious, because she knew it was a place for Faes and certainly it would be much, much different than where she was.

"It's ... there's a lot of stuff that's kind of ... luminescent," he said, looking around himself and trying to get a handle on his surroundings better, since she was asking. He kept walking, and as he did, he noted that the terrain under his bare feet changed. Looking down, Judiel frowned a bit. "There's snow," he said, watching his toes sink into the white stuff. He looked up again, and it wasn't there in his vision, but he could still feel it. Not cold, just ... soft and kind of crunchy when it was compacted. "But it's not cold. Just ... on the ground." And kind of impossible to explain. "There's the aurora borealis in the sky, and the plants are kind of ... moving." And he didn't know where they were going, and he couldn't help but feel kind of dismayed about that. But at least he could still hear her.

It sounded... wonderful and eerie at the same time. All she had was darkness and the chilly weather. Olivia's smile was small and she wrapped her free arm not holding the flashlight around her for some heat. "As long as the plants aren't trying to eat you... did you ever see Little Shop of Horrors? That movie scared me from ever wanting foliage in my bedroom. Do you see... anyone? I mean, the Dreaming harbors Faes doesn't it? Is it just you?"

Judiel gave a surprised laugh at the unexpected reference to that old movie, and then quieted himself. It sounded wrong out there, like the air was ... thicker, or something. The sound didn't travel like it should have. "No, I don't see anyone," he said, looking around himself again. "I think this place is kind of desolate, even for Fae." The glowing coyote looked around over it's shoulder at him and then continued to trot on. Judiel picked up his pace to match the quicker one, wanting to get wherever the hell they were going and get the fuck out of this place.

Olivia noticed how the coyote glanced over his shoulder, not directly at her, but at someone else. Judiel. Her eyes shifted to the spot where the coyote looked and she frowned. She was beginning to wonder if this coyote was taking him to a gate, or somewhere else. They were getting farther and farther away from the camp. "Are you sure about this coyote? You don't know where it's leading us... what if there isn't another gate near us? And if there is, how will I know when to stop? I can't... I can't be sucked in there with you."

"I don't know," he said, and tried not to sound as worried about that as he actually was. "Right now it's the only thing that's letting me talk to you, so ... I'm following." But he was looking around more, to see if anything stuck out in this strange place as a possible gate. The snow under his feet was gone, replaced by the rough broken rock and soil again. Judiel winced as one of them cut into his foot, and hoped that the Dreaming didn't harbor any weird ... diseases for him to take home. "I'm hoping I'll just ... walk through it and pop out the other side. It looks like we're headed for the mountain, though," he said, watching the massive shape loom closer and closer.

Olivia glanced up at the mountain, frowning as she did so. She just wanted Judiel back, no matter how it happened. She knew he was probably worried, even if he sounded all right. She couldn't imagine being stuck in the Dreaming was calming, when you weren't really suppose to be there. "The mountain... what if the gate is at the top? Is it dangerous? I mean... breathing wise and everything." She wasn't sure if she could make it, if that was the case. But Judiel had asthma and she wasn't sure hiking up a mountain like that was the best thing for him.

That was an angle he hadn't really considered. Though certain kinds of physical activity didn't really bother his lungs -- swimming, specifically, but that had everything to do with what he was -- he hadn't exactly tried to climb a mountain under any sort of time limit before. He didn't know how fast the coyote would want to go up it. Or if they'd be going up it at all. "I don't know," he answered her honestly, at least. "But it doesn't look like I've got much of a choice." He looked around again, desperate for some big neon sign that said 'Gate over here!' or something, but ... no such luck. There was just the weird desert, and the plants reaching for him. At least the two moons made things easy to see.

They walked for what felt like forever, and he was infinitely glad that he could talk to her on the way. It was the main thing that kept him following the glowy animal. If he lagged behind, she sounded further away. The coyote trotted along, leading them up a few foothills, until they reached what amounted to a rock wall. With a hole in it that was only about as tall as his waist. The coyote stopped at it and turned around to look at him, mouth hanging open in a panty grin. Judiel froze up almost immediately.

She was regretting not going back to the camp for her shoes - and his inhaler. She hadn't really thought about it until she was following the coyote for what felt like miles and her lungs were beginning to burn. She didn't want him to come back from the Dreaming and drop into an asthma attack. Olivia knew she would probably panic at not knowing how to help him then. She was breathing heavily by the time the coyote slowed and stopped and both eyebrows lifted as it turned around to look at... Judiel presumably. "What's going on?" she asked him after inhaling deeply. "Why are we stopped?"

He couldn't answer for a minute, because the animal's intent was clear. He had to go in there. And the real cruel joke of all this came crashing in. Judiel shook his head mutely at first, in staunch refusal. No, no he wasn't doing that. He couldn't do that. It was pitch-black in there, and small, and there was no way in all the fucking hells in all the worlds that he was going in there. Unaware that distances in the Dreaming didn't quite match up to those in the real world, and Olivia was probably not looking at the same topography as he was, he shook his head again and mumbled, "He wants me to go in the hole. It's ... dark, I-I ... can't ..."

"What hole?" Olivia glanced around, not seeing what Judiel was talking about. She turned back to the coyote who still wasn't paying any attention to her. She began to panic a bit and lifted a hand to her forehead. "If that's the way back, Judi... you have to. Only... I don't see a hole, or cave or anything here. If you go... I can't follow you." Which scared her, because she wasn't entirely sure she trusted this coyote, or even this situation. She didn't know what she would do if he never came back. She didn't want to think about it.

The coyote had taken a couple of steps forward, and Judiel could swear that his panting grin was teasing now, mocking. "No," he said without any strength. "I can't." But he knew that he had to. There was nowhere else to go, unless he wanted to walk for miles and miles around the mountain. And even that might not do any good, the ghost-yote had said that the gate was in it. In all that dark with rock pressing down overhead. He could very well go in there, have an asthma attack, and die. His mind groped for other choices, tried to think of alternate options, but it was difficult with things so taut and on the verge of panic like they were. He realized he was shaking.

"Yes," Olivia said firmly, knowing she had to be the strong one by the sound of his voice, "you can. You have to if you want to come home." She ran a hand over her face wearily. She was well aware of what could happen. If he had no light, he would be terrified. He could have an asthma attack. He could die and be gone forever. And she didn't know how to save him. It made her feel helpless and horrible. "Just... when you go inside, just follow the coyote. Stay focused... think about getting home, okay? That'll keep you going. I'll be waiting for you when you come out, okay?"

Judiel didn't want to. He emphatically, with all his soul and being, didn't want to. But while Olivia had been talking, the coyote had started to creep forward again, and her voice was getting fainter as it moved. Hesitantly, feeling like each leg weighed ten thousand pounds, he started to move forward. Just a couple of inches toward the hole, and then stopped again. Already his chest was starting to feel a little tighter, a little more constricted. Home, think about getting home. "You'll stay?" he said unsteadily, and realized it was nothing more than a whisper. Taking another step, he repeated it louder, eyes locked on the glowing animal in front of him.

His voice seemed to be fading and Olivia took several steps forward even though the coyote was creeping off without her. She thought she heard him, and then his voice came again and she swallowed hard. "I'll stay," she promised, trying hard to keep the fear from her voice. "I'll be here when you get back, okay? Just... breathe and focus. You'll be back soon."

He'd be back soon. She was fuzzing out a little, but he'd be back soon. The coyote had said it was in the mountain and that was where he was going, right? To the gate. Something that linked him to the real world wouldn't steer him wrong, right? Even if so, what other choice did he have? Hoping desperately that he would still be able to hear her, Judiel walked a bit faster. Once he came to the hole in the rock, the glowing animal slipped inside and looked back at him, lighting the way somewhat. Swallowing hard himself, Judiel bent and followed at a crouched shuffle, leaving the open Dreaming behind. "Olivia, I love you, I'll be there soon," he managed to get out before the light in the animal receded rapidly until it winked out and was gone.

Olivia held her breath, listening for his voice again. There it was... fainter than before. But she heard him. And apparently he said he loved her. Which was... not what she needed to be blind sided by at that moment, but she was. "Judi?" Olivia called for him and sucked in a breath again, listening. She didn't hear anything. And it was then she realized the coyote was gone. Everything that had seemed still and quiet before was now loud and disconcerting. Olivia glanced around in the dark and shivered before she turned and began the trek back to the camp site. There she would wait, like she promised.