Wryn was asleep, deep in a dream. She knew she was dreaming, yet she could not pull herself out of the dream. In the cloudy haze of twilight, Wryn stood in the center of the clearing she had found herself in the day before, after she had chanced upon an injured cat and had stumbled across a battle between a fairy and a werewolf. These two things she had thought about children's stories, but hours ago. Yet there they were, standing mid-combat as they had been in the waking world, real and dangerous.

  Wryn scanned the clearing while things remained frozen in time. She could not remember when these kinds of dreams started for her, but they had been happening since she was a small child. She didn't always know how to control them, yet as she got older, she managed to puzzle some things out as they happened more. Now, for the most part, she could control the speed and focused view as she pleased, but she was still limited to a confined area of the dreamscape. She wasn't sure what exactly she was looking for, but whenever she had one of these reliving dreams, it was because there was a detail she had missed long the way.

  Wryn took a deep breath, not that she needed to breathe in the dream. Or did she? Did her body react to what she did here? There seemed to be a never-ending stream of questions as of late, and no one to answer them. Eventually, her surveying eyes landed on herself, for more so the spectral image of herself cowering in the shadows, watching the fight as she searched for the cat. Nothing about the scene really jumped out to her until a strange twinkle sparkled in the silver moon pendant she wore around her neck.

  Wryn moved closer to the copy to see if she could inspect it more. Her pendant had always appeared to look more real in the dream than any other object that was also projected in the dream. Wryn had always chalked it up to it being so important to her or that she knew it so well. Though with all the strangeness that had happened recently, who could say for sure? Right, not all she had to go on was the strange twinkle from the pendant, so that was the lead she was going to follow for now.

  With a wave of her hand, the memory of the moment played on. The spectral copies moved as they had done during the actual event, and Wryn watched them play out before her. Though she more closely watched the pendant around her neck, the adrenaline of the experience crept back into her being as she relived the fear of being confronted by the beast man and watching Mina get charged into the tree while she shielded Wryn from danger. She shuddered as she heard the tree truck shatter again.

  Wryn shook her head as she watched the spectral copy throw the rock at the wolf man's head, landing it square in the jaw. She couldn't help but chuckle as she watched one of his teeth fall out from under its jowl. Yet as the beast turned to confront her once more, Wryn felt her heart beating beneath her chest, the muscles of her torso constricting as her breathing picked up. She remembered what she had thought in that moment, her desire to protect, her wish to be strong enough to be a guardian of the weak. She felt the surge of power again in her heart of hearts, and as she watched her copy, the pendant started to glow brightly with an internal luminescence she had never seen it conjure before that day. She watched as it got brighter and brighter and right when she thought she was going to see the transformation...

  Meow... Mrrrow... Mow

  Smoky the cat put his full weight on his four little paws that pressed down on all the wrong pressure points of Wryn's body. Yet when Wryn did not wake right away from his impatient meows, he pawed at Wryn's mouth and nose to try to get her to wake. And wake she did with a start as the dream was watching shattered around her like a crumbling sand castle.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  It took Wryn a moment for her to process what had happened. When she had looked up, she was met with the yellow-green eyes of smoky who was not looking that impressed with Wryn's sleeping habits. Wryn glared sleepily at Smoky, who had the look of a smug, spoiled brat. He always had a knack for waking her up right when she was getting to a good part of a dream. "You're a little jerk face, you know that, Smoky?" She said aloud to the cat. Smoky just flicked his tail.

  Wryn smirked before suddenly grabbing Smoky into forced cuddles, rubbing her face into his side. Smoky was not happy and tried to squirm out of his mother's loving embrace. Though his struggles were for naught as a shower of kisses soon followed, which he liked even less than forced cuddles. Wryn laughed, amused, "You were the one who wanted attention, stupid."

  Then there was a thud at the window that made Wryn and Smoky both jump. For a moment, both were still watching the window, and there was a flash of movement that caused Smoky to hiss and his hair to stand on end. Wryn frowned as she let smoke go to sit up to try and peer out the window without getting up to go closer. She squinted her eyes, and just at the bottom of the window, she could see what might be an... envelope?

  This perplexed her even more. She was on the second story of the house.

  Did someone tie a letter to a rock and throw it up here? They were lucky they didn't break the glass. Wryn frowned and got up to get closer to the window to investigate. She was still a little nervous due to Smoky still being on high alert; he didn't react this way even when dogs were walking on the sidewalk outside the living room window. Though what she saw outside on the frame was not what she would have ever expected.

  There, right outside, was a small yellow warbler perched holding a letter almost twice its size. Wryn blinked in confusion. When the tiny songbird noticed her, it tried hopping. It was trying to get her to notice him, which for such a small bird was strange, as they were known for being quite skittish creatures. Wryn hesitated a moment before she thought to open up the window and let the bird in.

  When the window was open,n the tiny bird hopped up into the window frame like it had done it countless times before. Wryn was quite confused, glancing between Smoky and the warbler. She wasn't sure ifSmokyy was angry at the bird's intrusion or if he had started to see it as a snack, but she made sure he stayed on the floor and didn't try to jump on the window to go after the tiny mail carrier.

  The bird looked at her with its tiny eyes before offering her the letter it was holding in its beak. Carefully, Wryn took it from them and turned it over to see her name written in shining glittery cursive text that shifted iridescently in the low light of morning. She then looked at the seal that was keeping the letter closed. It was made from red wax with the image of fairy wings imprinted in the center. Though Wryn had only discovered magic yesterday, she already knew this was laced with it. Was there a spell that would trigger when she opened it?

  So many questions flooded Wryn's mind as she held the letter in her hands, though she was brought back to reality when the Warbler chirped and then flew off to, no doubt, retrieve a new letter that was also in need of being delivered. Wryn watched as the small bird flew off into the woods and was then lost in the forest canopy. She shook her head as she thought that this would never start making sense. With a sigh, she closed the window as she looked at the letteras ife it might try to bite her.

  Wryn moved to open the letter, but just before her fingers touched the wax seal, she heard wvoicescoming from downstairs. They were too faint to make out words, but she could easily recognize her mother's voice. It was very early to be having company, but there was someone else down there... After a minute of listening, a name popped into Wryn's mind... Mina?!