((oh noeeessss what on earth possessed me to write this right before a weekend without internet?!))

Phineas was having dreams. His sleep-what little he'd got while in captivity-had been plagued by dreams lately. They were tiring continuations of the horrors of being awake. He was again not sure what was real or what was just a dream. The events in the tent, turning mostly to his original shape, seeing his friends alive, that must have been a dream. It was... too unreal to be real.
This now was reality.
He was in his cage, chewing on the bars with his teeth. His canines were getting worn down from months of working on the escape, and the bars didn't even look close to being weaker. They were metal bars but they tasted like lightning. He almost relished the flavour, as he'd been grounded by the DreamCatcher and was only allowed one meagre meal a day, of rotting bread and a wedge of flyblown meat.
He couldn't eat that, he refused to. Though the food did not work as nourishment, it did make a good projectile weapon. His attacks hadn't released him from the cage though.
Still chewing industriously at the bars, he heard approaching footsteps and rolled his eyes up to see the DreamCatcher approaching, a silhouette in the doorway, black as tar except for his eyes and grinning teeth.

Turtle was hovering over Phineas, willing him to wake up so they could go play and make good memories. Suddenly the boy's eyes snapped open, and Turtle stepped back, startled, only to find the thin-fingered hands around his neck, squeezing.
This of course didn't bother the dead creature, so he stared in doggish confusion at his attacker, not choking or even registering the pressure.
He hadn't actually expected his brainpower to wake the kid up. What a happy occurance. But Phineas' eyes were distant and cloudy, dreamlike. Turtle grinned, but would have frowned if he could have. Hm. He WASN'T awake. How odd. He waited to see what the dragon boy wanted from him.

Turtle was fascinated by Phineas. The kid was really angry at his dream, apparently, because he was transforming, trying to turn him back into what he'd been earlier. He could see the shape of scales just under the skin of his face, ready to burst through and become protective plating. His eyes didn't change though, like they usually would when he was even the slightest bit angry. They just stared through the dog.
After another moment of intense squeezing, the grip slackened and the hands came away from the dog's neck. The scales disappeared. Phineas fell back onto the bed and rolled into a little ball on his side, hugging his arms as closely to himself as he could. The strange eyes closed and Turtle figured he'd gone back to sleep. Or... um... gone... back to... non physical dreaming. Or something.

((I did a little research... at his full body and with his being skinny and all, I'm thinkin Phineas would have weighed something like 105 pounds in full form. So without legs, he'd be 88 pounds. I even found the right percentage of weight that applies to legs. I am such a nerd.
Anyhow, he shouldn't be hard to carry if you need to move along towards Yume over the weekend while I don't have internets. He won't wake up again til I get back. ^_^))

((Lolz))

Ani smiled at the compliment, "Thank you.." She said rather quietly. It seemed wierd to eat at a place where the man caused so many problems. She was now looking around her surrounding. The Circus had completely collapsed and disappeared behind them, so the forest around them was in clear view. She took another sip of the soup before realizing that there was none left in her plate.

Micheal had finished a while ago and had set his bowl back down on the ground near his feet. He was cleaning one of his daggers he had used to chop the vegetables with.

((Wow, slow weekend! Moo, where are you, cow? I will eat you!!! >_> ))

((*chomps on noobs* eww... raw.))

In his dream reality, Phineas was waiting for the DreamCatcher to tire of his cruel games. He closed his eyes tightly against the pain and tried to ride it out in the safety of his mind. The ringing in his ears drowned out thoughts of depression, instead distracting him from everything that wasn't the high-pitched whine.
Then, in the midst of the mindless ringing, he heard Shan's voice calling him, probably from heaven.
He knew that the DreamCatcher would take it as a sign that the torture was finally working, but he couldn't stop himself from crying.

In the reality that he had taken for a dream, silent tears escaped from his sleeping eyes.

((>_< I am so mean.))

Phineas couldn't quite believe that what the Dream Shan said was true. He knew this was a dream, it had to be because she was dead in real life, and he'd never seen anything as strange as the room around him, which was as alien to him as the Sahara would be to an Eskimo.
But the kiss on his forehead was so real, and he'd never been able to dream the full comfort of Shan's embrace, no matter how hard he tried or how much he needed it.
The realization that the past day had been real crashed fully on him. He'd been turned into a dragon. He had eaten the DreamCatcher... His friends were all alive! The DreamCatcher had tried to hurt them, Shan had been... very powerfully upset.
The months behind him flipped, the dreams had to be understood as reality and the reality as dreams.
He felt his stomach turn a sick somersault in tandem with his mind. Phineas struggled out of Shan's arms and leaned over the side of the bed, heaving dryly until a few dribbles of the DreamCatcher's blood splattered onto the fancy rug below.

((I was going to make him throw up some human bits buuuuut, yeah, poor kid.))

((Curse you, Photoshop!!! >_<! *shakes fist* My CAD keeps crashing whenever I do a hatch fill on a certain piece of wall. So annoying.))

Phineas squeezed his eyes shut, breathing heavily and occasionally spitting little blobs of blood onto the carpet.
"He said you were all dead," he rasped after a moment. "And then... and then I killed HIM." his stomach turned again but nothing came up. The dragon form had been blazing away through the caloric value of what he'd eaten, the stress setting his metabolism into overdrive and absorbing the whole meal so that now all that remained was the blood. If Phineas had continued eating he probably could have stayed in his dragon form for a longer time.
"I used to like how humans taste," he said, straining the last of his voice to say what he wanted to say aloud, "I cannot... do not... anymore. I don't think I can go back, Shan."

Ani had finished eating and had placed was in the process of washing the bowl in the tiny skin that was in the trailer, she was sure it was more for the bathroom, but it didnt matter. Wiping her hands she went outside to clean up around the campfire Micheal had made. She noticed that he was sitting by his lonesome looking at nothing in particular. She walked over to him and picked up the empty bowl that was sitting by his feet, "Why is it that I feel I missed something?" She said looking at his serious face.

Micheal cast her glance before looking at the spot his eyes were fixated on. "What do you mean?" He asked back. "When I was seemingly dead." She replied. He nodded, "Ah..yes." He said his finger rubbing his chin in thought, "Yu..The DreamWeaver contacted me through That little boy and just told me to give Shan a message. Basically no more slacking off." He said.

Ani studied his face, there was more to that little encounter she was sure. She knew..more than she should know about Micheal and the DreamWeavers relationship. It made her wonder exactly how Micheal was before he became a fallen. "You okay?" Asked Micheal looking at her, Ani snapped her attention back to when he asked, "Yes...fine.." she said looking down before she left to go back to the trailer to wash his dish.

Phineas managed a crooked smile, flashing his bloodstained and rubbed-down teeth, though it was a halfhearted smile and didn't reach his eyes. "I would very much like..." the last bit of what he wanted came out as a croak, so he rallied and tried again "my clothes." He was still wearing a mutilated pile of rags, which had been a rough pant at some point, but was so embarassingly awful that no one had really bothered to waste time being embarassed by it.
He spit another wad of blood onto the floor and wiped his face with his arm.
"Where...?" he looked around at the room, finally realizing that, yes, it was real.

((When is a dragon not a dragon?
...
When he's a little hoarse!
heheheee...
yeah I'm a dork. T_T))

((LOLZ! Pink apron? XD
Im gonna be mean too...give Ani some heartache as well..shhh...its a secret... Merwahahaa...))

Ani had finished washing the dish when she saw Yuki head inside to the back room. Glancing in she caught sight of an awaken Phineas, he was looking gaunt...but he was semi clean thanks to Shan and her scrubbing. She smiled lightly, when the time was right, then Phineas would be greeted by everyone. Waking up from such an ordeal, she knew it would be best if he saw the one that was most dear to him, she knew she would want that as well if she was in the same situation.

Micheal had his mind miles away, miles and miles away deep into the underground of his memories. He was for some reason reliving happier days, sunshine filled days, laughter and love. He sighed at his foolishness when he was a teenager. It was so long ago, he was now as old as the some of the trees in this forest, older even, but even so he can recall every touch, taste and smell, every scenery. He scratched his chin in thought as he remembered a cat he had when he was younger. It was a huge creature, would be more like a tiger, but it was as harmless as a butterfly. After he was forced from the heavens, he wondered now what had happened to old Butterball.

Turtle, who had been silent and was hiding under the bed the whole time since Shan had come into the room (he was afraid of startling Phineas after that other outburst) poked his head out from under the covers and grinned at Yuki before darting back into his secret cave.

Phineas's heart leapt at Yuki's presence. Yet another friend proved alive! His eyes were moist with happy tears as he answered the other boy's greeting. "Yuki... I was worried also." He had to answer in a whisper, no longer able to make an actual sound come from his throat.
He watched in excitement as Shan unpacked his clothing. He had felt like a wild animal without his clothes, which had felt so much a part of him for the few hours he'd worn them. He reached out and slid out the tunic from the pile in Shan's lap. Phineas pressed the cloth to his face, inhaled deeply of the smell, then hugged it to his bare chest, relishing the feeling against his bruised skin.

((what would my coworkers think if they caught me writing this stuff??))

((Not TOO sane, I hope. An excess of either mental state makes one extremely boring.))

Setting the tunic to the side, Phineas reached for Shan's hand, taking it lightly between his and setting a small, dry kiss on it, like a butterfly alighting on a blade of grass, barely bending it.
When he looked up he was blushing, the rose-red blossoms high on his cheeks and looking brighter than usual on his unusually paled skin.
"I have all I need." he managed. His golden eyes looked slightly rusted, a thin ring of red between the pupil and the iris, but there were the faint traces of a shine there as well.