The first meeting.

Stephan plunged through the darkness into the world he’d only visited in his dreams, all around was a faint fog blanketing the dark wood he had appeared in, this transportation to another world had begun only a few weeks ago on a day that begun like any other, he woke up mid morning on a lazy Saturday, he could hear his mother talking on the phone to one of their neighbours, probably miss Bentley if he was not mistaken, after a few moments of listening to her conversation he slowly dragged himself out of bed, pulled a loose t-shirt over his head and began to wander across the hall toward the bathroom.

As he moved closer to the door of the bathroom his small younger sister shot in front on him blocking the way, her hair was tied in two neat pigtails like it usually was, she was wearing a small dress decorated with a few selectively placed flowers. Stephan looked down on her before sighing and beginning to talk “what do you want?” he asked inquisitively before his sister looked at him blankly for a few moments before moving out of the way and walking downstairs, Stephan looked slightly confused as he entered the bathroom, after several minutes he wandered downstairs as he let out a long drawn out yawn, rubbed his eyes before entering the kitchen fixing himself a bowl of cereal and taking a seat in front of the telly that was situated just on the kitchen counter next to the dining table, after a few mouthfuls of  cereal he found himself feeling extremely tired as his eyes slowly seemed to uncontrollably close no matter how hard he tried to stay awake, soon his head hit the table with a soft thud, he almost seemed unconscious as he was unreactive to anything.

Stephan began to dream about his usual mixture of monsters and knights before the dream seemed to become more realistic as he found himself wandering a dark forest, noises all around him becoming louder as the wind began to rustle the bushes, he looked around sensing he was being watched he began to hastily wade through the fog encasing the forest, looking over his shoulder every so often, soon he heard something, he was sure he didn’t imagine it, as he turned a dark shadow floated over him and into a bush, he slowly proceeded toward the shadows disappearing point as he pushed his hand through the bushes thick leaves he felt some sort of furry texture on the other side, drawing his hand away quickly he took a few steps back as heavy breathing could be heard a large figure began to emerge from the bush, red eyes gleamed toward Stephan sending chills through his body as the figure turned to face him, he soon began to focus on a few features, sharp teeth and slim eyes were the first things he noticed.

Comparing what he was seeing to what he had seen in books, he began to notice the creature highly resembled a werewolf but with a few differences. It’s tail was much longer, like a dragons and wings were perched on the creatures back. He stood motionless for a few moment before the creature struck at him, causing a shock to reawaken his body in real life he jolted up reeling in cold sweat he slowly stood up wondering to himself “was that real?” he felt his face, he was bleeding in three direct lines where the creature had slashed him in his apparent dream. Stephan soon washed his face, the scratch marks could be seen but weren’t too noticeable, he didn’t do a lot for the rest of the day, he seemed to be asleep for no more than a few minutes but it seemed as though he had spent hours in that forest, would he return there if he fell asleep again?, was the creature part of his imagination or did it mean something?, these were just a few questions going through his mind, would they ever be answered?, nobody knew.

For the next few days the dream did not return, so Stephan assumed it was a one off thing, that was until Monday, he was walking with his best friend Malcolm, he described what had happened in his dream and showed him the scratch marks, Malcolm seemed puzzled but soon took no notice as he explained “it was probably a nightmare, and you most probably slept on something causing the scratches”, Stephan wasn’t sure but it was the most logical explanation he had right now so he went along with it not mentioning it for the rest of the day.