Excerpt: The Dream Mansion

I opened the door cautiously, not knowing what to expect. “Hello?” I called out softly, peering into the dark room, “Anyone?” Why on EARTH am I here? I thought, This place gives me the creeps!
“Charles?” came a voice. My ears perked up when I heard it. “Is that you?”
“Kumbya?” I said louder, “What are you doing here?”
A pair of bright green eyes flashed and stared at me. I gazed back. “I-I don’t know!” she said in a quavering voice, “I woke up and I was here! My entire body hurts, voices have been screaming at me, I think I’m bleeding, it hurts to move, I’m scared and I wanna go home!” She burst into tears.
“Hang on!” I said, “I’m gonna come get you!” I reached for the light switch on the wall and flipped it.
The sight I saw nearly made me pass out. Kumbya, a fair vixen under usual circumstances, was covered in severe, gushing wounds. Her clothes were tattered, she was visibly pale beneath her fur, blood was pouring out of her open wounds, her left ear was almost completely detached from her head, and the mattress she was on was soaked in her own blood.
“Nooo…” I moaned, “Kumbya… how long have you been like this?”
“I don’t know!” she tried to move but gasped in pain and fell back.
“I… I don’t know what to do!” I said worriedly. Funnily, my subconscious seemed to be saying, Dude, that’s never something you admit to a girl. “I don’t know where anything is here. Maybe there’s a first aid kit somewhere. Come on, I’ll carry you and we’ll look.”
I very gently lifted her into my arms. She gasped as the few wounds that had started healing reopened. She rested her head on my shoulder and looked up into my eyes. “Thanks,” she wheezed, a faint smile appearing on her muzzle.
“Don’t worry,” I said softly as we made our way out into the hall, “Everything’s gonna be fine. We’ll get out of here safely.” I was saying this to keep her happy and to “Charles?” mumbled Kumbya as we walked into a room that looked exactly like the last one we had looked at, “I... I think we’re lost...”
“No!” I said, “No, there has to be a bathroom or a kitchen or something!”
“But we’ve been looking for almost half an hour.”
“Wait... LOOK!” I shouted (kumbya flinched) “There’s a bathroom over there!” I ran as fast as I could and kicked the door open. The light was already on inside. Carefully, I set her on the sink-top. “Can you sit alright?” I said, hands on her sides to hold her if she should fall over.
“I... ow... yeah, I’m fine,” she said, wincing as she steadied herself. I gave her a smile of encouragement and bent down to search the cabinets. The smile on my face quickly converted into a sort of grimace as nothing presented itself to me. Well, nothing useful. Plenty of acidic concoctions were stashed there, along with nails and just about everything you’d least expect to find in a bathroom or first aid kit. But no cloths, no salves, no healing potions, no fairies (I really hadn’t expected to find any of those, though) nothing that could even feasibly help anyone with severe injuries. Not even band-aids.
“There’s absolutely nothing here, except for nails, but I don’t feel up to stitching you together with those. Do you have anything at all in your pockets we could use, like a handkerchief, or… how about your cell phone? Do you have that?”
A look of hope spread across her face. “I think I do,” she said, “Hang on,” she reached gingerly into her right pocket, cringing as the open cuts in her paw brushed against the fabric. “Got it,” she said, and was handing it over when there was a loud snap. Kumbya shrieked in pain and collapsed unconscious on the counter. The phone hit the floor and bounced into the bedroom.
“KUMBYA” I yelled in shock, catching her just before her head hit one of the faucets. I pressed my head against her chest and listened. Nothing. Then… a slow, weak beat. Silence. Then another. I could hear air filling her lungs, and her chest was moving slightly. I sighed in relief. She was still alive. I examined her arm. It her forearm bent in the middle.
I reached into the bedroom and grabbed the phone. I dialed my house number and waited. I was positive that it wouldn’t work, though why I tried I don’t know, so I was naturally surprised to hear the line pick up.
“Hello?” It was Jarvey.
“Jarvey? This is Charles. Is Artemis there? I really need to speak to her. It’s urgent.”
“Um… yeah, she’s here,” he said, “Hang on, I’ll go get her. HEY, ARTEMIS!!!”
“WHAT?” she yelled back. I jumped as her amplified voice blasted out of the phone.
“IT’S CHARLES! HE WANTS TO TALK TO YOU!”
There was a sudden crash and a sound as though the two were fighting over the receiver. “Charles! Where have you been all day? Is Kumbya with you? Are you two making out? If you are, I’m gonna–”
“Artemis!” I said loudly to stop her, “I’m fine. Well, not exactly fine, but I’m healthy. Kumbya is with me, but she’s badly hurt.”
“Where are you two?”
“The old mansion. You know, the one on the hill in the distance from town?”
“No… not… you’re not in your dream mansion, are you?”
“What?” I said confused, “‘dream mansion’?”
“Nevermind, I’m comin’ after you two!” There was a loud crack and the line went dead.
“Artemis? Artemis!” I closed the phone. “Great. Just great. Now what am I –”
Another loud crack, and a tall, bipedal white dragoness appeared beside me. “There you are!” she said, claws on her hips, a frown on her face, “I–”
“Shut up!” I shouted, “Kumbya’s DYING!”
Artemis’ eyes grew wide. She peered around me and saw the vixen’s broken form laying on the sink. She gasped in horror and rushed to her. She placed her paws over Kumbya’s head and began to glow. The glow connected with the fox and she began to glow as well. Some of the major cuts and gashes healed slowly, the smaller ones more quickly. After a few agonizing moments, Artemis drew back, panting heavily.
“That’s… all I can do… for now…” she closed her eyes, took a few calming breaths, then glared at me, “You idiot.”
“What?” I said, genuinely confused.
“You walked into an abandoned house on Halloween, that’s what!”

Chapter 1: Pre-Halloween Prep

I suppose that if this story is going to make any amount of sense I should stop here, rewind, and begin at the beginning of the story and start there, explaining the various minor and major details of the characters and my world.
All that to say this: “I’m going to start at the beginning.”
Well, to begin the beginning, I don’t live on earth. The planet I call home is named Ahrcain. It is several times larger than your earth, but it maintains a similar gravity to it, as well as normal daylight hours. As of yet I have not figured out how this is so, but someday it will be made clear to me.
So you can just imagine Ahrcain as a gigantic version of Earth. Now, the “people” are not humans. They are mostly bipedal animals. Cats, dogs, lizards, foxes, dragons, rabbits, and birds are only a few of the myriad creatures that inhabit this world. They are intelligent (can speak and act civilly if they so desire), and rarely wear anything more than a vest and pants or shorts (advantages of having fur, feathers, or scales include the lack of a need to layer clothing to keep warm).
Most of these animals are double-jointed, allowing them to revert to their “beast stance”, where they are on all fours – depending on what animal they are – or to stand tall and run like a human on two legs.
But I digress. Let me get back to the beginning of the actual story.
Well, It was a few days before Dead Night. Dead Night is our rendition of Halloween. I was in bed, asleep. I was dreaming about this really big old mansion type place filled with ghouls and monsters and ghosts. And lucky little ol’ me was right in the middle of it all, trying to escape.
“No…” I moaned, “Get… away… leave me alone…” I sat bolt upright, panting, wide awake.
Artemis came in. “Oh, you’re awake. Finally. You’ve been talking in your sleep nonstop,” she said as she leaped onto my bed and perched on the end like a gargoyle.
“I… it was just a bad dream,” I said, shaking my head a little, “What’ve I missed this time?”
“Missed? You haven’t missed anything,” said Artemis, “You just slept through it. Everyone’s getting ready for Death Night.”
“Death Night?” I said, “Already? Didn’t we just celebrate (**********) a few days ago?”
“Yes,” said the dragoness, nonchalantly examining her claws, “Ahrcain has a lot of holidays, if you hadn’t noticed,” she glanced at me, “so are you going to get up ad help, or are you just going to stay in bed and atrophy?”

Life in my house is very different from “normal” life in the average house. For starters, I, being an author, happen to actually live with the characters I create. I’ll take time to explain this later, but right now it’s too confusing to go into. Needless to say, nothing ever really goes quite how you would expect it to.
I walked downstairs, sniffing the air. I could detect a strong scent of pumpkin and chocolate hanging about the house. I grinned. Erar’s cooking, no doubt. She was an excellent chef.
“Charles! Glad you’re up!” said Jarvey, a very tall, bright orange and red bird with a spiky white crest, “we need more pumpkins, and Spark and I are a bit occupied at the moment.”
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“We’re carving the pumpkins we do have with unique and awesome designs, that’s what!” he said eagerly.
“Can I see what you’ve got so far?”
“Sure!” he jumped up and ran off into a different room, “They’re in here!”
I followed him in and gazed at the carvings. These were no ordinary simple-faced jack-o-lanterns. These were true works of art. There were flowery designs, pictures of various animals and characters from other books and games cut intricately into the orange flesh of the pumpkin, showing as much detail as was possible for a pumpkin to have. “Wow,” I said, “I didn’t know you guys were that good!”
“Actually, it’s mostly Spark,” said Jarvey with a shrug, “I come up with ideas and she carves ‘em.” He looked at me, “So would you mind picking up a few more pumpkins for us? Also, I think Erar needs more ingredients for the food.”
I nodded, “I’m on it. How many do you think you need?”
“At least…” he trailed off and counted the vegetables, “… twelve more.”
“Ok. I’ll be back soon, then,” I said and left the room. I headed for the kitchen, inhaling the heavenly aroma of candy and pie. “Hey, Erar?”
A blue foxtrich standing at the island counter turned to face me. To avoid confusion, I’ll pause here and describe what exactly a foxtrich looks like. First, they aren’t always blue. Some are orange, some red, others are green. They have the head of a fox, the beak of a bird (usually a long and straight beak), fox ears, teeth, arms, bird legs and feet, and tail feathers.
Erar was a deep blue foxtrich with yellow beak and legs, and green eyes. “What?” she said simply.
“Jarvey said you might need me to get more food for you,” I said, trying not to drool all over the counter.
“Yes, I do, actually,” she said, “Hang on, I’ll write down what I need.” She started to move away, then turned and said seriously, “Don’t touch the food. It’s not ready yet.” She moved on.
I waited for her to disappear before bending closer and taking in the wonderful scent emitted by the myriad recipes. Maybe just a sample wouldn’t hurt, I thought. I looked up, making sure Erar was still gone, and reached for a cookie.
“Oh, hi Charles!”
I jumped and whipped around as a fox came into the kitchen. She was dressed in a pink t-shirt and purple knee length skirt. Her eyes were a deep emerald and she had a very friendly and slightly confused sort of face. “Whatcha doin’?”
“Um… uh, waiting for Erar,” I said trying to act natural, “she’s writing a list of stuff for me to get for her at the store.”
“Oh, can I come?” she asked bouncing up and down, clasping her paws together.
“Uh… sure!” I said brightening. It would be much more fun if I took someone with me. “Yeah, I’d like that.”
“Great!” she said happily, “So where are we goin’?”
“Here’s the list,” said Erar, appearing by my side and handing me a sheet of paper, “Are you guys walking?”
“I don’t have a car,” I said, “so we’ll just take the wagon.”
“Alright, but get the food back here quickly. Some of the things I need are cold.”

Kumbya and I walked down the driveway, along the paved sidewalk, and into town, towing a simple red wagon behind us. The crisp fall air was refreshing, yet it held a sort of ominous joy. It was as though the world were saying, “Winter’ll be here soon! And then the year will be over!”
We walked in happy silence, observing the bright leaves and bare trees, the decorations that were already being put up, the few animals we passed. Finally as we reached the halfway point to the pumpkin patch, kumbya started to speak.
“I heard you talking last night,” she said matter-of-factly, “you were saying something about monsters.”
My heart raced as the nightmare returned to me. I shuddered. “I had a really bad dream is all,” I said, “it’s nothing.”
“You seemed pretty scared.”
I turned to look at her. She looked back at me. There was worry in her eyes, and I could tell that she felt concern for me.
“Whatever it is, it’s not going to happen,” I said reassuringly, “It was a dream, and only the stuff I really want to have happen does happen.”
Here I need to interrupt the flow and explain some things. Artemis and I were originally the only people on the planet when we arrived; just an author and his muse. Artemis discovered that there was a way to populate the planet by writing about it, and we set to work creating short stories and ideas. These characters, each from different ideas, came into existence and now live with us. For example, Erar

was in a story about some dragons, while Jarvey came from an idea for a video game.
There was reason for Kumbya’s concern, though. Artemis and I had never exactly suspected this, but we had noticed that whenever we wrote about something, it came out slightly different the next day. We never officially assumed that our dreams had influenced the slight changes, but we never ruled out the possibility.
“What were you dreaming about?” pressed the vixen.
I swallowed hard remembering all too clearly the events in my dreams. “I was lost inside this really huge mansion. And I’m not talking about the average mansion, I mean this thing was bigger than… um… than… well, it was gigantic. And I couldn’t leave for some reason. I had to wander around all night, walking into rooms filled with horrible monsters and they were chasing me all over the place. And then one of them grabbed me and…”
“...And?” said Kumbya eagerly.
“I… woke up,” I said, now blushing. Boy that sounded lame.