Jason didn't have a lot of dreams. Dreams, in this world, could means lots of different things, and all of them were tied to magic. A lot of dreams happened from making connections to the invisible magical current that flowed just under their fingertips. You could end up seeing the future, or the past. There were wild tales popping up of people who woke up sweating freshwater or no time has passed since they laid down. Jason didn't like having dreams, because more of his were almost most certainly nightmares.

Usually, he was peering through the eyes of what he would like to consider a familiar face, but it really wasn't. Just familiar hands. They were dark and the skin was lighter on the pads. Jason had first thought they might have been Craig's hands when they first met, because Craig's were similar, only due to his skin condition his handprint was much lighter.

They always followed a similar pattern, these dreams, all he could see was the worn and weary hands clutched around the grip of a bow. The worse part was Jason recognized the bow, it was a recurve bow from the city of Cheimónas, his hometown. There was an intricate caring that ran along the sides that gave it away. Jason's own bow had the same one. Cheimónas was famous for it's archers.

He would feel the bite of the string into his fingers. Whoever owned this bow fired without a leather guard and that probably explained why their hands were all messed up. The area was always dark, somewhere outside because is every nightmare Jason had he could practically taste the pine trees in the back of his mouth. That and blood, he always tasted blood. For hours and hours, he would be running from something he never saw, only to trip at the last moment, turn his head, and wake up gasping in a cold sweat before he saw whatever beast was chasing him.

For six months he had been completely dream free. He had been counting. Jason thought for a moment, he might be finally rid of the confusing dream that plagued his sleeping hours. For the entire time he had joined Craig's group, his nights had been restful. Tonight, was different, tonight, he had a new dream.

Jason had just barely closed his eyes when all of a sudden, everything was on fire. Sweat trickled down his forehead in rivers and his heart pounded like the Queen's cavalry. There was no escape, there was just fire, everywhere. It snaked its way up the side of trees and consumed blades of dry grass at thousands per second. The scene started to crumble away, but not before the massive shape of the once-comforting pine tree loomed out of the smoke, burning like the needles in a dry spell. Jason couldn't move his body and could only watch at it fell on top of him.

Then the fire was inside his body in the form of searing pain.

There was faces floating around him, the long and pale face of his mother with tears pouring down her face as her head fell forward and her long dark hair covered her frame. Pale wings appeared from behind her back and folded over her frame as she transformed into an egret. Her beak had just broken the surface of the pond-water when a lynx threw its body across the water and slammed down against the bird, there was a struggle as the bird tried to fly away, and then the lynx clamped its jaws around the bird's neck. The struggling stopped.

The lynx turned its head towards Jason, with the dead bird in its teeth, and he could feel his whole body shaking. The lynx turned into a wolf, it's right eye was gouged out, and the egret turned into a small green parrot: Peri. He was gasping for air and lying helpless, unable to move in the wolf's canines, as his own blood stained his green feathers red.

The wolf dropped Peri into the snow, and then Peri turned into something else. A solid black rabbit, which lay there twitching for a few seconds, before it pushed itself off the ground. It stared into Jason's eyes.

"This is all your fault, you know." The rabbit said, and then erupted in flames.

Jason blinked and all of a sudden, he was looking up at the roof of a clay and straw hut. It was quiet, and cold. He could hear the sound of rain pouring down softly from the outside. There was a grating noise, like someone else was in the room and grinding a substance into a fine powder. They started humming a song Jason didn't recognize but he liked it.

"You're lucky I was here when I was." The other person as saying. "We've made a pretty good team so far."

Jason scoffed. "Yeah, sure."

It wasn't Jason's voice. He looked down at his hands and blinked. Pale skin, freckles, they looked like his hands but... they weren't. He glanced up at footsteps approached, his visions started to go blurry but he thought his saw the other person in the room... blonde hair... a warm smile.

Jason woke up with a gasp. He glanced around the tent, Percy was curled up across from him, Craig was sleeping soundly to his right. He was back in the real world. Just to be sure he stopped and wiggled his shoulders and crinkled his fingers. Okay yes, he was real.

Jason tugged on his shoes and snuck out of the tent. He wouldn't be able to sleep for the rest of the night, at the least he didn't want to. He wanted to see Lafayette again. His falcon had been gone for what felt like weeks now, when it had only been a few days. He wanted to hold out his arm and feel the comforting grip of his falcon's talons wrap around the thick leather gloves covering his hands and forearm. Then he would feed him a bit of red meat and stroke his feathers and Lafayette would tell him that it was going to be all right and that it was just a dream, it couldn't hurt him.

As if by magic, Jason heard the sharp cry piece the cold, night air. He glanced up at the sky and held out his arm, with all the might of the Kosmos he hoped he was hearing what he thought he heard. A small black speck broke out from the tree line and dived, and Lafayette let out another joyful screech as he soared towards his human. Jason grinned and the peregrine falcon gave three hearty wing beats before coming to rest on his arm. The boy pulled him forward and gave him a hug, he felt Lafayette's beak snuggle into his neck.

"Did you find the others?" Jason asked.

"No, they must have moved farther then I can sense them. It's not important however, you had a nightmare?"

The boy nodded. "Yeah. First one in months."

Lafayette clicked his beak together in concern. "I can still see most of it in your memories, it's... different."

Jason could tell the bird was analyzing it in his minds eye. "Don't worry about it, I'm fine now."

Lafayette's beak clicked together. "You sure? You know I can feel what you're feeling right?"

Jason bit his lip and looked away.

"Come on, Jason, it's okay to be upset."

"I keep thinking about those two kids, Fay." He breathes. "I didn't even look back I just ran."

"You did what you had to." Lafayette insisted. "Trust me Jason."

He nodded, his brown curls bouncing up and down. Jason started walking back and chatting with Lafayette quietly. The trees were silhouetted by moonlight and spilt a silver glow of the falcon's feathers. The two of them were shrouded in darkness and their own secrets.

"How's Craig and Percy been?" Lafayette asked. "Have you made peace with the chief yet?"

"Yeah, Bundi's pretty cool I guess. They do make this place seem... safe." Jason agreed. "Craig's doing a good job of keeping me and Percy from slitting each other's throats, honestly."

"That's Craig for you."

"Do you and Peri still not get along?" Jason asked.

Lafayette looked sheepish if it were possible for a bird to be embarrassed (Peri would have said no). "I'm just bad at making friends."

"Nonsense." Jason laughed. "'You got me."

"We're bound together by the most powerful magic in the Kosmos." Lafayette rolled his eyes. "We'd get along even if we hated each other."

Jason grinned. "Yep."

He stopped in the middle of the camp before the tent where they slept. Lafayette bobbed his head excitedly. Jason felt a smile tug on his lips. Fay looked like Ryan's familiar, Lucy the parrot. He's only ever seen her bob up and down like that once, but it was a sight to behold.

"You guys got new digs, nice!" Lafayette praised, hopping down onto the ground and wobbling his way inside on his little bird feet.

"Yeah." Jason followed him.

It was quieter now, almost peaceful. Jason plopped down on his bed and Lafayette hopped up on a nearby perch. Craig and Percy were still asleep. He blinked at them in the darkness, wondering if he was tired enough to give it another shot.

"You want to go back to sleep?" Lafayette tilted his head. "You think you can?"

"I think I can." Jason whispered back. "You know the rules."

"Don't tell anyone about the nightmares." Lafayette nodded. "Sweet dreams Jason."

Jason leaned down and pulled the blanket back up over his shoulders. His eyes felt heavy. With Lafayette's gentle preening noises filling the night air, he closed his eyes, and drifted off back to sleep.