"Hakuna Matata."

"Peanut butter," Elizabeth answers while turning around to face Katherine who's standing behind her.

"How long have you've been here already?" Katherine asks when they're both sure they are talking to the right one.

Elizabeth shrugs. "Around thirty minutes. I suppose it gets easier the more you do it."

"Yeah, I suppose. I really had a hard time realizing it isn't real. It feels real though, the soft breeze, the whispering of the trees..." Her voice trails off and she deeply inhales the air. It smells like Spring is on the doorstep.

Elizabeth frowns. "Don't you actually think it's all a bit too beautiful to be true?"

Katherine's happy expression slowly disappears. It indeed is all too good, there's no cloud to be seen, there's no pollution of the cars lingering in the air... It feels and looks as if they're in New York but actually they aren't. They're asleep, and they must not forget why they're here.

Katherine shakes with her head to get the lazy feeling off. "Alright. So we're now one hundred percent sure all the dreams are connected."

Elizabeth nods. "Yes." She casts a glance upon her watch, they have around fifteen minutes before the hour - or should they say five minutes? - is up.

"We could try finding out where Cynar is hiding?" she suggests.

"Sure. But how we're going to do that?"

Elizabeth mutters something and then speaks aloud. "I have absolutely no idea. He said we'll know where to find him, so I'm guessing if we know where he's hiding in the dream, we also know where he is in the real world."

"Must be something obvious then," Katherine concludes.

"What makes you think that?"

"Because I'm seeing a huge, gloomy castle that isn't supposed to be standing there."

"What? Where?!" Elizabeth looks around, her eyes shooting from to left to right but she can't see any castle at all.

Katherine points at something in the distance but somehow Elizabeth's eyes can't focus at that point. She squints her eyes and then she finally sees it.

A few hundred meters away from them, at the edge of the lake, is standing a huge castle. It has almost black stones and several towers, rising up in the sky nearly touching the grey clouds swarming above the castle.

"Why didn't I see that?" she wonders and Katherine chuckles.

"I don't know! How can you miss such huge building?"

Elizabeth folds her arms. "Why aren't the others seeing it then? And why haven't you seen it when you arrived? You only saw it now. Must be some kind of magic."

Katherine chuckles again. "Alright, alright, chill. Lets search the castle."

"What? Are you mad?"

"Well, we still have around fifteen minutes before we wake up. We can at least take advantage of it."

Elizabeth sighs. "Very well."

They immediately start to run towards the dark castle and not much later they're standing in front of the wooden black front gate. Katherine pushes against it and till their surpise, it just opens without making any noise. They enter the castle and the hall is illuminated by some torches hanging on the wall.

"Where to now?" Elizabeth asks but then she notices the direction sign by the staircase and she mutters, "Finding something has never been this easy before."

They quickly read the first few signs.

'Dungeon downstairs, kitchen right, library left, counsil room upstairs'

"Lets go to the dungeon," Katherine suggests before Elizabeth could have read any further.

"Why?" she questions her.

"Because the enemy of my enemy is my friend."

"But what if it is empty?"

"Then we'll have no friend."

Elizabeth snorts. "Obviously."

"Come," Katherine motions to her to follow her, and they descend the staircase. They keep moving further and further downstairs and they can feel the temperature drop, they're very deep underground and the stairs just continue to go down. Is there ever going to be an end to it?

~~~

Phoenix is trying to bend the iron bars of his prison but even after a few hundred tries, they aren't even slightly bend. He lets out a desperate sigh. He has to get out of here! He can't just let the human race extinct. It's all clear to him now, his brother had gone crazy and the only way to stop him was to kill him. If only he could get out of here!

He rolls with his shoulders and folds his hands one last time around the bars. Just when he's about to use all his strength to try to bend the steel, he hears some footsteps coming from outside the dark room. He quickly lets go of it and casually leans against the sides of his prison. At least, he hopes he's looking casual. He can't let Cynar know he's slightly worried.

The door of the darkroom swings open but till Phoenix' suprise, he sees two persons entering the dungeon. He pushes himself off of the walls and moves towards the bars to get a better view of them. They're both not his brother, in fact, they're two women. What was going on?

"Who are you?" he asks them, while they're stepping closer towards him. The dark-haired woman begins inspecting his cell.

"I'm Elizabeth, this is Katherine," the blonde woman answers his question. "Who are you?" she returns the question.

"I'm Phoenix. How did you two get in here? Dreamers aren't supposed to see his lair."

Katherine averts her gaze towards his green eyes. "We're not Dreamers. We have been challenged by the dragon."

Phoenix snorts. So Cynar still prefered a dragon above every other creature he could choose? Typical.

Elizabeth frowns. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing," Phoenix answers quickly. They probably wouldn't understand. His rancour with his brother goes way back, and they don't exactly have the time to chitchat. "Do you think you can get me out of here?" he asks Katherine.

The woman slowly nods. "I guess so. With the right leverage..." Suddenly the eyes of the two women become a bit brumous and Phoenix knows what that means. They're waking up again!

"No, please! Don't leave me!"

He screams in frustration when they have both disappeared. He could only hope they would return soon. Time is ticking and he's pretty sure Cynar is enjoying this little game. He has to stop him before they're all dead.

~~~

A/N:Only about two chapters to go and then this adventure will be over..! But no worries, I'm planning on starting a Lord of the Rings-Chatroom ;) Yep, I have decided. Keep an eye out if you would like to join, I'm going to accept around 10 or 12 people for that adventure.

Anyways, I hope you liked this chapter :)