“I finally found you…”
The Vile Creature reached out its bony hands in Luna’s direction, making her scream in fright.
The next second, she found herself inside her room, gasping for breath and drenched with sweat.
“A dream?” Luna placed her right hand over her chest to calm her wildly beating heart. “No… a nightmare.”
It took her a few minutes to regain her composure. When she finally regained the ability to think properly, she walked towards the table beside her bed and poured herself a glass of water.
The hands holding the jug were shaking a bit, so it took her a while to fill the glass properly.
Her hands were still shaking when she held the glass of water. It took her great effort to drink a few sips and only managed to finish the entire glass after a few minutes.
Even after drinking the water, she still felt restless and feared going to bed to sleep again.
Luna’s eyes then darted to the clock hanging on the wall and saw that it was only a few minutes past one o’clock in the morning.
Suddenly, she thought of an idea and grabbed one of her pillows from the bed before leaving her room.
A few minutes later, she found herself standing in front of Ethan’s room. At first, Luna hesitated, but after weighing her choices, she mustered up her courage and knocked on the door. 𝐎𝗏𝐞𝓵xt.𝗇𝓔t
Just as she was thinking that Ethan might be in deep sleep, the door of the room suddenly opened, almost making her scream and jump back in surprise.
Fortunately, she was able to stop her time, as her gaze landed on the handsome young man, who looked at her with concern.
“Luna?” Ethan said with a confused look on his face. “What’s wrong? Did something happen?”
“I had a nightmare, so I’m unable to sleep at that moment,” Luna replied. “I’m sorry for bothering you, but you are the first person that came to my mind when I was at a loss on what to do.”
“Is that so?” Ethan smiled. “Please come in. Let’s talk inside.”
As soon as Luna entered the room, she felt less tense. Being around Ethan soothed her. When she was younger, she would often visit her mother’s room to sleep with her whenever she had a bad dream.
Perhaps it was for this reason that she immediately thought of someone that she could trust and depend on when she was troubled.
“Please sit on the bed,” Ethan said before returning to the table, where a book was open.
“You’ve been reading this late?” Luna asked in a disapproving tone.
“It’s fine. We don’t have classes tomorrow, so I can sleep a bit late,” Ethan replied. “Would you like to talk about your nightmare? Perhaps sharing it with someone will make it less scary.”
Luna pondered for a bit before nodding her head.
She recalled her nightmare where she found herself standing inside the Great Eagle Forest at night, wearing just her nightgown.
Luna had no recollection of how she ended up there. The only thing she could recall was after discovering where she was, she panicked and started to run away in the direction of the academy.
However, since it was dark and the towering trees made it impossible for her to see the stars in the sky, she had no sense of direction.
Ultimately, she just ran as hard as she could.
To her surprise, she didn’t bump into any Magical Creatures in the Forest, and no one harassed her. There was only an eerie, yet menacing silence, that made her extremely anxious.
Then, it happened.
A creature that was four to five meters tall, with reindeer-like antlers on its head, and eyes that glowed with malice, appeared in front of her.
Luna had recognized the creature for what it was. They had all been repeatedly warned by their Professors to not step foot inside the Great Eagle Forest because there was a high chance of encountering one of such creatures.
Knowing what would happen if the Wendigo succeeded in taking hold of her, she ran away with all of her might.
However, the chilling cold in her surroundings dug into her body, draining her stamina, and slowing down her movement.
In the end, she found herself cornered, and the horrifying monster reached out its hand to grab her.
“And that’s when I woke up,” Luna said as her body trembled after recalling that scene. “That creature is so vile. Just seeing it almost made me faint.”
Ethan stood up from her chair and sat beside Luna on the bed. He then hugged her close to him and patted her head.
“It’s just a dream,” Ethan assured her. “It will not happen in real life.”
Luna buried her head on Ethan’s chest as the latter continued to hold him firmly, sharing his warmth and making her feel safe.
They stayed like this for several minutes until Luna’s body stopped shaking.
“C-Can I sleep with you tonight?” Luna asked with a hopeful gaze.
“Of course,” Ethan replied. “It’s not like this is the first time you slept on my bed, you know?”
Luna could only smile after hearing Ethan’s reply. What he said was true. She and Chloe often used to take a nap beside Ethan in the afternoon when they had nothing else to do.
Her relationship with him was more than friends, but still not at the stage when she could say that they were lovers.
As she lay down on the bed, hugging her pillow, Ethan extinguished the light of the lamp on the table.
Fortunately, the moon and starlight that passed through his window were bright enough to allow him enough light to see his surroundings.
As Ethan lay down on the bed beside Luna, he covered her with a blanket.
“Sleep.” Ethan hugged her firmly. “And don’t worry. I’ll be with you tonight.”
Luna glanced at her right side and looked at Ethan’s face gratefully.
“Good night,” Luna said softly.
“Good night,” Ethan replied with a smile.
A moment later, Luna closed her eyes to sleep. She wasn’t able to sleep right away, but due to Ethan’s warmth, she felt more secure and was no longer afraid to fall asleep.
Fifteen minutes later, Luna’s deep sleeper breaths were heard inside the room.
When he was sure that she was finally asleep, Ethan also closed his eyes.
A few minutes later, he, too, fell asleep.
He wasn’t aware that deep inside the Great Eagle Forest, where Magical Creatures reside, an evil creature had started to call out a name.
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