Delano's smile faded when Lina mentioned that he had yet to tell her something that he wanted to. "Oh, that..." Initially, he had thought that he indeed wanted to tell her, but now he wasn't so sure. Still, he did promise her that he would, so he couldn't back out now. Glancing nervously at Muroki and Umeme, who were far too close to them in his opinion, Delano groaned as he rose to his feet again. "Let's go outside, and I'll tell you..."
Lina followed him as Delano walked out into the sun before lying down again in order to give his aching paws some rest. "The night before the trial," he finally started saying, "I had this dream... I wouldn't exactly call it a nightmare, but it wasn't very pleasant either..." He then started to tell Lina what he saw in his dream, and why he wanted to tell her about it...
---
Once again, Delano found himself in the savanna, the ground covered by a thick layer of fog that made visibility almost non-existent. He whimpered in fear, knowing that sooner or later, that bird-beaked lion would return and hurt him again. Walking in a random direction that he hoped would keep the lion away, Delano walked with a uncanny feeling that he recognized the place: he had been here before.
Out of the corner of his eye, Delano spotted two dark figures just at the edge of the fog. He dropped to the ground in fear, staring at the figures to try and make them out. There was something familiar about them, causing him to squint in confusion. He swore that they never saw hi, but the two figures approached him until they penetrated through the fog enough for him to recognize them:
"Mom... dad?"
He jumped up and ran over to his parents, his eyes immediately clouding with tears. They saw him and called out just before Delano ran into their embrace, crying into his mother's fur. "I missed you so much," he whimpered, "where have you been?"
His mother tried to calm him down as he shook in her arms. "Delano, what happened to you? You look like you've seen a ghost!"
Delano mumbled something, but had to repeat himself. "You... you died. Both of you... dead..." He then completely broke down, sobbing as he feebly clutched onto his parents. "Why did you leave me?" he begged, "why were you gone for so long?"
"Shhh," his mother tried to calm him down, "just tell us what happened. We're right here. We're not gone, don't worry."
Delano looked up at her. "I thought you weren't real," he admitted, "I was so afraid that I was dreaming again..." His mother looked at her mate, but neither said anything. "Where do you want me to start?" Delano finally asked.
His parents looked at each other again. "From after we... died," his mother finally said, almost as though she didn't believe that it had happened. "Why are you so scared now that we found you?"
With a shaky voice, Delano told them about everything that had happened. How he and Muroki ran away and found Kasi. And Umeme and Lina. How he went undercover to try and get rid of the threat of the underworld after Kasi's friend had been murdered. How the only thing he saw that ended with it was getting stuck in a dark cave and almost being executed, as well as him and his family being marked for death by the survivors of the underworld. Nearly losing Muroki in the gorge... He came close to the end, concluding with the suffering of endless nightmares that were preventing him from getting any real rest... and were causing him to lose control and hurt himself. "...I can't just wait for them to go away again," he weakly said after telling them everything, "I don't think I can survive them... I'm afraid of what can happen if I lose control again." He cuddled up against the soft fur of his mother, a feeling that he had missed so many times before. "I don't want to die," he whispered, "I'm so scared..."
His mother licked his tears off his muzzle. "Everything's going to be okay, Delano," she told him softly, "you're not going to die. And, you don't need to fear these nightmares anymore. They are ending, trust us."
Looking up at her, Delano asked, "How do you know?"
His parents smiled at him. "We're you'r parents. We just know these things," his father told him, "but there is one thing you need to do for us, Delano."
He got the feeling that it wouldn't be good. But the prospect of not experiencing the nightmares was one that he was willing to do almost anything for. "What? What do I need to do?"
"We need you to wake up, Delano. Lina's waiting for you, your new family. And Muroki too, his mother said softly, we need you to let us go." He could see now that she was too crying. That was when it hit him.
"You mean... No! I won't let you go!" Delano screamed, "I can't leave you! Not again!" He reached out and held onto his parents tightly, his anguish getting the better of him.
"But you need to, Delano. You need to wake up."
"No!"
"Please do it for us, Delano."
"Mom! I... I can't!"
Everything started to grow darker.
"Don't worry, Delano. We will always be with you."
"Please don't go! Please!"
"Good bye, Delano. You have a great life ahead of you, with Lina. Don't let the past haunt you like this. Let us go... Good bye."
"No!... Go- good bye, mom and dad... I will miss you..."
He woke.
----
"...And that was it," Delano said quietly, his voice course. Lina was watching him and listening, not saying a word the entire time. "I woke up... somehow I felt that I really did not need to fear the nightmares again. They did not just vanish, but... they grew less frequent. And easier to deal with." He buried his head into her fur, trying to hide a fresh set of tears. "I still miss mom and dad," he admitted quietly, "but I guess that I can say that it doesn't hurt as much as before. I think being able to tell them goodbye helped." He hesitated. "I hope it was real though," he muttered, "I don't want to find out that this was all some crazy thing in my head."
He hugged Lina, glad that she was with him here. "That's that it I think. I think that was all I wanted to ell you."
Spoiler: show
