Chapter Text
The five kids stared at the grimspawn in absolute shock. "Hello, stinkbrains!" the cat-like creature said, just chilling in Mateo's backpack. "H-how could this happen?!" Logan said, accidentally getting a bit loud with his tone in utter surprise just to be immediately shushed by the other dream chasers. "Keep quiet! No one at school needs to know about this!" Cooper said, literally holding his index finger at Logan's mouth.
"Wait.. Sneak being here means.. The rift is still open!" Izzie made a revelation. "We need to get him to Mr. Oz. Maybe he will know anything about it!" Mateo suggested about to zip his backpack back up only to have Sneak hiss back at him. Zoey slumped against one of the library's many shelves, arms over her chest. "Sure. But break time is almost over and after this school's over. We have to meet up with him after school or in the dream world.". All six of them made a silent agreement.
"Oh if you smelly-heads think I'll get back in that backpack you are wrong! This grimspawn ain't sitting in a bunch of books and pencils! And-" Sneak searched inside the bag, pulling out a piece of paper. "- drawings of the blob!". Mateo quickly grabbed the drawing out of his paw, in embarrassment. "Just get in there, Sneak! We'll get you out soon, just wait." Logan told him. Sneak just rolled him eyes and sighed, plopping himself deeper into the bag.
.
.
At the Observatory, Oswald was just cleaning the counter until the five kids barged in. "Mr. Oz, we have a problem!" Mateo yelled, to grab the old man's attention. He quickly opened his backpack and let the grimspawn jump out. Oswald yelped in surprise. "How did he get here?"
"The rift is still open, old man!" Sneak said, jumping onto the counter and just sitting there, tail curled up with him. "WHAT!" the older man said in shock. The grimspawn burst in laughter at his reaction. Oswald put his hand to his chin, thinking of a plan. "Let's go to Castle Nocturnia tonight. I hope Lunia atleast had some knowledge that could help us."
"Got it. See you at the landing, Mr. Oz!" Mateo said, as the dream chasers left the building, leaving Sneak in Oz's care. Oswald looked at Sneak suspiciously, taking out a piece of paper and a pen. "So, how did you get here.". Sneak just laid on his stomach, like the lazy cat he is. "Well, I was just in the Grimrealm with Susan and Snivel until i saw a tiny rift between rocks, right? Well i got in the rift and I ended up under Logan's cap, in his bedroom. I tried to wake him up, but his mom saw me in the room so I jumped out the window and ran until i got to a random house. It just so happened it was one of the dream chaser's homes!"
Oswald noted everything down on the paper, nodding at everything the grimspawn said. The two stood there in silence, until Sneak asked Oz if he had any snacks. Oswald decided to close the Observatory for the night and just bring Sneak home with him.
.
.
Once all the dream chaser's showed up at the landing, they embarked on the space bus to Castle Nocturnia, Phil flying by it's side. As they approached the castle, Mateo got bad memories of the last time they went here. Of how he lost Z blob and Lunia's hourglass to the Nightmare King. Izzie sensed her brother's sadness and put her hand on his shoulder in comfort.
They got to the castle sooner than they thought, quickly entering it. The inside was absolutely devastated. The floor was full to the brim with what remained of the windows, just hundreds of small shards. They made their way into the large library. "I remember Lunia telling me about her years training as a dreamkeeper, but she never talked much about it." Oz said, as the dream chasers were all looking for anything useful through the books that survived the Nightmare army's attack. "She lived for 500 years, so there's a chance she at least witnessed something similar to the rift." Albert informed the young dreamers. "500 years? That is crazy!" Cooper pointed out, being amazed at her longevity. "Actually, she was very young compared to other Dream world entities. The Sandman and the Forgemaster are thousands of years old and still living, young dreamer! In fact, I am close to being about a thousand years old!" Phil went on a short information dump on the interested boy.
Zoey found two books covered in dust that had text on the covers saying: 'Journey journal #1' and 'Journey journal #2'. "What's this?" she asked, holding the two books up to Oswald. He adjusted his glasses to look at them better.
"These must have belonged to Lunia during her training years!" he exclaimed, opening the first journal. The rest of them gathered next to him.
In the journal, the dreamkeeper talked about her going on a journey with the Forgemaster and Sandman to find people to train her. A portion read: "The three of us have to find monsterling masters to train me in water, fire and nature. But, who knows how long our journey will take? It could take years, so I appointed my dear friend Phil to take care of my home until I come back. In fact, I should get him souvenirs!"
"What's a monsterling?" Izzie asked. "Monsterlings were the first ever creatures to live in the Dream World! They had water, fire and nature powers respectively. A dreamkeeper has to learn all of these abilities in order to master dreamkeeping." Phil explained. Mateo was deep in his thoughts. "I'm a dreamkeeper, so maybe what I have to do find a way to close the rift, is find these masters to train me too!"
"Yes but sadly, it is believed that all of these tribes are gone and that the monsterlings as a species are extinct due to the numerous attacks on them." Phil said with a very sad look on his face. Izzie put a hand to her chin, in her detective nature. "But what if atleast a few are still alive? We won't know if we don't search for them, slick!"
"Isabel is right. We should look for them!" Albert said. Oz nodded. "Then it's settled. We'll look for those monster guys to train Teo and have him save the world! Easy!" Logan said, leaning onto a shelf.
"Our journey will start tomorrow night, so let's be prepared, dream chasers!" Mateo said in his leader fashion.