Reala and Jackle

Reala landed on the slated roof of Nightmare Castle. He sat cross legged and stared into the white speckled sky, which stretched across the horizon.

Stars were there, Reala knew. Beautiful shining stars, but their beauty was blocked by the clouds. He sighed; it was always cloudy in Nightmare. He liked watching the stars, and the best place for stargazing was Stick Canyon, where Reala longed to be.  But he wasn’t allowed to go to Stick Canyon tonight.  He sighed again. He liked his master, but he was too… controlling. His clawed hand touched his arm gently. There was a deep cut there. He winced and blinked back tears.

He was not allowed to cry. Reala never showed his emotions to anyone.

But now it seemed like the right time to cry. He had never felt like crying before, but now… now he could see it. Everything seemed wrong.

How Wizeman beat him every night for not retrieving the red ideya… how he and all the other Nightmaren were treated like slaves… it didn’t seem right to him.

And how NiGHTS was seen as a traitor… why? He could see why NiGHTS ran away. And he suddenly saw NiGHTS as a kind of brother, not an enemy. He suddenly… missed him. Reala’s eyes suddenly widened as an ache banged at his heart. Why did he feel like this?

For the first time in his life, he was in tears. Loud, uncontrollable tears.  He buried his face in his arms and sobbed. He couldn’t take this… not anymore.

“Reala…?”

Reala jerked his head up, and stared at the speaker with blurry eyes. His eye makeup was running down his face. The figure was familiar. Its orange cloak was wrapped around it’s invisible shoulders.

“Jackle! Um… you didn’t see this…”

Reala drooped his head and began to wipe the tears away on his sleeves.

Jackle crouched in front of the upset ‘maren and placed his gloved hands on his shoulders. “It’s okay, Reala, it’s okay…” His own eyes were beginning to cloud over with tears.

Reala looked at Jackle’s body. It was covered in cuts and bruises, which looked kind of odd since Jackle’s body was invisible. He shook his head in disbelief.

“He hit you too…” Reala mumbled. “How could he… what did you do wrong?”

“Well… I was playing solitaire… the master said I should have been out getting ideya.” Jackle bowed his head. “I didn’t know, I thought…” Jackle trailed off as his body shook with his sobs.

Reala felt sorry for Jackle for the first time in his life. “He shouldn’t hit you for something silly like that… It isn’t fair.” Reala tilted his head to the side a little at the shaking Nightmaren in front of him. Slowly, hesitantly, he pulled Jackle into a hug. “Please, Jackle… cheer up, everything will be okay…”

“How? Wizeman is our master, nothing will change that…” Jackle sobbed, and buried his head into Reala’s shoulder. “We’re stuck with him whether we like it or not…”

“We’re not… if NiGHTS can get away, we can too.”

“You mean we should run away? I don’t know… he’ll catch us.”

Reala pulled away from Jackle. “No, he won’t. We’re his most powerful Nightmaren.  We’ll be fine.”

“If you’re sure…”

“Besides, we might even be able to team up with NiGHTS and beat Wizeman…”

Jackle smiled a little. “You’re right…”

“I know, I always am…” Reala grinned. “So, are you coming with me or not?”

“Of course I’m coming…” Jackle confirmed.

With that, they both threw themselves into the air and flew off into the night, never to return to Nightmare again.