Kam panics. The air whistling past his ears deafens any thought. He flails wildly in the air like a wacky waving inflatable tube man. He separates from Asa, who shrugs mid air and spreads his arms. A thin webbing catches the air as Asa slows down. The tiger hurdles to the ground without any aid. 

Kam shouts for help. As if it’s a joke, Asa puts one hand to his ear and turns his head towards him. “I said, fucking help me or I’m going to fucking die you asshole.”

Asa adjusts his fall and speeds up to match Kam. “First of all, language.”

“I do NOT want to splatter on the ground, Asa.” 

He shrugs. “It’s your dream, Kam. if you don’t want to splatter on the ground, don’t. It’s that simple. I know I don’t have that luxury. Oh.” The strand of web connecting Asa to the tiger tugs. “Gotta make sure he doesn’t go too far.” He spreads his arms and instantly slows down both him and the tiger. 

Below them is the vast jungle instead of the high mountain peak from before. Kam falls at terminal velocity. He falls past the tiger. It manages to flip itself down feet first, but Kam stops paying attention to anything but himself. Stop falling, stop falling, stop falling, stop falling, don’t die here and stop falling. Bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce! He falls below the mountain peaks. Then he breaks into the tree-line. The ground rapidly approaches. When he hits it, the ground absorbs his impact like rubber. It ejects him upwards, but at a manageable height. Still, Kam’s clumsy limbs fail to orient him. His ass hits the ground hard, but the only pain he feels is the throbbing in his shoulder. 

Kam stands, unharmed. He reaches around to his shoulder. His hand comes away bloody. It’s supposed to go away, isn’t it?. Some distance away, he hears a crash followed by a pained roar. 

Just as the roar dies down, Asa pokes his head out of the brush. “Hey, you’re alive.” He grins as if he and a giant tiger weren’t just falling out of the sky. “Now’s your chance to meet another Dream Eater. He landed nearby.”

Kam ignores him and hugs Asa tight. “You could have died. I know I can’t die here, but you….If I lost you.”

Asa resists Kam for a moment, then relents. “Hey, I had a plan. And you were risking your life too. I trusted-”

Kam shoves Asa back. “What.”

“Hehe, uhh. Well. You can’t die in your dreams.” Asa turns around. “But we were in Jacob’s. So, let's find Ruaidhri.”

I could have died. The realization lights a fire in Kam’s chest.

The duo follow a thick webbing to where Ruaidhri landed. The tiger lay still, struggling to stand on its legs. As soon as it spots them, it speaks. Its voice comes from all directions, despite Kam knowing that it's right in front of his eyes.

“Azlin! You traitor. You scourge. You desecrate any dignity and respect I once had.” He punctuates every other word like a poem. 

“Chill, Ruaidhri. Hurry up and transform back to your human form.”

The tiger ignores Asa’s order. All of his eyes turn to Asa, and for an instant, Asa is frozen in time again. Ruaidhri’s act works. He recovers on his feet and bounds at Asa. Kam is about to push Asa out of the way when Asa turns his head and winks at him.

“That’s cute.” Asa lifts a hand up in front of the tiger. His fingers dig into its nostrils. He stops the entire force of Ruaidhri’s pounce and holds him mid-air. “You’re in my world now.” 

Kam blushes and his heart skips a beat. I’m the world to him.  

But then Asa slams Ruaidhri into the ground and Kam feels the ground tremble in his feet. 

But then Asa’s spidery appendages pierce Ruaidhri’s shoulders like a needle in a pin holder. 

But then Asa crushes the tiger’s ribs under his foot down, and Kam’s heart echoes in response.

Snap 

Ruaidhri’s ribs break.

“You tried killing my world.”

Venom is drip, drip, dripping from Asa’s lips. Asa’s freckles are the black glassy orbs of a spider ready to kill. 

“Stop.” His command is more forceful than Kam intended. The air warps in response to his voice. Asa stops.

“Ooooookaaaaay, Kam.” Asa lifts his spider legs out from the tiger. Blood shoots out of the insertions. Asa quickly patches the bleeding holes with a web. He keeps his foot on the tiger’s chest. “But I don’t trust him.”

Kam inches forward, gaining courage. “We went into his, uh, territory, first. I think he has the right to be upset.” And there is something else Kam can’t shake from his head. Ruaidhri knows Asa. He calls him Azlin for some reason. “Honestly, I didn’t know we’d end up fighting each other.”

“Thank you, Dreamer.” The tiger’s eyes drill into Kam, but his time doesn’t freeze like before. Its voice sounds stead and sure. Kam can see Ruaidhri playing a knight in a play. “I am content to see that this wild child’s compatriot is amenable to discussion.”

Asa clicks his lips. “No need to be rude, Asa,” Kam says. “Ruaidhri, I’m sorry. He won’t hurt you any more, right Asa?” Asa rolls his eyes. He lifts his foot off Ruaidhri and his extra legs retract back into his body. 

What was there to be afraid of? “Do you have a human form? I think Asa, Azlin, would be more comfortable with that.”

The tiger purrs. “I do not see much of a choice in the matter.”

The muscle mass of the tiger shrinks as it collapses. This close, Kam realizes the undulating fur is actually scales. All at once, those scales point straight out then retract back inside Ruaidhri. Its head, arms, and legs bend and dislocate before snapping into a more human-like position. Then the small details of humanity grow. Fingers, ears, a mouth with normal teeth, feet, a smooth nose, and a head topped with straight shoulder length hair grow unnaturally fast. Just like Asa, Ruaidhri’s clothes grow out of his body like a camouflage. It’s then that Kam recognizes him: an unmistakable silver fox of a man.

“Professor Rory?”