The man and the attendant walked in silence. None of the knew the destiny of the other, but the feeling was that, if they split up, that night would fall into forgetfulness, and they didn’t want that.

  The idea of not seeing Yala anymore hurt. Regardless of the time shared together, the intensity and the stories that were exchanged left deep marks on them. He asked himself if it was the same for the witch.

- You know, after all, I think she wanted to awaken something inside us. - the waitress tried to look optimistic, but her voice got out in a sorrowful tone. 

- I believe you, but I’m sad. It’s like we’ve lost someone forever. And we can’t even find her in our dreams, because she left on a journey to search for her runes. - the young man held his cry. - When my life finally seemed to find a meaning, it fades away, like sand in hands… 

  The young lady wanted to comfort him, but, despite all that, she didn’t know who he actually was, even with her heart saying the opposite. She tried to cheer him up:

- Why don’t you go visit me in my late shift? We can keep sharing stories! - This time her voice really sounded excited. - I’ll insist on noting down my dreams just to share them with you!

  He smiled at her and, with a sigh, started speaking:

- There’s another dream that I’d like to tell you. I remembered it thanks to what you said before, about Yala wanting to awaken something in us. Thinking in this logic, maybe our life really makes sense when we think about this feminine force, subdued and suppressed by our society.

- Do you think it’s like this in other worlds? That magic resides in the feminin?

- I believe this in my heart, but I’d like to be capable of answering to that with certainty, because, in the end, only our hearts can tell what’s real and what’s not and, to me, every time we close our eyes and sleep, almost everything that we see and feel is real.

- Literally? - She looked scared with this possibility, even after what they had been through that night. So what Yala said came popped in his mind “this is too much for her, it’ll be easier if she thinks that everything wasn’t more than a dream”. But what if everything was a dream of his? It didn’t matter, it was still very real, so he, confident, asked: - Do you want to listen to this last story?

  The girl seemed to reflect for a while, maybe because of the sleepiness. He watched her carefully and couldn’t tell the exact reason, if it was the morning sun or the fact that her hair has loosen and the badge was stored in her bag, but she seemed to emanate a thin light.

- I’d love to. - she said, smiling.

- This dream happened in the 19th of march, 2014.  

- You’re very precise, ain’t you? - She joked.

- Uhh… a little. I just noted it down right after I dreamed it, but there are some that I have no idea of when happened… Writing them down was a way of exorcizing them from me - he cleared his throat and paused briefly, trying to create some suspense. - This one, in particular, had been completely forgotten, but our conversation made me remember it. I’d like to have told it to Yala…

- Why don’t you communicate with her through the Web, like the shaman did? - The girl tried to sound hopeful.

- It’s gonna take a while for me to learn it - he sighed. - If I learn it, after all, I have nothing magic in me, only this facility to disconnect my ethereal body from the physical one and visit my doubles in other dimensions. - He stopped to think about what he said and corrected himself, ashamed: - Yeah, maybe I’ll manage to learn it. Thanks for believing on me. 

  They were already close to the bus station and the attendant hurried him:

- Soon we’ll have to separate and I’d really like to hear you, so what about cutting the drama and talking about this dream for once?

- Ok, ok. I had visited a “double”, I mean, now I know it was that, because before I always thought it was myself. Me, or him… glimpsed at a very rare sky phenomenon, with clouds moving at an amazing speed, while they were surpassed by colorful light fractals. This double lived in an old building, with a  kind of dirty beige color, that was already peeling by the action of time. There was an abandoned garden, occupied only by pigeons and street dogs. I saw, through his eyes, the tree leaves shake with the breeze that gained strength and was soon making branches and trunks bend to a powerful gale.

“In the sky, the clouds funneled into a spiral and got closer to the ground. A hurricane was being formed right in front of me and, from where I was, I saw four gigantic spheres of golden metal emerge and, in its center, a figure still without a fixed form. When the wind stopped, I perceived it reminded me of Budha, but its face overflowed wrath and sadness, instead of peace and happiness.

“Behind me, the residents of the building were armed and positioned, ready to defend their homes against that immense creature. Shots, bombs, sticks and rocks hit it, but nothing seemed to have any effect. I woke up from the fear that had frozen me and ran to a gun deposit underground, where I found some grenades. I drove myself to a window on a higher level and I could see the Bad Budha walk slowly towards the building, destroying everything with its huge feet.”

“In the eagerness of defending my home, I managed to hit the creature’s chest with a grenade and, for the first time, it seemed to feel the attack. My body froze when its eyes focused on me and I didn’t even have time to react then the golden spheres that were orbiting came in our way.”

- Oh my, that’s scary! - The young lady commented, as she paid for the bus ticket to enter the station. The guy paid for his own ticket and they moved towards a bench far away, under a tree. The air was fresh and people were still starting to arrive to go to their jobs.

- Now it gets weirder, because I was able to throw a grenade at one of the spheres and make it evaporate, but, when I did that, I wasn’t me anymore, my conscience was too liquid and, in an instant, I was a building resident, in the other, a sniper and, suddenly, I could see through the eyes of the creature itself! - At this moment, the guy was really excited and he showed that with the exaggerated gestures and expressions. - All of that happened at the same time, you know? It wasn’t one at a time. When my conscience what only mine, again, I was wrapped in a cocoon by the wind itself and, contradicting any expectation, I was turned into a goddess.

- Or… this wind was the manifestation of Movement itself, awakening your inner feminine image and materializing it at its maximum! - And, once more, the simplicity of this girl’s conclusions stunned the man’s perception. She managed to see new things in his old stories, resignifying them.

- I never thought of it in that way… but it does make a lot of sense. I turned into a deity with a skin dark as antimatter and a long and braided hair, that looked like it was made of light, reflected everything around them. I was one with the wind, and I could feel on my skin any movement within kilometers. A mass of hot air exploded just above me, announcing the arrival of a titan. Its height was one of a thousand days walk and he weighed ten thousand lives. Its skin was dark, but differently from mine, which was dim, his was like a glowing darkness.

“I muttered to the wind and an extremely powerful gust of air sent the titan to space. I followed him and, when I reached him, I wasn’t the goddess anymore, but the Bad Budha. - The girl wrinkled her nose, without understanding, and the boy kept on. - Yeah, I know, it’s weird, but at that time it looked normal to me. I attacked the giant made of emptiness with my golden spheres, marking his body with craters that looked like the moon. The strikes’ speed increased frighteningly and my despair was saying that I couldn’t stop attacking him. The planet’s gravity was pulling us back and I only realized it when we hit the ground. During the fall, the titan was turned into dust and the strength with which I reached terrestrial surface was overwhelming… it devastated everything around me within a radius of kilometers. When I got up, I wasn’t either the Bad Budha nor the Wind Goddess, but only myself, in my mortal form. I looked to the sides and sighed. As much as I had defeated the creatures, the price paid for this was too high, because everything around me had turned into dust.

- You did your best - the woman tried to comfort him.

- It’s alright. I know it wasn’t “me”, but a double. - The station was starting to get busier -, but it’s strange, all this, the perspective that there are people like us living in other dimensions, sometimes changing some details, sometimes with powers, like in the movies!

- I have a dream where I’m a child again, a small ginger girl. Everything is always very weird and without focus, I think it’s because I always go tired to bed. - She smiled thinking about what she was going to do next. - When I was a child, I really wanted to dye my hair red, so much, that once I used crepe paper and it left me with a stained forehead for days! - She laughed with the memory. - And everytime I dream that I am this little girl, I feel so well and light that sometimes I can even fly! - She said, standing up in a theatrical pose. - But if it’s only a dream or another dimension, doesn’t concern me too much, did you know that? And sat by his side. - Because this helps me face this world, it leaves everything lighter.

  It was the second time she opened up like this, and the guy could only smile back.

- I’m happy we went through this together. - He said, standing up. - We’ll meet a lot in your late shift, because I have a lot to study and your cafeteria is the best in this whole town - and hugged her tenderly. They stayed a few seconds like this, until they let go and he said: - And I think that red hair really suits you, alright?

  The young attendant smiled a bit shy and agreed. The noise of a bus called her attention and she stood up, in a hurry.

- Damn! I can’t miss this one, otherwise I’ll have to wait another hour! - And shot running towards the bus, leaving the man alone. Before getting on the bus, she turned to him. - See you around! - And waived happily.

  She left with the comfortable sensation that she had a new friend. And he stayed there, timorous about the responsibility left to him to protect the Material World, but, mainly, if that young lady would remember everything as a dream, like the witch said.

  He sat down on the same bench where before he talked excitedly with his new friend and allowed the scenario to guide his thoughts. As he watched the passers-by and their routes, his mind worked associating a long night next to Yala with her experiences and the place where he was. He imagined the Web of Existence as that bus station: the streets were the roads that connected the worlds outside, the buses guided people between these worlds, but each one had a different route and it wasn’t every vehicle that passed through there, only the ones with permission. The excitement took him over until he noticed that this reflection wasn’t accurate and it would be easily overthrown by the witch. It was when he perceived a guard standing next to a sign, at the vehicles’ entrance: “pedestrian crossing forbidden”. And, in a flash, he understood what Yala wanted to say about people bringing bad things to the Material World. He started muttering to himself, excited with his own discovery.

- Anything can get in without a permit, but there are, in theory, guards protecting the entrances to this world. Who or what guarantees that these protectors are in fact prepared? Or, even, that they’re aware of what can be a danger? And what if the problem is already here, among us, just waiting for the perfect moment? - And his attention was brought to the now, with the station already crowded with people arriving in crammed buses, workers going around in all directions in a frenetic disorganization with no logic. His breath became labored in front of the chaos. - How am I gonna know what’s wrong? - And he felt the weight of the world on his back, asking himself how Yala managed to do that alone for so long.

- I was never alone, boy. Take one step at a time, you have time now. - He stood up in a jump, scared.

- Yala? - He asked out loud, but realized that it was no more than his imagination trying to comfort him. Maybe. However, the scent of the witch’s cigarette was in the air. He put his hand in his pocket and pressed hard the little flask that she gave him and his heart calmed down. - One step at a time, one day after the other - and, repeating this as a mantra, he left through the vehicles’ entrance that said “pedestrian crossing forbidden” and smiled.

- I accept the challenge, Yala. - He watched the inattentive guard, talking with a driver. - After all, I was never a good pedestrian anyways.