Night Time Musings of Shadowclaw

I am in a wooden building with one large room in it. It is octagon-shaped. There are several cots in the room, covered with white sheets and navy blue blankets. The cots are against the walls, and on a sort of platform that goes around the edge of the room. Towards the center, I am sitting on the edge of the platform, along with several of my classmates from school. We are prisoners. We don't know how we got here, and we are afraid to try to escape.

A door opens and two women enter. They are not quite human, something about their faces is wrong, but they dress and behave as humans do. They have come to collect our laundry to wash for us. So we give them our laundry bags, and they give us some food. I suddenly come to the realization that these strangers will not hurt us, and there is nothing keeping us locked inside the building. Only our fear of leaving has kept us locked up.

So I follow the women out the door, and I am greeted by warm sunlight. There are trees and plants everywhere, and it is positively beautiful. I walk forward, and I can see a giant meadow completely filled with tall wildflowers. They appear to be Phloxes in different shades of pink, purple, and blue, and they create swirling designs with their colors througout the meadow. In the center is an octagon-shaped pavillion, and I walk through the flowers towards it. More of these strange people are sitting on chairs in it, and I sit down beside them.

One of the women tells me that they arrived on this world just as we did, and that we don't have to be afraid of them. As she talks to me, I see several of my classmates walking out of our building and exploring the rich outdoor world. I begin to feel better about being trapped on what I assume is an alien world. It is beautiful, and the people are friendly. Suddenly, however, there is an explosion. A grove of trees suddenly bursts into flames, and the fire begins to travel. The woman tells me that we are safe inside the pavillion and any other buildings. I see a classmate running through the flowers, and a portal suddenly appears. A strange machine comes out. It resembles a snake or a dragon, but it is all metal. It has a flexible neck and an oblong head with some sort of eye on top. It takes aim at the classmate and sucks her into the portal.

I am afraid and I do not know what to do. The machine returns, but no one is in the open anymore. It looks around, and the woman tells me that the machine takes people to another place and they never return. That is the purpose of bringing us all to this world. We are some sort of food for an alien race. Yet we are safe as long as we remain indoors or under the pavillion when they come. They will not enter the living spaces. As I watch the fire burn and the machine prowl for another victim, I slowly wake up.