Reynir is listening intently; he's never heard of someone looking quite so different inside of the dreamspace, but he knows that small changes occur. His own outfit looks just slightly different; he knows how Lalli and Onni both look in the dreamspace. If she has had horns at some point, if that's a part of how she sees herself (for better or worse) he can see it coming back in a dream - perhaps intermittently, which is why it had startled both of them when the change happened.
But why horns? Why that strange shade of skin and eyes and the rest of it?
He frowns but remains quiet when she says she was originally something not human but became one. He's never heard of this happening - except maybe in myths, and honestly usually it went the opposite way even there. But she is telling him, and so he waits. It's clear that either she's confused about the situation, or doesn't want to tell him all of it, or is just having a hard time finding the right words.
When she finally finds them, and says she is becoming a troll, it's like the bottom has dropped out of his stomach. All his worst fears crystallized in that instant. And since this space operates a little differently than the dreamspace he's used to, that intense reaction has consequences.
The space around them, those pleasant, bright, vibrant, life-filled woods vanish, along with the campsite and all other traces of Ami's memory. And they find themselves in one of Reynir's. He recognizes the inside of the vehicle right away; he'd spent so much time in there that he think he would know it from smell and feel even in the dark. But a moment later he hears the sounds of the battle raging outside and he knows. He knows where this is.
Because he's sitting where he'd been sitting there, and he can feel the mask on his face, and Tuuri is beside him, and just seeing her again paralyzes Reynir for a moment. She looks just like he remembered; he hadn't seen her up close after this night, only talked to her through that barrier or glimpsed her outside while he stayed in the vehicle. But she's there with her cute hair and round face and she looks so scared, but not scared enough-
Reynir turns and sees Ami standing there, remembers Ami, remembers this is a dream, sees the floor of the vehicle starting to buckle just under where Ami is standing. Kitty is hissing angrily and any second a troll is going to burst through, right where Ami is. Reynir acts without thinking. He'd been frozen into inaction the first time, but there's no changing the past - he doesn't know what harm might be done in the present. Reynir launches himself out of his seat and tackles Ami out of the way, pushing her back just as there's a wrenching noise and that awful thing bursts up through the floor. Reynir is looking the opposite way but he hears it, and besides, the memory is burned into his mind so strongly that he doesn't need to look to remember exactly what happened.
He hears a horrible, jagged sort of sob and only realizes a second later that he'd made that sound. This was it. The moment that Tuuri had died and not him, even though it should have been him. He should be thinking about continuing to keep Ami safe or getting out of here or what she said about becoming a troll, but he can't think. He covers his face in his hands completely, hearing the door to the vehicle bursting open just seconds too late, the sound of Lalli's light feet and then the horrible crack of the rifle going off, the wet flump of the troll's body hitting the floor.
And then - a stillness, a silence, one that hadn't been in the memory itself. The sound of the battle and the sound of Lalli and Tuuri vanish and there's no one here, now, except Ami, and him, and from the small gurgling of blood from a wound, that dead troll as well.
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But why horns? Why that strange shade of skin and eyes and the rest of it?
He frowns but remains quiet when she says she was originally something not human but became one. He's never heard of this happening - except maybe in myths, and honestly usually it went the opposite way even there. But she is telling him, and so he waits. It's clear that either she's confused about the situation, or doesn't want to tell him all of it, or is just having a hard time finding the right words.
When she finally finds them, and says she is becoming a troll, it's like the bottom has dropped out of his stomach. All his worst fears crystallized in that instant. And since this space operates a little differently than the dreamspace he's used to, that intense reaction has consequences.
The space around them, those pleasant, bright, vibrant, life-filled woods vanish, along with the campsite and all other traces of Ami's memory. And they find themselves in one of Reynir's. He recognizes the inside of the vehicle right away; he'd spent so much time in there that he think he would know it from smell and feel even in the dark. But a moment later he hears the sounds of the battle raging outside and he knows. He knows where this is.
Because he's sitting where he'd been sitting there, and he can feel the mask on his face, and Tuuri is beside him, and just seeing her again paralyzes Reynir for a moment. She looks just like he remembered; he hadn't seen her up close after this night, only talked to her through that barrier or glimpsed her outside while he stayed in the vehicle. But she's there with her cute hair and round face and she looks so scared, but not scared enough-
Reynir turns and sees Ami standing there, remembers Ami, remembers this is a dream, sees the floor of the vehicle starting to buckle just under where Ami is standing. Kitty is hissing angrily and any second a troll is going to burst through, right where Ami is. Reynir acts without thinking. He'd been frozen into inaction the first time, but there's no changing the past - he doesn't know what harm might be done in the present. Reynir launches himself out of his seat and tackles Ami out of the way, pushing her back just as there's a wrenching noise and that awful thing bursts up through the floor. Reynir is looking the opposite way but he hears it, and besides, the memory is burned into his mind so strongly that he doesn't need to look to remember exactly what happened.
He hears a horrible, jagged sort of sob and only realizes a second later that he'd made that sound. This was it. The moment that Tuuri had died and not him, even though it should have been him. He should be thinking about continuing to keep Ami safe or getting out of here or what she said about becoming a troll, but he can't think. He covers his face in his hands completely, hearing the door to the vehicle bursting open just seconds too late, the sound of Lalli's light feet and then the horrible crack of the rifle going off, the wet flump of the troll's body hitting the floor.
And then - a stillness, a silence, one that hadn't been in the memory itself. The sound of the battle and the sound of Lalli and Tuuri vanish and there's no one here, now, except Ami, and him, and from the small gurgling of blood from a wound, that dead troll as well.