once upon a dream [c]

[attr="class","cheytext"]A voice calling out to him snatches the Shade's attention, and who's to greet him but the dreamer herself? This is... a little earlier than he'd expected but in a huge forest with seemingly no one but animals, Chey supposes he should have expected this. Oh well, he can recon some other time. If anything, living amongst dreams gives him plenty of that.

"Hmm? Oh no problem!" He whirls around lightly and clasps his wrists behind his back, directing a smile towards his company (or maybe he's the company? It is, after all, her world not his). "What do you know, our names start with the same letter! I'm Cheyenne, it's--" Nice to meet you, except a the rustle of leaves steals his train of thought. Glancing towards the source, or where he thinks the source is anyways, Chey's expression clouds. Green eyes narrow slightly, and out of the corner of his eye he notices his rabbit friend scampering away in a blur of white.

"...hey, so is there anything else besides animals in this world?" He'll be damned if another Shade is trying to rain on his parade, and if that means teaming up with the dreamer even if temporarily then so be it. That's his usual tactic anyways, playing the nice guy and being helpful.

[attr="class","cheytext"]The words that leave the dreamer - Cordelia's - mouth even look foreign, the crude exclamation contrasting with her appearance. Sometimes you can just tell, and─

"Huh─whoa!" His body tugged along before his feet can reciprocate, Cheyenne stumbles the first few steps nearly diving face first into the ground before gathering his rhythm. Smoothing falling in pace, he lets his muscles move on autopilot as he spares a moment to glance backwards. So something else really is here? What a setback! This whole scare-and-chase routine is so forward and sloppy the Shade can't help scowling at the darkness that persists in concealing their pursuer. Another Shade or a figment of Cordelia's imagination, which is it? If he has to fend off another of his kind... ugh, it'll be ten times more work than he'd signed up for when he snuck into this world.

"So uh..." he calls out over the crunch of debris beneath their feet. "I'm guessing," hoping, "you know what's behind us...? Mind filling me in?" Green eyes shift over his shoulder, but still not anything he can see... yet.

[attr="class","cheytext"]Chey knows very well what a corrupted dream world looks like (because he's corrupted one or because of his own, he's not so sure), and the darkness in the forest that turns from mystical to eerie isn't quite that. It's a nightmare, but not one made by a Shade. This is something probably from Cordelia's own mind. Which, depending on how he looks at it, may or may not complicate things a bit.

On one hand, at least he's not up against one of his own kind. That'd be a pain in the ass to deal with on top of the corrupting itself. On another though... it means the only way to get through this without Cordelia waking up and effectively kicking him out of this world is to keep her alive.

He'll need to know what this thing (or things) is first. And for a moment Chey thinks he's misheard. Slenderman? He almost drops the flashlight given to him, but recovers his grip with just a stutter in his pace. He kind of remembers a legend like that, but ugh. This is going to be even more of a pain knowing he has no idea how to deal with it.

First things first though, letting the dreamer remain scared stiff won't do him any good. Cheyenne squeezes Cordelia's hand back reassuringly, and keeps himself calm. Maybe it'll rub off on her. "Gotcha, I'll use it for emergencies only then." He stops looking back and instead faces forward. The object of this predicament is apparently to run, so behind him isn't going to do any good.

"So this Slenderman," he starts, lowering his voice in case being loud would be disadvantageous. "Is there any way to fight him or do we just have to run? Can't have you dying on me now." Smiling in attempt to lighten the atmosphere, Cheyenne speeds up just enough to run in line with Cordelia instead of behind.

[attr="class","cheytext"]So their options are find pages and run, and for him there's also the added bonus of making sure Cordelia doesn't wake up. These odds are not looking too good. Trying to formulate a plan anyways, because there's no way some blank-faced nitwhit is going to out-shade him, a new path opens up that makes things worlds easier. Something light and familiar, that should ease this girl's mind and hopefully be the key to getting this... Slenderman to go away. It's worth a shot.

Breaking out into a sprint, keeping his grip on Cordelia's hand firm, Chey looks over his shoulder as he takes the lead. "Well we can multi-task then! Let's run and get to that house as fast as possible. Don't slack off now, Cordelia!" Also, he's not sure how this Slenderman does his chases, but the closer they are to safety the more nerve wracking it gets. Hopefully they can make it in time and this guy doesn't decide to pull some final limit break.