When had she started sleepwalking? Fawkes had no idea. In fact she had no idea she was sleepwalking to begin with. The girl had been recently getting up from recurring nightmares. They were horrifying and they made her too scared to sleep alone by herself. But she was now a 12 year old. She was too old to go sleep next to her parents and she most definitely didn't want to sleep beside her brothers. The results? She would stay up most of the night and be exhausted the next morning.
If her family had noticed they had clearly not said anything. Perhaps they thought she was simply out late stargazing. That wasn't a baseless conclusion to arrive to either, she had on multiple occasions done so despite their concerns about her sleep. Her family had become used to her being constantly tired at this point.
Once again, she was woken up from her slumber in the middle of the night thanks to that nightmare. It was the same one over and over again. Aislin being crushed by the giant Acromantula. She knew the girl was alive but regardless it didn't make the nightmares any better. In fact it caused them to get worse as she began to see her other friends face the same fate as well. Mikaela, Tina, Riley, every night it was someone different who appeared in her nightmares. She knew it was a nightmare. She was acutely aware of the fact. She would attempt to lucid dream it better but it never worked. Try to save them with a spell? Oh no, your wand is actually broken. Maybe pull them away? Suddenly you're stuck in mud. Over and over she watched them get crushed as she helplessly watched on.
Maybe that was why she was sleepwalking. Sleepwalking tended to originate in scenarios where the person was sleep deprived or in high stress situations. Currently, she was in both. Sleep deprived from her bad sleeping habits and highly stressed from the nightmares.
The day she learnt of her sleepwalking was August 29th. Barely 2 days before she was to return for the new year. Her mother had been working late and had only come home at around 1 in the morning. She had been the one to find Fawkes standing at a window staring at the nearby forest. When she tried to ask her about what had happened, she got no response. Upon approaching, she found Fawkes still asleep, mumbling something about fires and spiders.
Her mother told her about it the next day. How long had she been in this state? She had no idea. But it was clear it wasn't going to end any time soon.
