My Purpose: A Dream...or a Nightmare

Chapter 1: The Chase

"GET BACK HERE!"

A figure wearing a green sweatshirt sprinted past stalls of people selling fruits, clothing and other collections of who-knows-what.

"STOP!" the pursuing guards ordered.

"HA!" Dream, the green runaway laughed, leaping up with surprising agility over a wall, gracefully landing on the other side. The guards, a couple meters behind, skidded in their tracks and yelled at one another to find another way.

Dream raced around the meandering people in the town, causing them to yell at him as he raced by. He turned sharply, banking right into an alley. Lunging up to grab the sill of the towering apartment, he swung himself up and started to scale the wall like a crab.

He looked down, unafraid of the height, and to his satisfaction, he saw the two dozen or so guards running around like ants trying to find him.

He finally got to the other side of the building - thankfully, without the guards noticing - and dropped down, stumbling a bit in the fall. He reached his hand down to feel into his pocket, making sure the object he had stolen was still there. It was.

Grinning, Dream ran off into a direction he knew well. He nimbly raced around houses and the people, aiming for the royal stables -the place he worked at. People bustled by; tall, short, and medium buildings protruded around him. A tall and massive castle stood in the very front, far off.

Dream rounded the corner to the royal stables, but there, he caught sight of one of the guards. Dream darted behind a tree, but it was too late.

"Hey you!" the guard yelled.

The young teenager bolted to the stables, making a mad dash into the back and around into a stall that was connected. He could hear the guard shouting to the others, and Dream could guess there would be more guards on his tail soon if he didn't think fast.

He looked around the stalls to see two doors: one leading into the pig pens, and the other into the chickens. 

 Dream retraced his steps back into the main horse pens and snuck up behind a guard. He had a ring of keys around his belt and his head was drooped, but he wasn't asleep.

Dream reached out a hand and carefully, and without alerting the guard, snagged the key that matched the lock for the pens. The sleepy guard gave an oblivious snort.

He could hear the guards inside of the barn now, and so Dream darted as quietly as possible back to the hallway with the two doors. He waited until he heard the distinct pounding of the iron boots the guards wore on the floor, and opened the chicken coop door, and then slammed it loudly. Loud enough for the dozens of guards to hear.

Dream immediately locked the chicken door and raced through into the pig pen. Pigs snorted as he knelt amidst them, cushioning himself in the hay.

He waited.

"Where is he?!"

"I heard a door slam!"

"Over here!"

Dream could hear the guards on the other side of the door. One of them pushed against the chicken coop door, but Dream heard a grunt, as the locked door didn't budge.

"He's in this one!" one of them yelled, "he's locked it from the inside!"

"What about this door?" another inquired, and Dream stiffened, knowing he was talking about the pig pen door; the one he was in.

"That one leads to somewhere else, Commander Punz," a guard said, "It would take longer to get into the chicken coop through there."

The guards went back around, and Dream heard their noise get farther away as they tried to find another route.