The Power of Dreams

Chapter 3

Night had fallen upon Mobotropolis. The moon was up high in the sky, but no stars were twinkling. Ironically, for a city with skyscrapers, Mobotropolis went a little dark, for the tall buildings didn't have lots of lights on. In addition, as the later hours of the evening arrived, it got quieter in the streets of the city, for very few souls were walking around or driving in their cars.

The castle was quieter. Only the guards were on patrol during their shifts, and even so, their footsteps didn't echo loudly throughout the hallways. Everyone else had gone off to their chambers to rest up for the night, and the staff all went home to their families hours ago.

In one of the guest rooms, Kate was lying in bed. She was all ready for bed, for she had set her glasses on the nightstand and had changed into her pajamas. But despite how she lied down in a comfortable bed, she wasn't tired enough to close her eyes and drift off to sleep.

It wasn't quiet for her as she lied down, for she could hear some light snoring coming from the other end of the room. Lying in the other bed in this guest room was Amy, who was fast sleep. The pink hedgehog snored lightly, and she was still as she lied down in bed with a mask covering her eyes.

After lying down in bed for a while, Kate gave up on trying to get some sleep. She just couldn't doze off, but it wasn't because of Amy's snoring. If anything, Amy wasn't snoring loudly. What was really keeping Kate awake was how she couldn't stop thinking.

As careful as she could, Kate sat up from her bed. She grabbed her glasses and put them on her face. She got up and put her slippers on. She took her time moving out of the room and reaching for the door. Amy didn't even move a bit, staying asleep and remaining completely unaware that her roommate for the night was leaving their room.

Kate stepped out of the guest room and quietly closed the door behind her. To her surprise, none of the guards were on their patrol in the hallway she was in. Before the queen retreated to her chambers, she did tell her guests that the guards would be patrolling the hallways, and that if they spotted one of the guests awake, then they would probably follow them. It really depended on the guard, since Aleena explained that some of the guards would be overly cautious due to the days back in this rebellion that took place sometime ago.

Kate roamed through the hallways alone. The hallways were dimly lit by torches that were lit up and hanging up on the walls. She walked for a bit, strangely not coming across a single guard, and soon, she reached a large set of doors. Kate pushed them open, which made a loud creaking noise echo off.

Kate knew that some of the guards would probably come to her location, but she didn't care. As long as they didn't sneak up on her, then she wouldn't be bothered. She stepped into the room, and suddenly, some lights automatically turned on from above her head. Kate covered her face for a second. The sudden brightness made her cringe a bit, but after she got used to the brightness, she moved her hands away from her face.

The lights came from a big chandelier hanging up from the ceiling, and now she could see that she came across the library, for there were tons of tall bookshelves lined along the walls and in rows throughout the room.

Kate started to look around, hoping to find the fiction section of the library and find a book that she was interested in. Seeing everything in the library reminded her how much she loved to read. Perhaps reading a book while relaxing in bed would help her finally go to sleep.

So she began to walk around, examining the shelves until she spotted a sign that indicated where the fiction section was. She walked over and began to skim through the titles of the books. Nothing seemed to catch her eye, until she finally read the spin of a book that mentioned a name in the title.