Dream World

Chapter One

Every time I try to wake up from this never-ending dream, something pulls me deeper into it. The ground shakes and cracks before devouring and spitting me out somewhere new. Like Alice in Wonderland and Dorothy in Oz, I've accepted going along with whatever is happening until I find my way home. 

So far, I have managed to evade the creature hunting me. Whenever it gets too close to getting me, I try to force myself to wake up. I don't know how long I have been here. A day? A week? A month? Time doesn't work here. All the laws of nature don't work here. It's the strangest thing.

Everything that should exist don't, all the things that shouldn't do. Others would give up a limb to visit a place like this.

Purple-fluffy flakes fall from the sky as I wander through what looks like an abandoned farm. A group of Tyrannosaurus Rexs no bigger than my thumb bite at my leaf wrapped feet.

I learnt the lesson of always having your feet wrapped up after walking through a field of thorns. That was six devourings ago. I've learnt a lot since being here. Don't ever trust six-eyed talking cubes being one of them. My wrist still hurts from where it bit me. When this is over, I feel like I will be in therapy for the next fifty years to recover from it all.

"They are looking for food," a voice calls down from an old oak tree. "The dinosaurs are always most hungry this time of day."

I've seen the tree before at the farm my parents took me to when I was six to see baby lambs and pick fruit. There was a thunderstorm, and it got struck by lightning.

Sitting on a big, thick branch, looking down at me, is one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen. Her pinkish hair blows in the wind. "Are you, Millie Wyatt?"

A sensible person would run away from a stranger in a tree, but this woman is the first person or thing to talk to me that hasn't tried to kill me on sight in this place. I'm curious to know who she is. I'm tired of being alone. 

"Yes," I answer, rubbing my wrist. "How do you know my name?"

 "You are the first human to do the impossible and break through into the Dream World. Everyone is talking about you," she tells me, throwing down a rope ladder and gesturing for me to climb up. "I'm Cara Nettlewood. I've come to help you."

"How do I know you really want to help?" Is the first question out of my mouth, but so many are swimming around my head.

Questions like what is Dream World? Is this real? How can you help me?

"You don't, but your choices are to come with me and hopefully I can get you home, or go it alone and eventually get caught by a Nightmare Crafter," Cara answers. "They sent a sniffer beast to hunt you, and you've done fantastic avoiding it, but sooner or later, they will come themselves."

Cara is right. My options are limited. And if I climb up there and she's a threat, I can always try to wake up again. I want to go home, and if she can help, I'd follow her head first into a mountain of dragon dung.

I brush away the miniature Tyrannosaurus Rexs softly with my foot before beginning to climb. They look annoyed but quickly go away to find something else to attack. "What is a Nightmare Crafter?" 

"The opposite of me, a Dream Maker," Cara replies, catching purple-fluffy flakes in her hands and sniffing them. "I and others like me make good dreams. We lend them to humans. Whereas Nightmare Crafters give you nightmares. "

Cara explains as if she's talking to a small curious child, and I resent it. I want to tell her that everything she says sounds like nonsense. That there are no Dream Makers or Nightmare Crafters. All of this is simply a fantasy in my head, but why can't I escape it?

In the distance, the sniffer beast howls and growls. I climb faster. "Don't worry, Millie, the creature won't attack you while you're with me. Dream Makers and Nightmare Crafters share equal control over them."

Her comment doesn't make me feel any better. I don't know what is real or isn't anymore. Who or what I can trust. The only thing I can cling to is my desire to be in my own home. To see my cat Wallie sleeping in his basket. I hope someone is feeding him. Maybe, I am in bed in a coma, and he is one step away from eating me. A coma would certainly explain a few things.

"Can you get me home?" I ask, reaching the thick branch Cara is sitting on. I hoist myself up. It's higher than I thought it was. From up here, I can see so much. 

In barren fields, miniature dinosaurs play and fight. The sniffer beast is eating another animal near an old run-down house. I can see it, but it hasn't spotted me up here. The urge to laugh and mock the creature is strong, but I push it away. Why draw its attention when I don't need to?

"I'll certainly try. As I said, you are the first human to come here. You did what we all thought was impossible, " Cara explains, resting her hand on my shoulder. "But first, let's get something to eat."

Before I can say anything, Cara is falling backwards, dragging me with her. I scream, but she doesn't. She laughs, hand clutching onto mine.

I can't think or try to wish myself awake. All I can do is scream and try to pull my hand out of hers.

"Relax, Millie," Cara tells me as if falling from trees is something she does every day. Maybe it was. "We will be fine."

But as we continue to fall, her words bring me no comfort. I am certain I am about to die.