Imagine #1: A Dream...

Chapter 15: Secrets

DIANA HAYLDEN

Thursday, June 11, 2020 - 2080 RC

We had finished our training for the day. It was two o'clock, after lunch was over, and walking around the palace was starting to feel a little repetitive.

"I kind-of want to do something different," I told the others, Sylvia, Hazel, and Vex. Dane was off doing whatever he does when he leaves in a hurry. "The palace is getting boring,"

"We could read in the library," Sylvia offered. I shook my head, we weren't doing boring, everyday stuff in the Dream Realm.

"Better idea. We could go to the Planet Room and virtually visit a planet," Hazel suggested.

Vex sighed. "Or, we could leave the palace altogether. The Planet Room has a portal. We could actually go to a different planet."

I smiled. I liked that idea. "She's right. We're Dreamers. We're supposed to be able to explore any planet that we want to, right? So it should be fine if we go to a new planet to take a look."

Sylvia looked unconvinced. "Should we ask the Royals first? Maybe we need to get their permission."

I pulled on her arm. "It's fine! We'll waste too much time looking for them. Anyway, this is literally what we came here to do in the first place, explore planets. If we can attempt to fight the Darkness, we can explore too, right?"

Sylvia still hesitated, but nodded. "Sure, let's go,"

* * *

We had decided to go to Yummiland, the planet of food. Out of all the planets I had heard of so far, this seemed by far the weirdest, but in a sense, it was the most like a dream. Everything that you could see, seemed to be made of food. The dirt that we walked on looked and smelled like brownie crumbs, the trees were giant broccoli pieces, and the houses appeared as if they were built with cookies.

"So this is where they get our plates from, huh?" Hazel said, taking in the sights around us.

"Would anyone care if I picked up a piece of dirt and ate it?" Sylvia wondered, staring at the brownie crumbs.

"People have already walked on this stuff, it's probably super dirty, even if it is brownies," I told her. She shrugged agreeably.

"What a waste of brownies," Vex commented. I laughed, and Vex smiled. She SMILED. It was almost the first time I had actually seen her look happy, and not annoyed, or uninterested. As if realizing, she quickly went back to her normal expression.

We walked forward on the path leading out from the portal. We weren't looking for anything in particular, just absorbing everything around us. This is way better than the Planet Room, and a hundred times better than exploring the Palace again.

"You know, I think I read somewhere that Yummiland is the one of the least populated planets in the Dream Realm, even though it's medium sized." Hazel stated. "I guess it's a little bit too weird for people to manage. I think I'd get sick of this place within a week."

Vex snorted. "A week? I'm not even going to make it to the end of this trip,"

"Oh, come on," I said. "You guys are being boring. This place is great!"

"What—" Sylvia started talking, but cut herself off when a gust of wind blew across us. She glanced at the sky. Dark clouds were forming. She turned to me alarmed. "The Darkness. We have to go!"

The Darkness tornado funneled lower towards the ground, not too far away from us. "Wait. Maybe we can stop it this time. We've had a couple more days of training, and we're already here! We could at least try," I suggested.