As I was falling on my knees in my little cave den, I reached out to Ronnie.‘Don’t freak out, but we’re in the Dream Wars. But we didn’t sleep. I’ll explain later. Everyone isokay.’
Her reply was immediate. ‘Youwhat!’
‘I’m tired Ronnie. Just stay safe I’m going to get somerest.’
‘You’re going to sleep in the Dream Wars?’sheshrieked.
My eyelids were closed, and I was on my side breathing in and out slowly.‘Yes. We blew up the green stuff. The FBI came and we fled into a portal I made into the Dream Wars. Stay at a hotel just in case. Bye,’I told her, and then the heaviness of sleep tookme.
* * *
Iwas suckedinto the most incredible luciddream.
My dad was there, and we were sitting at a park with trees made of cotton candy. I was aware that I was dreaming, and I was telling him I had forgotten what it was like. He was telling me that he missed my smile. Then a T-rex, wearing a stuffed flamingo hat, ran into the park and started eating the cotton candy tree, and I wokeup.
When I peeled my eyes open, I saw Damien and Santiago asleep at the mouth of the cave. It was light out, the sun was high in the sky, and the Galadrias were standing around, staring at the sleeping group of humans, like we were…aliens.
Wiping the sleep from my eyes, I recognized Dawn in the crowd of herpeople.
‘What’s going on?’I asked her, gesturing to thespectacle.
She grinned, her lips peeling away from her teeth.‘They’ve never seen sleeping humans. They thought you were alldead.’
I snorted and stood. Some of the Galadrias backed up, as if they’d seen a ghost. ‘This is what we look like on Earth when we sleep,’ I toldher.
She nodded and the others seemed tosettle.
‘Where’s the rest of my team?’I askedher.
She motioned toward where we’d come in, near the bathingpools.
I heard Brisk shout out in joy and then the loud crashing of water. Frowning, I stepped over the sleeping boys and ran out to see what was going on. Weaving in and out of the trees, and random pregnant Galadrias, that stood around drinking from the feeding pool, I finally made it to where the noises were comingfrom.
“Brisk, what are you doing!” Ishrieked.
He’d taken some old scrap of metal and wedged it at the edge of the water going into their birthing pool like a water slide. A little green youngling had flown to the top of it, and Brisk was in the water cheering him on. The council was standing at the edges of the pool, with some nurturers, watching keenly. Master Aki was sitting cross-legged, watching the display with asmile.
Brisk met my gaze and shrugged. “They showed me the metal, and from what I could gather without being able to communicate, they wanted to know what it was for. They seem really curious abouthumans.”
Okay… but it was a scrap of metal from a building, not a waterslide. I swear Brisk was a bigkid.
I looked at Joan and she nodded to me. ‘Human teaches Galadrias to lighten up. Not so serious. Younglings havefun.’
Relief poured through me that she was okay with Brisk desecrating their serene birthing pond. Brisk counted to three, and then the green youngling whizzed down the slide on his back, chortling the entireway.
“We gotta find a way home,” I toldBrisk.
He met my eyes and nodded. “After one morerun.”
An hour later, after Brisk, all the younglings, Damien and I had all been down the water slide, we bid the Galadrias farewell. The younglings were pulling at Brisk’s pant legs with their snouts, trying to keep him from leaving. It was utterly adorable. I felt like the humans and the Galadrias would coexist peacefully had they been native animals to ourworld.
‘Long flight,’ Dawn toldme.
I nodded, climbing on her back. We couldn’t go back to the Boston docks for multiple reasons, most of which being the breeders and the FBI, so we decided to fly in a pattern that we thought might get us to Newfoundland, Canada. It was a straight shot up from the Atlantic, in line with Boston. Assuming we were overlaid perfectly, it should work. Dawn had a keen sense of direction, and I hadfaith.
‘Goodbye, and thank you again for everything,’I told thecouncil.
They nodded. ‘Peace be withyou.’
