A/N:

Credit to The Giver by Lois Lowry for the idea of dream-telling.

"Your father had to go to work early yesterday. Three Weavers came down with a bad cold, so there was a large shortage of dreams. That is why we didn't have a dream telling yesterday," Mother explained.

The whole family was seated around the table. Cal wriggled impatiently, eager to tell everyone what he had dreamed about. I could hear voices from the other parts of the castle, and the smell of breakfast still lingered in the air.

"Who would like to tell their—" Father began.

"Me! Me!" Cal exclaimed, waving his arm in the air and nearly jumping out of his seat.

"Calho, you shouldn't interrupt your father," Mother said sternly. "But you may go first."

Cal took a deep breath and began. "Last night I dreamed I was in Dark Passage. Except, it wasn't dark. There were a bunch of dragons carrying lanterns and marching down a long passageway. I ran up to one and asked him what was going on, but he just kept going along as if I weren't there."

"Wasn't," I corrected automatically. I had a tendency to do that around him.

"Yeah, yeah," Cal said indifferently. "Anyway, I pushed my way through the crowd to see where everyone was going, but the tunnel just seemed to go on and on forever. I ran along for a while, but just as I was getting to the end, I woke up."

"Ah, I remember that. I made that one," Mother said. "I was thinking about the fools in Dark Passage, and I suppose my subconscious mixed with those thoughts and turned it into that." She laughed to herself.

Mother said she did not have any dreams. Father had a non-vivid dream about trying to catch something that was falling into a dark hole. Everybody came to the conclusion that the dream had been caused by the ruckus the fool and I had caused yesterday.

"Morida, did you have any dreams?" Father asked.

I hesitated. I had dreamed last night, but I was a bit reluctant to say anything about it.

The dream wasn't clear, so I knew it hadn't been weaved. I was standing on one of the islands. Both of the castles were gone, strangely, and the waterrises were as well. The homeworld wasn't pretty anymore; grass was charred, there was nobody in sight, and the sky was red. Red like the drops of blood that squeezed out of me when I tripped and scraped myself on the ground.

The most prominent emotion I felt was loneliness. A great, overwhelming feeling that I was alone. There were no sounds, no voices, nothing. I could not speak... I couldn't even breathe.

But then something appeared in my vision. A piece of green that contrasted brightly with the blackness. It came closer and closer, but I could not tell what it was. I didn't realize that all that time I had been screaming until I woke up, heart pounding.

"Morida?" Cal asked, pulling me out of my reverie. I blinked.

"No. I did not dream." I forced a fake smile onto my face, all the while wondering why I was lying to them. I never lied to my parents. Come to think of it, I didn't even lie to Cal.

There was nothing special of that dream. Everybody had nightmares sometimes. All I had to do was tell my parents and they would suck it right out of me with their magic, and then everything would be okay. I had no need to lie.

"Morida, are you ready for your weaving lessons?" Father asked, smiling at me.

I nodded, feeling miserable. Father thought I was such a good little girl, but I had lied to him. I felt dark and naughty on the inside.

We walked along together until we reached a quiet place in the courtyard. A stream bubbled along by us, and there were three stone daises rising slightly above the ground. Father chased a clock fool that was here away so there wouldn't be any distractions. Clock fools were like normal fools, except they had clocks strapped to their backs and they were invincible, for the most part. When you hit them, they activated things like platforms, causing them to rise or lower for a short time.

I scrambled up onto my platform with a little difficulty. Being that I was such a young dragon and not strong enough to walk on two legs yet, I wasn't very tall. Father climbed up onto the platform closest to me.

"Alright, Dream Weaving may look easy, but it's a very complicated process. Relax. Let your mind flow. Concentrate without concentrating," he recited.

"That doesn't make sense," I said, sitting down on my back legs and catching balance so my front paws would be free.

"You'll understand once you get the hang of it. Now start weaving. It's a bit like weaving thread; it's basically the same movements."

"I never can do it," I muttered. But I did what he said. I pretended that I was holding a needle and thread and threaded the air for a few minutes. As expected, nothing happened.

I let my mind begin to wander off, staying far away from the thought of the nightmare in favour of happier things. I remembered the time I had learned to swim, that first time my body was submerged in the cold water and how I laughed as it was thrown around in the little whirlpools. That was before Cal had come into my world.

I was always a bit lonely before Cal came; it was just this out-of-place sort of feeling. And there were no other kids around to play with—at the time, I was too young to visit the other subworlds. Sometimes I watched Father and Mother make dreams. When the dreams were done (they took anywhere from five to thirty minutes to make), they always exploded in a flash of colour. But I usually took long walks, avoiding the fools because I was so small, and thought lonely things. After Cal entered my life, I didn't have time to think like that, because I was so busy playing with him.

As I was thinking, I didn't even notice that little lines of color were being left behind by my moving claws. It wasn't until they became brighter that I saw. I looked at them, and didn't register it for a few seconds.

The lines were like little pieces of brightly colored thread, but they were made out of light. With each piece of light-thread, they blended together, like a light-blanket. This was what a dream looked like.

"I'm doing it!" I laughed giddily. "I'm doing it!" But to my horror, the threads at the end began to fade.

"Whoa, don't break your concentration!" Father exclaimed. So I looked away again and thought of the lonely walks. I noticed out of the corner of my eye that many of the threads were grey.

But just as I felt that I had almost finished the dream, my thoughts wandered back to the nightmare. I tried to push it away, but I couldn't. I could only see that green thing, coming closer, closer... Can't run...

There was an explosion. I was sent flying back and skittered along the ground. It was pretty lucky I hadn't been anywhere near a ledge! Quick as a snap, Father reached out and grabbed that dream-turned-nightmare before it could get sent out to somebody. He squashed it in his paws and it disappeared, just like that.

Meanwhile, I climbed behind the platforms and crouched down guiltily. He would surely have seen the contents of that dream. Now he would know I had had nightmare. He would know I had lied.

"Morida..." Father's voice didn't sound angry, but I was still scared anyway.

I had never really been punished before, but then, I'd not really ever done anything bad. When I was little, I had a "quiet time" in the corner or in my room, but when I did do something against the rules, I usually learned the first time.

Of course, now that I was big girl, eleven years old, I didn't get time-outs anymore. I mostly was just scolded, but I didn't like that it all. I felt like I was disappointing my parents somehow, and it made me feel just awful. So I did my best to avoid getting in trouble.

"Morida," Father said more sternly.

I reluctantly popped my head above the platform. "Yes?" I asked shakily.

"Come here," Father said. I complied. He looked down at me sternly, looked away, and sighed. My fear melted away then, replaced with even more guilt. I had caused him distress.

"Morida, why did you lie to me?" Father asked.

"I don't know..." I whimpered.

Father sighed again, a long, heavy sigh. "Come here and I'll fix it."

I stepped closer. Father placed a paw on my forehead and closed his eyes, concentrating. I felt... queer, like something was wrong. Then I saw a red light, tinged with black and just the slightest hint of green, out of the top of my peripheral vision. Father smashed the magic and that was all that was left of the nightmare.

There was only a wisp of the memory in my mind. It was still there, but just barely; I wasn't afraid of it for the simple reason that I couldn't remember what had scared me. But I felt even stranger than before. It was like having forgotten something, but knowing you'd forgotten it.

"Feel better?" Father asked.

"Mm-hmm." I nodded and sniffed. Father pulled me into a hug, which I accepted gratefully.

"Now, now, you know I can't just let you get away with lying to me and your mother scot-free," he said. "But I'll talk to your mother about this and see what she says."

I nodded. Although I wasn't looking forward to my punishment—something told me it might be worse than a scolding—at least I felt better.

"May I take a nap, please? I don't feel like practicing anymore," I said. The whole ordeal had tired me out. I just felt like sleeping, drifting off into a sea of comfortable blackness...

"Of course you can. Sweet dreams, Morida," Father said. I nodded and turned.

By the time I arrived home nearly ten minutes later, I could hardly keep my fatigued eyes open and tell Mother as I passed that I was going to sleep. She said something back, but I didn't hear it as I stumbled up the stairs. It seemed like forever until I reached my bed. Once I was in it, I dropped down without even bothering to get under the blanket and fell asleep before my eyes closed.

I woke up once. Still half-asleep, I rolled over. Crash! I had been on the edge and had fallen onto the floor. The bed wasn't even high up off the ground, but it still hurt.

"The floor is nicer anyway..." I mumbled to myself, too sleepy to get up. That must have looked very comical; I was half on the bed and half off it with the blanket I had pulled over me in my sleep all tangled up. Before my eyes closed again, I noticed Cal was in his bed, asleep. It must have been around twelve or one o' clock. That was when Cal took his nap on the weekends.

It seemed like I had only been asleep a moment before I woke up. I yawned and opened my eyes. Sunlight filtered through the open window and danced before me, cheering me up immediately, and I felt so much better now. I stood and stretched my aching legs. Well, maybe sleeping on the floor wasn't a good idea.

I turned to the doorway and passed by Cal's bed, only stopping to glance at him as I continued forward. But a moment after looking at him, and stopped in my tracks and spun around. There was something around Cal's bed. Upon closer inspection, I realized in was some sort of circular pedestal, made of blue crystal. I squinted at it and cocked my head, before stepping forward with much trepidation and placing a paw on the crystal.

Nothing happened, except for a light glow forming around my paw. The crystal was cool to the touch, and I could feel the magic emanating from it. It was a different type of magic, though, not like Weaver magic.

I placed another paw on the pedestal and slowly leaned forward. I was frightened, but I didn't know why. Slowly, I pulled the blanket off, then gasped and jumped back.

"C-Cal?" I asked, voice shaking. As expected, I didn't get an answer. I stepped forward again and looked.

Cal was stiff, too stiff. His colour was off... the once royal blue scales were now green. His scales were almost like gems, just not as lustrous. Gems looked like little coloured diamonds; this was a more pearly. Cal was curled into a ball, his nose resting on his leg, but he wasn't breathing.

I gently touched Cal and shuddered. He was smooth and cold, so very cold. Gathering my courage, I tried to grab his arm, but I couldn't. It was attached to his face—and I noticed that it didn't have eyes, nor a mouth or nose. So that meant... Cal had been turned to crystal.

I wanted to scream, but I couldn't. How? Why? I backed away and turned, fleeing. As I was running down the stairs, I tripped and fell onto my head, rolling down until I roughly hit the floor. I groaned and pushed myself up.

"M-Mother?" I asked. My vision wavered and I reeled as I stood.

I saw the pedestal first. Fear took a firm grip on me, but I willed myself to look up. And there was Mother. She was made out of the same material Cal was, but she wasn't laying down. She was on four legs, with her tail wrapped around her, staring right at me with nonexistent eyes. I cried out. The world rocked and flickered as I moved towards her, and I fainted before I hit the ground.

~~...~~

My eyes fluttered open. I groaned and managed to pulled myself into a sitting position. Realizing what was in front of me, I stared at the statue for a few moments before it got through my head and scooted away until my back hit the wall. So it really was real.

But if Mother and Calho were turned to crystal... why wasn't I? And where was everybody else? Were they trapped too?

I turned and walked slowly down the hall, feet dragging. What was I going to do? I had so many questions, but no answers.

I halted in my tracks the moment I stepped outside and stared, dumbfounded, at the sky as balloons began to rise up above the land. I'd seen balloons before, but never had I witnessed any like this.

The basket was wide, like a whole room, and the balloon looked like it could span the castle. Of course, not really, but it looked like it from there. The material that made it was green. The balloons I had seen were made of red material and the basket was only small enough for two or three. This was... amazing, frightening, but most of all, I felt strange.

Go back inside! Turn back! something inside me hissed. I glanced at the castle, then back to the balloons again; I couldn't seem to tear my eyes from them. I did not notice I was walking forward until I was almost at the edge of the islands.

The balloon was clearly visible now, but I noticed strange things inside of the basket. Some were big, some were small, but they all were green with two sharp teeth jutting out of their mouths. The large ones were wearing armour that sparkled in the sun, while the small ones wore brown helmets that were too much big for them.

I stared up at the ugly creatures and they stared back. Some of them made strange, harsh sounds in their throats and turned back to the others. Whatever they were saying, I couldn't understand it.

A rope was thrown over the basket and the small creatures slid down, one after the other. The big ones merely jumped over the edge, nearly shaking the ground as they landed. I glanced warily at the clubs the large creatures held.

They began to walk towards me. For every step they took, I took one back. Something just wasn't right, and my prediction was spot-on. Before I knew it, they began sprinting towards me. Widening my eyes in fear, I turned and bolted.

My feet pounded on the grass as I raced for the castle. I could hear them behind me, but I daren't look back. Finally, after a heart-pounding chase, I reached the end of the island and glided over to the other side. Relief flooded over me. I turned back to the creatures who stood on the other side, unsure what to do, and settled for sticking my tongue out.

I turned around, intending to go back into the castle, and found myself face-to-face with another of those monsters. A scream escaped my throat and—mercy me, who knew I was so bold?—I charged right into the green whatever-it-was. It fell over and I was free to continue running.

Rounding a bend, yet another band of these strange things took up the pursuit. I lowered my head level with my neck and ran faster, feet hitting the ground and pushing me forward. There was no way to shake them, though, and I was chased right into the castle. But then something horrible happened.

Rounding a bend, I slipped on the smooth floor and landed on my face. My jaw collided with the ground and I spit out a bloody baby tooth, but that was the least of my fears. A hand, cold as ice and so slimy that it made me shiver, grabbed my leg. I was lifted up by it.

I heard a strange noise, deep but scratchy. Looking up, I saw the upside-down version of one of the large monsters, quaking with laughter. I struggled to get free, but that only made it laugh harder until I was shaking back and forth like pendulum.

Rage, fear, and indignity welled up inside me, a burst of emotions. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore. I swung myself towards the green belly and bit down as hard as I could. The owner of it howled in pain and dropped me, allowing me to scramble to my feet and run.

I dashed up the stairs, only glancing at Mother's statue, and skidded into my room. Immediately, I slammed the door shut and managed to push my bed up against it. I sat on the bed and leaned against the door, waiting for what I knew was coming.

Slam! Slam! Slam! The creatures rammed into it. I pushed against the door with all my might and main. I wasn't strong at all, so I guess the bed helped. After many minutes of terror, the slamming finally stopped. Heart pounding, I leaned against the door and listened as the creatures' footsteps tromped down the stairs and faded away. Finally, with a great sigh of relief, I leaned back on my haunches.

I sat there for a very long time, staring at the floor. It was not until the light in my room began to dim that I stood up. Slowly, I walked over to the window and looked down.

The balloons were gone. I was not sure where they had disappeared to. Dotted across the islands were many dancing flames, and I could see the beady black eyes of the creatures even from that high up. I turned my morose gaze to the clouds that were beginning to fade into the night. Only a tinge of purple was left on those closest to the horizon.

Clouds... when I was young, I had spent hours staring up at the clouds. Why?

I had always had trouble weaving dreams. For the most part, nothing ever happened. And the other times, the magic would explode in my face as soon as it appeared. The clouds, in the day, sparkled and glittered as if they were filled with gems. The golden clouds were the best of all. I took up the notion that the sparkling was literally magic and if I could just reach a cloud, I would be able to seize the magic and make a dream.

Cloud Ruler wasn't enough. The clouds there were puffy and white. Fun to walk and play in, but they just didn't possess the mystical properties the clouds in my homeworld did. So every day I tried to fly, and every day I failed.

Of course, I had dropped that silly notion long ago. There was no magic in the clouds. Magic was within all dragons, you just had to tap it. I wasn't trying hard enough, or maybe I was "special", a word grown-ups used to describe somebody who was less capable than others. In any case, I still loved to look at the beautiful clouds.

But now, the things that has once comforted me did nothing to soothe my fears. I sighed and shut the windows, carefully placing the bar over the handles so nobody could come in, and retreated back to my bed that sat in the pitch-black darkness. I wiped the slime off my back leg and licked the blanket several times to get the awful taste out of my mouth before I got into bed.

What am I going to do? I thought before I drifted off to sleep. Would my family be forever trapped in crystal? Why wasn't I trapped myself? Could I fend off these strange creatures? And the worst question of all... What would happen if they caught me?

Perhaps tomorrow would bring the answers.