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I watched long enough to see bits and pieces of Dream and Nightmare spring up where the shards fractured. Everything would be jumbled for a while, but the Unconscious Realms were mutable and we’d eventually get everything sorted and set to rights. It wouldn’t be put back just the way it was, but it would be put back the way it was meant to be.
***
The glass storm lasted hours, or days, or no time at all, in the way of dreams. When we cautiously emerged from our shelter, the first thing we did was to check and make sure Effie’s prison was intact. It would be safe enough for now, but we’d have to set a guard rotation eventually. Just to make sure.
The next thing we did was take a walk.
The world was pure chaos. A bit of darkness here, a bit of light there. A twisted Nightmare tree growing next to a rainbow-filled Dream one.
I even thought I saw a unicorn peeking out between them.
Ash froze. “I’m taming one of those,” she murmured, and I suspected that might be an obsession she’d see fulfilled.
The sea of corn brought us to a swift halt, though.
It wasn’t a solid field like before, but patchy with splotches of both Dream and Nightmare interspersed in the gaps.
Animal bellowed in terror, and a herd of giant lizards—dinosaurs?—charged from between the stalks of corn. One tripped on a vine and got dragged, thrashing into a clump of corn. That cluster expanded as the dinosaur vanished.
“The corn is hunting. How charming,” Dio said dryly.
“Let’s not stick around,” Baz insisted and tugged on my arm to get me to go another direction. He didn’t have to try hard.
“That stuff… Why is corn so terrifying?”
Nic shrugged. “It is shaped from human dreams and nightmares. I don’t have an answer for you. There’s always been something though. Before corn fields there were vast plains of dirt with the same terrifying properties. Before that, monster filled oceans, which if you went in, you never came out. There’s always been something.”
I glanced once over my shoulder. The corn creature scuttled out from the nearest stand of corn and stared at me. I waved once, then hurried away as quickly as I could walk. Running from Nightmares only made it worse, right?
“Ember, you and the guys should go back and let your parents know we’re all okay. The princesses and I can start working on sorting all of this out.” Ash gestured at the mismatch patchwork laid out before us.
“Are you sure?” Going back to the Conscious Realm for a little bit did appeal. I was having some thoughts about a certain swimming hole and four guys and some things we might be able to do there, now that Dream was hopefully safe, again.
“Yeah. Let us get a start on stuff. You reassure everyone that we’re not actually dead, and then you can come back and redecorate Nightmare Castle.” She winked at me.
“Yeah, it needs a little TLC if it doesn’t have to be completely rebuilt. Look for Robby and Casey. They made some sort of circus-tent-like thing that was protecting them and probably some others.” I glanced around, then startled. As if talking about it had summoned the tent, there it was. It wasn’t even far off in the distance. It was simply in a green patch of grass, a short walk away.
“New plan,” Ash said, grabbing my hand. “We check in with them first. Then you go back and tell everyone we’re safe.”
“Yeah, good idea.” I dragged her over to the tent, hit the “ring for service” bell, and we waited.
Before long, Robby stuck his head out. He saw us, grinned, and vanished back behind the flaps for a moment before reappearing with Casey and one of the young circus performers I’d met when I’d first been captured. How he’d rescued them, I had no idea.
She squealed in delight and disappeared. I suspected to get others.
Robby and Casey joined us and we all exchanged hugs.
“So, you did it?” Robby asked.
“What, you don’t already know?” I elbowed him before hugging him again. I couldn’t help it, so happy that we weren’t all dead and Dream wasn’t destroyed.
“Well, I obviously knew you could do it,” Robby said, trying to recover from the slight embarrassment of a jester not knowing everything. “But we’ve been in hiding, after all. I had to make sure something survived in case you failed.”
“Ha!” I shook my head and gave him a quick summary.
“Oh, very well done. An elegant solution.”
“Thanks, Robby. You don’t happen to have a mirror, do you? I need to get home for a bit.”
