by Lizzy Ford
How could a dream be so real?
How can this dream be so real?
I push myself up with one arm and blink my bafflement away to focus on the small warrior.
“Cabbage,” I say sleepily.
There are a dozen of them behind the one nearest me. The round-faced, curly-haired toys are dressed in caveman clothing and most carry spears.
My movement causes Jared to stir. He lifts his torso off the ground as well without moving away from me. There’s a savage, animated toy with a spear in front of me, and all I can think about is waking up for a second time – and Jared’s hand on my hip.
“You must come with us,” the fierce doll says.
“Oh, no. I’m not doing that again,” I respond.
He stabs me in the forearm.
“Ow!” I exclaim. More blood trickles down my skin.
“You’re surrounded,” he tells me and motions above our heads.
Dozens more of the dolls on top of the wall, hanging on ropes off the side of the wall, down each direction …
“I think we should go,” Jared says.
When my eyes return to the level of the nearest doll, I spot a travel-sized bottle of mouthwash at my elbow.
“Oh, cool.” Just like the other dream. Or reality.
Jared stands and offers his hand. I grab the mouthwash and let him pull me to my feet. I lean down to put on my shoes and socks and sigh.
I kind of think we can take these little dolls, until I see the archers. I really don’t like pain and rub my arm.
The fierce dolls lead us through two intersections. I use the mouthwash and pass it off to Jared. The moons are even closer together than before, with two of them touching. At this rate, I think we have about three days left to find the Ring.
I’m beginning to think it’s impossible. We should’ve waited for a unicorn or better yet – not ventured into the labyrinth at all.
My eyes linger on Jared. “Did you have a weird dream?” I venture.
“About the snow world?”
“Yeah.”
He’s troubled, as am I. How did we share a dream?
The dolls lead us to a sprawling doll village whose houses and buildings reach my hips. At the center is a park where six elderly dolls with fuzzy white curls and severe expressions on their cute, round faces stand waiting.
“Sit!” orders the doll warrior who escorted us.
We do so. Our escorts line the edges of the greens, weapons trained on us, in case we run.
The eldest of the dolls uses a cane to support himself. He walks to us with halting steps.
“We have waited a long time for you,” he states.
He’s looking at me.
I glance at Jared, who is curious.
“Our prophecy has declared you will be the one to break our curse,” the elder says gravely.
“Me?” I ask.
He nods once and motions to one of the men behind him, who bounds forward with a scroll.
I accept the outstretched scroll and unravel it carefully. Its print is too small to read; the pictures are easier to make out. Jared leans closer to see the scroll.
The pictures are of the cabbage people – and the same blue Care Bear we saw yesterday. There’s a giant with dark hair, a cliff, and a second Care Bear wearing a crown. The final scene is of the two Care Bears together, smiling, while the cabbage people dance happily around them.
“We’re supposed to rescue the princess,” Jared states.
“How do you get that?” I demand, baffled. “This is like a cave drawing.”
“He’s correct,” the elder seconds. “You are the giant our prophecy told us about many years ago.”
“This could be anyone.” I study the picture.
The warriors around the perimeter inch forward, and archers draw their bows.
“But it’s her,” Jared says quickly. “I’m a space knight of the Red Order. I can attest to the fact she’s the last Power User.” He lifts my hand to display the mood ring.
The cabbage people ooh and aww and exchange hopeful looks.
“She can resolve your issue,” Jared adds.
I eye him, not trusting his intentions.
The warriors relax, and the elder offers a smile that swallows his face with wrinkles.
“The Care Bear will not stop eating our people until his princess is returned,” he says. “To reach her, you must scale the Cliffs of Madness and face a three-headed giant.”
“We’re kind of already on a quest,” I start. “Can we come back after we’re done?”
“We’re willing to pay you four crystals,” the elder responds.
“We’ll do it,” Jared says before I can get a word in edgewise. “But we need half the payment up front.”
The council of six elders huddles together to talk.
“What are you doing?” I hiss to Jared.
“Making sure we get out of here alive and with crystals,” he replies.
“Do you really think those things can hurt us?”
“Didn’t you say something about trolls and clowns?”
I scowl. The reminder makes me shiver. He’s right. Things here aren’t as they seem, including a dream that wasn’t a dream – but was.
“Besides, maybe this is something we’re meant to do to reach the Ring,” Jared says more softly. “The only cliff I saw was the one leading to the castle.”
Jared is frustrating, and potentially my greatest enemy, but he’s a lot smarter than I want to give him credit for. He’s also not wearing Hammer pants, which instantly makes him cooler than I am any day of the week.
“Okay,” I say. “You might be right.”
“No, duh.”
“Who came to find me because he got scared of hallucinations?” I retort.
“I wasn’t scared,” he says, offended. “Not anymore than you were.”
I can’t imagine him being terrified and glance at him.
The skin around his eyes and lips are tight, and his gaze is stormy. He’s wearing the same expression he did when he came out of the hallucination.
“You’re thinking of the snow world,” I say. “What did you see?”
“A mountain beyond the trees.”
It’s vaguely familiar. I don’t recall everything about where we lived when I was little or if I could see any of the nearby mountains through the forest.
“And a castle.”
“Castle,” I repeat. “I’ve never seen a castle in person. You said you were looking for answers. To what?”
He frowns. “I don’t know the question, but the answer was there. Somewhere.”
“Except it was a hallucination,” I remind him.
He doesn’t seem to know what to say.
The rules here change regularly, along with my clothing. I don’t know what happened last night, but we experienced it together.
“I knew my mocha was too good to be true.” I sigh. Dream mochas are the best.
The elders finish talking and face us.
“We agree to your terms,” their leader says.
Two crystals appear in the air in front of it. Before I can reach for one, Jared claims both.
I glare at him.
“I’m going to get there first,” he chides me, as if I’ve forgotten he tried to negotiate to have me eaten by a group of vultures.
“We will take you to the cliff but no farther,” their leader says solemnly. “Only you can face the three-headed beast that awaits you.”
I manage to smile. These are the first creatures I’ve met here who haven’t wanted me dead or tortured. Further, I need those two crystals they’ll give me if I rescue the princess. I’m not going to mess this up and let Jared win.
Jared and I stand and follow the small army of warriors out of the village and into the maze.
They lead us directly to the mountain at the center. It takes three minutes, and no monsters try to distract us.
I’m too surprised by how easy it is to wonder how or why we had
n’t gotten this far on our own.
“Mental,” Jared breathes.
The warriors part and form two columns flanking the path to the cliff face. A thick rope dangles down to the ground.
It’s a scraggly, rocky cliff, which means plenty of footholds.
I crane my neck back and can’t determine where the top is. Near the sky, with my luck.
“Wonder where they got rope that long,” Evil-Jared murmurs. “And whose rope this is.”
“Probably the three-headed monster’s,” I respond.
Neither of us says what I’m certain we’re thinking: we have no idea how we’re climbing to the top. My hope of beating him to the next two crystals fades.
“Let’s get out of the range of their archers,” he says and walks confidently to the rope. He grabs it with his hands and plants his feet against the wall. He walks his way up about six feet before stopping to look at me. “Come on, poser.”
I ignore him and grab the rope. I manage to make it a few feet before I realize how doomed we are. The muscles in my arms are already unhappy.
The cabbage people cheer and congratulate one another.
Jared and I climb.
“So, if the princess is at the top of the cliff, why doesn’t the Care Bear just climb the rope?” I ask with a grunt.
“Maybe he doesn’t know the way to the cliff,” Jared answers. “We didn’t.”
We make it twenty feet above ground. A layer of fog forms around us, blinding me temporarily. It’s only about five feet thick, and we reach the other side a minute later. It obscures everything around and below us. I can’t even see the maze anymore.
“Is it the right time to tell you I’m afraid of heights?” Jared asks.
“What? How? You live in space.”
“What does that have to do with heights?”
“Well … if you fall out of space or crash like we did, that’s a very long fall,” I reason.
“You can’t fall in space. There’s no gravity,” he insists. “We may have a crisis soon.”
“We? Or you?”
“Big time crisis,” he adds.
We climb another ten feet or so.
“Holy crap!” I exclaim and pause. “My arms are burning.”
“I’m gonna ralph.” His voice is hushed.
“Not while I’m below you, you aren’t.” Leaning back, I can’t see the top of the cliff we’re climbing. “This isn’t going to work. I’m not strong enough, and you’re going to have a breakdown before we get halfway up. We need a different solution.”
“Quickly.”
I didn’t think I’d have to rescue a space knight today.
“Think, think, think,” I order myself. I stare at the rocky surface in front of me. Every task we’ve attempted thus far has been pretty much a failure. But somehow, we haven’t died, and we keep ending up together and closer to our goal. I think. We’re collecting crystals, so that counts for something.
“Do you see any caves up there?” I ask, wanting to keep him focused on the ascent instead of the descent.
“None.”
My footing slips, and I bump against the wall. The trolls claimed they went under the maze rather than through it. Is there a similar option here? Through instead of up?
I brace my legs again and wrap one hand around the rope in a death grip. With my free hand, I touch the surface of the cliff. It feels solid. I dig into the dirt between rocks and manage to get dirt under my fingernails and nothing else.
Jared shifts and slips a few inches. His breath catches, and he freezes.
“Hold on,” I tell him, alarmed. I climb the distance between us with difficulty. My biceps are trembling. I’m not going to be able to hang on for too much longer. Catching a glimpse of his pale features, I can’t help feeling sorry for him.
And then I suddenly don’t.
“I’ll help you for one of the crystals you just took on my behalf,” I say.
“You’d choose now … to negotiate?” he whispers.
“Damn right I would.”
He’s as afraid of heights as I am of spiders in clown masks.
The rope is moving from above. Someone is trying to shake us off. I cling to the rope.
“One crystal,” I insist. If we fall, we’re doomed. If we somehow don’t, I’ll be another crystal ahead.
Jared doesn’t respond. He’s hunched and clutching the wall with one hand.
“Just one.”
“Fine.” He stretches down towards me.
I reach up. His hand trembles, and I almost feel bad about taking a crystal from him. My watch dings up another crystal.
“I don’t feel so good,” he whispers in a voice that warns me he’s close to passing out.
“Stay with me!” I cry. “I swear to God, if you fall and kill us both, before I –”
I know he’s out two seconds before he falls. His body weaves and then relaxes completely. He falls away from the rope and smacks into me. I grab him, or try to. I can barely hold myself up let alone two people and halt his descent for all of a nanosecond before we’re plunging toward the ground.
We fall four feet, and then …
My parachute pants inflate. We slow from light speed to floating. We pass through the fog. I clutch him, terrified of moving or breathing.
I land softly on the ground and then collapse beneath the space knight’s weight. I lie on my back, staring up at the cliff. If this is the only way up, our quest ends here and now.
My pants deflate around me. I push Evil-Jared off me and sit.
The cabbage people are gone. In fact, this part of the cliff is distinctly different, with white rocks instead of gray ones, as if we went up one way and came down a separate way.
I’m beyond the point where I question any of this stuff anymore.
Level 2, reads the sign in the cliff.
I’m about to wake him when I decide to check the crystals on his watch first.
He has five crystals. I do, too.
Or did, I realize as I check my Swatch. I’ve lost the one I gained from him before we fell. I recall the rules. Every time we evade mortal danger, one of us loses a crystal.
“Hey,” I say and nudge Evil-Jared. “We leveled up.”
He groans and rolls onto his stomach. “I feel sick.”
We almost died because he forgot to mention he was afraid of heights before we tried to scale a cliff.
“We’re even, by the way,” I inform him. “You saved me from the zombie, and I didn’t let you splat on the ground.”
“Fine.” He’s too distressed for his normal acidic comeback. He kneels. I have a feeling if he stands right now, he’s going to pass out again.
“You really are afraid of heights,” I murmur, pitying him again. “I thought space knights were fearless.”
“No one is completely fearless.” He wipes his face, and his eyes settle on me. “How did you save us?”
“I’m stronger than I look,” I respond.
One eyebrow goes up.
“I’m the last Power User, remember?”
This earns me an eye roll, which tells me he’s okay beneath his sickly features.
I stand and hold out my hand to help him up. He accepts it and climbs to his feet.
“Where are the cabbage people?” he asks.
“No idea.”
The wall may consist of white, but the stones of the labyrinth in front of us have turned from light gray to charcoal.
“Are we dreaming again?” I ask, confused.
He doesn’t answer.
We aren’t going up. That’s for sure. But it doesn’t seem smart to enter the maze again, once we’ve made it to the center.
“We have to reach the top,” I say, frustrated. I shake out my arms, which are burning. Fog obscures the cliff.
“I should be able to do it.” Jared clenches his jaw once more. I sense he’s angry, not with me, but with himself. For once, I’m not the one out of my depth here. “I’m not weak.”
“I’m sure there’s another way,” I say.
I can’t decide if I should be nice to him, because he’s a travel companion, or put space between us, since we’re technically competitors. I can accept the insanity of this labyrinth easier than I can determine how to deal with Jared.
“If nothing here is how it seems, then there has to be another way. Is up really up?” I add doubtfully. “We definitely fell down.”
I’ve never given Hammer pants the credit they deserve.
We stand long enough that it becomes clear neither of us has any idea what to do next. I’m not about to re-enter the maze, which has become dark and ominous. One step that way, and we’re probably lost forever this time. Leveling up is good in that we’re getting closer to our goal but generally bad for survival.
I sit down to think. The good news is that we made it this far. The bad news is we’re stuck, and we’re running out of time.
Jared waits a little longer before taking a seat on a rock a few feet from mine. We don’t say it out loud, but I know I’m freaked out about going too far from him. I can’t believe I was willing to tackle this part of our quest alone. I’d be dead without him.
“Thanks for not letting a zombie eat my brains,” I say with a shiver. “I know you did it because you needed me for the ring to work right. But thank you anyway.”
There’s a pause, and then, “I didn’t do it just because of the ring. We need each other.”
“Would you have let the Skeksis eat me?”
He’s deeply pensive. “No.”
He doesn’t sound convinced.
I rest my head back against the rock. “I don’t know why we’re destined to do this together or why I’m here at all. It’s so frustrating!”
“That’s easy.”
I eye him.
“You’re here to help me reach the Ring.”
I’m about to tell him how wrong he is when I notice his faint smile of amusement.
Maybe Jared changed as we slept.
We gaze at one another a little too long. Self-conscious of my warm cheeks, I rest my head back once more, breaking our connection.
“Were we lovers?” he asks.
I ignore him. He’s driving me crazy.
“Bueller?” he presses.
I sigh in exasperation. “No, we weren’t. Why would you think that?”
“You blush or move away whenever I touch you. Your pupils dilate, and you -”