Chosen One of Dreams

Lilly was always more than ready for a challenge during her work day. An impossible deadline? She's got you. Need help with a computer problem even the tech team can’t solve? Let her take a crack at it.

Once 5 o'clock hit, she was done. She was off the clock. She was going home and checking out until the next day.

One night, everything changed. When she went to sleep, she didn't just wake up to her alarm - she woke up in a dream.

She never dreamed, yet here she was, in a dream world.

"Welcome, Chosen One." A man in a shining robe smiled at her.

"Yeah, no." Lilly turned around and tried to find her way out of the place. If the books she read taught her anything, the chosen ones were teenagers with attitudes and energy. Not office ladies in their thirties.

"Wait, please. I need your help." The man didn't sound nearly as powerful as he did a minute earlier.

She kept her distance but turned around to face him. "My help?"

"Yes! Your help. You are a determined problem solver, and I can't fix this problem." He looked at her, pleading.

"Where even am I?" She looked around; this didn't seem like what she remembered dreams being like.

"This is the host of all dreams. I keep dreams from going haywire. Keep nightmares from getting too strong, things like that. But I don't do it alone." He gestured toward the sky beside him and scenes flying past of different people entering dreams and helping others free themselves from nightmares. "They are the Dream Guardians."

"And you want me to join this dream force?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, you are so good at what you do, you would be a great member of the team!" The man got excited.

"Yeah, but I get paid to do that during the day. What would I get out of doing it at night? And will I be exhausted in the morning?" She walked closer.

"No! It's all in your dreams, you are still sleeping soundly. And you get the satisfaction of helping someone else." He held out the sword for her to take.

"One dream. I will look at this one dream. That's it." She took the sword and it glowed in her hand.

"I knew you were the Chosen One!" He smiled and opened a portal to a dream. She shook her head and walked in.

She found nothing but darkness, her sword glow showing her nothing more than darkness. This is the dream - or rather, nightmare - I need to deal with? She looked around and continued to walk, trying to find someone or something.

Then she heard someone crying and walked toward the sound. Then she found a little kid curled up; when he saw her glowing sword he seemed to panic more.

“Oh, I guess you're right - that would be scary.” She sheathed the sword. “Is that better?”

He nodded.

“Oh good. What’s happening here?”

He pointed to the distance; she looked to where he was pointing but she couldn’t see anything. She walked in that direction.

He ran and grabbed her hand. “No!” Just as she stopped, red eyes came charging at them. She quickly threw up her sword and the monster shrieked and cowered back away from the light.

“What was that thing?” She turned to the little boy.

“I don’t know. It’s been coming after me for weeks!” He gripped her arm.

“Weeks? You poor kid.” They moved farther away from the monster, and Lilly set her sword between them to give them some light. “What have the other Guardians tried?”

“I’ve told my parents, I’ve gotten a nightlight, we even tried a monster spray and nothing changed - it’s still here!” The panic could be heard in his voice.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay. We will figure something out. I always solve problems. It’s what I do.” She looked around. “You understand that this is a dream, right?” He nodded. “What if you imagine you’re somewhere else?”

He looked around. “But it’s so scary.”

Okay, imagining his way out isn’t an option. He has to beat this monster to move on.

She was pulled from the dream before she could come up with anything else. She woke up thinking about this boy's dream - how could he fight off the dragon? It took up all of her spare time. But she thought she had come up with a plan.

She went to bed early that night, thinking the kid might have an earlier bedtime than she; she could easily find things to do in the morning if she woke up too early. Once she was asleep, she was back in the host of all dreams. She didn’t give the man time to speak. “Give me another sword.”

He didn’t argue and handed her another sword. And she entered the portal and quickly found the kid. “Here.” She held it out to him.

“What’s this for?” He took it uneasily.

“I’m going to teach you how to beat this monster because this is your dream and you get to be your own hero.” She stood beside him.

“What if I can’t win?” The boy looked at the sword.

“I’ll help you win.” She smiled and they started just by getting used to moving the sword around and feeling the weight of the sword as they moved.

They spent the week training and practising their fighting stances. Lilly even looked up videos online to learn some techniques. Soon the kid was ready - he was more confident and his dark dream wasn’t as dark. And if Lilly and the boy had stopped to look, the monster wasn’t all that big anymore.

Lilly entered his dream once more. “Ya ready to reclaim your dream, kid? Woah! What happened?” Lilly looked around - the world was no longer dark but was bright and full of life.

“When I came in, the monster was blocking my way to my hiding spot so I reminded it who was in charge and made it leave.” He stood tall and looked like a hero.

“I’m so proud of you, kid!” She high-fived him. “What ya gonna do now?”

“I’m gonna go be a hero! Thanks for all your help!” He ran off, sword in hand. Lilly stood and watched for a moment, then stepped back to the host of dreams.

“Well?” The man looked at her.

“Well, what?” She smirked.

“That kid’s dream isn’t the only tough case we have.” He opened another portal.

She rolled her eyes. “I want one night off a week, ya hear?” She stepped toward the portal.

“You got it!” He called as she stepped into another ‘unbeatable’ dream.