Sweet Dreams

By: Lyndsey Alexander

Awake
I awoke to a cool, crisp morning in what appeared to be the middle of June. This is not where I had fallen asleep. I had fallen asleep in the comfort of my purple and red, silky, smooth bed sheets in my crisply warm room. The crimson fire shone on my blue walls and crackled and lulled me to sleep. It was snowy outside, a great storm blowing, and in the middle of a frosty January. I awoke to the sounds of happily chirping birds in the middle of a strange field. The lush grass, which was covered in the morning dew and a dark green, had grown to past knee high. It rippled in and out as the wind blew through and across the field. Dotted all over this plain of grass were flowers of so many different colors that my mind couldn’t take it all in at once. The flowers varied from being red, blue, yellow, and purple. There were some violets and oranges and whites and pinks. Some of the flowers I could name, like the lilies, lilacs and then the daisies and dandelions.
As I looked across this immense field I came to see that I was surrounded by trees. By a wood. A wood that looked welcoming and quite cozy. I ventured through the grass, stumbling a little, and reached the edge of the field. From this close up the woods looked different, less inviting. They were eerie and dark and it reminded me of some scary movie I had convinced my mom to let me stay up and watch. I decided not to go into the woods for they frightened me and seemed to go on forever and ever. I had no wish what-so-ever to get lost in these woods when I still didn’t even know how I ended up in this meadow. So I turned back to the field instead and looked around a bit. Just a little over to my right was a stream. I ran up to it and it was clear as glass. I jumped in, it was cool and refreshing so I swam around a bit. In the middle of this stream there was a rock, more like a boulder, that was about as tall as a grown lilac tree.
I climbed to the top of the rock with some effort and looked out onto the field once again. From here it looked different, and at the same time more beautiful. What had once looked like a jumble of flowers and thick grass now looked like a blur of colors. The field now looked like a rainbow had fallen from the sky and crash landed, and then broke off into a million pieces. As I was enjoying the beauty of this field I realized something, I could no longer hear the wonderful cries of the wild birds.
“Hello!” I cried out, though my cry was lost to the vast field.
“This is not good” I began to say to myself but then saw movement in the brush below the stream. I swiftly decended down from the rock, stumbled a little upon landing, and looked under the brush where I had seen the movement. There was a small little hole there, probably a rabbit hole, and I wondered if anything lived there. I sat very still, quietly listening, waiting to see if whatever had cause the movement would come out of the hole.
I sat waiting for a few minutes, maybe five minutes.
“Who are you to be in my woods?” came a voice from deep within the hole. The voice startled me so much that I jumped back-words and fell into the stream. I stood back up and looked at my hands which had been scraped in the landing, and then I looked towards the hole. Standing on the edge of the stream was an adorable little rabbit, with a fluffy, almost cottony, snow-white tail.
“Aw how cute. “ I said in amusement.
“Who are you?”
“My name is Anna. What’s yours?” I asked, oblivious to the fact that I should be alarmed by this talking creature.
“What are you doing here in MY woods?!” The rabbit emphasized his words so much that I fell back again.
“What is it that you are doing in my woods?” he asked angrily and a little impatiently.
“Wha…What do you mean YOUR woods? Are the woods not owned by all the animals?” I asked a little terrified as I climbed out of the stream to sit by the rabbit.
“All the animals live here but I command them. They live by my rules. I control the woods from the edge of this field to the edge of the town on the other side of the wood, and from the mountains in the east to the river on the west.”
“Wait a minute. There’s a town, and people?” I asked excited to leave this empty and desolate place.
“Yes.” The rabbit answered, less enthused than I.
“Will you take me to it?”
“No.”
“No?”
“NO!”
“Why not?”
“Because I am the commander of this wood, you are not. I listen to no one while you listen to me.”
“But I have to get home!” I cried. “If you show me it will get me out of your wood faster.”
“Hmmm…” the rabbit thought, “I suppose. Yes, fine. Okay.”
“Yes!” I exclaimed proudly.
“However, I will not be leading you. Jack, Jennifer, and Jess will be the ones to escort you to the edge of the wood where the town begins. I will tell you how to find Jack, and he will show you to Jennifer, and in return she will show you where to find Jess.”
“Umm…alright.”
“Now to find Jack, you must climb atop the boulder once more and he will be there waiting for you.”
“Okay.” I began to walk away when I realized I had forgotten something of great importance. I turned back to the rabbit and asked him, “What is your name?”
“Hmmm…Eric.” he said with an adorable rabbit smile.
“Eric…I like that name! Well good-bye.” I said waving to him as I turned around and ran towards the boulder. This time climbing the boulder was a little easier; for I was dryer than the first time I made the endeavor. As I reached the top I saw a sparrow sitting there.
“Hello there. My name is Anna” I introduced myself, completely forgetting that he too was an animal and should posses no ability to talk. “You must be Jack.”
“Let’s go.” He took off flying higher and higher.
“BUT I CANT FLY!” I screamed.
“What?!” he half shrieked and half squaked. He then sighed and drifted back down to the boulder.
“Then how do you suppose we go?” he asked harshly.
“Umm…walk?” I suggested sheepishly.
“I don’t walk.” he answered furiously.
“Well…umm…..then I don’t know.”
He took in a deep breath and said, “Follow me.” Then he took off down the boulder, but this time he landed on the nearest tree branch. I jumped from the boulder and dashed to the tree on which Jack had landed. He continued jumping from tree to tree and waiting for me to follow. As we got further and further into the woods it became very dark and I was becoming afraid, so I began to hum to take my mind off of what might be lurking behind the trees. Jack threw me an angry look when I was in the middle of the chorus, so I stopped.
“So,” I paused for a moment, “how long do you think it will take for me to reach the city?”
“I am not sure. A few days maybe.” I stopped abruptly and my eyes widened in shock.
“A few days!” I nearly squealed. “It’s alright Anna, calm down, just calm down.” I spoke to myself as I took in a deep breath. Once again the sparrow gave me a look, this one of annoyance, but continued on. There were moments of awkward silence, but in-between those moments our conversation consisted mostly of Eric. During our discussion I found out that Eric could take as many forms as he wished to, but he preferred a rabbit because it was calmer and less threatening than most other animals.
It seemed like it had been forever, though in reality only about two hours, but we came to a meadow that was similar to the one where I had first woke and met Eric. The clearing wasn’t as beautiful and there was no stream at the edge of this one, but the sun shone through the tree tops and lit the grass and trees and flowers, making them glow with a golden tint of color. I was too absorbed in the meadow to notice that Jack had stopped hopping from tree to tree. With a sound of clearing his throat he captured my attention. Spinning around to face him I almost feel over, though he didn’t seem to notice.
“Alright. This is as far as I go. Now turn around, see that tree all the way over there. The one with the whole in it?” Jack used his wing as a finger and pointed in the direction he wanted me to look.
“Yes, I see it.”
“Go to it, the squirrel will be waiting in there for you. Now I must go.” Jack took off into the air and began to fly away. I watched as he flew higher and higher. As I was about to turn away I noticed that he had paused and faced me once more. Something that I didn’t think I would see from Jack spread across his face. He smiled at me and wished me luck, then flew off into the clouds. “Thanks” I whispered to myself and then spun around and ran towards the tree. I couldn’t wait to see what personality the squirrel would have, and to see if maybe this creature would like me.

The Adventure
Begins

I cautiously stepped up to the hollowed tree that Jack had pointed out just before flying away. As I reached it I called out. “Hello!” Nothing happened for a while and I was about to turn around to see if maybe Jack had come back. Just as I was getting ready to turn, however, a squirrel jumped out of the hollow in the tree. It didn’t say anything, and I was too afraid to say anything, so there was silence.
“Hello?” I finally ventured.
“Hello you must be Anna!” the squirrel answered loudly and in a sprightly manner.
“Yeah, that’s me.” I said proudly and smiled.
“My name is Jennifer,” the squirrel introduced, “I have lived in this tree forever. Well for my whole life anyway. Where did you grow up? Why are you here? Where you abandoned? Oh, I’m sorry I’m being rude aren’t I? Well you probably want to go now don’t you?” Jennifer said this so quickly and with so much enthusiasm that it confused me and I barley caught anything she had said.
“Uh….y…..yes I do want to get going, please.” I answered still a little stunned.
“Alright, lets go!” With that she took off down the tree and into the woods. It got quieter. A few minutes passed. Things got even more quiet. I was too stunned and confused to move. A rustle in the brush at my feet made me look down.
“Well come on we don’t have forever you know.” Jennifer said in her high-pitched voice.
“Umm…”
“Yeah, yes, what is it Anna?”
“You were going really fast. I cant really move that quickly.”
“Oh, right, sorry,” she apologized. “It’s okay though because not even most animals can move as quickly as I can. So of course a human couldn’t. No offense.”
“None taken.” We started walking at a slower pace as she continued to ramble on.
“You know a lot of animals think I talk really fast, and I dunno maybe I do because a lot of the time no one can understand me but I cant really tell. So what do you think?
“Huh…what?”
“Do you think I talk too fast?”
“Oh, well…” I didn’t want to hurt her feelings so I thought of something to say, though I couldn’t come up with much. “Well, maybe a little bit, yes.” I answered finally. Jennifer seemed to think about that for a minute. It was slightly amusing to watch Jennifer as she jumped and leaped while we walked. The only un-amusing thing was the consistency of her talking, she just never shut up. Jennifer talked and talked and talked. She talked about her home, her friends, well more the lack of, and how her family had left in the middle of the night. Though it wasn’t hard to see why, Jennifer never shut up! I swore that if I never heard another word again it would have been too soon, and she still talked!
“Hey….umm…Jennifer.” I said after a few mind-numbing hours of listening to her.
“Yes?” The squirrel stopped and looked up at me.
“Well…its just…don’t you think maybe its getting a little dark?”
“Oh yes, yes it is. I guess we’ll just have to sleep here for tonight.” That news relieved me. While I wasn’t too wild about the idea of sleeping in these woods on the ground, I was exhausted. Between Jack not talking and glaring at me, and Jennifer’s continuous talking, it was a wonder I hadn’t collapsed already. I yawned and stretched my arms and layed down in a patch of soft moss. Jennifer came up beside my head and curled into a ball the size of a small baseball.
“Goodnight Anna.” She spoke in a small sleepy voice.
“Goodnight Jennifer.” I answered in the same drowsy voice.
* * *
When I woke up the next morning, this one as beautiful as the previous, Jennifer had already woke and was presently jumping up and down on my stomach.
“Come on! Wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up! You can’t sleep all day or you will never get home! Well you could sleep all day but…”
With I sigh I sat up. “I’m up…” I groaned to her as I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. “Alright, lets go.” Standing up I stretched for a moment.
“Yay!” She exclaimed as I stood up. Turning to her with a raised eyebrow I looked at her with annoyance and confusion.
“Why yay?”
“I don’t know, I just can’t stand holding still.”
“I can tell…” I muttered under my breath.
“What was that?” Her adorable beady eyes stared up at me.
“Nothing. Lets go.”
“Alright!” Leaves and twigs crackled under our feet, well mine mostly, as we trekked through the woods. There must have been storm clouds hanging above the trees, because it was almost as black as the night. At one point I informed Jennifer of this, and told her that I was a little worried, asking if maybe we should find a place to stay dry in case it started to rain. She just said that most of the darkness came from the fact that there were so many trees in this part of the woods, that the clouds, if there were any, wouldn’t be much of a threat, especially under the canopy of trees. Trusting her, since she was an animal and they had instincts on what the weather would be like, we continued to walk. We had traveled for almost 3 hours, when I saw something in the distance, though I couldn’t tell what it was, not in that complete darkness. Then another one appeared, and another, and another, until I finally counted ten of the doggish figures. At first I thought they might be dogs, but thinking of where I was, that hope quickly faded.
Something, probably the appearance of more clouds, covered what little light there had been, and staring down at me and Jennifer were twenty glowing yellow eyes. They opened their mouths and howled, just as my eyes widened in horror. The fear of death gripped tightly at my heart and froze my leg muscles, gluing my feet to the cold ground. Jennifer, apparently ignorant of the howling and the shadowy figures not 50 feet ahead of us, stopped and asked me what was wrong.
“Wo…wo…wo” I stammered and stuttered, pointing in the direction of the now humanly invisible shadows.
“Wolves!” She screamed as she looked in the direction I had pointed and then bolted up a tree. I stood there, frozen like a statue. Every muscle in my body burned with apprehension, ready to flex and move at my will, to run out of there; But I couldn’t move. The voice inside my head kept screaming; Run! But my feet wouldn’t move, it was as if they had been turned to stone by the mere sight of the cold yellow eyes.
“Run!” I heard Jennifer shout behind me. “Get out of there!’ Her voice sounded again. Move, I said to myself. Move, I shouted in my head. Nothing worked, I still couldn’t budge, and they were moving closer. There was a loud thundering noise, it sounded like drums. It took me a while to figure out that is was just my heart beating wildly in my ears as the wolves made their way towards me, closing in on me from all sides so that no escape was possible.
Over the thudding of my heart and the crunch of the twigs and sticks under the feet of the wolves, I heard something else. I had started to involuntarily whimper. They circled around me, the biggest of them stopping in front of me, and they were staring at me with hungry eyes. Their lips were curled back into a vicious smile and their starch white teeth glistened against the black day, strings of drool dropping from their mouths.
“Stop this at once!” Yelled an unfamiliar and loud voice. “Brutus, stop!” Came the same voice once more as another wolf appeared at the spot the others had and ran in our direction.
“What do you want Kale?” Said the huge wolf that stood in front of me, obviously Brutus and the leader of the pack.
“Brutus you have to stop this. You know what Eric says about humans. Unless told otherwise we are to leave them alone!” Kale answered anxiously.
“Shut up Kale! I don’t care what Eric says, I’m hungry, and if he didn’t want us to eat her he should have provided more food for us!” Snapped Brutus as he turned back towards me, eyes filled now not only with hunger but anger was well. I gulped and wanted to scream, but no sound was made. My vocal cords were as frozen as my legs were. ’Someone help me! Jennifer! Anyone!’ my mind yelled.
“What is it you think you are doing Brutus!?” Came a loud and deafening, but familiar, voice. There was a soft squealing sound from the tree where Jennifer had hid and the wolves’ legs seemed to grow weak as they collapsed and lay flat on the ground. Brutus, too, was on the ground and whimpering.
“I…I…I was just…” Brutus stuttered.
“You were what?” The voice questioned with a tone of annoyance, and a wave of relief washed over me as the realization came over me that the voice belonged to Eric.
“I was about to…but it’s not my fault! You are the one who have supplied me and my pack with no food, we’ve been starving for weeks!” Brutus had gained some courage and stood back up as he complained.