“Could you possibly look away for a moment?”
Her eyes narrowed. “No.”
There was nothing to do but let her watch. My magic brimmed in my hands as I concentrated on the dream, but before I could use it…
I was completely surrounded by greyish brown, but this was no ordinary brown; this kind was dark and otherworldly and made my stomach churn, as if I’d been submerged in a murky lake devoid of color. The stifling air felt layers thick, as if a giant weight crushed me, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't move.
In the midst of this suffocating nothingness, I faintly heard the clinks of a shovel striking the ground, coming from somewhere above me. With each metallic ping, smothering loads of dirt pressed down upon me.
I was being buried alive.
I struggled to move, to scream, to yank myself out of this nightmare, but I was trapped within the confining walls of my dirt prison. I could do nothing but wait…wait for something, anything, to happen. Anxiety squeezed my chest with each shovelful, my only measurement of time in this unbearable torture, until I was sure I’d go mad.
With a sharp pull I jerked out of the nightmare and found myself lying on the floor of my bedroom, curled in a fetal position and drenched in a cold sweat.
“Eden?” Stardust shook me frantically, her eyes shiny. “Are you alright?”
My lungs burned for air, as if I’d really been trapped underground rather than a mere observer of the dream. I took several gasping breaths while Stardust stroked my hair like Mother used to do long ago.
“What happened?”
Stardust carefully propped me against the pillows. “You were in a strange trance, unblinking and unresponsive, almost as if you weren’t even here.” She shivered. “It was scary.”
Long shadows filled the room. Outside, the violet sky had faded into ebony. Although the strange nightmare had vanished, its creepiness lingered and my insides churned. I instinctively pressed myself deeper into Stardust’s soft and surprisingly comforting hold. She nuzzled against me and curled in my lap like a cat. As I pet her, each touch of her frothy body gently pushed the disturbing memory of the nightmare away; gradually my shaking stilled.
“What did you see?” Concern filled Stardust’s inquiry, and all my long-hidden secrets weighed me down as if I were still trapped belowground, suddenly too heavy to bear alone anymore.
I doubted my abilities were anything unusual in the strange world Stardust came from. Perhaps she held the answers which had eluded me for so long, and if she didn’t, she’d eagerly track down the solution to the puzzle I’d been trying to solve my entire life: why could I see others’ dreams?
Stardust prodded me with her gaze, an invitation that solidified my decision. “I have a secret ability, which I’ve never shared with anyone before now…”
Chapter 5
My ability to see dreams was a secret I’d harbored for so long it was surreal to share it now, much less with a talking cloud. Recounting my many years of spying on dreams invisible to everyone else—as well as my attempts at using magic to bottle them up—made the experience like telling a bedtime story rather than something from my own life. Stardust lay snuggled against me, listening with rapt attention and surprisingly no interruptions. When I finished, she didn’t speak for several minutes, her face scrunched in concentration.
“How many Dreamers can see dreams?” I asked when I couldn’t bear her agonizing silence any longer.
“None. I didn’t know such an ability existed. It’s a well-established fact that dreams disappear immediately after they’re viewed.”
“But that’s not true,” I said. “They float around for hours and only fade away as they’re forgotten.”
“The fact that such a phenomenon isn’t common knowledge proves this is magic beyond the Dream World’s current understanding.” Stardust paged through my dream journal with renewed interest. “The more I study these, the more I can tell each possesses a distinct style, unique to the different Weavers who created them. Are any of these yours?”
Time for my final confession. “No. I’ve never dreamed.”
She snapped my journal shut. “Never? But every Mortal on Earth is assigned a set of Weavers. As a magical being yourself, your lack of dreaming would make sense as Dreamers are unable to receive dreams, but Dreamers don’t live on Earth, nor can Mortals see them the way that Mortal girl saw you tonight. But you can’t be a Mortal due to your possessing magical powers. It sure is perplexing.”
An eager glint filled her eyes. All of her earlier accusations seemed to have been forgotten, the mystery surrounding me apparently more intriguing than the evidence against me. She sure loved a good mystery.
Stardust’s stomach suddenly rumbled. “It’s difficult to concentrate on cracking this case when I’m so hungry.”
“Do you want some water?” I asked, unsure what clouds needed. “Or some leftover stew?”
“Do you have any moonbits?” She looked around the room, as if she expected there to be several packages hidden within the chaos.
“Sorry?”
“Moonbits: fruity cream puffs shaped like miniature crescent moons that come in gazillions of flavors and drip with frosting. If you’re all out of those, I could go for some cotton floss, an asteroid sucker, or even some nebula cream.”
I stared blankly at her. She sighed.
“Do you have any sweets at all?”
“Mother’s all about fresh produce from our garden.”
Stardust grimaced. “Never mind, I’ll get some myself. It’s just as well; I need to fly to the library and gather more information.” She drifted towards the window.
“You’re not going to tell anyone about me, are you?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. The last thing I want is the Dream Council—or worse, the Nightmare Council—poking their noses in my case.” Her eyes glistened. “This is exactly the type of mystery I’ve been searching for. There are so many
