1978

Rupert climbed out of the family minivan full of his sisters' screaming friends. Whew, the thought to himself after he closed the van door. His head was pounding from their high pitch singing on the ride to Granny Archim's home.

He walked up the sandstone driveway and knocked on the tall wooden door decorated with Granny Archim’s usual variety of fresh cut green and white eucalyptus, snowballs and lilies from her garden.

It was if Granny Archim was waiting behind the door because it opened just seconds after Rupert’s knock. There stood Granny Archim in all her glory, with her colorful yellow and rose sundress, big pink smile, glowing blue eyes, and big brown sunglasses on top of her odd off-white hair. Rupert expected that any day now her hair would make the final change to snow white.

“Why, Rupert…Good morning it’s so nice to see you! Come give me a hug!” she said in her usual delightful tone opening her arms for a warm embrace.

“It’s nice to see you too Granny! Are you ready to go? They’re waiting in the van,” Rupert said looking back. He noticed that all the girls were pre-occupied talking with each other.

“Yes, I’m just about ready but your grandmother needs to run to the restroom really quickly. How about you come inside…those girls can wait. Do you want something to drink? Water, Lemonade, Juice?”

“No, thank you,” Rupert said politely.

“Well, come on in then. Go rest your legs on the sofa or something. Your grandmother may take awhile,” she winked and headed off to the bathroom.

Rupert smiled to himself as he watched her white ball of hair follow her around the corner to the bathroom and disappear.

The home was clean as always, not a spot of dust anywhere to be found. If Rupert wanted he could have taken a white glove to her furniture and find no speck of dust.

Rupert roamed around the home looking for anything new. He looked quickly through most of the house knowing that he really had his mind set on visiting Granny’s library.

Upon entering the library he calmly took a deep breath in, looking up at the tall walls filled with books on a variety of subjects from history to fantasy. Granny had everything… He walked in looking to his left and to his right at all the nicely placed books inserted into the tall mahogany shelves, as he slowly brushed his fingers across each of their binds.

He had so many memories of being in the library with Granny when he was younger. One of their favorite pastimes was to read together and share stories of books they were reading.

Rupert looked around soaking in the memories. Unfortunately, he didn’t get to spend as much time with her nowadays because of school, extra-curricular activities and mostly his mother. For some reason their toleration of each other decreased over the years and they refused to stay in the same room together for long. Rupert blamed his mom for this. His dad said it had to do something with mother-daughter relationships. Luckily, because of Myra’s birthday the two of them would be able to handle their presences.

Rupert turned to leave but noticed a peculiar large book on the table centered in the middle of the library. Curious, Rupert picked up the heavy book and was startled to find a thick layer of dust on the cover. He was amazed that his dust-free grandmother hadn’t wiped the book. With his hand he slowly brushed off the dust finding a few additional surprises.

The brown book didn’t have a title inscribed on the front, back, or the bind. To investigate further Rupert carefully opened the ratted book and flipped through the first few pages. He found no words printed on them. Even in the middle of the book Rupert found nothing. It appeared that all the pages were blank except for the page numbers printed on the lower right hand corners.

“Maybe it’s some sort of journal that was never used… Hmm, but it’s too big for a journal,” he whispered to himself.

Quickly he flipped through the pages looking for written material in the book. Towards the back Rupert eyes caught something. He quickly skimmed the last pages again and stopped on page 1978. There rested a small silver necklace attached to a small silver coin.

“Well, that’s odd. Why would anyone place this in a book?”

Rupert placed the book back onto the table and picked up the heavy necklace to examine it closer. In the middle of the coined object were three circles interwoven facing outwards. Rupert wondered where the necklace came from and if the three circles on the coin symbolized anything.

Carefully Rupert placed the necklace around his neck and found to his surprise that the necklace didn’t feel as heavy on his neck. He gave it a good rub to shine the somewhat dirty coin and noticed a peculiar gleam of blue light flash off of the coin.

“That’s interesting.” Rupert said while bringing the coin up to his face. Suddenly he heard the door open behind him. He whirled around with the coin still in his fingers to face his grandmother who was standing at the door.

“I hope your aren’t getting into too much trouble,” she winked. “It’s time for us to go. We mustn’t keep your mother waiting too long. I don’t dare start off the day bad with her.”

Granny Archim was about to turn around when she did a double take at Rupert’s chest. “Ah, Rupert…found something?” she smiled.

“I’m sorry, I was just…” Rupert said as he stammered and began to take off the necklace.

“Oh, don’t take it off Rupert. I had taken out that book from storage, you were meant to have it. I just forgot to mention it to you,” Granny answered picking the coin up in her hand. Her blue eyes seemed to tear up but quickly went away as she tucked the necklace under his shirt.

“Do me a favor…don’t lose it ok? It’s special.”

“I won’t.” Rupert answered.

“I was waiting to give this to you at the right time. It was your mother’s.”

“Why were you holding on to it?” Rupert asked surprised.

“Oh, it’s an interesting story that maybe your mother will tell you when she’s ready,” she gave Rupert a hug looking at his face, noticing Rupert’s tired eyes. “How is my grandson doing, you look a bit tired,” Granny asked wrapping one arm around Rupert’s shoulders.

Rupert looked up at her and spilled out everything about his dreams, the bruises, and the hooded people at his bed this morning.

Granny Archim’s thin lips pushed up against each other as she looked out the library window listening to Rupert’s quickly told story. After a few quiet moments she finally spoke, “There is so much that we don’t know, dreams are a mystery to us. It seems to me that you are fully exploring yours Rupert, just as I had when I was your age. It seems like I don’t dream as much now or just can’t seem to remember them as well. But they can be wonderful…but also terrifying can’t they?” she smiled warmly at Rupert then looked back out the window.

“Stay courageous in your dreams and you will stay courageous in your waking life as you remember it. There is just so much mystery,” she paused and gave a little cough, “That necklace that you have. Hold it close to you. Alright?”

“Okay…but…. umm”

Granny Archim finally looked back at Rupert and grabbed his hand and walked out of the library with him, slowly closing the door behind them. Before shutting the door Granny glanced back at the old book resting on the table and smiled.

Chapter 3 - Dream Boy

Rupert woke up a second time from what seemed like waking from a dream within a dream. On the radio was Dizzy Dee who was interviewing a couple of characters from Powder Poof and Polar Pal cartoons. Rupert couldn’t stand to hear the same interview for the third time this week. He sat up from his bed and turned off the radio alarm clock after a few missed tries.

Rupert rubbed his eyes and looked into his room, checking for anything different.

“Oww –“ Rupert said sourly as he pinched himself to ensure he was truly awake this time.

Rupert let out a long yawn, not ready to wake up since it was a Saturday and like any kid, Rupert wanted to sleep in. This Saturday was a bit different than others, and poor Rupert had to endure the early wake up for his little sister’s extra special day. Her birthday happened to fall on a Saturday this year, and she wanted to spend it at the Big Blue Sea Park with her friends.

He knew his sister was going to show off her recent classroom knowledge of the sea animals. He'd have to endure listening to his sister give MANY lectures today. Mother didn’t put up much of a fight when her little girl wanted to go somewhere. Rupert thought it was a girl-bonding thing or it was because his sister was the youngest. Being the oldest, Rupert was naturally given less complaining rights than his sister.

Rupert looked over and saw that Raja was up at her window gazing outside at the early blue birds. The birds loved to tease Raja by sitting on a close tree branch next to Rupert’s bedroom window. Raja knew better than to pounce at the window this time. She had learned ten times over that she couldn’t jump through the mysterious hard substance between her and the yummy birds.

Raja glanced over at Rupert and jumped away from the window to his bed, purring as she approached him. When she reached Rupert she made a quarter turn and dropped down in between his legs, waiting for her beautiful caramel fur to be finally rubbed after the long night of playing without Rupert.

She was one of the most beautiful cats he had ever seen and one of the most expensive. It was a good thing that his grandmother, Granny Archim was able to get this kitten for free from a neighbor friend. He would have never gotten an animal if his parents had to pay for one.

Rupert picked Raja up and held her up so that both of their noses touched.

‘Sorry, Raja I can’t let you outside. If I did, mom would never let me bring you back in’, he said while looking into Raja’s big green eyes.

Without warning, Rupert’s mother, quickly opened his bedroom door.

‘You aren’t putting that filthy thing next to your face are you?’ she said looking anxious.

‘I don’t understand why you keep that cat inside -- you should leave it outside with the other animals.’

As Rupert placed Raja on the floor, she looked up and turned away from Mrs. Thatcher pretending not to care what Mrs. Thatcher had to say.

‘That cat can’t stay in here if it’s going to cause trouble. That cat is a bad!’ Mrs. Thatcher said staring at the kitten.

‘Did you know that cat was up early this morning bouncing a rubber-bouncing ball keeping your dad and I awake? You know your father has had it extremely hard lately with work and he needs his rest....’ Mrs. Thatcher said quietly.

Raja continued licking her fur ignoring Mrs. Thatcher’s. She was busy doing acrobatic tricks lifting her leg and twisting around trying to reach every section of her beautiful fur.

‘I'm sorry, but are you sure?...I would have heard…’ Rupert answered while looking back over to his mom.

‘Don't argue, Your father almost broke his back trying to figure out where that noise was coming from. And then…we heard that loud crash the other night downstairs…that I had to clean up. I think that cat got loose last night and broke my favorite vase.’ Rupert’s mom said while glaring at the kitten.

This time Raja stopped what she was doing and cocked her ear to the side to listen carefully. Raja disliked being accused of something she had no involvement in.

‘Vase…Vase…’ Rupert said softly as if he was trying to remember something.

‘Yes, honey…vase. You know the one that was holding my beautiful white and pink stargazers?’

‘Oh…’ Rupert said…staring blankly. ‘But…but how could that have happened. The door is closed shut and Raja can't leave the room..’ he drifted off saying while being lost in another thought.

‘Well, it happened. And I can’t get a NEW one. That particular one is sold out from the Queen Gallery. Humph…you better just watch that cat. I don’t want to lose any more sleep worrying if something else is going to break.’ Mrs. Thatcher turned around and was just about to leave the room when she had one more thing to add.

“Oh, and you better get ready soon. Since your dad can’t join us today because of work, your grandmother is coming on our trip to the Big Blue Sea Park and we need to pick her up. I need another adult with us or I’ll go nuts!”

Rupert was ecstatic that his grandmother, who everyone called Granny Archim, would be coming along to the park. She knew a whole lot of everything, anything and nothing. It didn’t matter if it was odd, usual or recent; Granny knew it all and had an answer for anything.

Rupert’s thoughts drifted back to the vase and his dream, noting to himself that he would need to speak with Granny Archim about what happened to him last night. She always loved listening to his stories and found them interesting to share, which helped Rupert since his mom was not interesting in divulging his stories and never took the time to listen.

As Rupert turned over to climb out of bed, something smarted on his legs. He sat up and touched his thigh to only cry out in pain. What was wrong with his legs? It wasn’t until now that he remembered a dream he had last night that included a strange gold vase. In fact, Rupert could now recall more details of the dream.

Rupert tossed off his blankets to observe his legs. The memory of his dream of the black dragon reminded him of the burning sensation he had on his legs. He didn’t expect anything to be there but was curious to look at the all too real burn he felt in his dream.

Rupert slowly pulled up his pant leg while Raja peered out from under the blanket covers looking annoyed at the abrupt change in her surroundings. As Rupert pulled up his leg he saw something strange. On the inside of his leg was a purple looking bruise about the size of small plate. Rupert quickly pulled up his other pant leg and saw the same thing on the other.

‘What?…’ Rupert whispered to himself.

How could this have happened in his dream? The marks were not burns but they were still odd and looked disgustingly purple.

Rupert stood up and walked over to his closet to look into his hanging mirror. In the mirror were the same two bruises right above his skinny knees on his inner thighs.

Rupert immediately looked down at his hands to see if they were also bruised. He couldn’t remember if he touched the black dragon with his hands. Nothing was on the palm or the back of his hands.

“Why would I have bruises on my leg…?” Rupert whispered as he stood back from the mirror still in awe as to what was on his body.

“Rupert?” a sleepy voice said around the doorway, startling Rupert. He quickly dropped his pant legs.

Rupert looked up to see his little sister stumbling around the corner with her eyes half open. She was rubbing her eyes and holding a small book under one of her tiny arms. She was about one half the size of Rupert and growing pretty fast. She looked like Rupert but different, if that makes sense. Rupert had dark brown hair and hazel green eyes that would change color depending on what color shirt he wore, while she had short bright blonde hair, dark brown eyes and the cutest smile when she wasn’t throwing a tantrum. If it weren’t for those differences Rupert and his sister Myra would look like twins.

‘Happy Birthday, sis,’ Rupert struggled to say with enthusiasm but couldn’t muster up enough since he was still a bit tired.

‘Thank you, thank you!’ his sister smiled and then frowned again.

‘Mommy, told me that you could help me with this’, said Myra while plopping herself onto Rupert’s unmade bed.

Rupert turned the book over and saw that it wasn’t a schoolbook.

‘Day mares and Night mares – The Understanding of Dreams’, Rupert read out loud. From looking at the front cover anyone could tell it was a children’s book. There was a white and black horse dancing in a white cloud over a sleeping child. Rupert had read this book before and knew the white and black horse symbolized dreams. The white horse or day ‘mare’ had an angel’s halo above its head and represented the good dreams. The dark horse or night ‘mare’ had flaring red nostrils and red eyes, which symbolized the dreams that were bad.

‘Did you have a mare, I mean a nightmare?’ Rupert said stumbling over his words. All that thinking of mares and horses mixed him up a bit even though they were the same thing.

‘Yes, it was really scaree’, Myra replied while she picked up sleeping Raja from the bed. Raja looked annoyed that she was moved.

‘Why, what happened this time?’

Quickly she rattled off, ‘Well…I was helping my friends escape this dungeon. My stuffed animals were alive and needed my help so I naturally went back for them. But when I went back I couldn’t find them and was lost in a dark dark dirty dungeon…. And …And…. This…’ Myra looked down and hugged Raja tighter.

Raja was about to bite Myra for holding her too tight when Myra released a little as she began to talk again. Raja took her chance and made a run for it jumping out of Myra’s confining arms and darted out of the room to escape the chance of recapture.

‘And, what…?’, Rupert said, sounding impatient as he wanted to examine his bruised legs again.

‘A red monster with horns came up to me. I wasn’t afraid, but then…he placed his face right up to mine.’ Myra held up her hand to her nose to demonstrate.

‘He asked me what my name was. But I wouldn’t tell him. He then told me his name…but I…I forgot. I think it was…Vvv…Vla…,’ she paused and attempted the pronounce the name again.

‘It’s okay sis forget the name. What did he do?’

‘Well, he told me that I wouldn’t be able to rescue my friends. He said that I belonged there, with the bad people’, Myra finished and started to tear up.

“Oh sis, you aren’t bad. No need to worry he’s not real” Rupert reassured her. Lately, she was having a lot more monster dreams.

“Rupert…” Myra quietly mumbled. ‘What should I do?’

“Do what I’ve told you before. Fight back, tell him he is a meany and that you don’t want him to play in your dreams anymore”, Rupert quickly answered as if it was easy for her to do.

“Well I’m not as experienced as you are, Mr. Dream boy. I need HELP…” Myra tried to clarify to Rupert.

“Yes, I know you need helpppp”, Rupert said while smiling at his sister.

“Mommy, Rupert’s not being nice!!” Myra shouted and cocked her head to side to hear her mom’s response better and thought this would help.

She heard nothing. “Humph”, Myra said while crossing her arms.

“And what do you mean by Mr. Dream Boy? I can’t be, I’m your older brother…you’re going to have to find someone else to like.”

“I didn’t mean that silly.” Myra replied. “That thing in my dream called you that.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Well...That thing…in my dreams. He knows you.”

“Of course he knows me. YOU know me so therefore HE knows me. It’s all in your head”, he said while rubbing her already messy bed hair.

‘Well…I guess you’re right. But he said that he had a message for me to tell you.’ She paused and bit her lip.

‘And that message is….’ Rupert asked impatiently while looking through the children’s dream book.

‘Well, he didn’t want you meddling in his business.'

'You're speaking nonsense. Ugh, just get out of my room.’

‘AND, he said that you needed give me my present right away or something bad will happen to you!’ she quickly said as she knew she was being thrown out of Rupert's room.

Rupert was about to say something when both Myra and Rupert heard their mom yelling at them.

‘You guys better be ready in 15 minutes. I’m not going up there to get you!’

‘Well, we should get ready little bear.’ Rupert said while looking at Myra’s little blue pajamas with teddy bears of all sizes printed all over it. ‘We don’t want Mom to get mad at the both of us’.

Rupert raced his sis into the bathroom. He naturally got there first, but let his sister use the bathroom first. He knew if he didn’t, she would say something to mom, and he didn’t want to start the morning bad. He didn’t mind waiting. It would give him more time to examine his bruises again. He couldn’t get it out of his head. How did they get there?

Chapter 2 - Andal

Rupert was not aware of his father entering his room or the fact that he was sleeping in his bedroom at home. He silently dreamt of another world. He looked around and was astonished by the natural beauty surrounding him. Lush and tall green trees surrounded him. The sky stretched high into the heavens exposing three moons, each smaller than the next one while the sun was slowly fading but still sharing it’s warmth. Surprisingly, Rupert thought he felt the warm sun rays touch his skin.

Rupert examined his surroundings and caught glimpse of a young girl about his age cooling her feet in a lake. She had reddish brunette hair and seemed to be enjoying her restful time in solitude during the last moments of sunshine before it set.

Rupert recognized this girl before but had never been able to get her attention. Many times he talked, shouted, jumped and even tried throwing stuff at her but was never acknowledged. After many failed attempts, he gave up trying. He didn’t understand why he had seen this girl before.

Breaking his thought, suddenly a streak of black light passed quickly through the sky, faster and brighter than any firework. Rupert turned around to investigate the suspicious light but the girl must have seen the same thing and had a running start ahead of Rupert into the forest.

A clearing opened not too far from the lake past a small patch of trees. In the opening stood a small wooden cottage with four ugly creatures and a tall dark hooded creature standing in front of a small wooden door.

Rupert and the girl ducked into the tall grass. Rupert didn’t know if he was really hiding from anything, since the girl seemed to be ignoring him. Could anyone see him? Was he dreaming, or invisible? If he was dreaming, there was no harm in playing along and seeing what his brain dreamed up. Out of curosity, Rupert poked the girl's arm. Alarmingly she whirled her head around, but looked past Rupert as if he wasn’t there and looked back towards the cottage. Weird and cool, Rupert thought to himself and kept hidden in the tall grass.

The cottage door opened and a small gray man opened the door. “Grumble,” the girl whispered under her breath tensing up.

One of the odd creatures pushed its way into the cottage while the others followed, including the tall hooded creature. The door closed behind them and instantly the girl shot up from the ground, running towards the cottage with Rupert right behind her. She tiptoed her way around the side of the cottage towards the back to peak her head into a small window. Rupert peered into the same window to see the old man being harassed by the unpleasant monsters that just entered, but couldn’t hear what was happening in the cottage.

Since it was his dream, Rupert decided to make an attempt to enter the cottage herself. He stuck one arm into the cottage when he noticed that the girl was no longer next to him. He looked to his left and saw her walk to an area covered by a few bushes and trees. The girl closed her eyes and suddenly a duplicate of herself floated outside of her body. There were TWO of her! Woah, this is a different, Rupert thought to himself. The first girl continued to have her eyes closed but the one that floated out drifted straight towards Rupert with a worried look on her face. Right when Rupert thought he made eye contact with her, she floated right through him.

He turned to look into the cottage and saw her standing inside the cottage, but no one seemed to notice her standing there. Rupert cracked a window open to hear what was happening. “Givv mee what uu hav ol’ man,” snarled one of the bigger ugly creatures as it grabbed the old man’s shirt, lifting him up from an old wooden chair.

The things were not pretty at all. Large scaled ears hung from each side of their huge misshaped heads and a layer of dark slimy goo covered their faces. Their eyes were small and barely visible past their dropping eyelids. “Gonchard, keep your foul breath off the poor man” the dark hooded creature coolly said.

Alone, the dark hooded creature’s breath and voice crackled and cooled the air around him. Rupert tried to see his face but couldn’t see anything but a black void inside the hood. Even the hands of the tall creature were unseen as they were covered in black gloves. “Now, Grumble. You have something I want,” the hooded thing said as it hovered to the right of Grumble.

Grumble shifted in the chair, not saying a word. “And, I think you know what that item is. If you give me that item, we will quietly leave,” the hooded creature said in an airy voice.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Grumble said folding his arms tightly. His feet were barely dangling above the floor with his body barely filling out the chair he was sitting in. Even though he was acting tough, Rupert could tell in his eyes that old man was afraid.

“Well then, I will search myself,” the hooded creature said, pulling out a small black bag and emptied it onto his gloved hand. Jewels of all sorts fell out.

The hooded creature poured the brightly colored jewels into a gold vase that one of the other creatures was holding. Immediately the vase started to glow and float from the ugly creature’s hands. The creature stepped back in confusion and fear of the mysterious floating vase that began to spin. Faster the vase spun and grew brighter. The jewels from inside started to spill out revolving around the vase faster and faster into a mini whirlwind. Oddly the jewels started to slow down and float mid-air; one by one each left the whirlwind to a floorboard a few paces away from Grumble. Each jewel stopped behind another making a trail. As soon as the jewels completed their line they quickly spun and disappeared into the vase.

‘There, open that floorboard!’ the hooded creature commanded, pointing at the floorboard as the vase settled. Before Grumble could react one of the smaller ugly creatures pushed him aside and ripped off the floorboard with its huge hands.

There inside the floorboard was a silk bag, which looked as if it was holding something round. The creature grunted and picked it up. ‘Open it’ the hooded creature said quickly.

The ugly creature looked unsure, but forgot his worry right after he thought it and ripped open the bag to unveil a brilliantly colored orb. Before the creature could be amazed at the colors, he experienced a strong pain. He dropped the orb, but not only did the orb drop, but his three-fingered hand. Rupert was about to get sick seeing the hand lay on the floor steaming as if it had been cooked.

‘The orb of Andal’ the girl breathed quietly while looking astonished. Rupert had almost forgotten she was still in the room standing next to the window. In amazement, she creped closer to the glowing orb, hovering very close to the angry one-handed creature.

The creature held its arm screaming in pain lunging for Grumble. Before the creature got its’ ugly one hand on Grumble, the hooded creature waved its’ hand. The creature flew up and hit the wall.

‘The orb of Andal…,’ the hooded creature squealed excitingly. It walked up to the orb on the ground and kicked the charred hand to the side.

‘You pick it up!’ the hooded creature angrily ordered Grumble. Grumble reached down and picked up the orb. The orb glowed even more brightly and its colors swirled faster within the round glass orb. Nothing happened, Grumble was able to hold onto the orb with no troubles, no reaction, no losing of his hand.

‘What is this magic?’ one of the ugly creatures shrieked. ‘You can't have it, it doesn't belong to you. And besides, your kind can never touch it,’ Grumble snapped.

‘Exceeept forrr one other…’ the largest creature snarled. ‘Say no more’, the hooded creature commanded and continued, ‘Chard, grab the orb.’

The creature that was called Chard seemed surprisingly smart enough to not grab the orb but to instead reach for Grumble. The girl jumped in the way of Gonchard. She made a pushing motion and pushed the large creature enough for him to notice.

‘What’s wrong with you?’ the hooded creature snarled. ‘Somethin pus meee,’ Gonchard said looking confused.

Immediately the hooded creature threw up some dust in the air and wildly looked around. The dust changed from black to pink. ‘A human girl is here,’ it breathed. ‘Find it!’ the hooded creature yelled looking back at Grumble and raced outside the cottage’s front door.

Knowing that she had been found, the girl immediately floated out of the cottage. ‘But, where do wee look? Wee don’t seee anyone,’ Gonchard and the three others said looking around confused.

‘Look for a body!’ the hooded creature sneered. “And destroy it!” The creatures reacted in glee as they looked around wildly for something to kill.

The girl’s body, Rupert remembered. He needed to do something to protect it. Rupert raced outside but didn’t see the girl’s body under the tree. Instead, he saw her standing in front of a tall bush, staring at it intently. Before he could react, the landscape in front of her changed. From the far off distance he could see lots of plants and a waterfall. The girl took a step and disappeared along with the strange scenery. Around the corner the tall hooded creature emerged. The hooded creature waved its hand over a few bushes and again Rupert saw the other world that the girl had entered.

‘A window was opened here.’ The hooded creature quietly said. The thing placed his hand over the flickering scene but wasn’t able to enter. ‘With Andal…’ it snarled as the portal closed.

Rupert carefully followed the creature back to the front of the cottage, to only see it become angry once again. Rupert wanted to investigate further when a flying big black dot suddenly caught the corner of his eye, catching him off guard. Without warning, what looked to be a dragon appeared flying directly towards him. Rupert jumped as it charged but unexpectedly leaped higher than he prepared, landing perfectly onto the black dragon’s back. He would have congratulated himself, but immediately Rupert felt something he hadn’t experienced before in any of his dreams. A painful hot burn scorched his legs, followed by a deafening blaring noise!

Rupert woke up instantly from his dream and sat up in bed, dripped in sweat. He didn’t know why it was pitch black in his room, since he set his alarm for 7 o’clock. Confused, Rupert reached over to turn off his alarm clock when he noticed that he wasn’t alone in his room. Three hooded beings stood around his bed, looking straight at Rupert. In a panic, Rupert screamed not knowing who or what they were. To Rupert’s relief at that exact moment, music and sunlight filled the room, and they disappeared into thin air.