Dream a Little Dream: A Tale of Myth and Moonshine

by Piers Anthony

  She threw her arms into the air, concentrating on her hands and forcing the anger and energy outward and upward. She used every emotion she could find, and when she felt drained, she dropped her hands.

  For a moment, nothing happened. Then, she looked up, because the sky was momentarily darkening. A gigantic net was floating down.

  “Look above!” Z roared. “Get out of the way!"

  The Creators looked up. So did some of the Fren. Both Fren and Creators ran, scattering like drops of rain in a calm pond, spreading out.

  The metal net began shooting out cables as it neared the ground. It covered at least half of the mobbing Fren. But it covered some of the Creators too. Now, again way too late, she remembered how she had promised to build an enclosure around their group so that the Fren couldn’t reach them. She had forgotten, being absorbed by the immediate challenge of so many Fren.

  “Face it, Nola,” she muttered to herself. “You’re much better at being a fouled-up, suicidal girl than a general.”

  Her energy spent, Nola collapsed, exhausted. With only a thousand or so Fren captured, there still were a great number. Still far too many to deal with. She cried as she watched her friends fight a losing battle. This time, she was completely useless. She couldn’t even stand up. If her friends were overwhelmed, she could not conjure them away. She shouldn’t have let anger take her like that.

  Z’s dragons appeared in the sky above, neither landing nor flying away. They stared down, unsure what to do. It was quite obvious that the humans were being overtaken. They could not fire on the Fren and knew that they could do nothing to help. After a few minutes of hovering, the dragons flew off, not looking back.

  “Cowards!” called Z.

  Z coiled around Nola again, realizing that she was helpless. Even her imagination seemed to have run out. She had no more good ploys to suggest.

  It was Tina who finally came up with the solution. “Everyone!” she shouted. “Balloons! Make balloons!”

  Many of the Creators looked confused, until Joelle created a huge hot-air balloon. It was red and yellow and was powered by a propane furnace. She helped the chairbound boy into it and climbed in after. She released a couple of sand bags and lifted into the air. A few Fren clung to the basket. The boy leaned out over the side and used a confiscated club to bash them off before they got too high.

  By this time, the others were getting into their own. Newton took along Curbie and Curbia, while Lucina took Drake. The other Creators were saving themselves from the disaster Nola’s folly had made. All they had to do was discover how to use their power effectively.

  A balloon appeared before Nola, though not one of her own making. Someone had made it for her. Nola tried to find the strength to climb in, but could not.

  Mich saw her failing effort. He pushed the Fren off his legs with the hilt of his sword and ran over. He picked her up gently and placed her inside the basket. He climbed in after her and fired up the balloon. Z took to the sky as well.

  Nola was relieved that not only were they now safe, the Fren did not retreat. The Fren became angrier and began shouting and jumping up and down. Nola had to smile: the Fren were in a frenzy, appropriately. The Fren were frenetic. So they were being stupid, just as Nola had been before.

  The Creators wasted not a second in containing the rest of the Fren. The nets that fell could hold only nine or ten at the most, so work was slow.

  Nola lay back in the basket, knowing that the best way to recharge her mental energy was to rest. Mich promised to rouse her when the work was done.

  She appreciated him being there. He stayed close, humming a strange yet lulling tune.

  The other Creators, feeling bad for her, let her rest. The Fren would escape after a while, but the Creators would simply drop more nets, keeping them under control and contained until she had rested. The huge net that Nola had dropped remained intact, being of a magical nature.

  It was four hours later, the sun high in the ksy, before Nola rose and had a look around. The other balloons floated near, each of them holding a smiling person. It made her feel better, knowing that she had so many people rooting for her.

  Spirit’s thought came to her. You have been preparing for this. Are you ready to begin?

  “Yes. I hope everyone else is.” She sighed. Then, to the Creators: “Let’s land the balloons and start the conversions.”

  The colorful balloons began floating downward, their baskets touching ground one by one. Finally, everyone was down and the work began.

  Newton went first, being the most eager. As the first Fren was converted, the others joined in. Their minds searched over the hordes of Fren, looking for something familiar.

  Nola reached out and took Joseph’s hand. She found herself sharing his mind. He was seeing something that he did not recognize, but Nola did. She in turn saw something that he recognized. As each Fren was recognized, it was separated from the horde and re-netted. They traded their mind’s images and a happy nymph and a griffin emerged from the nets, as Nola released them.

  “Join hands!” Nola said. “It helps you see!”

  Mich stood out of the way with the worms, dragon and Dalmatians. The Creators moved close, standing in a tight circle, eyes shut, hands clasped. The group of them seemed almost to radiate with the power of thought.

  Fren began disappearing from the horde and reappearing under nets all around the group. Creatures were appearing; they seemed as if they were waking from a nightmare. They all were very happy when freed and many of them stood near the Creators, admiring them as if they were movie stars.

  The Creators continued casting their minds across the land before them. The tide of Fren had been turned. Now there were more Kafkians than Fren.

  Mich called out when he recognized someone. The old woman he called Madrid had a funny red Afro and really long fingernails.

  Lucina found the Centicores. They stood beside her, pawing the black ground.

  There were very few Fren left when Nola saw someone she recognized, vaguely. He was older and had graying brown hair. He came more into focus and then was gone. She opened her eyes. The man stood before her. He was wearing lavish robes of red, yellow and gold. He wore a crown slightly askew on his brow.

  “Father!” Mich shouted from behind her.

  She turned and saw Mich heading toward the man. He reached out, and the two embraced warmly. When they broke, Nola could see that this man was indeed Mich’s father, and Kafka’s king. He looked exactly as she remembered him. Noble, yet warm and friendly.

  She had Created him to help Mich seem more real to her. He had needed a family. She and her own father had never had a real relationship. So she had Created the king in the image of the father she wished she had.

  She turned her attention back to the hundred or so remaining Fren. The other Creators seemed entirely comfortable with the conversions and were working much faster, though some of them were showing signs of exhaustion. Nola herself had converted only a hundred or so, while the others converted two, three or four hundred apiece.

  The fields surrounding the River of Thought began to clear out as creatures went in search of their homes.

  She could only “see” two more Kafkians, consisting of a mermaid and a small dapple-brown unicorn.

  The work was tiring. It took a lot of concentration and a lot of faith to restore her belief in her crushed dreams.

  A few more moments and all of the Fren had been converted. Everyone was beyond relief, and many stood with their Creations, talking, hugging and regaining lost memories. Nola thought the scene was very touching.

  Tina was talking with King Kras and Drake. Newton was petting a creature that was half bear and half cat. Lucina was hugging a beautiful woman who acted very motherly toward her. Joelle was sitting with a magnificent white wolf with big gray eyes.

  Nola was glad to see all of her friends so happy. Especially Mich, whom she loved so much. But that thought reminded her that she had not yet decided what to do about
that situation. She still saw no way through that would not leave her and either Mich or Spirit miserable in some way.

  Spirit approached Nola as she watched Mich and the king. Mich looked up a moment, said something to his father and walked over to them. He enfolded her in his arms.

  “Thank you, Nola. Kafka would have died, and my father too. I love you.”

  Nola touched his chin with a finger. “I love you too,” she said, smiling, feeling the words in her soul as she spoke them. She turned to Spirit. “This is so wonderful,” she said to him.

  Yes, he thought, nuzzling her outstretched hand. I knew you had the strength. He paused. Now, it is time for you to decide.

  Nola flinched visibly. So soon! She must decide between her true love and her heart-friend. How could she do that? She loved them both.

  She took off her cross and pried the stone from its setting. She held the twin stones in her palm, watching the stars move across their surface, praying for a solution. Then she remembered something else, almost with relief. “The dam! I still have to destroy the dam.” Until that was done, her mission here wasn’t over, and she didn’t have to make her choice.

  Curbie trotted up to them, urgency in his voice. “There is something amiss, you see? Something’s not right.”

  “What could be wrong?” Mich asked. “Every Fren is back to normal and everyone’s happy. Nola is about to destroy the dam, so that the River of Thought will flow freely once more, and never again will Kafka suffer.”

  Not so, Heat broke in. I smell something too. It smells like anger.

  Spirit lifted his nose to the breeze. He nodded agreement and began stepping nervously backward. His eyes fixed on a point behind Nola. She instinctively turned.

  Reility was striding toward her. The one Fren they hadn’t accounted for—the worst one. Possibly worse than all the others together. How could she have forgotten about him? “Idiot!” she cursed herself.

  The Fren king was some distance away and seemed to be moving very slowly, as if weak. He carried a crooked stick in his fist. His dead eyes fixed on Nola’s. “I want those stones, you whore!”

  “You got it wrong!” Tina yelled. “She’s not the whore. You are!”

  “Tina!” Nola said. “This is between him and me. Have faith in me.” But she sounded unsure, even to herself.

  She was indeed unsure. But she had to do something. She threw a net over him. He waved the stick over his head and it caught the net, pushing it away. He didn’t even lose step. His evident confidence rattled her further.

  He was getting a little too close. She backed up a few steps and threw a bigger net. He brushed it aside again and left it lying on the ground.

  Mich drew his sword and stepped in front of her.

  “No, Mich,” she said pleadingly. “You will get hurt!”

  “But he’s going to kill you!”

  “No, no. It’s okay. Please, Mich—please let me handle this!” Mich grudgingly sheathed his sword and stepped out of the way.

  She combed her brain, trying to think of a solution, and at the same time trying to fathom how Reility was able to brush her nets away. He shouldn’t be able to affect their magic.

  She tried once more. This time, she threw a load of cement blocks. They fell on top of him. She waited a moment for something to happen. She had seen too many horror movies. This was the part where she would turn her back and he would jump up from the pile of bricks and cut her throat. But nothing happened.

  She approached the pile of rubble. The crumbled bricks did not move, or give any indication that he still lived. She stared a moment. Slowly, she stretched out a hand and touched one of the bricks. Still nothing happened. She flipped one of the bricks off the pile. Nothing. She reached down with both hands.

  A nasty, clawed hand reached up and grasped one of hers. “You see, you inferior creature, I have absorbed your worst without resistance, and been unfazed,” he said. “Now you know you can’t hurt me. But I can hurt you.”

  Nola screamed with terror and tried to pull away. She could not. She tried to pry the dark fingers off her wrist, only to have her free hand captured as well. Reility’s ugly head burst through the shattered pieces of cement and he stared right into her eyes.

  Something in the way he looked at her chilled her to the marrow. Something was so familiar about the way he stared right through her, as if she were nothing more than a bug to be squashed. There was a quality she couldn’t quite grasp. What was it? There was so much evil in that face!

  He squeezed her wrists until she was forced to open her hands. When he saw the shining stones, his eyes got blacker (if that was possible) and he snatched the stones from her flaccid hands.

  Nola was still staring at his eyes. There was something there that she knew and had known for a long time. Her eyes were locked, unblinking, on his, unable to look elsewhere and unable to make a move. For some reason, she was frozen with fear, like a bird before a python.

  He released her and laughed, half to himself. One of the worm warriors approached and attempted to swallow Reility. Dumb move. Reility chopped the creature into a thousand bits before it could engulf him. The tiny pieces lay quivering, unable to reconstruct.

  “Don’t just stand there, Nola! Do something!” Tina shouted. Her voice seemed very distant, and not worth noticing. Nola just stood and stared, frozen.

  Reility stepped closer to the trickle of water that was the River of Thought. He kneeled by the bank. He pressed the twin stones together, back to back. The stars on the stones’ surfaces glowed brightly, then dimmed again, and disappeared completely. The stones became one. It looked very much like a bed spell, with lightning swirling and cracking in its center.

  “You see, you’ve failed, Nola. You’ll always fail! I know! I know you. You know me as well!” he cried as he drowned the stone in the River of Thought.

  There was a loud boom and rays of fine light were shooting up from the water. Reility’s face was covered with a crooked smile and his dark skin was afire with beams of white light. When he lifted out the stone, all that Nola could see was a ball of light, as if he were holding a star in his palm. The ball of light slowly dimmed. However, its light was diffusing into Reility’s body, traveling up his arm, across his evil face, down his legs to his gnarled toes. The light engulfed him, making his body invisible inside a brilliant shell. The light quickly flashed, making the whole area seem as if there were four suns lighting the day. Then the light was gone and everyone stood in awe, mouths agape.

  Nola stared in disbelief at Reality. He was now a human man, taller than she. Worse, he was a human whom she recognized. His stocky body radiated malice; his dark hair, eyes and mustache added to the effect.

  Nola stood frozen as before, her hand over her mouth. She felt Mich begin shaking her shoulders. He had been speaking to her, but she had not heard.

  “Nola! What’s wrong with you?”

  Nola started shaking. “It’s him. It’s John,” she said with a quivering voice. “My nemesis on Earth.”

  Mich had no idea who he was, but obviously, she knew him well and feared him.

  Tina strode up to John. “How in hell did you get here?”

  “I came for Nola.”

  “What do you want with her?”

  “I want her dreams.”

  “Why?” she demanded.

  “She left me to come here. She left me for someone else. Now she’s going to be really sorry.”

  Mich now realized who the man was. He was furious and a desire to do him in overwhelmed him.

  Nola created a sword and pointed it at John. “Not if I can help it,” she said, still trembling. “You’re real now. I can hurt you.”

  He looked in her direction and paid no attention to the sword that was shakingly pointed at his heart. “Hurt me, Nola? Ha! You’re the most spineless bitch I’ve ever known.”

  He pushed away the sword with a wave of his arm. He took a few steps toward her. She took a few steps back.

  Mich place
d himself between Nola and John.

  “No!” Nola said. “This is between him and me. He’ll kill you! Please, don’t get in the way!”

  Mich did not move back, but instead stepped forward aggressively. John drew back and his right fist shot out and hit Mich squarely on the cheek. The blow made a sickening crack and Mich fell to the ground.

  “Oh, no, Mich!” Nola cried. She looked back at John. Her eyes reflected more terror than she ‘d ever felt and they filled with tears. John was the only person or thing that she truly feared. She feared him more than death itself.

  John grinned. He seemed satisfied with Nola’s tears. She knew he was pleased. He was always pleased when she was in pain. She wondered how he got here.

  Nola was not the only one whom he hurt by hurting Mich. Heat felt the sting of the blow in his own face. He galloped up and reared, his chrome hooves slashing at the man. John waved his hand and Heat was gone. A Fren was in his place.

  “Oh, Lord, no!” Tina cried. “Heat!”

  John laughed again. “Failure,” he said, advancing on Nola. She retreated.

  Soon her back was pressed against the dam and she could go no farther.

  John came close and stopped. “Don’t you see, Nola? You are nothing. You thought you had found your true love? You didn’t. You thought you could hide in your dreams? You can’t. I’m the only one who ever cared about you. I knew you were a failure, but I thought you had potential. I was wrong. You are nothing.”

  He turned his back on her and took a few steps, then turned back. “You get it? Now I am going to torture your dreams, just as I did your life. You know what I’m going to do first? I’m going to convert your friend Spirit. Once I convert him, you won’t be able to change him back!”

  Nola sank down, closing her eyes. Her tears fell in her lap. “Please, no,” she mumbled. “Please don’t do that.”

  She felt Spirit’s thoughts in her mind. With them came a warm feeling, unlike any other she ‘d felt from him. There were no words forming in her mind, only a spot of heat. It was the heat of anger. It gave her strength.