Dream Magic: Awakenings (2 page)

"Yes-yes, stickers please Annie teacher!" Lyle interjected at once.

"All right. You'll get a sticker each, but you'll have to do an excellent job!"

Kyle and Lyle nodded vigorously in agreement.

Annie reached into her pocket, took out two stickers and handed them over. "I almost forgot," she searched her pocket, took out a book and offered it to Eric. "This is for you."

Eric took the book and examined it. The leathery cover felt pleasant to the touch. The words 'Dreamer's Handbook' were written with big letters on the front cover.

"Thank you. What is this?"

"Well, it's a book. A good one. You can look things up if you don't understand something, or you can just read it from beginning to end if you're the studious kind. Just keep it on yourself; you never know when it comes in handy. You can make it fit into any small pocket - Kyle and Lyle will show you how if needed. Are you all ready to go?"

They nodded.

Annie patted Duke, "Take good care of them, okay?"

Duke inclined his head slightly and closed his eyes for a moment longer than usual.

"Off you go! Have fun!"

The three of them slowly climbed on top of Duke. The dog grew to the size of a small horse, alleviating Eric's worries for its well-being. Eric waved goodbye to Annie, and firmly grabbed onto the white fur as Duke started running towards the Playground.

Circles are symbols of wholeness and boundary, but on their own they're too perfectly symmetric to exist in any awareness. Squares are symbols of distance and form, but on their own they are quickly stripped of any meaning by infinities and divided singularities.

The study of circles is zen, and the study of squares is mathematics. Physicists square circles and call them quantum strings, whereas magi circle squares and call it magic.

Imagination in motion gives form to magic - and sphere magic is the most basic tool in a mage's arsenal.

- Key Abstractions of Theoretical Magic,
Dreamer's Handbook

"Stop dragging me."

The sky was full of stars and the starlight weaved its calm and delicate magic. In a much less delicate way, Kyle and Lyle were gripping Eric's hands and dragging him towards a nearby campfire.

"You're too slow! We're not dragging you - you are holding us back!"

Eric opened his mouth to point out the fault in their reasoning, but he closed it without saying anything and resigned to his fate.
There's no point in arguing with people who can out-yell you.
Despite his current predicament, Eric was grateful: true to their word, the boys showed him the many nooks and crannies of the Playground - and they did so at breakneck speed. It was much fun.

"We're here!"

The fire burned with steady red and yellow flames. Two girls were sitting close to each other on the circular bench around the fire: the dark-haired girl was slightly taller than the smiling redhead. As far as Eric could tell, both were about his age.

Kyle dropped his backpack on the bench and gestured for Eric to sit. He cleared his throat in a grandiose manner.

"Dear Lucy, Eric and Rose! Lyle and I have decided that from now on, you three are best friends!"

As Kyle paused for dramatic impact, Eric looked for telltale expressions: the black-haired girl had a mild look of disapproval, while the red-haired girl's eyes sparkled just a bit more. Neither of them said anything, and Eric chuckled.
They too know not to argue with these two forces of nature!

Kyle continued, "To celebrate this magnificent occasion, we have bacon!"

"Really? Where did you get bacon from?" Lyle asked, whispering.

"Yes, really. From Joe. Got some bread too. Maybe we should give him some stickers in exchange," Kyle whispered back.

Lyle nodded. "Let's get sticks for the bacon."

As soon as the brothers departed on their quest to gather pointy sticks of wood, the red-haired girl's smile turned into laughter. It quickly infected the other two and they all burst out laughing.

"Unbelievable!" The dark-haired girl was shaking her head and laughing at the same time.

"The little devils are so hilarious!" The red-haired girl wiped a tear from her face. "Eric, it is very nice to meet you. My name is Rose, and this is Lucy. It's delightful to have new best friends," she chuckled.

"Hello, indeed," replied Eric with a shy smile. He spent a heartbeat searching for other words to say. "Have you been in Dream Camp for long?"

"Not too long," Rose said. "I was here first, and the two of us met at the Playground few days ago."

Lucy nodded.

"Most of the kids there are younger than us," Rose continued. "The deeper you go into the Playground, the younger they are. It's fun to play with toddlers; their dreams are shiny and they're so awed by everything... but... it gets boring after a while."

"Quite boring," Lucy affirmed.

"When we met, we decided to team up and look for something more interesting to do... How about you? When did you get here?" Rose asked.

"Recently, I think. I was in a nightmare being chased, and then..." Eric was interrupted by a loud chanting noise.

"Ba-con! Ba-con! Ba-con! Ba-con!"

The brothers returned with a huge pile of pruned and sharpened sticks. "Turns out there was already a bundle just over there," Lyle said with a mixture of triumph and sheepishness. "Let's eat bacon! Ba-con! Ba-con! Ba-con!"

Lucy smiled and Rose rolled her eyes.

Bacon trumps conversation.
Eric realized that some facts of life just have to be accepted at face value and joined in on the chanting.

* * *

Things simmered down considerably after the food disappeared completely into the bellies of the bacon fellowship. Kyle and Lyle were mucking around with their stickers, and the others were able to maintain a conversation without being interrupted by too many loud noises.

"Classes?! What do you mean, 'classes'?"

Eric felt his sense of balance tip unpleasantly.
I spend my days in school; I don't want to spend my nights dreaming about them too!
Eric didn't exactly hate school: his grades were good and he loved learning together with friends. However, what he didn't like was memorizing things he would happily forget the next day - that was just meaningless and boring.
Dreaming about school is a special kind of nightmare altogether.

"Don't worry, you don't have to attend. We sure don't..." Lyle said without looking up.

"It's true," Lucy said. "There are classes, but there's no school: no grades, no requirement to attend, and anyone can start a class if they have something to offer. Let me just check..."

Lucy pulled out her copy of the Dreamer's Handbook and flipped a few pages. "Yes, it's here in the introduction: no tests either except for the three nightmare classes. If you pass the final test you may visit the Outpost or go on missions to help others battle their nightmares."

Battling nightmares?
Now that was more like it! That was a thought that spoke to Eric's warrior spirit and made his blood boil! The not-too-distant memory of running from jagged goblin teeth was still a sore spot; a thorn in his side...

"Look!"

Kyle brushed away his stickers and held up his handbook. A big sticker with the words 'assistant teacher' dominated the back cover. "We got it from Mr. Smith for helping with the advanced nightmare class!"

He flipped through the back pages of the book, showing off a multitude of affixed stickers, many of them labeled 'mischief'. Even lines of text from the last chapter have fallen prey to the invasion of stickers.

Lucy nodded. "Assistant teacher, impressive!"

"Are all the adults here teachers?" Eric asked.

Rose shrugged, and Lucy looked to Kyle.

"No," Kyle said, "but, those who aren't... I think something is wrong with them."

"Like that ghost we saw, right?" Lyle asked.

Kyle nodded reluctantly. "Adult students occasionally attend some of the classes, and those adults talk and behave like normal adults do. Rarely, we see adults who are just walking around and not paying attention to anything - it's like they don't believe they're really here or something."

Lyle jumped up with an excited expression and pointed at Lucy. "I remember! Joe said they have been Lucy-ed!"

Kyle frowned. "He said 'lucid', it's a word. He said those adults aren't lucid enough. They just walk around and then they're gone." He shook his head. "Poor adults, something must be really wrong with them."

"I see," Eric said.

Adults often act like they know everything, but Eric had a growing suspicion that they don't really know all that much.
They just pretend to know.
Many times when he asked a question, he was told the question is stupid and to shut up. In the beginning, he thought it was his fault for asking stupid questions, but sometimes other adults did give answers that made sense and then the questions didn't look stupid at all.
So why tell me to shut up? Even if I'm stupid, how should I get smarter without asking questions?

Eric's contemplative mood was broken by Rose.

"You know... I already went to one class," Rose said.

"Really? How come you didn't tell me?" Lucy asked.

Rose shrugged. "It didn't come up and you didn't ask."

Lucy and Eric looked at her attentively, encouraging her to continue the story.

"Well, it was sphere magic class. The teacher talked on and on... it was interesting, but I forgot most of what he said. I know sphere magic is the most rudimental of all magic - once you shape a magic sphere you can make fireballs and whatnot out of it."

"I remember reading about this..." Lucy consulted her book. "Got it! Page 23. 'Sphere magic forms the basis of all of the following magical techniques or disciplines, but is not limited to them: fire, water, air, earth magic and all secondary as well as tertiary elemental magic (e.g. storm or lava magic), portal magic, focus magic, elementary healing, basic conjuration, time travel, protective magic, transformation and transmutation...' Wow, the list goes on for more than half a page." Lucy looked up from the book. "Sorry, please continue."

Sounds exciting
, Eric thought. Kyle gave a long yawn.

"Yeah, that," Rose confirmed. "Anyway, here's how I understand it."

Rose picked a twig out of the fire. "This point is imagination," she pointed to the smoldering tip, "and this is movement." She waved the twig around fast, and short, fiery, curving lines became visible. "When you move imagination very fast, you give shape to magic." This time she waved the twig very fast in a circular motion, and a seemingly unmoving fiery circle appeared. Rose continued with that motion for a while, after which she put the twig down. "My arm is getting tired, but I hope you get the idea. A circle is a basic stable shape and so is a sphere."

Kyle and Lyle grabbed sticks of their own and began mimicking the motion. Lucy and Eric nodded reluctantly.

"It's not that hard, but so far I've succeeded in creating a magic sphere only for a short while. Do you want to see it?" Rose asked.

"Of course! Yes! Sure!" They answered at once.

"All right."

Rose stretched her arms and straightened her posture. She lowered her hands into her lap, palms facing upwards one over the other, and took three deep and long breaths.

Kyle and Lyle put down the twigs. They watched Rose attentively, waiting for the magic to appear. Only the crackling of the fire and a faint chirp of crickets could be heard.

Eric rubbed his eyes, but he couldn't yet see anything. As time passed, everyone assumed the relaxed pattern of Rose's breathing.
There!
Eric thought he saw a faint blue light above her palms, but wasn't sure until it expanded into a small blue globe of light. The watchers held their breath; Lyle even bit on his lip. The sphere turned, rotated and grew a bit more... but after a few heartbeats it turned into magical mist and dissipated.

"Whoa! One more time!" Kyle and Lyle started clapping vigorously, and were joined by Lucy and Eric.

Rose smiled wearily. "Thanks. I don't think I can do it again so soon. It's not hard, but it takes a lot of concentration and I need to train a lot more... Well, you know what? I can teach you and then we could train together if you want."

Fervent nodding was the group's response.

"Okay."

Rose extended her left hand in front of her, palm up, and pointed at it from above with her right hand. "So, just imagine a little blue point at the tip of my finger." She slowly started making a circular motion with her index finger. "Just one little point."

I hope this works
, Eric thought.

Lyle clenched his fists and his face contorted a little as he concentrated.

A short, thin line of starlight appeared to follow the tip of Rose's finger. "Great! Now let's do it with more speed!" She waved her finger a bit faster and the blue line strengthened and became longer. "Even more speed!" The end of the line reached its beginning - the line became a glowing circle.

"I'm going to take my hand away now, but you keep concentrating on it." She did, and the small circle of magical energy remained floating above the palm of her left hand. "Okay, this was the easy part, but we're not done yet. Now we'll have to make many more circles and put them together."

"Keep concentrating on this one, but also follow the tip of my finger as we make another circle." Rose moved her left hand a bit to the side, and with her right hand she started pointing away from herself then back in a circular motion. A magical circle appeared obediently as the group got the hang of it. She waited a little, and then gently pushed the new circle onto the old one. "Next one!" The third circle came into view as she was waving from left to right, and then combined it with the other two. "It's starting to look like a sphere, nice work so far!"

After nine more circles, Eric tried to keep blinking down to a minimum - lest the magic goes away if he's not looking. His thoughts and feelings were flowing along the lines of the many circles he was observing. He never concentrated so deeply in his life before.