Although Keegan had said he would find me, I still felt a bit scared going to bed that night. I told myself Keegan wouldn’t let anything horrible happen to me and tried to go to sleep.

  Five minutes went by. Then ten. Then an hour. I could not get to sleep. The harder I tried, the more awake I felt. I kept checking the clock on my phone, knowing that Keegan was probably searching for me.

  Finally, after lying in bed for three hours, I tiptoed downstairs and into the living room. I turned on the television as I flopped onto the couch and found a commercial of someone selling knives.

  ‘This ought to be boring enough to put me to sleep,’ I thought. I watched as a man sliced effortlessly through a tomato, sawed through a can, then sliced another tomato. He fileted a fish with just two swift cuts of another knife. He chopped up carrots, cut through cheese, peeled a cucumber… The tv sounds blurred as I fell asleep.

  “Maria, what are you doing down here? Did you sleep down here all night?” Mom’s voice woke me up.

  I opened my eyes slowly. I was lying on the couch. The television had turned itself off.

  I groaned and sat up. I hadn’t dreamt all night.

  Mom was making Saturday morning pancakes. I sat down at the table with Dad.

  “This is different,” he said. “You’re not usually up this early on Saturday morning.”

  “I fell asleep on the couch, and Mom woke me up when she came downstairs.”

  “Well, it’s nice to have you at breakfast. You should join us more often,” he teased.

  “If you ate later in the day, I would,” I returned.

  All morning I did odd tasks, helping Mom clean the house. I felt restless and started getting a little worried. What if something had happened to Keegan? Was he in danger every night?

  Finally, after a late lunch, my phone rang.

  "Hey, Ria, are you okay?" Keegan's voice was tense, concerned.

  “Yeah, I’m fine.” I paused for a long moment before asking, “Is everything alright?”

  “Yeah, I just couldn’t find you last night. I looked everywhere.”

  “I couldn’t go to sleep last night, and when I finally did, I didn’t Dream at all.”

  “I forgot you were so new at this. You can’t control whether you Dream or not?”

  “No,” I replied, surprised. “Can you?”

  “I can always make myself Dream if I want to. It’s harder to stop Dreaming, but I’m getting better at it.”

  “Keegan, what if dying in the ship Dream kicked me out of Dreamwalking?” I asked, surprised that I felt disappointed by the idea.

  “It didn’t,” Keegan said, laughing a bit. “You just needed some real sleep. You don’t actually get any when you’re Dreamwalking. Haven’t you been exhausted lately?”

  “I really really have,” I laughed.

  That night I went to bed early again, hoping I would be rested enough to actually Dream.

  “You came back!”

  The delighted voice was coming from somewhere nearby. I opened my eyes, squinting in the bright sunlight at the vast field of strange plants. They seemed much taller than they had the last time. I could barely see over them, but I could tell that I was in the exact spot that I had been the last time just before I woke up.

  Soren was standing nearby, grinning his impish smile.

  I smiled at him and sat up. “Of course I came back,” I said. “I wanted to see you again.”

  Soren’s eyes twinkled with mischief. “No,” he corrected. “I wanted to see you again, so I knew you would be back.”

  I remembered what Cyntia had yelled at him last time, about pulling in Dreamwalkers, and I figured it was Soren who had pulled me into this Dreamworld.

  Suddenly there was a loud sound like a gust of wind nearby, then footsteps coming towards us. I felt a spasm of fear as I looked around, expecting to see a Changeling.

  “It’s okay,” Soren said, “It’s not the Changelings. Almost as bad, though. It’s that Pirate.” His eyes narrowed as he glared towards the sound.

  I was surprised to see Keegan pushing the tall plants aside as he walked towards us through the field. In this world he looked much more like himself, hair curly around his face, but not too long. He was wearing dark brown pants and a green shirt.

  “I know him,” I said to Soren, getting to my feet and brushing off my black pants and red top.

  Soren looked surprised. “How?”

  “From the real world,” I said.

  “Oh. Well, you should be careful. He’s dangerous here. He came here looking for you a couple of weeks ago,” Soren said. “I told him he couldn’t take you.”

  “A couple of weeks ago?”

  “It was probably just last night in the Waking World,” Soren said.

  By this time, Keegan had reached us.

  “You still can’t take her,” Soren said, his voice firm, moving to stand in front of me.

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  “Not that it’s any of your business,” Keegan said, his eyes hard, “but I’m just taking her for a drive. I would never hurt her.”

  Soren’s mouth turned into a frown.

  “Look, I’ll even bring her back before the end of the night,” said Keegan. “You can see for yourself.”

  “It’s okay,” I interjected, speaking to Soren. “I want to go with him.”

  Soren looked at me like I was a foolish child. Finally he shrugged. “It’s your Dreams.”

  “Thanks, Soren,” I said. “It will be fine.”

  Keegan took my hand and closed his eyes. The world around us started to spin and everything started to get dark. I was worried I was waking up.

  Then, all at once, the spinning stopped. It was pitch black except for thousands of tiny, sparkling orbs that were floating all around us. They looked like a million stars in the night sky.

  “This is incredible!” I whispered. “What are they?”

  “Dreams,” Keegan said, reaching his hand out towards the orbs. It looked like he was brushing them aside. They started slowly rotating around us. Keegan squinted at the stars as they floated gently by. Finally he reached out and touched one of the lights. As soon as his hand touched it, the spinning started again. This time when it stopped we were surrounded by a desert landscape. The ground was a rich, orange-red color and stretched out flat for as far as I could see in any direction. There was not a single cloud in the deep blue sky above us. The sun beat down fiercely, and only a slight breeze kept it from being unbearably hot.

  “What was that all about?” I asked. “With Soren.”

  "I’d rather not talk about it,” he said, gruffly, visibly tensing.

  A deep, rumbling sound of powerful engines came from far away, moving towards us. Within seconds, two cars had come to a stop in front of us. The engines died, and I was surprised to see that there were no drivers in the cars, until I remembered it was a dream.

  “I told Soren we were going for a drive,” Keegan said, smiling. “There’s your car.”

  I couldn’t help it; I squealed a little and clapped my hands. It was so beautiful! I let my hand gently trail along the black car as I walked to the driver’s side.

  “Do you like it?” Keegan asked, his eyes shining with enthusiasm.

  “I love it!” I said. Everything on the inside of the car was black and red. I slid easily into the driver’s seat, breathing in the new-car smell.

  Keegan grinned. “Don’t forget to buckle up,” he said.

  I pulled the seatbelt around me and clicked it into place. I slowly reached out and pressed the start button.

  The car roared to life underneath me. I could feel the engine’s vibrations throughout my whole body, and a thrill ran through me. This was just what I needed to take my mind off of things. I revved the engine, and carefully moved the gear shift from park to drive. I glanced over at Keegan and nodded, both of my hands on the steering wheel.

  He grinned at me.

  And then he was gone, tearing down the road.

  “Good grief,” I muttered, amazed at how fast his car went and feeling a growing sense of excitement.

  I cautiously pressed the gas pedal, and the car effortlessly raced forward, the landscape flying by faster and faster. I glanced at the speedometer. The needle was already nearing a hundred miles per hour. Keegan’s car was still far ahead of mine, so I threw caution to the wind and slammed the gas pedal to the ground.

  The car leaped forward. I could hear the gears shifting as the car went faster and faster. The speedometer needle hit two hundred and hovered there. I laughed out loud. It was the most exhilarating thing I had ever experienced.

  As the road wound towards a forest, Keegan slowed down and pointed at a road sign indicating a series of turns coming up.

  Sunlight speckled the road, flickering through the leaves above, and reflecting off puddles of water. The smell of dirt and rain hung on the damp air.

  After a few minutes, the trees began thinning, the sun blazed down, and the winding country road we were on turned into a four-lane highway, wide and straight. Ahead I could see skyscrapers jutting up into the sky, their glass sides gleaming in the sunlight.

  Keegan sped up, and I pressed the gas to catch up to him. As I came to the first of the cars, my speedometer read one hundred twenty. I gritted my teeth and swerved into traffic. I narrowly missed hitting a car, and glanced into it with an apologetic look. It was driving along, empty.

  “Creepy,” I said, but felt better. At least I wouldn’t get anyone else killed. Hopefully I would just wake up if I was in a terrible accident. I sped up until I was parallel to Keegan. I looked over at him, smiled, and floored the gas pedal, and the cars I was swerving to miss became a blur.

  I heard Keegan’s engine roar behind me. Try as I might to stay ahead, he caught up and passed me, waving as he went by. His turn signal came on, and a few seconds later, he flew up an exit ramp. I followed him, and saw that we were on the empty desert road again.

  We took our time coming to a stop. I threw my car into park and killed the engine.

  Keegan turned off his car, got out and leaned against the side. “Well, what did you think?” he asked.

  I tumbled out of my car, legs a bit shaky, ran to him and threw my arms around him. “That was amazing!” I said, breathless, before realizing what I was doing and taking several big steps back from him.

  Keegan’s eyes widened a bit at my reaction, but then he smiled. “Well, I had better take you back to see Soren before the night is over. Real world time moves pretty quickly when you’re in this dream.”

  “Okay,” I said reluctantly, not sure I wanted to leave this Dream quite yet.

  “We can come back, you know,” said Keegan, guessing what I was thinking. “Besides, there are a lot of other things we can do.”

  I laughed. “Okay. I’m ready then. Let’s go see Soren. Prove to him you’re not some big bad pirate.”

  As soon as I said it, Keegan’s face fell. He quietly took my hand. This time we disappeared without the spinning, and immediately the orbs appeared. I tried to look into the spheres. Occasionally I could just make out a face or a landscape as they spun past us.

  “How can you tell which one is which?” I asked.

  Keegan shrugged. “I just concentrate on which world I want. Then that orb seems to shine more brightly than the others.”

  The orbs spun around us for a few more moments. Keegan pointed. “Do you see? That one is Soren’s world, Wendellia.”

  “It looks exactly like all the other ones to me,” I said.

  “I guess it’s just part of the Shifting.” Keegan reached out and seconds later we were spinning into Wendellia. Soren was sitting right where we had left him.

  “That was two weeks, Pirate,” Soren said.

  “You know how dream time is,” Keegan retorted. “I told you I would bring her back, and I did.”

  “Two weeks?” I asked, somewhat astonished. “How long have we been asleep?”

  “Not even a whole night, in the real world,” said Keegan reassuringly. “Time goes by incredibly fast here.”

  I looked down at Soren. “How long have you been sitting there?”

  “Just a few minutes,” he shrugged. “I could feel when you were coming.”

  “How do you do that?” I asked.

  Soren looked at me for a long time, and his eyes seemed to grow old and sad. Suddenly, I was overwhelmed by a feeling of sorrow so intense that it brought tears to my eyes. I gasped and quickly wiped them away.

  “What is it, Ria? What’s wrong?” asked Keegan, concern filling his voice.

  I just shook my head. I wasn’t sure what was going on or why I felt this way.

  “It’s her gift. Her power,” said Soren quietly.

  “I don’t understand,” said Keegan.

  “She can feel the emotions of others. I quit blocking her for just a second,” he said, still looking into my eyes.

  “But why are you so sad?” I asked, my voice breaking. The overwhelming feeling was gone, but I could still feel the aftereffects of such a strong emotion. I could barely control my tears.

  Soren looked at me for just a moment more, then turned to look at Keegan. Keegan stared back defiantly for just a moment before dropping his gaze. Soren seemed to come to a decision. “Follow me,” he said, standing up.

  Keegan and I walked quickly behind him without saying anything. Soren led us through the field, through the line of trees, and across the pathway. A little distance away, in another field was a cluster of fruit trees. He walked into these, and sat down on a large boulder that was in the middle of the grove.

  He motioned for us to sit on the ground. We both sat down and looked up at him. He was silent for a few seconds, with a faraway look in his eyes. Then he said, in a voice that was far too old for his apparent ten years, “It is time for me to tell you my story.”