SLEEPING BEAUTIES: DREAM LOG

[yourkeepers]

Bewitched by the thorn's touch, you have been ensnared in the deepest of sleep. Fortunately for you, the world of Faerie doesn't end with the waking.

The world of your dreams is brighter now, more clear than you've ever witnessed it. You've been it before, you think, there fragments of yourself become reality. But now you are somehow more lucid in its presence, and it's more real - something you can reach out and touch.

You find yourself in this world, and you are not alone. Your dreams and those of other join at the edges, pulling into each other along similar threads.

And you are watched by something even greater.

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[intothehedge]

"I think I'm like you," she says. "I must be. I'm a servant to the Keeper." She hesitates at the second part. "And...I don't think the others left, so much as I was separated from them. We were separated, and for good reason."

[creased]

She leans forward, grabbing a hold of a branch above to keep from falling off her perch. "What happened?"

[intothehedge]

"The other dreamer here with me...she's a terrible witch," he says, sadness in her eyes. "I've been trying to keep her from harming anyone else for a long time, but I haven't been able to stop her. Not by myself."

[creased]

"Couldn't she have been sealed off by herself?" It seems like the obvious solution to the book, though she isn't sure why. "It's good you're here now, I'm happy to meet you, but you must have had better things to do."

She frowns, thoughtful. "What does she do? Is there any way I could help?" The offer's genuine, but she's also trying to find ways of defending herself against the witch without admitting that she's concerned.

[intothehedge]

"Well...I'm pretty sure I'm the only reason she is sealed her. I protect and nurture dreams. It's what I'm for," she says with a little shrug, the most natural thing in the world.

"She feeds off of others. She's cruel to their minds and their souls. Who knows how many people she would have hurt by now if I hadn't been here."

[creased]

"You're made for dreaming?" The book's a little jealous, that sounds like a much more exciting purpose than being read, even if it has trapped her here.

But she's getting distracted, and self-preservation's a bit more important than her job description. She shakes her head. "How does she do that? Would you know if it were happening to you? Are you the only one who can stop her?"

[intothehedge]

"I...don't know," she says after a moment. "Anyone can alter the dreamscape, but she is more powerful than any individual dreamer. She can change what you see, and by doing so she can poison your mind. Most people would never get the chance to understand what was happening to them. So that's why the Keeper needed a protector like me!"

[creased]

'Most people' isn't all, and the book feels strangely certain that she'll be able to tell what's happening, even if she might not be able to do anything about it. Yet.

The intensity of her gaze lessens and her speech becomes more conversational, less interrogative. "So we don't need to worry, right? With you here." She smiles and asks, "Can I change the dreams too?"

[intothehedge]

She smiles, encouragingly.

"You can, yes! It just takes practice, and time. Anyone can become a more powerful dreamer if they put their mind to it. I could even show you a few things, if you can find your way here again."