The Mantle of the Dreaming

"Grab hold, son!" he heard Eranumaris call. Fred looked down to see the white mole, a blur of scrabbling claws fighting to descend deeper. A long furry tail reached out invitingly to Fred. Without thought he grasped its end, and felt a jolt as Eranumaris pulled him along with surprising ease.

Breathing a long sigh of relief, Fred looked around in confusion. He had expected to be caked in dirt by now, but it was not soil that they were digging a path through. All around him was a massive, bizarre array of objects, symbols, textures and sensations. He could smell tar, mixed with bluebells and strong whisky. He could see an seemingly infinite number of seemingly random objects swirling in the darkness surrounding him - a child's cot, half a skull, a gameboard of some description, a rabbit, a puddle of dark purple liquid, three bottles tied together with a belt, amongst a million others. He could hear so many noises - laughing, crying, wheels on stone, thunder, purring, flapping - so many.....

"Eranumaris, where are we?" yelled Fred above the din of sounds.
"This is the Mantle of the Dreaming!" replied Eranumaris, his voice strangely clear against the background of noise accompanying this bizarre place. "Everything that has ever been dreamt of, you'll find here. And it gets bigger every day, which is why it takes so damned long to get through."

Fred had to twist to the side to avoid being hit by a passing urn. As it whizzed past his ear, he could have sworn he heard something screaming inside it. "What do you mean, 'get through'? Where are we going?" he asked urgently.

"To the Core, my son! To my brothers!" cried Eranumaris, with a hint of triumph in his voice.

Just then, Fred heard an enormous !CRASH! behind him. Adjusting his grip on Eranumaris's tail he twisted round to look behind him and gasped. An gigantic metallic beast was tearing its way through the dreamstuff towards them. It was lizard shaped, with rusted, silvery scales. Its jaw was filled with razor sharp teeth, which it gnashed ceaselessly. With every sweep of its steel claws, countless items flew to the side, smashing into other objects, creating a devastating chain reaction. Its glowing red eyes emitted thin beams of orange light, and the beams were fixed on Fred.

"There's something behind us!" screamed Fred, barely able to raise his voice above the infernal cacophony of collisions now occurring amongst the dreamstuff.
"Nightmare!" called Eranumaris calmly. "Feels like a big one, hold on son!". The mole's frantic scrabbling somehow increased speed, and Fred had to grip with both tired hands as they flew forward, bashing anything imaginable out of their path. But still the nightmare pursued, gaining inch after inch, until its slashing claws were just feet away from Fred's own feet. Random objects flew in every direction at horrible speeds - a quail, a severed fist holding a ruby, a coin with three sides, a solid cloud, a tiny woman in a crystal bucket, a toenail, a pipe, a pile of sand, a broken wand, a dying tree.....

"Eranum....!" Fred began to scream as the left claw descended upon him, but he was cut short as Eranumaris took a sharp right turn, flinging Fred in a huge circle. The claw whistled past Fred's leg, smashing a ship's wheel into useless firewood. Fred tumbled around, holding on now by just a few fingers, his body getting battered by the dreamstuff that seemed determined to hit him in every place. He caught a glimpse of the metal nightmare, red eyes betraying a sense of shock as its own momentum sent it careening out of control.....into the mouth of an even larger creature, a disgusting green ball of slime with over twenty tentacles.

"Nightmares! There's always a worse one!" laughed Eranumaris, righting himself again. Fred guffawed with utter relief, drenched in sweat and covered in bruises. "I can't hold on much longer!" he yelled as he swapped hands yet again.
"No need to, Fred!" came the reply.

1. And just like that, they had reached the Core.

Go Back

View Forward Story Tree
View Back Story Tree