Adam's Apples
"Nothing can hurt you in Dream Doors," Adam heard the words clearly in his mind and he found courage in them. His eyes narrowed in determination as he took the dream doodler from its holster.
Zonia was not so sure. She had not heard the voice, and held tightly to the thick fur on Toby's neck. The tiger moved forward to put himself between the children and the floating hooded figures that moved forward, their robed arms outstretched eerily, their bony white fingers reaching, grabbing.
"The apples are important, ...very important," the voice said again in Adam's mind. "You must think of the apples...seven apples ... before you push the 'DREAM DRAW' button!"
The groaning, hooded beings almost touched them. Now, Adam and Zonia could see their ghostly faces within the hoods. Skull-like faces with black holes where the eyes should be. Sharp white teeth gnashing to get at them.
"Think apples," Adam remembered the voice saying. "Seven apples!"
Adam shut his eyes, then pressed the "DREAM DRAW" button, waving the dream doodler in the air. "Quick, into the dream drawing!" Adam shouted, pulling his sister by her arm as he charged through the opening that had appeared in midair.
Toby led the way, powerfully tugging Adam, who held Toby's long, thick tail with one hand and his sister's arm with the other.
Their new surroundings, when they had passed through the dream drawing portal, were dark. Very dark. Only the tiger could see well enough to avoid bumping into the rocky sides of the dark place.
"Stay close." Adam said. He need not have worried. Zonia clutched him so tightly she nearly squeezed the breath from him.
"Where are we now?" Zonia asked with trembling in her voice.
"It's a cave, I think," Adam answered. "I sure wish we had a light."
The dream doodler! Of course. Adam again took it from the holster, pushed the "DREAM DRAW" button, and waved the instrument.
A small opening appeared brightly in the darkness of the cave and Adam reached his hand through the portal.
"A light!" he said happily as he withdrew a large flashlight.
Toby watched curiously as Adam turned on the powerful beam and moved it over the walls and floor of the cave. "Come on...Let's see where this leads and don't worry, I'll draw us out of this place if I have to," Adam said with the confidence of an experienced Dream Door explorer.
The three made their way slowly and carefully farther into the cave. The big shaft of light lit up the shadowy, jagged sides and the rocky floor while they walked through the twisting and turning pathway.
After a few minutes of winding their way through the small tunnel, they stepped into a big cavern. When the flashlight beam hit the ceiling of the cavern, the whole room seemed to fill with thunderous flapping sights and sounds. Zonia grabbed Adam, nearly knocking the flashlight from his hands.
"It's just bats," he said, trying to make his sister and himself feel less frightened.
Toby snarled a surprised snarl, his head jerking back and forth as he watched the hundreds of bats flap their way out of the cavern until all was quiet again.
Adam and his sister had never known about being afraid. Adam remembered reading and hearing stories about children in the Trouble Time and the Before Time and the many things there were that might harm them. But he and Zonia and the other children of New Eden time had no need to fear anything. The brightons had often told the children that the Great King had changed everything for the better since the Trouble Time and the Before Time.
Dream Doors, the brightons had told Adam and the other children, were for learning about other places and other times...ancient times...and what things were like for children of those times. There was no reason to be afraid, ever, the brightons always had assured them. The Great King would never allow harm to come to the children of New Eden time. Dream Doors were sometimes a bit scary perhaps-but never dangerous.
The remembered words of the brightons reassured Adam, who repeated them out loud. "The Great King will protect us always, Zonia. Our lighton is with us."
His sister relaxed her grip on his arm, but squeezed Toby's fur just a bit tighter with her other hand. Zonia had not had the Dream Door Adventures talk from the brightons yet, but she trusted her brother who led the way, shining the light in the direction he thought the bats had left the cavern.
"There must be a way out through another opening," Adam said, walking toward a hole that was about the size of the hole through which they had entered the cavern. Adam went in first, followed by Zonia, then Toby. Soon the tunnel narrowed till it was barely big enough for the big cat to crawl through on his stomach. Finally, they came out on the other side of the narrow crawlway into another cavern. This one was much smaller than the one with the bats.
"Look! Up there!" Adam pointed the light at the ceiling of the cavern. "There's the opening that the bats flew through."
"How will we be able to get up to that hole? It's really high," Zonia said, looking around the tall, walled cavern. "There isn't anyplace else to go...there aren't any more tunnels we can go through."
Adam again shined the flashlight around the walls of the cavern. Zonia was right; there was only one way out, and that was up through the roof of the cave.
He could push the "DREAM DRAW" button and create another dream drawing through which they could escape. Something in the back of his mind told him to explore this hole in the roof. If he drew another portal drawing for them, he was not sure where it would lead. He must try to get out through the hole in the roof.
"Think about a ladder," Adam heard the voice say in almost a whisper. "You need a ladder."
"A ladder!" Adam said with enthusiasm. "That's what we need, a ladder!"
"Where are we going to get a ladder?" Zonia said with just a bit of irritation in her voice.
Adam, ignoring his sister's question, said, "Let's see if this will work." He took the dream doodler from its holster. He shut his eyes and pointed it at the hole in the roof of the cavern. He made several strokes up and down with the dream doodler, then opened his eyes.
"Look! It's a ladder!" Zonia said happily. "A ladder going all the way from the bottom to the top...but what about Toby?"
Zonia was right again. The heavy tiger would never be able to climb the ladder. Not a ladder that was straight up and down like this one. "I'll fix that!" Adam said, shutting his eyes and pointing the dream doodler again at the opening in the ceiling. After several more strokes up and down, the ladder changed form. It became a stairway with wide steps that led from the floor of the cavern to one side of the hole.
Zonia clapped her hands and giggled approval. "Quantum!" she said, hugging Toby. "Now you can climb out with us." Toby looked at the staircase, which had changed from its previous form as a ladder and snarled a snarl of approval.
"Of course...I could've dream doodled him and us through that hole if I had wanted to," Adam said, talking to himself more than to Zonia.
When the children and the tiger had crawled through the opening and onto the top of the gigantic boulder that was the roof of the cave, they looked back into the hole they had just left. They watched the staircase vanish.
Suddenly, sounds from behind them startled them. They heard voices of many children talking excitedly in hushed tones, then becoming quiet.
Adam, Zonia and Toby stood staring at the group of children that stood staring back at them. The children backed away from Adam, his sister and their tiger, their eyes wide with fear.
Adam and Zonia had never seen children wearing clothing like this. Instead of pants, shirts and shoes, they wore cloth that covered them from shoulders to feet. But they were children just like them; that was easy enough to see.
"Why are you afraid? Don't be afraid of us..." Adam said in a friendly voice. "We won't hurt you."
Toby snarled a friendly snarl. But the children, whose eyes and mouths widened with fear, began to run in all directions.
Toby cocked his head curiously, his long tail twitching. The tiger looked at Adam and cocked his head again.
"I don't know what's wrong with them," Adam said to the cat, who he knew was wanting to know why the children scattered in all directions.