Dreaming Ch. 1

Chapter 1: Three Friends

    Incubus is the Kingdom of dreams. It’s an amazing place where they say dreams come to life, you can turn your imagination into reality, and you can determine your destiny. It is led by a girl named Mara, and although she is a little young to be queen, she still is a fair, strong, and kind ruler to her people. Mara was queen because she had an amazing power, called the power to dream.

    The power to dream allowed the one who wielded it to have almost anything they picture in their mind come to life. For example, Mara could picture herself with the ability to fly, and just like that, she can have that ability when she needs it.

    But Mara wasn’t the only one who could wield this power. Her cousin Katelyn, who was a year younger than her, also possessed the ability. And because of this, Mara allowed her cousin to live with her instead of with her family in the town.

    The two cousins got along well, and when Mara wasn’t doing anything important, she helped Katelyn, who recently discovered her powers, learn how to use them.

    One night in Incubus, Katelyn, a young eight-year-old girl at the time, was having a sleepover with two of her friends. It was late, in the wee hours of the morning, and Katelyn was sleeping peacefully in her sleeping bag.

    Until…

    “Katelyn!” an eight-year-old boy’s voice whispered.

    A boy the same age as Katelyn, with light blue eyes, brown hair, and a big nose, shook Katelyn on her shoulder.

    “Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!” he said happily.

    “Mario… go back to sleep…” Katelyn groaned, trying to push her friend off.

    “But we just can’t!” said a second boy’s voice.

    A blue hedgehog at the age of five jumped right next to her.

    “The sky’s awake, so we’re awake. And we have to play!” he said with a fake sigh.

    “Then go play by yourselves,” Katelyn said with a grin.

    She pushed her two friends away and pretended to go back to sleep.

    However, Mario and the blue hedgehog weren’t giving up.

    “You know what to tell her, Sonic,” Mario said with a grin.

    The blue hedgehog nodded. He crawled over to Katelyn and whispered, “Do you wanna make an imaginary friend?”

    Katelyn opened her eyes and smiled. Mario and Sonic smiled back. They knew they got Katelyn to agree to play with them.

    The three of them left the bedroom and quickly, but quietly ran downstairs. They ran all the way to the throne room and shut the door behind them.

    “Katelyn, do the magic! Do the magic!” Mario and Sonic shouted at the same time.

    Katelyn smiled and started to twirl something in her hands. Some colorful dust was forming.

    “Ready?” she asked the boys.

    Mario and Sonic nodded their heads in excitement.

    Katelyn raised her arms and the dust shot at the ceiling. Purple clouds formed and white stars started to shine in the clouds.

    “This is amazing!” cried Mario in excitement.

    “Yay! Our dreams are now reality!” shouted Sonic as he jumped up and down in excitement.

    “Watch this guys!” said Katelyn.

    She stomped her foot on the floor and made it turn into purple clouds as well. All three of the kids began to jump up and down in excitement, as if the clouds made the room a big bounce house.

    Once they were done jumping, the three kids started to draw pictures of some things with regular paper and crayons. When they finished their drawings, Katelyn snapped her fingers, and they brought the drawings to life. One of them was a stuffed animal of a small, purple imp-like creature.

    “Hi! I’m Chip, and I love warm hugs!” Katelyn said, imitating the stuff animal.

    “We love you, Chip!” said Mario and Sonic, as they gave the stuff animal hugs.

    The three of the kids continued to play around, bringing anything they could create in their imagination to life with Katelyn’s powers.

    But their fun wasn’t going to last much longer. At one point, Mario and Sonic suggested that they have a magic fight. The three of them loved this part. Katelyn would make wands for the boys, and she’d shoot blasts of magic with her powers. The three of them got into their game, but it went downhill fast.

    “Sonic, slow down!” Katelyn laughed.

    But Sonic only laughed back. He shot a blast from his wand, but he missed her. Katelyn shot a blast, but to her horror, she hit him in the face!

    “Sonic!” shouted Katelyn.

    She started to run over to him, but after she made it to Sonic, something jumped up from behind her. In a reaction of panic, Katelyn also shot a blast of magic at what jumped up from behind her, but to her horror, she accidently hit Mario on the head to!

    “Mario!” she gasped.

    She tried to shake her unconscious friend, but she watched in horror as a streak of black formed on the left side of Mario’s hair. Katelyn gasped and turned to look at Sonic, who had a black streak on the right side of his quills.

    “Sonic!” she gasped.

    Her powers weren’t supposed to turn anything into a dull, dark color. They were supposed to make things turn colorful and happy, and even bring imagination to life.

    “Mara! Help me!” she cried at the top of her lungs.

    Katelyn hugged Mario and Sonic, sobbing while they were unconscious. As she did, she didn’t notice as everything that she and her friends made with their thoughts turn to the color grey and become cold like ice.

    “It’s okay guys. I’m here,” Katelyn sobbed at her unconscious friends.

    The doors opened, and another girl, who was a year older than Katelyn, came in. It was Katelyn’s cousin, Mara. When she saw Mario and Sonic, Mara gasped.

    “Katelyn, what have you done! This is getting out of hand!” she cried as she ran over.

    “It was an accident!” Katelyn said with tears. She turned to Mario and Sonic, hugged them, and said, “I’m sorry, Mario and Sonic.”

    Mara placed her hands on their foreheads. “They’re cold like ice! This isn’t something from my powers! We must go and visit Toadsworth!” she said.

    Mara snapped her fingers and two horses popped up from out of nowhere. She and Katelyn each got on one horse, with Mara holding onto Mario and Katelyn holding onto Sonic. The two of them rode their horses out of the castle and into the woods, and as they ran, a trail of purple dust followed from Katelyn.

    Out in the woods, two girls were walking back to the campsite they had there. One girl was a human with blonde hair, and she was eight years old. The other was a pink hedgehog at the age of only two years old. Both of them wore regular jeans and torn jackets, holding hands as they walked back to their camp.

    Their names were Peach and Amy Rose. Peach and Amy were roommates at an orphanage in a kingdom farther away, but they both ran away because the lady who looked after them was horrible and treated them badly. Instead of cowering around like the other girls, hopeless waiting to be adopted, Peach decided to run away, and she brought Amy with her, since she was only two years old.

    Despite how young they were, the girls were smart, and they had been fine so far with fending for themselves. Instead of looking for a home in the kingdom, since no one wanted them anyway, they set up a camp in the woods. Accompanying them was a green dinosaur named Yoshi. He found the girls on their own and as a kid himself, he decided to live with them.

    The three friends were walking in the woods when they heard something run right past them from behind. They turned around to see only a trail of purple sparkles on the ground. Peach and Amy knew it was from magic of some sort, and they were fascinated by magic. They wanted to know what it could do and how it could help instead of harm people.

    “Let’s follow it!” said Amy excitedly.

    Yoshi put her and Peach on his back and followed after the trail. Once they reached the end of the trail, they could see a big, field of large mushrooms of some sort. They saw Princess Mara, along with her cousin. Accompanying them was an unconscious boy with brown hair and a blue hedgehog, who were resting on the ground.

    “Please help us! My cousin’s friends need help!” said Mara.

    Suddenly, the mushrooms got up from under the ground, revealing to be little people with Mushroom heads.

    “It’s the princess!” a lot of them gasped or muttered.

    “Mushrooms?” asked Peach.

    “Shush!” said a voice from behind her, Amy, and Yoshi.

    The three turned around to see another Toad, a girl, come up.

    “I want to listen!” she told them.

    “We’ll be quiet. We promise,” said Amy.

    The toad smiled and said, “You’re such sweethearts. I think I’ll keep you. You’ll be good siblings to my little Toad and Toadette.”

    They all watched as an older Toad walked over to Mara and Katelyn. His name was Toadsworth, and he was the oldest and wisest of the Toads.

    “You’re majesty, what has happened her?” he asked Mara.

    “It’s my friends! I was just playing with them, and I accidently struck them in the head with my powers!” Katelyn sobbed.

    Toadsworth looked at the unconscious Mario and unconscious Sonic. He noticed the streaks of black on their heads and said, “You’re lucky that you didn’t strike them in their hearts. The heart can’t be easily changed, but… the head can be persuaded.”

    “Do what you must, please,” said Mara.

    “I recommend that we remove their memories of your powers,” said Toadsworth.

    He pulled out a staff and tapped Mario and Sonic’s heads. A dream cloud that held all the memories of them playing with Katelyn when she used her powers came up. Waving his staff, Toadsworth altered it to make it look like they were playing on a playground and with toys instead of anything they created with their imagination.

    “No need to worry. I will leave the fun,” he said.

    Once he was finished, he moved the dream cloud back to the boys’ heads and tapped their heads again. The dream cloud faded, and still asleep, Mario and Sonic both smiled.

    “They will be okay,” said Toadsworth.

    “But… they won’t remember that I have powers?” asked Katelyn.

    “Sorry cousin, but that’s how it must be,” said Mara.

    “Now, Miss Katelyn, after seeing what you’ve done, I’ve noticed something. It’s about your powers,” said Toadsworth.

    “My powers?” asked Katelyn.

    “Yes. My dear, I’m afraid that you’re not just more powerful than your cousin, but I’ve foreseen trouble based on your powers.”

    “Trouble?” Katelyn asked with a worried look.

    “There is beauty, and amazement in your powers, but also great danger. Anger, hatred, and sadness can cause you to do the opposite with your powers. Instead of bringing joy and happiness, or bringing dreams to life, you will bring despair and emptiness, and turn dreams into nightmares. All this can happen, if you become a shadow of who you really are,” said Toadsworth.

    Katelyn gasped when he explained all of this.

    “You must learn to control this negative affect of your powers, or anger will turn you into your own enemy,” Toadsworth warned.

    “Mara, I can’t turn into that! I can’t! I’ll hurt people!” Katelyn cried.

    “Calm down Katelyn. I know you can learn to control your powers, but until then, things will have to change for the better,” said Mara sadly.