Sean awoke to the sound of birds. He sat up and stretched, wondering what awaited him in this dream.

He looked around, surveying his surroundings. The dream looked pleasant. He thought he heard the tinkling of bells in the distance. There was a shallow river nearby, close to the shade tree he laid under. It was shaped like a willow, but the tree's bark was sky blue, and instead of leaves it had gumballs.

Sean picked one off a low hanging branch. This is obviously a child's dream, he thought, but where's the kid? He stood up and ducked under the gumball tree's low limbs. There was a forest just across the river that was filled with trees of all colors and candies.

Peering through the trees, Sean found his answer. In a clearing he saw a little boy, about six or seven years old and clutching a stuffed bear (the dreamer, he presumed). The child was slowly backing away from something with a look of pure fear on his face. Sean followed his gaze to a group of terrors he knew all too well.

The monstrosities were a towering eight feet tall and covered in slimy, deep gray skin. They were bipedal, but their knees bent backwards, giving their long, slender legs an unnatural bend. The beasts had glowing red spikes protruding from their torsos in random places. Their arms were protracted, dragging the ground as the hellions approached the poor child. The arms tapered into three terrifying extremities that could be called fingers, but more closely resembled jet black talons. The worst part of these creatures, however, was their faces; the gray skin stretched tightly to show the horrid contortions of the miscreation's skulls. In the center of each face was a ghastly red eye about the size of Sean's hand. The pupils were thin, like snakes, but once their gaze pierced your mind, you never forgot them.

"Slyveth," Sean muttered under his breath. He had encountered these freaks in a dream long ago, back before he was experienced in dream walking. He had woken up what looked like an alien spaceship, and almost immediately rounded a corner right into the lanky arms of one of the Slyveth. He was taken to what he imagined was the bridge of the ship, a room full of blinking lights and computer monitors and more of the fiends than he ever needed to see. The Slyveth led him before a throne of sorts and forced him onto his knees. The beast atop the throne was different than the others: it was twice as tall and at least a hundred times as creepy. As hard as he tried, Sean couldn't shove the memory of that Slyveth's leer from his mind.

In a moment of panic, Sean jumped up and jabbed the Slyveth that had captured him in its huge eyeball, causing it to emit a low, rumbling groan of pain. It doubled over, clutching its eye, and Sean took off. His legs carried him through the labyrinth of hallways so quickly that everything seemed a blur of gray. Somehow he managed to escape the dream....

Sean shook the memory from his head. He needed all his focus if he was going to outfox the Slyveth again. Taking a deep breath, he stepped out from his cover and slinked behind the nearest beast. Before any of the Slyveth could register his presence, Sean threw all his weight into his leg, which crashed into the back of the behemoth's knee. It fell with a muffled grunt of surprise. Quick as a wink, Sean tore a gumball-covered branch from a tree and drove it deep into the fallen eye of the fallen monster. A terrible sound, like nails on a chalkboard, pierced his ears.

Another Slyveth's talons latched on to Sean's bicep and held tight, slicing into his arm. Sean winced and twisted his arm free from the creature, his blood flowing down his arm and dripping to the ground. He ducked as the Slyveth swung at him, dodging a blow that would have broken his ribs. As he turned to attack the second Slyveth, Sean saw the last one advancing toward the child, who was frozen with fear.

Sean ran at the beast and tackled it with all his might, knocking the Slyveth to the ground. He began pummeling its eye, knowing that to be its only weak spot, with his bloodied hands. The creature screamed, its giant eye sizzling whenever a drop of blood touched it. Sean thought he had the upper hand until a sledgehammer crashed into his side, throwing him into a tree ten feet away. Gumballs rained down.

The uninjured Slyveth slowly made its way in the direction of the child. Sean tried to stand, but hot fire erupted in his side. There was nothing he could do.

Suddenly, a great cracking sound split the air as a tree fell and crushed the Slyveth that was closing on the boy. Another two fell on the wounded Slyveth, who were still laying on the ground.

Sean gritted his teeth as he slowly drew himself to his feet. The boy stood, staring at the Slyveth's body under the tree, which was now dissolving into dust. Its eye was a dull gray. After a moment, the boy clutched his bear to his chest and ran into the woods, disappearing among the gumball trees.

Sean sighed, and waited for the sudden wave of drowsiness to hit him that usually followed the successful defeat of the nightmares. It never did.

"What?" Sean asked aloud. "The Slyveth are dead. What else is there to do?"

Sean didn't have to wait for his answer. He heard a shrill scream behind him, but not that of a Slyveth--it was a chick.
What now? He thought, but he didn't have time to think of much else before another scream tore through his eardrums.

Ignoring the acid in his side, Sean quickly took off in the direction of the sound. After a few minutes of running he found a clearing in the forest, where a girl about his age punching a tree.

Sean nearly had a stroke. This can't be the dreamer. And the dreamers not around, which means... I'm not the only walker?

"Um, what did that tree do to you?"

The girl whipped around. She had fair skin, fiery red hair, and green eyes, which were burning with anger. "I just woke up in the middle of nowhere, saw a bunch of monsters run by, and that's the first question you ask?!?"

"Hey, I didn't mean-"

"Wait," the girl paused for a moment. "You're the one they were chasing. Did you lead them here? Are you trying to get me killed?"

"Whoa, easy," Sean told her. "I didn't try to lead them here. I took care of them.

"Okay then, big boy," the red-head said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "You're so cool, you killed the monsters."

"Hey, I didn't mean it like that!" Sean said, beginning to get angry. He stopped himself and tried to take a deep breath. "Look. I don't know how you got here, but I can help you survive."

"Survive? What do you mean survi-" Suddenly the girl's eyes fluttered and she fell on the ground in a sitting position.

Sean felt the wave of drowsiness hit him too. "Look, I don't have long to explain," he yawned. "You're in a dream world, but if you die here, you'll never wake up."

His eyelids began to slowly close. "Just avoid the nightmares! I'll try to find you-"

Sean's eyes shut and the drowsiness overtook him.