The Princess of Planet Xeronis

Déjà vu

Ben always had vivid dreams whenever he slept and sleeping in Xeronis was not going to take that away from him. Lucid dreaming, that is, waking up inside a dream and realizing that one was dreaming, sprang forth as a consequence of Ben's dream recall. A number of people forget their dreams when they wake up and so information from the dream world gets lost. But not so with Ben. Lucid dreaming was an extension of his life and he had used it in the past to overcome his fears. For example, in the past, Ben could not go mountain hiking because he was afraid of heights.  Because dreams were a safe place to fall down a cliff, Ben climbed mountainscapes his dreams offered and because all experience is generally the same, dreamt or otherwise, Ben gained his confidence. Fear, when one is dreaming, is just as potent as when one is awake. The detail in dream worlds was just as remarkable as the detail in the waking world.

Ben found himself standing over his sleeping body in a dream body. This was often the case whenever he became lucid in a dream that copied and recreated the environment where he was sleeping. But it was still a dream regardless because the environment was not an exact copy.

In a dream body, Ben could fly if the dream rules allowed it. Dream rules were never the same every time and in some dreams movement could be limited to just walking. Nightmares were just a tool to Ben because one of the rules of a nightmare was to limit movement if one was being chased by a monster or by the object of their fear. Because this rule was ridiculous, Ben found himself becoming more and more lucid quickly every time he found himself in a nightmare situation.

So Ben's dream had created a replica of the Xeronis forest where he slept and it was just morning. The dragon, Wonderbee, was sleeping a stone's throw away. He rose off his feet to levitate and glide into the air. The rules of this dream allowed him flight but limited his height slightly above tree height levels.

Ben flew around for a bit so he could look around more and investigate areas of interest. In this dream body, he was just like a ghost that could go through objects, and sometimes he could choose to go invisible and not be seen by the dream inhabitants. He could have gone towards the city but suddenly the city seemed too far, and attempting to go there would result in the dream ending prematurely. So Ben turned for where the woods seemed to end and rock took over. Going there was faster than usual and the dream suddenly took over all motion and Ben found himself drawn into a dark cave.

The best thing to do in instances such as these was to remain calm and alert and observe as much as possible because there was an intelligence to dreams and a purpose when its will was suddenly imposed on the dreamer.

Ben stood on a rock in the darkness of the cave and he felt that he wasn't alone here. He turned around as he had heard movement and two fiery eyes greeted him. He was suddenly like an ant because the owner of the eyes was huge. The eyes were looking at him with keen interest and Ben had made the mistake to not turn himself invisible and now there was no going back. This was a dream alright but the fear that gripped him was real as he saw more and more of the beast before him. It was actually a dragon but Wonderbee was cute compared to this monstrosity.

Ben felt tingling in his right hand so when he looked at it electricity began dancing around his palm. The voltage was rising because blue electric arcs became visible and they were leaping into the air around him. Was he suddenly electro-kinetic? Before he could check whether he could control the electricity he felt himself dissolving. He was waking up.

When Ben opened his eyes he found that Spot was licking his face. Nancy was bending over him, "You sleep like a baby," she said and smiled. Wonderbee stood paces away.

"Good morning?" he said with a yawn. He couldn't tell them exactly that they interrupted an otherwise cool dream.

"How was it with Wonderbee?" Nancy asked.

"I'm still in one piece."

"Ha... ha... ha!" Wonderbee made a notion that it was not funny.

"You'll grow to like each other for the following days."

"Of course that's obvious, she's a vegetarian. If she starts coughing up burnt bones he won't think so," Spot joked.

"Spot is very funny," Ben said with a smile.

"Well, enough with the chit-chat. We have to find you some lodgings. Nothing fancy... just a secret hide-out," she moved to mount her bike, "Come Spot," then the dog ran into her lap.

"You too," she said looking at him.

"What... me? On that thing? No way am I touching it. It zapped me into a leprechaun once, remember?"

"That was a security feature. I disarmed it. Now please ride with me. I haven't got the whole day."

"Great," Ben said after seeing he had no choice so he got on the bike and sat behind her. But it was impossible to not bathe in her pleasant perfume that suddenly surrounded him.

"Hold on!" she said impatiently and he gripped the sides of the bike. He couldn't exactly put his arms around her. Could he? Because she was expecting him to but seeing that the grips on the side were just as sufficient she let the matter rest. Obviously, she had never given anyone a ride until now. And did not she care that he was a boy?

Then they ascended. The dragon flapped her wings and darted after them. Ben was looking down as they rode on the wind, seeing the trees below and the leaves made them look like a herd of green sheep from up here. He looked ahead as they were going straight and the breeze knocked in his face the way it would if in an open truck. They ducked lower as they left the valleys for a rocky landscape with deep gorges and barren highlands.

"Having fun?" she called to him.

"It's awesome. How do you handle the wind?"

Then she hit into a finger imprint and a glass shield shot up from the board in front of the controls. With that, she increased speed as she fell into a gorge-way that spread for miles and branched into many pathways. Wonderbee flew way above them outside the rock maze.

"Where are we?" Ben asked.

"Old mines. We are just passing through."

Ben then looked way ahead and saw the whole portion covered in fog. The bike flew out of the gorge way as it ended and steep drops, rocky hills, and fog met them. Way down in the depths ran rivers of molten rock and burning brimstone. The fog and smoke made seeing very difficult. The raised rocky walls were now more imposing to Ben and he felt dread.

'Should we be here?' He thought.

He did not like this part of the tour. Even Wonderbee who was leading them now seemed restless, her ears perking this way and that.

"Is everything alright girl?" Nancy asked her.

"We are not alone," Wonderbee looked at her, "I will go check it out," then with that, she disappeared that way before Nancy could stop her.

"Wait! Darghh!!! I hate it when she does that!"

"You three seem very close," Ben chimed in to break the horrid silence of this place.

"Yeah, we are an odd-looking trio."

Ben chuckled, "Not exactly what I meant but close."

As he looked about for Wonderbee who seemed to have disappeared, their bike was suddenly intercepted. A huge dragon just rose from the depths below and it knocked their bike hard and tried to flip it over. This was a huge surprise and they were almost thrown over but Nancy was quick to reclaim the controls.

"What was that!?" Ben asked his heart starting to pace. This was getting too eerily familiar. But she had not seen it.

"Take Spot," she said and Ben took the puppy and placed him between them. His hands went around her to avoid being thrown over and to protect Spot.

As they continued searching and going about steadily, the dragon rose again but this time to hover and block their path. The dragon was large and flapping his wings to steady himself and the strength of his wings was sending small tornadoes against the bike. The dragon rose with a terrible roar and then he unexpectedly sent embers of fire against them which would have consumed them had the bike's shield failed. Even Nancy was in shock. But she collected herself and she then suddenly accelerated forward to make a curve to the right. Ben looked back and saw flames hit into the rock wall, flames that were supposed to hit him. After the flames went out, the dragon emerged from the curve in pursuit.

'Why are we being attacked?' They were all thinking this question.

This was not Wonderbee. The dragon was larger, darker, and different... he was of another breed.

"Nancy, step on it!" by now Ben was officially panicking. To call this déjà vu was probably true. He had dreamt this just this morning.

She got the hint and leaned forward. There was a mist below them like a cloud layer, and then rock pillars emerged from below to form an intricate system, like a stone-henge. Some were rocky mountain tops. Some rocks made tunneling patterns that Nancy could swerve around. But the dragon was bulldozing into these weak rocks sending dust, rubble, and fire after them. Nancy was using the environment to her advantage as best as she could but so far it had not been enough. They were like fighter jet planes dancing in the wind. The dragon pushed and pushed against the air just to gain on them.

"It's closing in!" Ben cried.

An idea struck Nancy. The dragon dashed in again, its powerful wings bringing it closer to the bike with each flap.

"Hold on!" Nancy suddenly pulled the bike back following an invisible half-circle, avoiding a rock boulder in front that the dragon had not yet seen. He crashed into the rock and broke it into a thousand pieces. But he was not done for yet. Nancy rolled the bike on air and safely planted them in a gorge way that led eastward.

Ben sighed as he could not see the dragon anywhere behind them.

"That was good," he said.

"Years of practice."

The rings underneath the bike propelled the vehicle by releasing a blue stream of gas, a gas that disappeared immediately after coming in contact with the air and the engine was as silent as the breeze. This fog made them almost invisible... almost.

A powerful shock came from underneath the bike and threw it awkwardly forward with the front-facing down and the bike in a dizzy spin. Before she could master her bike, the dragon came knocking on the bike again and this time the engine shut down. Gravity took over and the bike fell into the mist below and only their cries ascended.

Then everything went quiet. Everything… including the roars of the dragon.